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]

[MayankParmar]

There was an update yesterday

[semrush.com...]

:(

[Jhurwith]

Is anyone still using SEMRush for anything? Their numbers have been so far off and volatile for the last two months?

[Cralamarre]

@lostshootingstar Interesting, my analytics actually show an increase yesterday beginning around 8 pm Eastern time. However, things seem to have leveled off this morning.

[MrSavage]

Nice stack of shopping ads appearing on more searches (above results) more than ever. If there is a slight hint of a purchase this seems to appear. That should slaughter a portion of affiliate dependent sites. I'm quite amazed at how fast these changes are occurring lately. It's news or bust imo.

[penitentman]

@Jhurwith, Ya I use SEMrush. Not seriously but as a resource. On my dashboard I track about 25 websites. Some mine. Some competitors. With my sites it's fairly accurate. Ups and downs are consistent with what I seen in GA but the number of organic traffic visitors can be way off. Sometimes low sometimes high. I like looking at the Sensor tool [semrush.com...] It tracks category movements. I also look at the winners and losers section to see if anything in my category is a site I'm interested in.

[NickMNS]

@Mayank I just checked Mozcast and their showing a similar chart.

I am seeing a lot of volatility from hour to hour.

@lostshootingstar, ouch! I don't think you can reliably say that this started at 8pm. I think that this ongoing volatility is hitting different sites (or groups) at different times and coming and going.

This round of volatility seemed to start on March 17, at least in my case. I saw large spike in traffic and then more gradual but still rapid drop in traffic. I went back and compared last year to this year (year to date) and my stats shows a similar spike on March 17th, but then it was followed by a gradual increase. So I went back one more year, 2016 showed a spike on March 18, 2015 showed a smaller spike around March 25th. Is this March update an annual occurrence?

[johnnyN]

I use SEM Rush to track rankings, and have noticed overall drops in the rankings of the keywords that I have been tracking... however not a huge drop in the overall traffic.
Usually the traffic also drops when my aggregate ranking of keywords drops.
I haven't figured out any answers yet

[MayankParmar]

There's a zig zag pattern of traffic on Analytics today :-/

I'm going to disavow the new toxic links discovered by SEMRush on Sunday. It really helped last time (March).

[Cralamarre]

@NickMNS I try to avoid going back to previous years in my analytics because it's just too depressing.

Having said that, traffic today is still doing better than last Friday., and considerably better than the week before that. No sign of any drop.

[reseller]

A relevant post from Search Engine Roundtable of April 20, 2018:

Google Update & Ranking Algorithm Fluctuations Continue
Earlier this week, we reported that we saw signs of a Google algorithm update kicking off - the interesting part is that while there is a lot of chatter and signals showing there was an update, the level of that chatter isn't what I would say is close to a Panda, Penguin or even a Fred update. It might be closer to that of the levels of Maccabees update.

[seroundtable.com...]

[jmorgan]

Hey Barry, I never gave you permission to quote me in your blog.

[Cralamarre]

@jmorgan I'm not Barry, but you don't need permission to quote someone.

[JesterMagic]

@MayankParmar I've been disavowing a pile of toxic domains as well. I discovered them as Googlebot has been referred by them to my site according to my traffic stats.

These toxic sites look like to be displaying one thing for googlebot and another thing for regular visitors (when I visit the sites my antivirus throws up a bunch of malware warnings).

I am not sure why Googlebot is setting a Referrer anyways as they usually do not (it is a real GoogleBot and not a fake. I have confirmed by checking the IP and it is coming from Google). Also these toxic sites are listed as links in my sites Google Search Console.

Anyone else run across this before?

[lostshootingstar]

Yes, I have the exact same thing. Thousands of domains that show up in my list of links from GSC, but when you load them in a browser they redirect to #*$!ography. I disavow as often as I can, but there are a TON of them lately, it's almost hard to keep up. I think it's like a new version of "Referral spam".

[MayankParmar]

Yep, it is really not possible to review thousands of sites and disavow them one by one, every week! That is why I prefer SEMRush.

[RedBar]

No sign of any drop.

With only a few hours of a Googleday left to go, my PVs are at 40% of last Friday and still the lowest day of the month and one of my lowest of the year!

[rustybrick]

@jmorgan - seriously?

[jmorgan]

@rustybrick I'm just messing, dude. I just find your blog posts amusing seeing as they're just a rehash of information we get elsewhere.

[sk7411]

[searchengineland.com...]


Confirmed .

[MayankParmar]

Oh, no. Not again :(

[Cralamarre]

Two confirmed updates in a row, one in March and now in April, that I actually benefitted from? That can't be right.

[glitterball]

My sites have all gone up in terms of positions lately, however traffic continues to drop.
Looking at the results in my niche, Google has now become my direct competitor, so there is very little traffic left to be had.

[lostshootingstar]

Confirmation is nice, at least. It's proof to the "hurr durr Google updates are fake news my site had no movement" crowd.

[Broaster]

Do you guys post content on a regular basis or what?

[jmorgan]

Well, I got tiny boost in early March. And now it seems they decided to take it away again. *Sigh* Guess it's just back to focusing on working on the site again for me.

[MayankParmar]

@Broaster Regular basis. I have developed a myth that a up-to-date site tends to rank better..

[jmorgan]

@Cralamarre Well done on your rankings boost. Would you say you've been working diligently on your site for a long-awaited reward from Google?

[Cyril TechWebsites]

I'm seeing a little bit recovery through Semrush data since 19 April (but it's far away from pre-update levels). But it's too early to say that actually traffic recovers, maybe it's too early to say on that. My mind (and hopes) that we are seeing an update roll-back (at least a "partial" one). Do you noticing recoveries via Semrush?

[RedBar]

Yay, way to go Google, just another couple of more updates rewarding even more garbage and all my ultra clean, corporate brochure sites will have disappeared altogether from the .com SERPs.

Clueless and fubard are two thoughts, manipulative and an obvioulsy undisclosed agenda are two others.

Meanwhile my realworld business continues without any of their "assistance":-)

[Cralamarre]

@jmorgan I have certainly been working on every way I can to improve my site over the past year, as many people here have been doing. However, I continue to believe that there was never anything wrong with my site to begin with, and that none of the changes I've made over the past many months (which were mostly technical) are what led to my sudden increase in traffic since early March. I think Google just keeps changing the way it handles search results, and we're all just sitting ducks.