Google Updates and SERP Changes - March 2018

[Martin Ice Web]

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System: The following 7 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4885490.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 1:35 pm on Mar 1, 2018 (PDT -8)

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Biggest drop ever. Much bigger than every panda or penguin.
All the work does not pay off. The only winner in this game is google itself.

[sdksjdksjd]

@MayankParmar
Not in my case. I have thousands of keywords. Top stories are on limited number of SERP pages. Furthermore, I doubt there are Top stories in my niche. Never saw them.

[Maximum44]

@sdksjdksjd about the same results here. In our case it seems we got pushed down with Youtube videos. Have not really seen a drop in our average search positions (we have a lot of them). Some of them actually went up. We have less search impressions though. Traffic to site is 25 - 30% lower.

On the other hand. Our Youtube channel is doing better than ever.

[sdksjdksjd]

@Maximum44
Yes, a lot of Youtube became higher in SERP than my pages, but I suppose Youtube does count as a position holder.
Do you think when Youtube video outperforms page, then position of the page doesn't change according to the search console?

[Maximum44]

@sdksjdksjd Maybe search console just need some more time to show the correct average for all the keywords we have. But it does seem like the Youtube videos are more volatile (especially when it comes to how many of them show up) than the "regular" results.

[sdksjdksjd]

@Maximum44
Two weeks past. What kind of statistics is this, if it needs more than two weeks to reflect current positions? No doubts, that Google is not trustworthy, but two weeks is a lot even for Google.
No, that's not it.

[Maximum44]

@sdksjdksjd I have always been a little confused about the search console statistics. Like search impressions and clicks going up when average keyword positions go down and vice versa.

We probably gained keyword positions on less important keywords and lost some on the important ones. That would explain the behavior i guess.

Looking closer on some of the top keywords i do see a drop in keyword positions and clicks. But just on a few. I just don't see the same trend on the total average. Can only view the first 1000 keywords in search console :)

[sdksjdksjd]

We probably gained keyword positions on less important keywords and lost some on the important ones.

On the scale of thousands keywords, it should be extremely precise adjustment to keep the average stable. Manual work on personal level.
I doubt Google did it to you and me personally )

[Nightmute]

Took a big hit today ... lost ~ 40% of traffic.... anyone else experiencing a traffic drop?

Yes, multiple sites. Starting 6PM ET on 3/21. -30-60% range.

Anyone else?

[skynet84]

Original Website with Original Content and Just 2 Ads article 1000+ words Hit in september 2017 december 2017 march 2018 (3 Hits) and respected always all guidelines, uiser, original content etc. Category: Health.

Lost vs last year 70% of traffic.

So what happen?
1) My hosting price now is 4x more expensive compared to 2015.
2) My Premium wordpress Theme is 2x more expensive compared to 2014.
3) Current bill is 2x more expensive compared to 2012.
4) New certificate SSL cost us every year.
5) Domain price is 8x more expensive compared to 2012.

I Earned now with adsense just 390 EUR/month compared to 1500EUR/month in 2012-2016

I spend 1000EUR/year with cloud hosting, ssl, backups.
I spend 70EUR/year for premium theme.
I spend 30EUR/year for domain name.
I spend 60EUR/year for ssl certificate.
I Pay TAX - 50% of what i earn every year.

So i live with 10 EUR/month.

Thank you Google i think im out of blogging and out to this thief system you have made.

[thedonald123]

~10% drop in traffic on 3 different sites on 3/23.
Starting 8 AM EST 3/22 on the biggest site

[MayankParmar]

Yep. There was an update on 22nd, 23rd: [semrush.com...]

[SpaceChimp]

Seeing a further 20% drop here...

Seems Google want large, corporate and less relevant sites such as quora, reddit, pinterest, amazon etc to dominate all the niche serps...

[jmorgan]

Hmmm, I'll need to wait a day or two to find out if I was affected by this reported change.

[reseller]

So it seems there has been a Google Algorithm Update on March 22-23, 2018.
As with all other previous updates, we shouldn't expect all websites to be affected by above mentioned update.

[Maximum44]

We had a reporting glitch in Analytics (-40%), but it recovered pretty quickly other than that we are stable.

For you who lost traffic, did you gain any on earlier this month?

[jmorgan]

Actually if it was March 22, I'd say no big change on my end. Need more time to assess March 23, but nothing major from what I've seen so far for my sites.

[jmorgan]

I guess we can look forward to another post on seroundtable like, "Some chatter about an update around March 22 to 23. Users saying their website lost anywhere from 10% to 40% traffic. SEMrush confirms this ...."

[sdksjdksjd]

WoW, what I see on google search first page ...
Pure pharmacy related doorway page, like it was 10 years ago. It is poor built, compared to the doorway pages existed later. Contains huge footer of nonsense text, scrapped from other websites.
I'm like in time machine !
Yeah google, you know how to surprise your loyal users !

[julesuk]

Talk about a rubbish update, my niche is filled with #*$! videos (mostly youtube) for the top 3 niche keywords, not even an adult subject, what the hell is going on with google updates these days :(

[NickMNS]

I'm seeing a big drop on my end. I hit a peak last Saturday (17th), up close to 20%. But it was all downhill from their I'm now back to traffic levels of early January, down about 40% from the peak and 20% from the average. But everyday has been worse than the last, so I don't know were this is going to stop.

Also I fully updated my site on March 11th. Now I'm not sure if this the result of a Google update or my changes.

[sk7411]

It's the same old timeline continuing with every update :

(Google Algo Update)
______________

↓

My site #1 : Good update , hardwork paid off!

My site#36 : Spam sites dominating SERPs , Rubbish update .

Yaawwwwnnnnnnn!

[sdksjdksjd]

@sk7411
and how would you define update quality, when you see site like this on SE first page ?

<snip>


Mods note: Removed a shortened link to a "bad" page. For everyone's protection, and for a great variety of reasons, this is not allowed in this forum.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 11:03 pm (utc) on Mar 24, 2018]
[edit reason] Removed shortened link to site ranking in Google results. . [/edit]

[EditorialGuy]

No perceptible changes for us in the last couple of days, whether in total traffic, Google traffic, or average search rankings. (The latter increased noticeably around the middle of the month and have held steady within a tenth of a point most days).

It's worth remembering that not all Google "updates" are to the core algorithm. IMO, for everyone who sees big drops or increases at any moment in time, there are probably a lot of people who simply aren't affected either way.

[NickMNS]

All I can say is that my particular situation is very frustrating. I don't know if my site update is the cause, or if it is this apparent Google update. What action do I take?

All my user metrics are showing that the update has been very beneficial in terms of the users. But it seems like Google doesn't like my changes. So what now? Revert back to the old version, a worse version? Wait it out and hope that the trouble is on Google's end and that it will revert? Or start tweaking the new versions in the hopes finding the thing that Google doesn't like?

[sdksjdksjd]

@NickMNS
If you updated your huge site just two weeks ago, then there is no chance it lost traffic already because of that (sure unless you broke something).

[NickMNS]

@sdk
Well, the positive bounce definitely wasn't because of my change as I made my switch while Google was rolling-out their update. But the sudden turn around this week has me scratching my head. I hope your right.

[mosxu]

One more update to contradict glakes

It looks like AI is reading this forum more than we do and listens as well. glakes pointed out that zombies dissapear during an update which was unnatural but guess what last two updates were full zombies.

Fab, actually AI is trying to accommodate everybody to this type of traffic that it is does not need to convert because...

[jmorgan]

Ok so traffic was down 3.5% for me on Mar 23 compared to the previous week.. Hard to say if it was due to the update or other factors at this stage.

[reseller]

Is it safe to assume that latest Google Algorithm Update of March 22-23, 2018 (just like the previous update of March 9, 2018) is benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded like those of Amazon and Youtube etc. :)

[thedonald123]

~10% drop in traffic on 3 different sites on 3/23.
Starting 8 AM EST 3/22 on the biggest site

There was something off for Thursday's traffic but overall it looks ok now.