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]

[samwest]

Loaded PIWIK/Matomo, which is visually much more telling than GA...and boy can you see the zombies. Nearly every visit today is one-and-done, but bounce lower than usual. How does traffic behavior go from bangin, to zombie without any site changes whatsoever?

[mosxu]

@samwest

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

Can you ping some of the IPs that slowload pages on your site? See how fast these respond? Just imagine if these IPs have fast connection but your site pages load slow it could be that bots are making slow requests.

Rankbrain will say wait all sites load fast on this IP except samwest site lets not send the traffic to samwest exept maybe those IPs who have visited samewest site in the last 30 days or so...

Imagine in how many ways Larry Page love for speed can be exploited

[BushyTop]

We've had 6 times the amount of G bot activity the past 2 days...... this is one of the biggest updates I've seen!

[samwest]

IMHO and as counter intuitive as this may sound, the answer box is a penalty box. My test site now owns the answer box for many queries, yet once it started, traffic absolutely stopped. The top two positions also don't seem to provide as much traffic. Why? Because, as even I do myself, I always scroll down to about mid page and select one of those sites, especially the one with the most compelling title and description. I'd love to see a heat map.
In my case, it seems that owning everything above the fold is more of a curse than a blessing.
The only other logical and most likely explanation for this is that nobody uses Google search anymore....but they did last month. That or maybe the ZA has just started - lol
It makes no sense.

[McPheeSees]

Here's what I've seen over the past week and it doesn't have all that much to do with actual traffic. My search results have remained stable, although they are not what they used to be, so I never rely on the big G anymore. But I think there's a bigger phenomenon. Whenever one of these updates happens, here's what I consistently see.

Our conversions are low
We get traffic from countries we don't do business in, and that rises
Email spam goes down
Our phones are inundated with Robo calls
Other search engines like Bing and yahoo don't convert either
Customer calls are way down, even the people that want to resolve an issue
It's almost like the Internet doesn't exist for a while.

Then all of a sudden for a brief period of time, we get conversions, customers calling at the same time, almost like the Internet wakes up for a short period of time. I've seen this before and it always seems to be at this time of year that they do it, but I don't know who "they" is. I don't think it's Google because it doesn't explain the other search engines behaving the same way. Aren't they all independent?

[McPheeSees]

The Internet itself does not work at all the way it used to, it's not an open Internet anymore.

[LuckyLiz]

@samwest Whether the answer boxes drive traffic or not probably depends on whether the searcher gets all the information they need - or think they need - from the answer box. If the answer box provides only a partial answer to the query it can increase clicks to the site a lot, in our experience. The other issue is that sometimes the answer box has text from one site, and an image from another site.
We've seen traffic increase somewhat (but not as much) when Google grabs an image from our site and uses it with another site's text info.

The URLs that are in the answer box are usually repeated on page one in the regular SERPS, too. So the answer box pages get double exposure on page one.

[mosxu]

@LuckyLiz

Why would anyone click on the site if the full answer has been provided in the answer box?

[Travis]

Why would anyone click on the site if the full answer has been provided in the answer box?

If the whole answer fit in 3 or 4 lines, you might wonder what's the point of a whole page.

[EditorialGuy]

Why would anyone click on the site if the full answer has been provided in the answer box?

Maybe because the answer box serves as a teaser?

Take something like the jitney fare in Widgetville. Joe Searcher might be asking "Widgetville jitney fare," and the simple answer may be "$1.50," but if Joe has never ridden a jitney in Widgetville, he may well click through to a page on "How to ride the jitneys in Widgetville."

FWIW, my experience with answer boxes is similar to LuckyLiz's: They bring in additional visitors. YMMV.

[MayankParmar]

Exactly. For example.

Search 'is water wet' and the 'teaser' will answer the question.

[mosxu]

Teaser?

EG who is the copyright legal owner in that answer box?

[Travis]

Still waiting to see someone suing Google over their answer box, this could be interesting if even it happens...

[MrSavage]

If the whole answer fit in 3 or 4 lines, you might wonder what's the point of a whole page.

*shakes head*

Think about the irony of it. Panda was about lean content pages. "Thin" pages right? Google has the luxury of serving up lean content, thin content without fear of penalty or algo. Ultimately they forced us to write longer more meaningful pages, and they come along after the fact and carve of sections that suit their answer/content box. We provide the side of beef and they carve as they see fit. We could never get away with providing quick one page answers on our sites without fear of a dreaded algo. This is where the whole thing stinks and to a whole other level.

[EditorialGuy]

We could never get away with providing quick one page answers on our sites without fear of a dreaded algo. This is where the whole thing stinks and to a whole other level.

A search engine's job is to provide citations (with links, in the case of Web search engines) and abstracts. The same was true of proprietary online databases and offline services such as The Magazine Index in the pre-Web era.

Sometimes in the past, just as now, a casual searcher might have found a satisfactory answer in an abstract (the "answer box" of the olden days). And sometimes, just as now, people who wanted more information than the abstract provided would go to the effort or expense of reading the cited article or paper.

For those who provide more than bite-size nuggets of information, "answer boxes" are a marketing tool, not a threat.

[Cralamarre]

Is this a new answer box that we're talking about, or the same one that's been around for a while? I'm just wondering because my Google traffic seems to have dropped a bit today. Could also just be a slow day, since no one seems to be reporting anything.

[MrSavage]

I hope you're not basing your traffic drops on the views of about 10 different webmasters which accounts for around .000000001% of the total possible reports on what's happening on the SERPS right now. You might want to check the moon cycle because that may be accountable for today's traffic drops. People are howling at the moon rather than searching. This is what I'm told anyways.

[Cralamarre]

Well, actually I'm basing my traffic drop on the view of one person (me) who noticed that my traffic dropped today. Usually if it's due to an update, other people are here reporting the same thing. But since I see no one else reporting anything, I'll just chalk it up as a slow day.

[LuckyLiz]

@mosxu If the answer box contains a complete answer to the searcher's query, they probably wouldn't click through to the site. But most answer boxes I've seen when I'm searching for information only contain partial answers. As others have mentioned, those act like teasers to get people to the site.

[Robert Charlton]

As others have mentioned, those act like teasers to get people to the site.

LuckyLiz, you've put your finger on a very important aspect of optimizing for answer boxes.

[mosxu]

And if the competitor optimizes for full answer?

[Martin Ice Web]

@Cralamarre,

yes wether it is an update or they swtiched to another bad set of results.
But we see a drop of 95% today. ( amazon + 50% again )
ebay got hit badly in german serps.

And you can search what you want in my niche, there are always the 4-5 same big brands on the first page. Only the order is slightly different.

[Travis]

Think about the irony of it. Panda was about lean content pages. Ultimately they forced us to write longer more meaningful pages

I might be wrong, but wasn't Panda in 2011?

Seven years later, of course the Internet has changed, and the way people are using it too. Today, people want a fast and short answer (thank you to the Y2K lazy generation). So this is your right to live in the past, and stick with the Internet of 2011, but then do not be surprised to be left on the side of the road, while the World continues to move forward and evolve.

We could never get away with providing quick one page answers on our sites without fear of a dreaded algo.

May be time to make sites for humans instead of Google. If you exclusively rely on Google for your business, there is something terribly wrong and silly. (sounds like the idea, "I am going to make money, because Google will send me plenty of free traffic").

[glakes]

If the answer box contains a complete answer to the searcher's query, they probably wouldn't click through to the site. But most answer boxes I've seen when I'm searching for information only contain partial answers. As others have mentioned, those act like teasers to get people to the site.

And you can bet that sometime in the future Google will replace that partial answer with a complete answer from some other source. Google put those answer boxes in the SERPS to keep people on Google.

Our experience with the answer box is the same as samwest - produces little traffic. Though the page is also on page 1 of the SERPS, people who have already seen a summary in the answer box probably are not inclined to visit the page. By losing this traffic, we lose the opportunity to present our products/solutions to consumers. IMO, the answer box is just another reason why Google has gone down the toilet. Half baked and often incorrect answers ripped off from some "source" does not bode well for creators or consumers of information.

[samwest]

Maybe because the answer box serves as a teaser?

In my case, yes, EG is correct. They are using my H3 tags only, so it's a very vague outline, which is a teaser and compels the user to click through. Oddly enough, very few are clicking through and even with the answer box and top two positions, my page traffic has just declined by 20%. Answer that answer box.

[Cralamarre]

I have several articles appearing in answer boxes, and most of them are the most popular articles on my site, bringing in the majority of traffic. So I can't say the answer boxes have been a bad thing for me.

[samwest]

I think that mine may be so vague as to not provide the answer without clicking it. It's like a wary rabbit avoiding a potential trap. If that's how people feel about Google's results, then they have more work to do in the trust department. We've all clicked our share of Google landmines.

[JesterMagic]

@Cralamarre unfortunately I notice another 5% decrease in traffic yesterday as well. It was some sort of update that obviously only affected a few of us. My keywords have been bouncing around in the serps since the week of March 5th (loosing about 5-8 positions) . At this point we have lost 30% of our traffic since the beginning of March. Not good. We have been in the niche close to 15 years.

A few or our old competitors maybe from 3 years have been rewarded somewhat but the content shown is old and outdated (the websites basically have been left untouched). Some new youtube videos have moved in but mainly it has been general information sites that has information about one niche but has expanded to other niches with thinner content.

[MrSavage]

In 2018 people believe what we see today is what will be there in 2019 or 2020? Travis welcome to club shill. A person just made the point here that the box isn't to tease, it's to keep people on Google. So if it's failing in that regard, people are actually suggesting that today's version is permanent and that we should all optimize because hey, it's worth it! Afterall, today's answer box will be like this for the next 10 years! The basic principle of it is to keep people on Google. Google said as much. People want a quick answer. Yeah, go ahead, chase it. And as mentioned be assured (based on the mentality shown around here) that people will gladly offer up their full answer, recipe, guide to Google for the box. They might even be willing to provide it as a charitable donation for traffic and considerations in the future. No doubt people will give that full answer, solution, recipe, guide to Google for free. People are like that. I believe saint is the word.

Travis did you miss the memo about thin content pages? Like make a site with a bunch of answer box sized pages and then let's talk. That's about as much response as I'll spend on you. If you want to be ignorant, then stay ignorant. Google is doing what they don't want us doing. We would be deemed low quality and you want to dispute that fact? Didn't Google just say that people want quick answers? If that's the case genius, then wouldn't we be "creating for humans" if we too created pages of quick answers? Or on. I'm missing a letter but you get the idea.

[NickMNS]

With all the volatility in the results over the past few days and weeks it is impossible to determine what is up or down. I'm seeing swings but none are significant enough to draw any conclusion on.

@MrSavage you raise some good points.

Google is doing what they don't want us doing.

Didn't Google just say that people want quick answers?

Yes in search results. Users are lazy they don't want to click to the new site, they want the search results to give them what they are looking for right away.

If that's the case genius, then wouldn't we be "creating for humans" if we too created pages of quick answers?

Yes and No. No first, if a user actually make the enormous effort to click the link to a website, then they want something more, the expect something more, a full detailed answer to their question. If all you provide is a one liner then they will feel ripped off. They made all that effort and got nothing in return.
Yes now, one could create a site of just short answers. One would need many answers to many questions and it would likely be successful provided you could attract direct traffic, in other words, user that come to you first, and query your site directly. Now to actually be successful would require you to compete against Google, Bing and others. I doubt you would be able to rank in Google or Bing, first for the reason described above and second because you would be in direct competition.