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]

[lostshootingstar]

I operate in a service industry and one thing I've noticed the last couple weeks is that Yelp has really skyrocketed in the SERPs in a number of major cities across the country. Not sure what to make of that, Yelp is definitely not the greatest user experience for our industry.

[KaseyM]

Had a drop this end but it's mainly due to a lot of our articles no longer being relevant thanks to a news dump. So I'm thinking it's coincidental.

[MayankParmar]

Dropped here as well. But everything is fine on Semrush: [semrush.com...] I'm clueless :-/

[Cralamarre]

My traffic is still better than it was before last week's update, and certainly before the update in early March, but it has definitely dropped a bit from its peak last week, down about 5%.

[EditorialGuy]

sing it too. Today, people want a fast and short answer (thank you to the Y2K lazy generation).

Some people want "a fast and short answer," but no one's forcing you to make those people your target audience.

[LuckyLiz]

Just to add a bit of perspective here, from an seo and publisher point of view, I do not like the answer boxes. When your site isn't in the answer box, the answer boxes and "people also ask" boxes push results far down the page, so sites that would be top -of-page results without the answer boxes are midway or lower on the page. But to me, that's all the more reason to try to be in an answer box for a query.
What's more important though, is optimizing your pages for your readers or customers. They are the ones you have to engage and make happy and if you do that, they will help bring you more business.

[pupidu]

I lost everything I build for 10 years. Simply not for bread. Google erased alternative sites, like my, from index, even price for that is only 2 result pages, including vintage magazines represented by google books.
One company rated at stock exchange owns 2 pages with all those variants co.uk, co.za, au, nz... And there is nothing more.
Algorithm is now well programed.

[vphoner]

I have seen a massive drop in search traffic from google recently, starting in mid march, but really bad recently. My site is not mobile friendly, so how much of this drop (on desktop traffic) is the result of the mobile first index or other related issues? Is this drop beyond the mobile penalty? It sounds like there is another algorithm change that might also be in play here.

Before you ask, I am just finishing up the changes to make our site fully responsive and mobile friendly. Guessing will go live in about 2 months. Hope that will help not only with mobile traffic, but desktop traffic.

[Cralamarre]

@vphoner Sorry to hear about your traffic drop, but no one here can tell you why your site lost traffic. Could be any number of reasons. Making it mobile friendly is a good step, but it may have nothing to do with the problem. Personally, no technical changes to my site have ever resulted in a traffic or ranking boost. I would always recommend focusing on your site's content as the source of the problem.

[vphoner]

Yes, content is king. Was doing fine even with mobile users, but the writing is on the wall. I am hoping that conversion goes up when doing a responsive mobile friendly approach, but it could go the other way. Maddening how things have changed so quickly. I see all new players in the top 10 searches....mostly big corporate sites, looks like they are pushing out the mom and pop sites, even if their content is better.

[seoskunk]

Thanks for the easter eggs....

I know I said this before but definitely time to bow out for a while, I'm doing OK in the SERPS so I have nothing to add.

[samwest]

Ok,so my stupid question of this day is: If you lost traffic, was it due to a clear drop in the SERPs or was it just a drop in traffic volume, or traffic quality? In my case, the SERP's improved and couldn't be any better, yet traffic volume and quality is suddenly nil.

[Smittie06]

@samwest i’m in the same case, no changes in SERPs but huge loss in traffic.

[MayankParmar]

Position is same but traffic is low.

[JesterMagic]

@samwest position in serps dropped.

[samwest]

Well, that's not much of a sample, but looks like a few are experiencing this same anomaly. Answer box plus positions one and two and site getting zero traffic for terms that produced decent traffic when the site had on position 2 and 3. It's almost as if only single file traffic is being allowed. How you ask? I guess pure FM.

[edited by: samwest at 4:19 pm (utc) on Apr 28, 2018]

[RedBar]

My site is not mobile friendly, so how much of this drop (on desktop traffic) is the result of the mobile first index or other related issues?

If my experience is anything to go by then absolutely nothing. All of my main sites have been fully responsive for several years however I am a non-USA business and Google is, quite simply, either removing pages or demoting them to the pointless zone of their SERPs.

I have one specific site that had been #1 for years in G.com (USA) and in the last couple of months it has lost 66% of its traffic whereas it was incredibly consistent month after month, year after year. This site has been replaced by all US sites even though the subject product is not from the USA, it is 100% imported and all non-USA producers of this product have been removed from the USA SERPs.

Is this localisation? I don't think so, this is manipulation of the first order, remove foreign suppliers, period.

[mosxu]

But how?

You are seeing the same ranking position but traffic disappears!

Rankbrain can you please clarify where is the human traffic?

[MayankParmar]

Google is now planning to kill our businesses with Chrome - [twitter.com...]

[julesuk]

I am seeing more of my old top ranking positions beng replaced with twitter, flickr, facebook, instagram... it's getting silly now, why doesn't google just have one page of results with the big 10 social media companies, some of which they own, and link to them as it seems they don't care anymore about killing websites that have been around for a 10 years plus which now reside on page 3 or less. Not happy :(

[Nutterum]

Anyone else seeing "across the board" movement since April 25? Can report mainly positive movement albeit a small one on 4k+ keywords across several different niches, mainly in the informational B2B related searches. I am on the green but some colleagues reported that they lost quite a bit of sales traffic, especially from EU. Can this be a sign that Google is adjusting to taking in to account GDPR?

[JaviP]

Some people says: "content is the king"... really? I have serious dubts. We need to know what is the key question in the rankings right now.

[MayankParmar]

Backlink is the king, people.

[glakes]

Some people says: "content is the king"... really?

That king was dethroned a long time ago...

[BushyTop]

Anyone still seeing changes?

[RedBar]

There is only one king and it's been there for quite some time - Pay To Play

[Nutterum]

The new saying is "Content is King, but context is King Kong" - put simply, you may try to rank for spanners all day long, but if your website and presence say waffles - you ain't getting that spanners audience. If your website rocks 3000 pages of 100 word explanation about x,y,z that has been covered in-length by someone else with much higher authority, you bet they are getting the traffic and you don't. The examples are many, but the rule is the same.

[MrSavage]

Guys I know what is going on. PR fear is the underlying theme here. Disbelieve if you choose to do so, but the big brand, safe SERPs are one way for Google to play it safe in the current turmoil surrounding fake news. It might sound far fetched, but consider now it's the Ai's fault and if they show sites, be assured they will be well known, trusted, and something you have heard of. The web shrunk because of it, but playing it safe and maintaining PR is the driving factor. Anyone watching this can agree that it's far fewer sites being listed than ever before. It's now time to wake up and face the reality of that situation. I mean who doesn't trust Amazon, Wikipedia, and every other site mentioned in this thread that is stuffing page 1 or page 2 of results. Google is scared.

[Shaddows]

So... become a brand. Same advice since Vince [searchenginejournal.com], circa Q1, 2009.

Admittedly, it was a bit easier back then.

[Cralamarre]

I'm fortunate in that my site is considered a trusted authority site, so any new article I publish ends up on the first page of the SERPs within days. Happens every time. I like to think it's because I write good content, but without that level of authority to go with it, I know I wouldn't be seeing the same results.