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.

[Shepherd]

You did say that Google traffic was up 4.67% week over week, my brain and fingers were having separate thoughts.

I was thinking the same thing regarding authority/reputation/subject expertise, at least that is what it appears to be early on.

[reseller]

A relevant post from Search Engine Roundtable of March 13, 2018:

Google Confirmed Weekend Algorithm Ranking Shift As "Core Update"

Yesterday we reported that we thought there was a Google algorithm ranking update over the weekend and to my surprise, Google actually confirmed it. Danny Sullivan at Google said on Twitter that yes, there was an update. He went to the @searchliaison account to explain in detail.

Google Confirmed This Update:

He said they "released a broad core algorithm update" last week and said they do these "several times per year." Google added that "each day, Google usually releases one or more changes designed to improve our results. Some are focused around specific improvements. Some are broad changes." This one was a "core algorithm update," which doesn't happen every day at Google. Older algorithms like Panda are now part of the core algorithm but there are many part of that core algorithm.

[seroundtable.com...]

[jmorgan]

The guy at seroundtable annoys me a little. All he does is repeat stuff we've already read elsewhere. But ah well, I guess we can just think of it as a concise summary of the going-ons with the SERPs.

[rustybrick]

@jmorgan, I am sorry I annoy you a little.

[NickMNS]

At least this time it isn't somebody here at Webmaster World quoting a Search Engine Round Table article that is referring to the chatter on Webmaster World, as support for a claim or speculation of an update. In all seriousness, it is good to see that Danny Sullivan is bringing a new level of transparency to Google, and at least acknowledging that updates took place.

I broke another traffic record yesterday. I thought it was, my own site update... I guess not.

[mosxu]

@nick

You must have direct connection with AI, the rest of us seem not to understand what it takes to end up in those answer boxes and rank in search engines... It is all our fault our websites are not up to the expectations...

It feels like the brain computer interface has been invented 10 years ago and we all been living in the forests...

[NickMNS]

@mosxu

the rest of us seem not to understand what it takes to end up in those answer boxes

I have no idea either. In fact I doubt I have ever appeared in an answer box, but it is not like I spend my time searching Google for my own website.

Traffic is up but earnings are down. I am fortunate that I am reaching new traffic levels, but my upgrade has caused me to be impacted by "Brand-Safety" so now all my impressions are being sold to 3rd party networks at deep discount. At least I assume that that is the issue, and I further assume that it relates to a my switch to https which has changed my URL's in Adsense's eyes.

[Cralamarre]

My AdSense earnings have been up 25% to 50% for the past few days, but today for some reason they've dropped. Google traffic is still up, though, so not sure what's going on with AdSense today.

[dethfire]

My site got slammed by last update too. Was stable for a long time. Not good for me.

[NickMNS]

@Cralamarre the AdSense issue for today are being discussed in the Adsense thread, so I wont continue my tangent.

Traffic wise, on my end it looks like these changes are still begin rolled out. I had nice peak between 12 and 2pm EDT I reached 20% above my hourly average and then by 3pm the peak fizzled, but traffic has been steady since.

[seoskunk]

You know what I think Google haven't a clue what to do next. They have lost the goodwill of webmasters, the trust of the public and commercial search to Amazon. Surely they can see this isn't a good idea and to continue with draconian penalisation amounts to suicide from Google. Hey maybe they want to take the Company into private hands and are just deliberately screwing over shareholders. These algo's for a long time have nothing to do with quality of websites.

[Maximum44]

Dropping a lot here. Mostly to Youtube videos and less technical articles. Seems they favor blabber instead of professionalism in this update.

[MayankParmar]

3 minute YouTube video is outranking my 1000 words article, and the funny thing is that Google is highlighting a certain duration of the video.

Google is doing everything to kill the small businesses [searchengineland.com...]

[Maximum44]

Automation kills jobs. Google is doing a great job at it. I am glad that some of you get some traffic out of this. But just wait until they put 5 Youtube blabber videos infront of your old school web page with pictures.

[reseller]

May I suggest that we call the latest Google Core Algorithm Update of March 9, 2018 as:
Google YouTube Update :)

[Shepherd]

People like YouTube, ignore that at your own peril.

[Martin Ice Web]

As we now know about the update it would be nice to see what triggers drops and gains.

Lets do some statistik.

germany ecom [IT supplies], >20 Years, responsive, https => big drops

[Shepherd]

Based on information provided and gleaned, what triggers drops IS gains. Something in the algo was holding certain sites/pages down, that something has been changed/removed from the algo and the affected sites moved up in the rankings.

This was not the usual penalty inducing update so trying to figure out what made a site go down is likely futile.

[MayankParmar]

I'm seeing the authority sites which were not ranking previously/pushed to second page/ is now on first page, and I'm pushed to second page lol. The SERP is totally different for my keywords than what it used to be. 2-3 sites were previously on 4, 5th page but now they are on first page.

These are authority sites but for some unknown reason Google wasn't ranking them.

[NeapTide]

Hmm. so now People are taking YouTube videos taking up SERPs seriously. Last month when I talked about this that i have lost 50% traffic and some of the videos that are appearing in SERPs are not even in English but in local languages he told me that people want to watch videos instead of reading! An English man watching videos in Tamil makes perfect sense.

Videos are good. You can learn many things from them. But a written article is an authority. You can present it as a reference. You can't just replace those Wikipedia references with YouTube videos.

[NeapTide]

So from today Google started hiding search results for calculations, temperatures, time, units conversion etc.
From someday in future Google will hide all dictionary results and show meanings for words in its own answer boxes since they are already doing it but not hiding dictionaries from where they steal the data.

Where are those G worshipers who would get angry when someone speaks against their deity?

[SnowMan68]

@Neaptide

Videos are good. You can learn many things from them. But a written article is an authority. You can present it as a reference. You can't just replace those Wikipedia references with YouTube videos.

I think using both is the best overall option. Video is definitely the future.

[dethfire]

Google hasn't been our friend for over a decade. This is war folks.

I think this article was linked to already, but it's really good and the comments are worth reading. Times, they are a changing.
[moz.com...]

[Rlilly]

"As with any update, some sites may note drops or gains. There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded."

There it is, right from the horses mouth, the nail in the coffin for SEO... ITS OVER.. you can do everything right, and Google will bounce you because the ALGO feels some other page has been under-rewarded.

[Shepherd]

because the ALGO feels some other page has been under-rewarded.

To be fair, the end user (the searcher) wants the see the best information not necessarily the best seo'd site for their query.

[Maximum44]

Lately it seems like Google thinks they want to see Youtube videos :D

[MayankParmar]

Pretty sure Google will also stop showing results on queries such as IST to ET. The sites for time conversion are really popular, they have million visits every month. Sad indeed!

YouTube is itself a search engine. People ain't dumb, they know they will get videos on YouTube.

[dethfire]

Anyone else noticed their total indexed pages dropped significantly? Since mid Jan I've lost about 300k pages. I run a large forum btw.

[dethfire]

Beginning of the end

Google Shows Answer Without Any Search Results
[seroundtable.com...]

[NeapTide]

SEO is not dead. Backlinks are still the highest ranking factor. But spam linking like making tens of backlinks a day yourself isn't going to help much.

If you want to build backlinks, then do it slow like one or two backlinks a day. Do not overdo it or it will ring the bells. Your site will establish slowly but it will have the authority.

I am currently working on a new site and there are just 10 or 12 total backlinks it has. Many of the pages have started appearing on first page of Google and traffic is slowly increasing with every new update.