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.

[EditorialGuy]

So by this statement google admits that before this update its ranking "systems" had a defect that caused some pages to be under-rewarded

A "defect"? No, just a different way of doing things. Progress moves in increments.

[mosxu]

Some under-rewarded ? High street stores have taken over completely over the fist 30 results for some products and half of them do not even have a satisfactory offer for that product.

I personally have not seen any under-rewarded pages coming up the rankings maybe this where EU would bring some law to protect small businesses [webmasterworld.com...]

[Spiekerooger]

Anyone else seeing a rollback today?

[BushyTop]

Hi Guys, I've not been on for a while and I just wanted to report back. We've seen a nice jump the past few weeks. In the past 6 months, we've worked really hard at improving our UX and performance. We're in the midst of a big performance update at the moment that'll aid our image handling and Database structure.

About 3 months ago we moved some of our 3 tier pages onto AMP. I should note, this is an ecom site.

I should also note that this site literally ranked nowhere when i started (approx one year ago) - so you could argue the only way is up, but from the start of march, we really have seen significant jumps.

[Shaddows]

No rollback, but we observed a significant tweak yesterday afternoon (approx 15:00 UTC)

EU would bring some law to protect small businesses

You have the EU all wrong. The EU looks after consumers, which is admirable. They do this via regulation, which can be problematic.

The main issue is they consult with "industry" to create regulations- which usually means regulations designed by incumbent big business.

Surprisingly(!), those Big Business interests look after themselves, which generally excludes small businesses and foreign (especially US) business.

The more onerous the regulation, the more advantage gets built in to the incumbent position, due to barriers of entry. This is why Big Business are big advocates of consumer protection; it's really Incumbent Business protection.

[glakes]

So by this statement google admits that before this update its ranking "systems" had a defect that caused some pages to be under-rewarded

Google would not have it called a defect. Though the hundreds of updates they do every year can be interpreted the same way. What makes a quality website should not change to require so many updates. I think the real reason why there are so many updates is so that few websites can enjoy good visibility in Google, which leaves those site owners more inclined to pay to be seen.

[RedBar]

In my widget sector I am now seeing the almost total expulsion of ALL non-USA businesses in both the regular and image SERPs.

One of my sites which has the keyword domain, registered trademark and is totally dedicated to this product and has been #1 for years, has all but disappeared along with all my "foreign" competitors. This is a product which is 100% sourced outside of the USA and is solely imported to the USA and not for re-export.

In the past two days it has had only 3 PVs from the USA.

Honestly, is no one else seeing this in their widget sectors?

Obviously this question does not apply to USA businesses since they have been the recipients of this SERPs genocide.

Something major is going on here, why am I the only one picking up on it?

[Shaddows]

@RedBar
My UK SERPs are predominantly UK-orientated. Certainly nothing out the ordinary.
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We're seeing multiple traffic sets again. Could be a new phase, could be a roll back. Could be the filters being switched back on:

this latest update I'm leaning towards google removing "penalty" layers from the core algorithm

It used to be a given that penalties were removed during an update, and only re-applied once it had been completed.

[mosxu]

@glakes

It is called removing the comfort of having some traffic and make a living

@shaddows

Big Business are big advocates of consumer protection

In case of google they do not deal with the consumer direct but the point is that small businesses are not able to spend their dollars on lobbying nor they are united in doing so and on the other side consumers do enjoy a lot of rights which is great and we should not fear regulations protecting small businesses as well in this three way relationship

[Shepherd]

It used to be a given that penalties were removed during an update, and only re-applied once it had been completed.

Agree however what we are seeing, and the way the update was described leads me to believe that the penalty layer has been permanently removed from the algo. Makes sense if google feels their AI/rankbrain can accurately order web pages based on factors less likely to be gamed.

As an aside, has anyone received a manual action notice this year?

[Shaddows]

@mosxu
My point is that regulation never protects small business. It protects consumers.

Complying with regulation is easier for a large business, with their legal advisors, compliance officers and endless resources. Small businesses have little resource to allocate to regulation. Typically, we change our behaviour/objectives to avoid the regulation, or implement it in a way that it detrimental, or fail to implement it properly.

I would love to know how many small businesses are both totally clear on GDPR and totally happy they have implemented it correctly for their business (with no wasted spending, no unnecessary additional processes/procedures, have picked their best legal basis for data collection, can collate, present, delete, modify and lock data on request, and still derive maximum value from their data collection).

@Shepherd
Google have been trying to move away from penalties for years - since Caffeine in 2010 at the very least. This would be a major milestone if they achieved it.

[RedBar]

My UK SERPs are predominantly UK-orientated.

My UK G SERPs are fine so too are .com.au, .co.in even .ca where I am still #1 on both the regular and image results, it's the US .com that has filtered out not only me but all non-US businesses.

In my widget sector this product is most probably the world's most popular widget and for the US SERPs only to be showing US sources is ridiculous. If any of my competing suppliers were there I would have to feel that I had done something wrong, how after 15 years would be beyond me, however there is a lot of trade chatter on forum boards querying what Google has done.

This also applies to several other of my widgets, it's not simply one widget, G seems to be clearing-out all "foreigners" in the US SERPs for this product ... heavens know why since there is not another source for it anywhere!

At the moment no other G SERPs have been affected as yet.

[mosxu]

@ReadBar

“Clearing out all foreigners”

Interesting it may be something to do with America First policy. All American businesses men and women are emerging with AI and in return they get top ranking positions and also get the smartest ideas via the Brain Computer Interface!

AI is very selective let’s forget the US market

[RedBar]

let’s forget the US market

Hahaha ... Yet the US still wants our products whether they be from Brazil, China, India, Turkey etc since there is no US equivalent product anywhere near in price or specification.

All the SERPs is providing at the moment are the largest US wholesalers and retailers, it's not possible to use US Google to search for the realworld producer since Google has removed them, all G seems to be displaying is localisation..

If you go to a specific country and search that country's Google, bearing in mind you have to do that through settings etc, then you can find the realworld results.

The last few months has seen US localisation SERPs get worse and worse insofar as my widget trade is concerned, G is simply wiping us out but for what purpose? It sure as heck is not giving the consumer more choice.

If things stay this way then Google is useless as a business tool for my industry, it's as simple as that.

[Shaddows]

Not that I'm saying you should have to, but have you considered launching US-orientated website?

[westcoast]

Our traffic continues to crumble, day after day. Makes no sense. Our site has only improved over the past 5 years both in usability and in content / accuracy, and every single update hits us harder and harder.

[Rlilly]

For 10 years our page was no 1, then hovered between positions 3 and 5 for 9 years for a main keyword. Now we on page 2. We are a niche small business site. Totally focused on our widgets with some decent links. According to Google, there is nothing wrong with this page, they just rewarding under rewarded pages, which are:
Amazon
Amazon
Amazon
Walmart
Staples
Staples
Target
Office Depot
Office Depot
Cosco

[deriklogov]

@Rlilly i notice the same, big brands got some push, like even comparing car shopping sites, big brand site have pages with 0 , yes - zero cars , “no results” page getting in front of us , so those stories about content power , user behavior on page its all doesnt make any sense, what is does make is number of backlinks to domain

[RedBar]

but have you considered launching US-orientated website?

The interesting thing is that if I type keyword1/2/3 I get only US results, if I append with another word, say country, then I get a completely different set of results altogether with zero US companies ... I have a feeling we have a very muddled flux going on and site tweakings may be required.

[reseller]

Maybe a rollback :)

[lostshootingstar]

Definitely no rollback showing here, actually seems to be getting worse as the week progresses.

[Raj38]

Ok how I ranked up my site?I'm working on my site but my site is not showing any improvement. Still at the same rank infect my site goes down day by day...

[SpaceChimp]

Seems to be rewarding pages with high "domain authority" even if they are less relevant.

It comes to something when large sites that have scraped your content are ranking a lot higher than your original content...

As with the other this month's organic traffic seems to be going from bad to worse, about 50% down currently for a site that is a niche small business with "white hat" SEO / user oriented design.

[Paperchaser]

Crazy roll back, hope its stays! [imgur.com...]
Went down over 55% since last November and now Boom.

[Rlilly]

Google wants well known brands on the front page only. Google knows visitors already know what these Brands offer, its really not a search. So searches dont visit them. This prompts them to click on ads and hence their REVENUES increase. The quality of the actual search is meaningless. Only the savvy searchers look deeper on page 2 and on.

[jmorgan]

If there is a rollback, I won't know till a couple of days later since the search console analytics is delayed by a couple of days.

Having said that, traffic trends still seems steady for me based on Google Analytics.

By the way, anyone else frustrated by webmasterworld's ancient and feature-poor forum system? They seem to be getting by based on the strength/numbers in the community. Any other website would have died from being so lazy with upgrading their features.

[aristotle]

ancient and feature-poor forum system?

I like it this way.

[Maximum44]

No roll-back here either, still a bunch of Youtube videos in the way :)

[MayankParmar]

Exactly... why do we even need a video section on Google when the the video shows up on SERP?

I'm up by 15% but it's still nowhere close to recovery.

[reseller]

@jmorgan

By the way, anyone else frustrated by webmasterworld's ancient and feature-poor forum system?

Maybe you wish to post your question here: :)
WebmasterWorld Community Center
[webmasterworld.com...]

[edited by: reseller at 11:13 am (utc) on Mar 17, 2018]