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.

[MayankParmar]

Indeed, there was another update on March 28. My friend's site which was never hit by any update got hit this time, 30% drop.

Maybe because YouTube pages were unrewarded, maybe?

[Maximum44]

Knock on wood but we are also seeing a little recovery.

[MayankParmar]

[seroundtable.com...]

:)

[samwest]

I can verify considerable ranking changes. In my vertical, they have also removed the image carousel block that was above most of the above the fold listings. Dropped two positions for long held keyphrases. In addition, during this apparent update, my test site has seen strange periods of zero traffic followed by swarms of (50 to 100) direct traffic from around the globe. These swarms appear instantly out of the blue. I was watching the GART display last night and the map suddenly lit up with visitors around the globe, all at the exact same moment and all to the home page. Not a single page transition. Minutes later, all gone. How does THAT happen? This anomaly looks like a network control issue more than a serp issue. Natural traffic flow is a thing of the past.

[Cralamarre]

No huge changes here for me. Google traffic was down a little bit yesterday, and seems to be down a bit again today, but nothing drastic. Traffic is still up considerably from before the March 7-8 update.

[EditorialGuy]

Looking at a Google Search Console graph of our information site's average search rankings over the 28 days ending March 27 (the latest day available), I see a jump of about 11 percent on March 14 that I'd previously assumed was a temporary spike, followed by a fairly steady line until another and more modest increase on March 23-24.

On the final day, March 27, our average ranking was about 12 percent ahead of what it was at mid-March (down two-tenths of a ranking point from what it was at its peak on March 24).

Desktop seems to be up the most, compared to mobile and tablet, but not by a dramatic margin.

[Mahendra1256]

Every Update Pulling quora.com, Some Official sites also Back and top 3 results are coming from quora.com that is like a Garbage check it. [snip]
Thanks

[edited by: phranque at 10:35 pm (utc) on Mar 29, 2018]
[edit reason] Please see forum charter [/edit]

[samwest]

^Mah - you're going to see that kind of domain crowding on such specific search terms.

[dethfire]

I'm getting pretty wrecked this update

[jmorgan]

I'd suggest people saying they're experiencing a traffic drop should just wait out the Easter break before jumping to any conclusions.

[NickMNS]

@jmorgan you are probably right. But then again Google has a habit of rolling out updates over holidays, either due to low traffic levels or to obfuscate the impacts or both.

Things are jumping around on my end, yesterday was up a bit with good user engagement and AdSense earnings. Today traffic was similar but engagement dropped as did earnings, as of about 7pm ET traffic dropped down again. So there appears to be a good deal of flux. I'm bracing for a rough weekend. I should probably just turn off my screens for the next 4 days and enjoy some family time.

[Cralamarre]

My Google traffic was down today, for the first time since the March 7-8 update, but I'm just chalking it up as an early start to the Easter long weekend. I'm sure everything will be fine again next week.

[Cyril TechWebsites]

Last time Google’s updates are happening (“hiding”) during some major holidays, it makes a much harder work to analyze and get what is happening with traffic and how it changes. It looks like a kind move from Google.

Pretty sure that right now it is hard to identify the traffic changes in huge number of niches because of Easter holidays (as example, that’s a huge traffic impacting event in my niche). So all I can do right now is to relax and wait until the next week to understand the impact of the last update – right now it’s impossible.

[mosxu]

Arround Easter there are less searches performed but guess what it was not the case because vists are up, page views are up but 70-80% have questionable behaviour. Obviously these visitors never convert.

I can only put this down to lack of buyer traffic that has to go first to adwards accounts with special treatment!

[browndog]

I'm up a couple of percent from a week ago, which is good, but have been actively following Goodroi's tips and been focusing on social media as well as content. As much as I loathe social media, and only have a small following, I'm starting to get shares when I post images (quotes, facts etc), and new articles etc. So not sure if it's that that's helping or Google like me again :)

[MayankParmar]

Seeing a small uplift.

[Cralamarre]

@browndog, I find that social media can be very deceptive, especially Facebook. I've had posts on Facebook receive hundreds of "Likes". Yet when I view my analytics, those same posts receive next to nothing when it comes to actual visitors from Facebook. I used to pay to have Facebook "boost" my posts, but all I was doing was buying more Likes. Even when I promote my YouTube videos on Facebook, I may get lots of Likes, but no actual video views. People on Facebook just want to stay on Facebook.

[Travis]

Yet when I view my analytics, those same posts receive next to nothing when it comes to actual visitors from Facebook.

Facebook behaves so users stay at Facebook; this is well known and it works. How many people are still really browsing the Internet and visiting sites? Most of people are just staying at Facebook, and they have all they need at once.

[Cralamarre]

@Travis, yes that was my point. People on Facebook stay on Facebook. You can get all the Likes in the world on your post but not necessarily any views from it.

However, I would say there are still many, many people browsing the net and visiting sites, otherwise my site would have no traffic. They're just not coming from Facebook.

[browndog]

I just browsed FB and a page I follow posted a link to an article which not only did I click on and read, but went on to share it on my own business FB page. I find it is a good way to keep up to date on information.

My analytics was being weird yesterday when I tried to see how the pages I’ve been promoting went. I’ll re check when I’m on the computer in the morning.

My point is that I am trying to spread some of the traffic because I don’t like being so reliant on Google and their whims. I also started to look at it as a potential value tool. A site with 1,600 FB followers and 7 newsletter subscribers is less marketable than a site with 500,000 FB followers and 50,000 newsletter subscribers. Plus it’s actually given me ideas for content. I’m talking about ‘monthly widget days’, such as ‘world blue widget day’, which I post about and it spawns a new article on the site on how to care for your blue widget.

[browndog]

Okay I had a quick look. 66% of the traffic to my latest post came from Facebook which isn’t a bad result.

[sk7411]

I am sorry Folks , but i think i must interrupt !

We should discuss about updates related to "Google"!

:)

[Smittie06]

Weird today, seeing a massive drop in Google traffic although positions have remained the change or even slightly improved. Easter weekend?
And mobile traffic is equal to desktop traffic now, when before it was 75/25.

[sk7411]

Easter Effect!

Our Search Engineer Friends from google are taking an Easter break , which is why all reporting tools are pretty low on volatility .

I am pretty sure they will be back with bang next week and keep adding those one liner algorithm codes to adjust their already wrecked spam search result page . SSRPs.

[Smittie06]

How can them taking a break have an effect on Google analytics results?

[EditorialGuy]

Weird today, seeing a massive drop in Google traffic although positions have remained the change or even slightly improved. Easter weekend?

That's certainly possible. I've seen other events cut into traffic (including Google traffic), too: things like major snowstorms and even (for destination topics) terrorist attacks.

When it comes to the effects of updates, wouldn't it make more sense to look at average search rankings, as reported in Google Search Console? That would remove other variables such as holidays, elections, sporting events, etc. from the mix. (Of course, you'd have to allow for a lag of two or three days because of reporting delays in GSC.)

[MayankParmar]

If the position/CTR is same but traffic/impression is down, is something wrong with Google or demand?

[lostshootingstar]

Traffic is noticeably down for me today too. I looked at good Friday for both 2016 and 2017 and both of those were up about 5% over the previous Friday of their respective years, so I don't know what to make of this today.

[Maximum44]

It is good Friday, start of a holiday weekend in large parts of the western world. I just came home from an Easter dinner myself. Expect a holiday traffic pattern. Happy Easter everyone!

[EditorialGuy]

Our informational site's traffic today is running ahead of last Friday's, which comes as a surprise. Maybe a lot of people are home from work and killing time on the Internet?