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)

---

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]

"No new messages or recent critical issues."

Is that a bad thing? No news good news...

[Cyril TechWebsites]

In a few days the Memorial Day is rolling out. I bet that the update will happen these days (as usually, big G will use a holiday to hide its impact). Hope that it will bring some good news...

[JesterMagic]

@NickMNS and anyone else who gets a notification keep us update on any impact you see in search (and a bit of info on your site is responsive, etc.)

[analis]

yesterday was the highest Thursday since mid-January

[Jhurwith]

Anyone seeing a downward trend since May 14 in USA? I saw this Barry update - [seroundtable.com...]

Our numbers WOW are down a bit, which is not the norm for this time of year.

[samwest]

Traffic is flat, serps solid at #1 and #2 positions, yet conversions up considerably and traffic looking more "human". Maybe people are seeing "laurel" rather than "yanny" today. That whole thing made me wonder what other kind of Jedi mind tricks (bistable illusions) G could be using in displaying the serps. It points out that you can't always trust your own ears, or eyes. [youtu.be...]
Man, I really shouldn't be giving them any ideas.

[Cralamarre]

My direct traffic is down considerably today for some reason, but Google traffic seems unaffected.

[Halaspike]

I'm ranking well for many keywords but somehow my traffic is down by 50%.

[MayankParmar]

Same here. Same rank on Semrush but traffic is down.

[seoskunk]

Welcome to shill-ville.

@Samwest aren't you just being paranoid?

[youtube.com...]

[seoskunk]

Some scary #*$! going on!

[youtube.com...]

wonder if this link will get altered too

[seoskunk]

This isn't a algorithm anymore its a cess pool of invested interests and political views displayed as a search engine

[youtube.com...]

[Cralamarre]

Same here. Same rank on Semrush but traffic is down.

Maybe the Royal wedding has something to do with it? My traffic seems to be down as well. Also there was another school shooting in the US, unfortunately.

[samwest]

@skunk - I think you know as well as I, the true reality of what drives search. It's all about complex shaping while still trying to make things look "normal". Natural search is long dead.

[Wisetalent1]

Actually Google is really making the changes effective which I observed when checking up on my blog at on chrome

[edited by: engine at 10:05 am (utc) on May 19, 2018]
[edit reason] No specifics, please see WebmasterWorld TOS [/edit]

[mosxu]

Too me it looks like there are only 3 or 4 companies allowed to compete both ads and natural search. 70% of the competition is probably chasing a small piece of cheese, left overs.

It can easily be done, get an algorithm to learn shopper behaviour on different sites and then make a prediction when and where that shopper will convert.

[EditorialGuy]

We've had nice boosts in Google traffic over the last four days (climbing to +13.56 percent yesterday), but that doesn't mean much in the larger scheme of things. Obsessing over short-term ups and downs in traffic makes about as much sense as obsessing over day-to-day or hour-to-hour changes in blood pressure.

[Cralamarre]

My Google traffic was down 6% yesterday, the first drop I've seen since early March. I'm still chalking it up to things happening in the news (royal wedding today, school shooting in the US yesterday).

[thepointer]

I'm starting to think the May Update was not Google's fault but Yoast. For some reason, the Yoast Plugin flipped a switch to make it okay for Google to index the media pages. These media pages are thin content as it's just the image and since Google hates thin content Modern Panda came around and started to devalue parts of sites. This was the drop people were seeing and would explain why it was kind of niche as it only affected some, but good portion as many use Yoast.

To know if you're affected go to your search console and check your index status, if you see a large jump in indexed pages then you need to change your Yoast SEO settings. Another way is to Google your site using the "site:yourdomain.com" method. If you see more results then you have posts by 2x more then you've been hit. I had a site that went from 100 posts indexed to 900 within a week, that is not natural.

[MayankParmar]

@Thepointer Just make sure all images are attached. If not attach to the respective articles. Or just create a draft, and attach them to draft - those media URLs would be 404 if attached to draft.

[glakes]

@thepointer

I've used Yoast for years and am unaware of any issues with it causing media pages to be indexed. Some webmasters choose through their Wordpress settings to link to media pages instead of the full size image, which is likely where your concerns should be directed.

"Image Link

The Link To settings determine the URL/web address to which the image will be linked when clicked on by a visitor to your site. You can specify the following image link settings:

Attachment Page: Links your inserted image to its WordPress media attachment page.
Media File: Links your inserted image directly to the original, full-size version of the file.
Custom URL: Allows you to set a custom link URL for your inserted image to link to when clicked.
None: This setting will remove the link completely, rendering the image “un-clickable”."

[Cralamarre]

I've been using Yoast for years as well, but something definitely happened at the beginning of March. Suddenly my featured images from my articles were appearing as articles themselves in the SERPs, and the number of indexed pages in GSC rose by nearly 3x. This was right before the March update where my traffic increased. It increased again in the April update. Traffic is still up for the most part, but GSC is still showing the 3x increase in pages indexed. If I only have 500 articles on my site, how can I have 1500 pages indexed?

[thepointer]

@Cralamarre

It seems you were affected by this too. Have you fixed the settings yet?

[Cralamarre]

@thepointer I haven't fixed anything. I don't know for certain that Yoast is the problem, or that my traffic increases in March and April had anything to do with it. As long as my traffic doesn't drop, I figure why bother trying to fix it.

[MayankParmar]

@Cralamarre Yoast is also indexing sub pages.

[Cralamarre]

When I look my sitemap info in GSC, it shows 549 pages indexed, 443 images indexed, and 31 videos indexed. But when I look at the Index Status, it shows 1590 total indexed. Either GSC is lousy at math, or something isn't right.

In the days between March 4-11, my total indexed number rose from 685 (not sure where that number comes from either) all the way up to 1590. I have no idea why.

[NickMNS]

@Cralamarre

(not sure where that number comes from either)

I wouldn't put too much credence in the "indexed" numbers reported by GSC, they change constantly and are often wrong. Even less reliable are the numbers reported with the site: operator.

Also Google is building the mobile first index so there is bound to be considerable flux with these numbers.

[glakes]

@thepointer, Cralamarre and MayankParmar

Have any of you posted your problem at [wordpress.org...] for Yoast to see (or support ticket if the premium version)? One would think if it was a widespread issue there would be a large thread on it in their support forum but I've seen nothing. Though I use Yoast, I don't use their sitemap and don't have any of the problems like the three of you have.

[Cralamarre]

@glakes I'm not 100% convinced it's a Yoast problem that's causing GSC to show far more indexed pages than the number of pages I actually have. When I check the sitemap that Yoast creates for me, everything looks fine. Plus, my traffic has increased since the March update, so it would be foolish to go around questioning it.

[seoskunk]

I think you know as well as I, the true reality of what drives search. It's all about complex shaping while still trying to make things look "normal". Natural search is long dead.

Take a look at this video it describes a chilling future where all behaviour is logged by and then modified for desired effect. Leaked from Google. As I said before scary stuff going on.

[youtu.be...]

The aim is clearly to make us subservient, to worship technology, to stay hooked on the #*$! they feed us. The atheist agenda. I used to get angry about this stuff , the hidden agenda. But to be honest its all lies and lies no matter how well there told can not hurt you. I am actually starting to feel sorry for them because their pyramid will crumble. Everything they believe in is false. But hey they still believe in don't be evil thats why they crushed all competition online they couldn't invest in.