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]

[NickMNS]

In the past they were both essentially inexistent, rarely accounting for more than 1% combined but since yesterday they popped up nicely, I'm ending the day today a 7% combined.

Google is still bouncing around, but when I compare today to same day last week the difference is statistically insignificant. But Sunday I was down 17%, compared to the previous Sunday, which is significant. So things are bouncing intra-day and day to day.

[Maximum44]

@Awarn We had structured data (40k pages) and new content picked up in the last few days. Both search console and actual Google results confirms this.

[meagain121]

@Cralamarre For me, Bing & Yahoo combined accounts for about 25% of google traffic at the moment - it used to be about 1-2%.

I wonder what the ratio should be for a healthy site?

[Spiekerooger]

I wonder what the ratio should be for a healthy site?

It should roughly be the same than the usage statistics for google vs. yahoo/bing in your market.

E.g. here in Europe, Google accounts for about 95% of all searches while Bing+Yahoo do not even get 5% combined.

Those numbers differ for the U.S. or other markets so you'll have to look for your market.

[BushyTop]

Its a real shame. It seems in the past three days, the huge shifts we saw from the initial hit of this update appear to have dialled back a little.

Frustratingly I'm seeing alot of cannibalisation between our pages fighting for the same term, where before this wasn't happening.

Still a successful update for us.

[Shaddows]

Frustratingly I'm seeing alot of cannibalisation between our pages fighting for the same term, where before this wasn't happening.

How does that manifest itself? It might be a good thing, if users are getting a more targetted experience, or if multiple results for your site are dominating a SERP.

[BushyTop]

@shaddows Nope definitely not a good thing. The cannibalisation has caused a dip in rank for that term. Far better to push the one page IMO

I guess it manifests when Google changes to rules on relevancy or how it marks relevancy.

[Shaddows]

Still trying to be positive... the conversions might be better, if targetting is better.

Otherwise, you could mitigate by reworking your content so there is only one page to rank for that term, possibly 301ing the old pages to retain inbound links/traffic. Depends what else is on them, obviously.

Or you could add content to the cannibalising pages to either position them away from the key term, or specialise on a sub-topic aimed at mid-tail searches.

Essentially, Google is now giving extra kudos to the cannibalising page. That kudos is currently hurting you, but you should be able to work out a way for it to help you. Extra kudos should always be a good thing.

[JesterMagic]

Our niche is definitely bouncing around again... very frustrating as the niche sites gets pushed out to make room for larger sites that cover a wide variety of topics but not very well.

[BushyTop]

@shaddows Yeah, i'm gona try tweaking the content, deep linking and rich snippets - see if i can push the correct page.

[Cralamarre]

Anyone else having a problem with the real-time analytics in Google Analytics not updating? Mine just sits there frozen unless I refresh the page, and then it freezes again.

[NickMNS]

@Cralamarre Same here!

[Shepherd]

problem with the real-time analytics in Google Analytics

Same here.

And funny thing, conversion rate on site is the best it's been in years while GA has been frozen this morning. Just a coincidence I'm sure.

[Cralamarre]

Ok good, since it's not just me, I'll stop trying to fix it. :)

[Cralamarre]

It's actually kind of nice not having the real-time analytics to stare at and obsess over. My stress level is down and I'm getting more work done.

[seoskunk]

very voilitile one minute doing ok next minute not even in the index

[samwest]

I can concur on the dead GA observation. Usually you get the "heartbeat" on the lower right of the Pageviews "per minute" display, but it is totally frozen, on multiple browsers and refresh doesn't fix it. Time to go back to PIWIK.(excuse me, matomo)

In the past two days, I've gain every position above the fold including the answer box, but according to GA live, there has been zero traffic, even when the heartbeat returns. Something is FUBAR....again.

[MayankParmar]

[semrush.com...]

A new update is probably out :(

[Shepherd]

A new update is probably out :(

If it is I like the flavor, more please.

[Cralamarre]

Maybe Google purposely turned off the real-time analytics so we can't see what they're up to.

Although, when I refresh the page, it does seem like Google traffic is up.

[EditorialGuy]

Real-time analytics are working for me. Maybe the server that delivers your info is down?

[Cralamarre]

Real-time stats are still frozen for me.

[lostshootingstar]

Realtime is definitely broken here as well. Maybe for the best though.

[Shepherd]

Real-time analytics "work" when loaded but do not update real time like normal.

[Cralamarre]

Speaking of analytics, has anyone tried using GA on an iOS device lately? For the past several weeks, GA has been so slow and sluggish on my iPad that it's unusable. It only runs properly on my desktop.

[MayankParmar]

Can confirm GA real time reporting is broken, works when page is refreshed.

[samwest]

Entire web is sluggish. Funny how 100Mbps can nowadays feel like 300 baud.

[Cralamarre]

Not seeing any big changes in traffic today. It might be up a little bit, but nothing major. Everything is still pretty much the same as it's been since last week's update.

[lostshootingstar]

Realtime seems to be back to working for me. Still depressing though.

[RedBar]

Google has no idea how realworld business works ... Google is chasing its own tail!