Google Updates and SERP Changes - June 2018

[Martin Ice Web]

System: The following 9 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4899136.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 6:07 pm on Jun 1, 2018 (PDT -8)

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Next very big hit. Yesterday 11.30pm . This hit is even more drastic than all the other hits before.
Very big winner in our niche is amazon. amazon has now 2-4 entries in a row where they were not present before.
Most of the amazon pages have spammy title, h1 tags.
Even big brands are now replaced by amazon ( ebay, conrad, mercator ... )

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 2:12 am (utc) on Jun 2, 2018]
[edit reason] Split off to new monthly thread... [/edit]

[samwest]

@ mos - I was rich before AI, so I guess you are correct.

[Dooku]

"The fact is, if you small business you DONE on the Internet with a business model relying on Organic Traffic. Your future is bleak.. the Scales Of Economy work against you and you can never overcome them... Its OVER for SEO! You cannot and never compete with Brands. Especially those that are Public Traded getting tons of citations, reports quarterly, articles in top media outlets"

Ooh man, I almost pissed my pants when I read the above post! :-)
I will spare you the "think outside the box" comment because I threw away the box a long time ago. But it looks like you have been living under a rock for the past several years and are not able to free yourself from your restrictive thoughts.
The BULK of the search engine internals still work through "back linking". If you have ANY knowledge about that concept you would know there simply is no other way.

Now, don't get me wrong, this is not a personal bashing of the owner of the above post. But I just used that as an example. Off course this thread is useful in some form or way. And once in a while I come here to read up, just don't post that much.

The issue here is HOW you use backlinks because from what I have seen 99% get this wrong, plain and simple. The same goes for Adwords campaigns. So many people think they have REALLY GREAT structured campaigns running and boasting many years of experience. But from what I see their campaigns are running at 15% potential at the most and the ones I have seen that can be considered good are so far and few between it's really worrying. 99% of website owners using adwords are just paying "google tax".

Having "great content" means nothing as you can see proof of that each and every day. I have tested that myself many times in one form or the other until I was able to reproduce more or less the same results with my test websites. Yes big companies and brands have an unfair advantage out of the box. But this can be overcome easily if you do the CORRECT seo. You would be surprised how easy it is to outrank them. I rank #1 on Google for some insanely competitive keywords. But ranking #1 is NOT the most important goal! If you sell anything you need to get targeted traffic that has decent conversions. And that is done with back linking. The REAL goal here is HOW creative you are with creating those back links and using relevant (buyer intent)content. Because that is what will get you the desired traffic that converts.

Yes, with each algo update my "normal organic" traffic fluctuates, changes, zombies or no zombes.......but I don't give a sh|t. I say "normal organic" traffic on purpose because I have "labeled" all traffic coming in from my own seo back link work in the statistics service I use(not GA!) so I can easily see which is which. And the latter is nice and steady and producing good results. Because ranking #1 for keywords is NO guarantee at all for enough or targeted traffic. You need to go out and grab your own piece of the pie for free before Google sells it at a profit to someone else.

[lostshootingstar]

SEMRush is showing 9.2 today (!). I noticed mostly positive ranking improvement for my core keywords, but no sign of any increase in traffic. It's actually down a little bit so far, but it's very early in the day for us still.

[penitentman]

@lostshootingstar Did you look at the winners and losers? Those are always a hoot. Not sure who I hate more. Google or myself for not having the idea to launch a website packed with ads for close to no investment money. Pathetic BS websites making a Adsense killing.

[edited by: not2easy at 5:11 pm (utc) on Jun 30, 2018]
[edit reason] rephrase at user request [/edit]

[samwest]

@penit - over the years I've learned one valuable point about websites people naturally flock to: "stupid sells".

[edited by: not2easy at 5:30 pm (utc) on Jun 30, 2018]
[edit reason] splicing [/edit]

[Leosghost]

People are becoming more stupid ( by design ) , hence the rise of facebook et al, bread and circuses ( and now "social media" and "reality" shows ) have always been used to keep the masses occupied, distracted ( in France much TV is actually announced as "divertisments"..meaning things to divert the viewers attention )..were they not distracted, they'd maybe rise up..

Google knows this very well, they are complicit in the distraction, and, they can wrap it in ads..

Trebles all round..

[Qaeron]

Ah its so funny, been under neg seo attack for over a month now, google are doing a good job filtering, the site I suspect is attacking just went above me again, they changed all their articles to say 2018 in title, too funny!

Some of the articles are dangerously out of date. Desperate seo from a Company that deserves a fall.

[Qaeron]

@Leosghost

“They keep you doped with religion, and sex, and T.V.
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still #*$! peasants as far as I can see”

[samwest]

@Leosghost - If I could give you another +1 I would. Hit the nail on the head. Been saying the same thing for years,

[Shepherd]

Just noticed for the first time (for me) at the top of the SERPs:

Get it with Google Express
Google Express works with stores to make checkout easy and protect your order

[glakes]

Just noticed for the first time (for me) at the top of the SERPs:

Get it with Google Express
Google Express works with stores to make checkout easy and protect your order

It's not good to see, especially for small businesses. But I think Google, Amazon, etc. envision a world where there are few to no small businesses and limited competition in the retail space. Certainly excluding small businesses from entry into Google Express is a step in that direction.

[jmorgan]

SEMRush is showing 9.2 today (!). I noticed mostly positive ranking improvement for my core keywords, but no sign of any increase in traffic. It's actually down a little bit so far, but it's very early in the day for us still.

If true, it would be consistent with Google rolling out major updates just prior to public holidays (July 4).

[whoa182]

@Qaeron

I see lots of competitors are using a plugin to change their titles to *UPDATED 2018*

It's deceptive and makes for a bad user experience. Google should deal with this by ranking them lower, especially if the content on the page hasn't been updated.

Traffic is a little down today, but every update so far seems to have resulted in much better traffic after a few days of low traffic. My traffic is growing exponentially each month.

[riccarbi]

People are becoming more stupid ( by design ) , hence the rise of facebook et al, bread and circuses ( and now "social media" and "reality" shows ) have always been used to keep the masses occupied, distracted ( in France much TV is actually announced as "divertisments"..meaning things to divert the viewers attention )..were they not distracted, they'd maybe rise up..
Google knows this very well, they are complicit in the distraction, and, they can wrap it in ads..

I agree 110%. And that's utterly disappointing for those, like me, who'd once believed that the internet would bring knowledge to people and progress to our society....
Everything started rotting badly whith the concurrent introduction of smartphones and social networking. And, previously, with Google getting the monopoly on web search.

[EditorialGuy]

Whenever I see a person using social media on a smartphone, I yell "Keep off my lawn!"

[glakes]

Our conversions took a major hit yesterday into today (so far), and I wonder if it is not the result of what Shepherd observed with Google Express. Amazon quit spending on product ads this year, and many others (myself included) note how poorly shopping ads in Google perform. This may be the writing on the wall for Google's shopping ads, especially if the largest shopping site in the world (Amazon) shuns Google's shopping product. If Google's product ads are not good enough for Amazon, the largest ecommerce site in the USA, why would the be good for other retailers?

It would make sense for Google to move to an affiliate type of model where they get paid per sale. Google Express may allow Google to do just that, retire the poorly performing shopping ads or simply restrict their display to certain properties. Such a move by Google could definitely change the landscape by further limiting small businesses from visibility in the SERPS whether through organic or paid advertising.

Though the upcoming holiday most certainly will impact conversions, as a lot of people are on vacation, the heat wave in the USA has a lot of people inside which should be shopping online.

[whoa182]

Traffic is WAY down today! I'm at 50% of where I should be by this time of day. I hope it's just people out there enjoying the sun and not a major shift in rankings. I'm scared to look D: lol

[mosxu]

Traffic is half, still mixed with lots of zombies

[ubound]

I actually took a big hit on Thursday on the site that has never had any issues. 100 percent natural info site. Doesn't sell anything. All links natural. Its traffic was only going up since I registered it in May 2013.

[edited by: not2easy at 5:40 pm (utc) on Jun 30, 2018]
[edit reason] splicing [/edit]

[lostshootingstar]

With the 4th of July falling dead center of the week this year, I'm not sure what to really expect from today through next Saturday. Are people celebrating this weekend or next? Will they take off Monday and Tuesday from work or Thursday and Friday?

These things will affect traffic patterns for many veriticals.

[ubound]

I kind of hope that there will be a little bit of recovery after July 4. I think many people take a long vacation, weekend + July 4 and a couple of days in between.

[System]

The following 22 messages were cut out to new thread by robert_charlton. New thread at: google/4909313.htm [webmasterworld.com]
10:35 am on Jul 3, 2018 (PDT -8)