Google Updates and SERP Changes - May 2018

[Shaddows]

System: The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4894234.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 11:34 am on May 1, 2018 (PDT -8)

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We've seen a huge shift in traffic patterns today. Traffic and conversions are relatively stable, but destination pages are very different.

In terms of products sold, it is very similar to the pre-March profile (which is different to the various iterations over the last 6 weeks)

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 7:51 pm (utc) on May 1, 2018]
[edit reason] Split to new thread. [/edit]

[NickMNS]

So its looking like my traffic spike has fizzled. I'm up only marginally compared to same day last week and down sharply from yesterday. All the other metrics are down compared to yesterday but still up marginally compared to last week. This is strange... very strange....

[NickMNS]

The plot thickens...
I just checked GSC and the data for Saturday is available.My traffic spike started on Sunday around 8pm EDT. On Saturday Impressions, and Average rank were unchanged, but Clicks and CTR were already up sharply, but this was not reflected in my analytics data. My analytics have the Google's standard bot filter applied. So I checked the unfiltered data and sure enough the clicks are there.

On Sunday in analytics in unfiltered mode, there are 25% to 30% more clicks reported. That is 25 to 30% bot traffic in addition to the traffic spike. What Saturday's GSC data suggests is that all that bot traffic is clicking through Google's SERP's.

The real test will be at the end of the month. My Adsense earnings were very positively impacted by this traffic. Will AdSense claw this revenue back at month end?

[meagain121]

I like graphs and pig/rat analogies...
Here's the rise and fall of one of my rats: [snag.gy...]

My rat was in a nice empty cage, then a fat pig came along, sat on him and ate all his cheese.
The rat squeezed free and fled to a little niche corner to nibble on some scraps, but the fat pig noticed and gobbled up those as well.

Over the past 2 months, no scraps have fallen and the rat has kept alive by occasionally taking sips of water from a stagnant, zombie infected water trough.

The pig is fat and happy while the rat is trembling and hoping for a butcher before the pig gets thirsty.

[samwest]

@meagain121 - you forgot the "wee wee wee all the way home" part ;)
[youtu.be...]

[meagain121]

@samwest I think that comes later in the story after the water turns the rat. [youtube.com...]
Maybe I should turn it into a children's book and put it on Amazon... It'll be on page 1 for sure.

[mosxu]

The algorithm is designed to make the rats feel insecure and confused by constantly moving the cheese.

Now it depends how many rats are in the cage if there are too many of them the cheese will get split into too many pieces and each rat will afford to pay to guinea pig a percentage.

The more rats the smaller the percentage and because the user only clicks 3-4 ads to conversion it makes sense for the cheese to constantly be moved to be shared by common 3-4 rats so they will get fatter and fatter and will be able to afford a higher percentage.

@sam

Great analogy, maybe we should call it the natural selection in the cage. I am not sure about your cheese but my one stinks badly.

[Nutterum]

Something is shaking up in Google's SERPland. I see a drop in impressions but growth in clicks while the average position is rock-solid as if it is 2008. Last time this happened Penguin was sniffing the air on the playground. Did anyone notice similar data in their GSC / bot-filtered GA?

[Shaddows]

We're seeing quite significant traffic changes again, with multiple (at least two) distinct behaviour sets.

Can't see much happening in live SERPs though

[Cralamarre]

Google traffic does seem to be up a bit today, but I'm not going to get too excited about it. It will probably drop again at any moment.

Sometimes I think that the real-time analytics in GA gets the Google traffic and the Direct traffic mixed up. They often seem to see-saw back and forth, so if Google traffic goes up, Direct traffic goes down. Then Direct traffic goes up and Google traffic goes down. I can't help but think it's the same traffic and it's just GA that's getting confused.

Right now, GA is reporting the highest Google traffic I've seen in ages, but Direct traffic is showing very low numbers, so I don't know.

[edited by: Cralamarre at 2:19 pm (utc) on May 16, 2018]

[MayankParmar]

BBC News Is Completely Dominating "News" Results Right Now And Google Is Trying To Fix It [buzzfeed.com...]

Lost huge chunk of news traffic after the update :)

[BushyTop]

@shaddows Are you seeing this right now?

[NickMNS]

@Nutterum

Did anyone notice similar data in their GSC / bot-filtered GA?

See my post above.

Sunday data is now available in GSC, and oddly it would seem that my boost in traffic came from direct traffic (it is not reflected in clicks or impressions). This increase in direct traffic continued into Monday, Tuesday and seemingly today. Although traffic as whole is back to a level on slightly above last week's. I have also noticed short extreme spikes of traffic. In real-time I have seen spikes as high 3x the 5-minute average. The spike is of short duration it only lasts about 5 to 10 minutes, and then everything goes back to normal.

[Shaddows]

@BushyTop
Yes, it all went weird about 22:00 UTC on 2018-05-15. Ironically, it's been relatively settled since about 1400 UTC, when I posted. The new stable pattern is not significantly different from the old pattern, so it probably wasn't an update - although maybe a pre-update tremor.

[NickMNS]

I found the source of my Sunday spike. My website appeared on a national TV show during prime-time. The rest was decay.

[Travis]

My website appeared on a national TV show during prime-time.

Great, congratulations!

[NickMNS]

Its a little underwhelming. It really demonstrates the power that Google has. My site briefly appeared on TV during prime-time and it resulted in a traffic spike for a few hours, but that is it. Its done. A small increase in Google rank would result in a similar increase in traffic and it would be sustained for weeks, month or years. Viewed from that perspective it is really mind blowing.

[Cralamarre]

How did you find out it was on a tv show? Is there a "tv show" traffic source in GA that most of us have never seen? :)

[NickMNS]

No, the producers contacted me in the fall to ask for permission. They said it would air sometime in the spring but that there was no guarantee. I basically forgot about it. After the spike in traffic on Sunday I started looking into my stats. Things were very strange so I sent an email out to the producer to see if that was the cause. He confirmed it. I'm waiting for a copy of the show to see what they actually showed.

[Cralamarre]

I just did a Google search for prime time shows on Sunday, trying to guess which show it was, and I actually got a pop-up in Chrome asking me to set my privacy settings. Anyone else seeing this? First time I've seen it. There's even an option to turn off personalized ads in Chrome. That might not be good.

[NeapTide]

There is a lot of talk lately about localization of search that is sites from your own country will appear better in search results. That's a joke. My sites results often appear at bottom of pages and results from other countries are all on top. If Google wants to go for localization then it should better check what its bots are doings.

[Rlilly]

Anyone know if Google still sending out notices in the Search Console about ones site being in the mobile first index? If ones site has not been notified and they not in the mobile first index, are they getting hurt in the SERPS?

[NeapTide]

My two sites are totally related to mobiles and apps, fully responsive but no Mobile First Index notification.
My Ad experience report for all sites is still "Not Reviewed"

[samwest]

My website appeared on a national TV show during prime-time.

Which answers the question of where to get traffic: outside of Google.
A few weeks ago I was getting higher than average traffic due to a commercial that was running non stop. It was not featuring my site, but rather the very topic of my site, which was likely enough to drive a small amount of search traffic.

[Cralamarre]

Which answers the question of where to get traffic: outside of Google.

Yes but it's temporary, short-lived traffic. Google traffic, if you can get it, is more long term.

[samwest]

Done properly, getting traffic from outside sources can certainly be long term. Your operative phrase is "Google traffic, IF you can get it" and that's becoming a bigger IF every day. As just one example of thousands possible; for my consulting business, I have the web address and tagline on the tailgate of my truck. It gets far more daily direct traffic than Google organic. It's a good source of fresh new cheese...and it's full of vitamins, like trust, since they know I really do exist locally, and not some fake company from Indonesia..

[mosxu]

@nick

Congratulations! Great to have citations on TV, it is a huge signal for your brand.

[System]

The following message was cut out to new thread by robert_charlton at 3:53 am on May 17, 2018... (PDT -8)...

New thread at...

Per Google, personalization of search results is really "very light"
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4901646.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 11:58 am (utc) on May 17, 2018]
[edit reason] Split off side topic that deserves its own thread [/edit]

[NickMNS]

Anyone know if Google still sending out notices in the Search Console about ones site being in the mobile first index?

I just got two notifications one for my http: version (which doesn't actually exist except as a property in GSC) and then one for the https: version. I'm excited to see what the impact will be....
If any!

[EditorialGuy]

Anyone know if Google still sending out notices in the Search Console about ones site being in the mobile first index?

I just got notices in Google Search Console and by e-mail.

[Shepherd]

Good to hear of some real world sightings. Sadly all I see is the same old "No new messages or recent critical issues."