Google Updates and SERP Changes - April 2018

[kewlchat]

System: The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4889357.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 5:32 pm on Apr 1, 2018 (PDT -8)


Seems after 3 years traffics picked up some, should we dare to dream?

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 1:39 am (utc) on Apr 2, 2018]
[edit reason] Moved and reformatted message to new month [/edit]

[Maximum44]

Traffic did not pick up for everyone.

[keyplyr]

Search engine traffic has been declining for years and will continue to send less and less humans to websites.

To keep traffic coming in at a level sufficient to sustain a business, in most cases it is necessary to go out and get the traffic ourselves.

[mosxu]

@keyplyr

Good point that is why all converting traffic has to go to 3-4 advertisers then, otherwise the pay per click bids will collapse.

Amazon will enjoy a steady growth while the rest of us should end up with no traffic. However we still get plenty of traffic for our dollars but it never converts.

This is pure sience...

[capulkit]

In my niche search anything and particular will appear on top 5 positions. Everyone is losing traffic and this branded startup with lot of marketing is getting first 5 spots with useless content.

[EditorialGuy]

We've had a significant bump in the last several days, compared to the same days in the previous week, despite the Easter holiday weekend. It appears to be the result of an increase in mobile users. In looking at pageviews, I see that many of our top dedicated mobile pages are way, way up.

Our week-over-week mobile traffic (Monday to Sunday) was up nearly 27 percent yesterday. In contrast, desktop was down 3.91 percent, and tablet was up about 3.72 percent.

[Shepherd]

Thanks for mentioning that EG, just took a look at our stats and mobile traffic from google was up considerably starting over the weekend. I've been all day trying to figure our why our conversion rate was so bad, now I know.

[samwest]

Oddly enough, my traffic has been up too...and this is supposed to be the start of the usual seasonal down-slide. Percentages are nice, but I'm wondering what kind of volumes are being reported. 10% of 100 is only a whoppin ten hit increase, whereas 10% of 10,000 now we're talkin' substantial numbers.

[mosxu]

@samwest

Same here it may be that mobile index will slowly close the door to zombies

Fingers crossed

[samwest]

@mos, it's nice to have occasional hope. ;)

[EditorialGuy]

whereas 10% of 10,000 now we're talkin' substantial numbers.

It's about 10,000. (The trend is holding today, too--mobile is already 22 percent up over last Monday and tablet is up nearly 32 percent, with another 30+ minutes left in the day. Desktop is off just a bit and should be close to normal when the day is done.)

I'm assuming this has something to do with the "mobile first" rollout, since our average mobile and tablet rankings have been quite a bit higher than our average desktop rankings for a long time.

The bad news is that, for us, mobile traffic doesn't produce nearly as much revenue as desktop traffic does.

[samwest]

@EG, oddly my increase is 90% desktop, but it could vaporize any moment.

[EditorialGuy]

I'll trade my mobile for your desktop. :-)

[Maximum44]

I am glad for you guys. At least some of you are getting some traffic. You probably got some of ours! :)

[Smittie06]

I was worried but traffic is back to normal after this easter break. :)

[Cralamarre]

Yep, yesterday had me very worried, but today traffic is back to normal. So far anyway. It's still early, but it looks good.

[Smittie06]

Yesterday was still Easter, so today is the real beginning of the week.

[samwest]

The sporadic rise didn't last, but during this flux, had one hour of crazy conversions yesterday, five in one hour, then nothing the rest of the day...or today. Must have rebooted the AI again as this pattern in a natural setting is statistically improbable.

[mosxu]

@sam

Same here, very short lived genuine traffic

[Rlilly]

Perhaps we should all be patience and not worry about every minutia up and down in the SERPS.. Since Google is in the process of updating to their Mobile First Index....

[MayankParmar]

Still not close to old glory but it is much better :)

[Maximum44]

Hmm, these clickbait Youtube placements in search results suck major ass. I just did a search and got two full pages of Youtube videos before actually getting any website results from other locations. Sad.

[glakes]

@Maximum44

I prefer many of our customers visit our YouTube video before purchasing as it helps to educate them on what they need. To be honest, I'd rather see YouTube videos dominate the SERPS for my keywords instead of Amazon. Talking about YouTube, it would appear someone went postal at their headquarters with multiple shots fired and a confirmed active shooter. See [webmasterworld.com...]

[MrSavage]

@glakes, do you spend any time at all using Google or YouTube as a user? Or are you completely oblivious? Google has been slowly (as in nobody around here said a peep) rolling out shopping ads under YouTube videos that just so happen to show up above the video description box. So a video before purchasing? Yeah, from a Google ad and not from what you have planned. If YouTube videos dominate the SERPS, guess what? Shopping ads will cut a big part out of any monetization plans. Want to make a video about Product X? Get ready for a big shiny block of shopping ads to help people buy. And no, you and anyone else isn't getting commission on that sale. Let's not kids ourselves in terms of what's a smart or investable idea. They are not "your" customers when they come to YouTube. They are Google's customer. This is reality speaking.

[glakes]

@MrSavage

I don't know how many of my posts you've seen, but I really don't care what Google does with their SERPS. I gave up wasting time with Google 2 (maybe 3) years ago, which gave me more time to attract new customers in marketplaces like Amazon and elsewhere. It's worked out well for me, though I understand what I did won't work for everyone. Just as with most other product queries, Google displays 2+ organic listings for Amazon at the top of the SERPS for my main keywords. Visit an Amazon page lately? Amazon's product pages are quite spammy with so much excessive cross-selling by Amazon that the product's description gets buried in the mess. Even with an Amazon page at the top of Google's SERPS, those that visit the page are still bombarded with a couple dozen other products which impacts the conversion rate. I convert well on traffic coming from YouTube and see higher cart totals as compared to Amazon. Additionally, those that watch our videos become educated buyers which results in fewer returns. But the best part about it is that each conversion from YouTube costs me nothing whereas Amazon gets 15% of the sale.

I'm not an affiliate marketer nor do I operate an information based website, though I do have a lot of product specific information available. I'm in ecommerce and Google has sent us junk traffic for years. If Google wants to display a bunch of YouTube videos instead of Amazon crowded SERPS, the worst that can happen FOR ME is that I will have a greater opportunity to get conversions on my website instead of 90%+ of Google's traffic going to Amazon. Like I said before, what works for me may not work for others. But as one that is not dependent on Google's traffic for my survival, I'm not losing any sleep over anything they do to the SERPS.

[MrSavage]

The change I'm referring to is Google's monetization of YouTube content. People may be relying on links "in the description below", but I'm just saying that be forewarned that Google has a nifty shopping banner, complete with prices, images and links that shows below the video and above the "description below". So in other words, thinking that YouTube is a better option to sell a product or link to a visitor, it's just short sighted because of what I've mentioned. Not many if any people have mentioned it. It's coming of course. So to think if you can't win on the SERPS but can somehow turn fortunes around on another Google platform, unfortunately I can't see how this is a worthwhile venture in the long term. I don't want to sound negative or disrespectful, but I'm just pointing out my observations. YouTube is and has been a shrinking option just like the SERPS have become. Sure some people are killing it, but thinking it's going to be a gravy train? It's pretty clear to me at least who wins at the end of the day. Most YouTuber's will tell you they have more traffic, yet less earnings. Well that's going to get worse, not better. A few will rake it in because frankly that's just good PR. Things like the shopping banners will roll out in the least noticeable way possible. So please understand, I'm not trying to be a know it all or criticize anyone for trying to excel at this. I'm still in the game too, but optimism is shrinking by the day. When I hear people talking about YouTube being a savior, I'm not sure I see that the same way.

[Maximum44]

We also have a Youtube account and it is growing like crazy sure. But we also have a website. A website we have total control over. I don't want all of our content to be controlled by one company that dictate all the rules. Google (Alphabet) started off as one of the good guys. Now we have a company that wants to control all information, not just index it.

[MayankParmar]

Well there's no point of YouTube videos in SERP. If you all think it should be there, then we need our websites listed on YouTube, it would be fair :)

[Maximum44]

@MayankParmar That would be fair :)

[capulkit]

Now we have a company that wants to control all information, not just index it.

Exactly that what Google doing right now.
Instead of showing correct or better results promoting its own products.