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]

[Cralamarre]

@MayankParmar I think Google ranks individual pages, not sites in general, so your update schedule doesn't have much of an impact on rankings. Of course, authority sites have an easier time getting their pages to rank well, but the frequency of updates shouldn't matter. Personally, I always choose quality over quantity, so I usually only post one new article per week. Seems to work well.

[penitentman]

@Broaster, I'm always adding content. Keeping the site fresh and new. In the search quality guidelines google states that a factor they look at is the amount of "time, effort, and talent/skill" a webmaster puts into the website as a ranking factor. When google crawls and sees new content they know the webmaster is active and putting effort into the website. ALWAYS keep improving. I sometimes stay active on search console and refresh/submit new sitemaps when I've added a bunch of pages or content. I've seen my traffic spike after doing this...

[penitentman]

@jmorgan, let's thank @rustybrick for conversing with Google liaisons back and forth on twitter and youtube then writing about whatever blood he got out of the stone. If I were Barry and that was my job, I would lose my temper very quickly and frequently.

[Cralamarre]

@penitentman I don't believe for one second that Google would rank a lower-quality article ahead of a higher-quality article just because the author of the lower-quality article updates his or her site more often. There's always people on here claiming "I work 12 hours a day on my site so I deserve better than this", but it means nothing. Ultimately, all that matters is that people find your content more helpful than your competitors.

I have articles written years ago that continue to outrank anything new that comes along. Quality will always outrank quantity in the end.

[edited by: Cralamarre at 3:16 pm (utc) on Apr 21, 2018]

[MayankParmar]

Pages crawled on 16th April jumped to 41K from 8K, but back to normal on 17th, and kilobytes downloaded jumped in same way.

What is wrong? :(

Update: Checked my other sites, huge jump as well, and asked my friend as well, he is seeing same jump.

It could be Mobile First Index? Could you guys check?

[penitentman]

I said nothing about the content being of low quality @cralamarre. Quite the contrary. Again, the google guidelines state very clearly "time, effort, and talent/skill" signals are a ranking factor. Someone may work 12 hours a day creating bunk content or targeting niches/kw's/products etc etc that don't translate into traffic or money. Or the uphill battle is too hard to win because the existing content in that vertical is too authoritative.

[penitentman]

It could be Mobile First Index? Could you guys check?

How many times do people need to reiterate this @MayankParmar? Drastic movements happening April 16th to now has nothing to do with the mobile first index. Those changes will happen gradually and you may even get SC notifications.

[MayankParmar]

@penitentman I'm talking about the abnormal rise in pages crawled/kilobytes downloaded per day on Console :) I know the Core Update has nothing to do with Mobile First Index.

[Cralamarre]

@penitentman Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that you were recommending quantity over quality. I was trying to say, even though Google states "time, effort, and talent/skill" are ranking factors, I don't believe that the "time and effort" part mean anything, unless the time and effort is being put into researching, planning and writing better quality content. Talent and skill absolutely matter. But in no way would frequency of updates to a site have any impact on the ranking of individual pages. I've certainly never experienced a sudden, overall ranking boost just because I added new content.

[penitentman]

@MayankParmar ok sorry crawl rates, yes if they are from the smartphone googlebot. Its mobile first update related.

[penitentman]

@Cralamarre, I guess we can agree to disagree. I think for sure the frequency of updates on a website displays the amount of "time" a webmaster puts into their job. That time of course needs to be time creating more pages of quality content.

[EditorialGuy]

I think for sure the frequency of updates on a website displays the amount of "time" a webmaster puts into their job.

Or maybe it just reflects the nature of the site. A site with mostly evergreen content, such as a dictionary site or a guide to dead popes, wouldn't need to be updated nearly as often as a news site or a movie-review site, for example.

[Cralamarre]

@penitentman I would hate to think that a competitor could outrank my articles just by updating their site more frequently than I do. So yes, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that.

[penitentman]

Yes @editorialguy, It's relative to the vertical. So google will rank you among your peers. For example, I believe google looks at all the dictionary sites. If you update your dictionary site more than the others you will win out on that "portion" or however you want to describe it in googles many ranking factors. This is an extremely complex algorithm with some of the worlds smartest people developing and tweeking every day. But the "time" you put into your job is measured somehow and thus rewarded if deemed higher and or better quality work than your peers.

[penitentman]

@cralamarre, If my theory is correct, they may not out rank you. But they would win that portion of the ranking factor pie. Just like if the laundromat down the street is open 7 days a week and you are open 5. Your competitor is working harder than you are. Working more hours than you are. Google takes the job of a webmaster very seriously. Just like a 9-5 job. Just like a mom and pop business where people show up everyday.

[Cralamarre]

@penitentman "But the "time" you put into your job is measured somehow and thus rewarded if deemed higher and or better quality work than your peers."

You're talking about two completely different things there. The time you put into it, and the quality of your work. Quality will earn you better rankings. Time will not. Google doesn't pay us by the hour.

[penitentman]

Ok right @cralamarre I should not have said deemed higher.. I should have said deemed more. The more "time" you put into your job is rewarded. Always assume I mean high quality. If google sees you spending more time adding quality to your site you are rewarded than the other guy spending less time adding quality. This is simply my interpretation of the google guidelines regarding "time, effort,
expertise, and talent/skill." that is repeated many times in the document.

[EditorialGuy]

This is simply my interpretation of the google guidelines regarding "time, effort,
expertise, and talent/skill." that is repeated many times in the document.

Google's guidelines are "best practices" advice, not a list of factors in Google's search algorithm. As Cralamarre said earlier, "Ultimately, all that matters is that people find your content more helpful than your competitors."

IMO, the two things that count most are (1) What's on the page, and (2) Google's perception of how users value what's on that page.

[McPheeSees]

I noticed in the GSC that a lot of my inbound links are gone, poof. I noticed also how bad the experience that the console is. It also had sitemaps that I have long since removed back on again. Google is way screwed up. My rankings haven't changed really but I'm not chasing the G anymore, it does no good.

[McPheeSees]

There is no making sense of Google results anymore, as far as a webmaster goes, it's completely dead. As a searcher, I don't use them ever because the results never give me what I really want. It's amazing that all the technology and people and money can never make this work again.

[samwest]

It's amazing that all the technology and people and money can never make this work again.

With 32+ Billion in quarterly income and perpetual >20% gains, it's working out quite well for Alphabet. ;)
My only consolation was buying shares shortly after the IPO.

[jmorgan]

@penitentman Fair enough. I'll lay off @rustybrick. I was just poking a bit of fun at him.

@McPheeSees You may feel that way personally with good reason, but fact of the matter is Google still has the vast majority of the SE market cornered. Google's opinion of your website can make or break it. If it's a non-profit, hobby site, that may be fine. But it sucks if you're making a living from your site.

[Martin Ice Web]

google via twitter

there is nothing specific a site can do to tweak its rankings around these updates. In general, Google says to continue to improve your overall site quality, and the next time Google runs these updates, hopefully, your website will be rewarded.

What? the main algo does only run e few times a year and the website score is "nailed"? I would have thought that the sites are constantly recalculated by fresh/new organized content. But this seems to like a penalty/no penalty run of the algo. This would mean tht any good/bad changes to a site does not have any affect to its ranking until google refreshes the main algo score.

It recalls me of old google dance times!

[jmorgan]

I can't understand why Google liked my site in March and within the space of a month (during which I actually improved the site), decided it didn't like me anymore.

[Spiekerooger]

Base on the state of domain crowding today google is working on some kind of update again.

[MayankParmar]

Seems normal. Waiting for Semrush sensor update.

[Travis]

I would have thought that the sites are constantly recalculated by fresh/new organized content.

In all events, Google always said it was taking a whole year before seeing the benefits (or not) of an improvement. All people who claim they succeeded to improve their ranking from one day to another , is just a coincidence with changes in the SERP and not a direct consequence of what such or such publisher did with its site. (excepting eventually in case of a penalty, which can be taken off at some point, if the problem was fixed).

I have site which I didn't update since 5 years, and along the year it moves up and down the SERP, sometimes it's on the top 5, other times it's on the second page, the next month it will be back on the first page, and so on.

[Martin Ice Web]

@Travis, unfortunatelly i just looked at the summary of the google tweet without proving it. The original google tweet did not say anything about "wait to the next run of the main algo".
So better be proving what we read....

So u still can improve rankings by improving our site without waiting for a new algo run/update.
What for the current serps are not believeable. Sides with title, meta, h1, and description are the same content moved from 3rd page to #1. I can believe that this is an unrewarded website?!
I know there are glitches but so many?

[Travis]

I created a topic, but the time it goes live, I am posting it here. Google is rolling a new Image Search interface on desktop, similar to what can be seen on mobile devices.

I think it's good for both publishers and users, since image thumbnails have a title under them. It looks nicer to me.

[seoskunk]

Re: Google Webmaster Guidelines - Does anyone else notice that they have removed the advice on Internal Search Results and many such pages are now appearing very highly in the SERPS

This was Google Previous Position:

Typically, web search results don’t add value to users, and since our core goal is to provide the best search results possible, we generally exclude search results from our web search index. (Not all URLs that contains things like “/results” or “/search” are search results, of course.)
– Matt Cutts (2007)

And this was once in webmaster guidelines :

Use the robots.txt file on your web server to manage your crawling budget by preventing crawling of infinite spaces such as search result pages.

Has Google's position changed ?