Google Updates and SERP Changes - November 2017

[Jez123]

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System: The following 2 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4870905.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 3:13 am on Nov 1, 2017 (PDT -8)

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I am seeing amazing conversion rates since Saturday night / Sunday morning. Traffic remains fairly normal but conversions are through the roof! I have never seen anything like it yesterday. Is this coincidental or has something changed? Is anyone else seeing anything like it?

UK ecomm.

[Jez123]

One keyword I am looking at for my site is jumping like crazy. From page 1 to page 2 to page 3. This morning it's gone from #8 on page 1 to #22 on page 3! I expect it will settle in it's usual spot of just outside the money :(

[Robert Charlton]

Mod's note: The Mobile First index continues to roll out slowly as Google tests and evaluates results. That has been contributing to a lot of the volatility that we've been seeing. Mobile first discussion was split off to its own thread at the end of October, and it continues here.....

Google Mobile First index rolling out slowly/ being tested for some sites
Oct 27, 2017
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4874369.htm [webmasterworld.com]

"Normal" serp and update discussion, as much as that can be separated, should continue in this thread.

[Mark_A]

We recently converted to https and have lost some rankings but I can't tell if the two are related.

[Mark_A]

Life was much easier back when google used to include key terms in their referrer information!

[Cralamarre]

My traffic was down 20% yesterday, but I'm assuming it was because of Halloween since much of my traffic at this time of year comes from schools (and the same thing happened last year so it's likely not a coincidence). No one else seems to be talking about any Google updates, so I'm sticking with my Halloween theory for now. I did migrate my site to HTTPS a couple of weeks ago, but up until yesterday I hadn't noticed any problems.

[deriklogov]

Claramarre:
Same here about -%20 , i do expect that it was Halloween

[Cralamarre]

@deriklogov Thanks, glad to hear I wasn't the only one. I spent my Halloween terrified for all the wrong reasons.

[EditorialGuy]

We've also been down somewhat in the past 36 hours or so, compared to the same period last week. This is the time of year when our traffic always starts to slide until after the holidays, so it's hard to know how much of the change is due to something Google is doing and how much is normal seasonal atrophy.

More of the drop was has been in mobile than in desktop or tablet traffic. (Nearly of our pages do very well in Google's "mobile-friendliness" and speed tests, so I can't see any reason why the gradual rollout of a "mobile first" index, if that's now happening, would work against us.)

[Cralamarre]

Traffic seems to have pretty much returned to normal today. I guess Halloween really was the culprit. Darn kids and their candy.

[Robert Charlton]

For those whose traffic comes from the US after working hours, the seven-game World Series might be another distraction from online shopping.

[EditorialGuy]

Good point. And in Catholic areas of Europe, the All Saint's Day holiday, accompanied by school vacations in some countries, could have an impact on traffic. I'm in a popular Italian tourist city at the moment, and the place is flooded with French and German visitors (including many families with young children).

[MayankParmar]

Traffic is down here too :(

[HereWeGo123]

@MayankParmar - what niche and country?

[MayankParmar]

@HereWeGo123 Tech and traffic down from UK, India while USA is looking good.

[Cralamarre]

My UK and India traffic has been dropping steadily for months while US traffic remains unchanged. I have no idea why. My site being in the US may have something to do with it, but again, I have no idea why that would be an issue. It's never been in the past, and my site's been around for 11 years.

Overall traffic, including US, has been down all week. Halloween (Tuesday) was by far the worst, but Monday and Wednesday were also down.

[HereWeGo123]

I can confirm that our US traffic has been up yesterday and today

[RedBar]

What have they done now?

I'm coming up to half a Googleday yet my PVs are 10% of yesterday, it's more like a very dead Sunday!

[MayankParmar]

They were testing a rounded design for mobile but that probably has nothing to do with traffic drop.

Mine recovered today.

[lostshootingstar]

Our traffic has continued to fall since last Friday, October 29th. No idea why, but it's super frustrating to see objectively worse sites consistently outrank you no matter what you do.

[HereWeGo123]

@ lostshootingstar – Sorry to hear that. Besides declining in traffic, did you actually notice any rankings drops?

[Cralamarre]

@lostshootingstar My traffic also dropped beginning last Friday (I think you meant the 27th). it seems to have at least stabilized, but it's definitely down. Unfortunately, since my traffic relies heavily on the school year, I don't know if it's down because of a Google update or because of something with the school schedule. There hasn't been much talk of any updates, so I don't really know what's going on.

[lostshootingstar]

Sorry, I did mean the 27th. And I have only noticed minimal ranking changes, mostly within normal ranges. I posted something similar to this in the mobile first index thread, but the loss appears to be heavily skewed towards mobile.

WoW mobile traffic: [i.imgur.com...]

WoW desktop traffic: [i.imgur.com...]

Our "mobile site" is literally the same HTML document as desktop, it's just a responsive design. Content is 99% exact on mobile vs desktop except a few headings are a smaller font size when mobile for usability and aesthetics.

[Jez123]

I have a feeling that google have stopped rolling out the mobile changes. All the shake-up that I have seen has all settled pretty much back where it was. I wonder if they tested something live, and weren't totally happy with it and roiled it back. I think we are going to see some more turbulence shortly. Unless, of course, what I am seeing is localised to testing on one area of my SERPS.

[HereWeGo123]

I've noticed volatility in the SERPs (both on mobile & desktop) these past few days but it seems that yesterday and today things have calmed down for the time being. Based on our 70-80k average daily page views, traffic has been up since Wednesday in comparison to the same days of the day over the past few weeks. Hope it sticks.

[aristotle]

Today November 5, most parts of the U.S. shifted from daylight saving time to standard time. So everyone should get an extra hour of U.S. traffic :)

[NickMNS]

@aristotle I was wondering why I had spike of 100% increase in traffic at 1am.

Oddly Analytics is showing all the 1am traffic on the same data point but it skips a space on the curve, so the gap between 1am and 2 am is twice as wide as with 2am and 3am. Just saying it makes for a strange looking chart.

[BushyTop]

Getting a lot of non-local traffic today. Looks to be something going on.

[mosxu]

Yeah fake traffic, zombies this is what we get I feel like this loophole will never be closed

[Cralamarre]

For some reason my US traffic is WAY down today. It's not so much Google but rather Direct traffic (which in my case comes mostly from schools). My site uses HTTPS so Analytics should be reporting things fairly accurately. The only possible explanation I can come up with is that schools are doing something for Veterans Day, which technically is tomorrow (the 11th) but of course tomorrow is a Saturday. Either that, or everyone who would normally visit my site directly woke up this morning and lost all interest. Veterans Day seems a more likely cause. I hope.