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]

[MrSavage]

It's called a funnel.

[JesterMagic]

Yes but does YouTube drive traffic to your website? Does that 500 views translate into at least 100 views from your website? Is it worth the extra cost and time to create the video?

I realize this if it is worth it depends in part on how your site generates an income and the niche you are in.

[koan]

Cralamarre, if you use ads, how would you compare RPM for videos with the one for your articles?

[Cralamarre]

Yes but does YouTube drive traffic to your website? Does that 500 views translate into at least 100 views from your website? Is it worth the extra cost and time to create the video?

I don't need to drive traffic from YouTube to my website because I monetize my videos on YouTube. Most of my revenue is from AdSense, but now I'm earning revenue from the banner ads on my website and from the ads in my videos. So I'm really just expanding my reach and tapping into a second market, and yes it's worth it.

[Cralamarre]

if you use ads, how would you compare RPM for videos with the one for your articles?

YouTube RPM is always higher, usually 1.5 to 2x my page RPM on my website. YouTube does take a larger percentage of my earnings (since they cover all the costs), but even so, I still earn more from YouTube,

[whoa182]

I've just noticed a row of videos appear on Google for many of my main keywords. The funny thing is, Google is ranking these videos and many of them are rubbish text to speech videos. wth Google!?

I've got enough work to do just writing, and now I have to do youtube as well? :| I mean, I was planning on doing this eventually for my articles, but geez...

Google just keeps making things harder and harder. Surely people who want to watch videos will, you know, use the youtube video app or actually go on youtube. Why have videos which are dominating the top positions?

[MrSavage]

It's called a funnel.

[Cralamarre]

I've got enough work to do just writing, and now I have to do youtube as well?

Personally, I enjoy making the videos. I like the feedback I get from people in the comments on YouTube, and the community aspect of it. And I like that as soon as I publish a new video, I get a flood of traffic from subscribers, with more subscribers added every day.

To me, my YouTube channel feels like an active, dynamic, living thing, something that I can grow. Google, by comparison, feels like a dinosaur. It's just a boring list.

[Cralamarre]

I wonder if, with this new video bar, Google is simply ranking things in order of popularity and it just so happens that in many cases, videos on the subject are more popular than any text results, and so the videos are listed first. Maybe it's not that Google is trying to actively promote videos over text results, it's that the videos are simply more popular.

In my niche, I've seen videos on YouTube with hundreds of thousands of views in no time at all. One of my videos has received over 250,000 views in just a few months. My written articles don't get anywhere near that, even though many of them are the first text result that appears in the SERPs.

[MayankParmar]

I said this before too. The web results should also appear on YouTube if the videos appears on SERP.

Otherwise it's unfair and it should be illegal. There should have been a way to contact the EU and inform them about Google's new way to kill the businesses lol.

Seriously though, it's totally unfair.

Truth to be told. YouTube videos open in app on mobile. So no ad blockers, higher revenue share. Who's in profit? Google!

[engine]

Look at it from a search point of view: Google search for me is broken on mobile. Going to country-specific google, I get international answers when i don't want them.
For the publisher it's wasted traffic.
It's become quite difficult to find things on mobile, so something is wrong.

[JesterMagic]

Notice as well that the YouTube widget (row of videos) on the serps doesn't mean that the youtube listings in the serps are not shown anymore.

Several times I see the same videos displayed in the widget as the youtube listing below or above the widget.

[glakes]

Maybe one day Google's search box will just return organic results of its own properties and the hundreds of those that they have a financial interest in through Google Ventures & Google Capital. To a large degree Google's organic SERPS look like an Amazon site search for product queries and many Google "affiliated" pages are returned for non-product queries, so it's not that far of a leap. Who knows, maybe if you are logged in to Google your Gmail messages will also get mixed in along with a textual display of conversations in your home that Google Home captured through a Google Home device. LOL Now that's a leap, but I would not put anything past Google to keep users on their properties...

[Cralamarre]

I said this before too. The web results should also appear on YouTube if the videos appears on SERP.

But people on YouTube generally don't care about written articles. And likewise, people interested in written articles generally don't care about videos. I see this with my own site. Videos embedded in my written articles get a very low percentage of views on the page, yet those same videos do great on YouTube. And when I add links to my written articles in the video descriptions on YouTube, the links get a very low percentage of clicks.

I don't know what the answer is. I don't think videos should be excluded from the SERPs if they offer what people are looking for. But the problem with having videos in the SERPs is that those thumbnails grab all the attention.

[QuaterPan]

On desktop , videos, and images should be displayed on the right of the SERP. The page layout of Google is badly exploiting the space available on desktops. I know that all attentions are on mobiles, but still lot of people use desktops...

[Cralamarre]

I think Google needs to also show videos in order to stay relevant. I read an article not long ago that said that within a few years, video will account for 80 percent of all searches, and I have little trouble believing it. The only reason Google has traditionally focused on text results is because the web itself was focused on text results. But times have changed. Video is taking over. Complaining that video has no place in the SERPs, or should be pushed over to the side and out of the way so people have easy access to your text articles, isn't going to get you anywhere. Life moves on whether it's convenient for us of not.

[EditorialGuy]

But times have changed. Video is taking over.

It isn't taking over, it's simply another option. But you're certainly correct in saying that "Google needs to also show in order to stay relevant." Google Search isn't just about text or video or images or maps, etc.--it's about whatever is a good result for the searcher's query.

[Cralamarre]

Google Search isn't just about text or video or images or maps, etc.--it's about whatever is a good result for the searcher's query.

I agree. However, when I look at videos in my niche on YouTube, and how many of them have over 100k views, and some with over 1M views, and I compare that to the number of views my written articles are getting from Google, and with the fact that my site's traffic has been steadily decreasing over the years, it's hard for me not to think that, at least in my niche, video is taking over.

I mentioned in an earlier post that one of my videos has over 250k views on YouTube. My written article that the video is based on is ranked #1 in the SERPs and yet gets 5x fewer views than the video does on YouTube.

Anyway, I know some people get upset when the discussion on here turns to YouTube, but like it or not, videos are in the SERPs and they're here to stay.

[edited by: Cralamarre at 4:44 pm (utc) on Jun 15, 2018]

[QuaterPan]

or should be pushed over to the side and out of the way so people have easy access to your text articles

I just would like to point that the right side of the SERP, on desktop, is in the middle of the screen , so saying that it's out of the way and that it's not easy to access is so dishonest ! But if you prefer, videos and images could remain on the left side of the page, and text links to the right. I was just saying that, on desktop, there is more than enough room on the screen, to make that both media and text links to co-exist above the fold. Being next to each other would make BOTH media and text link easily accessible, it would be much more user friendly, and people could have the choice to check what they want easily and quickly.

[glakes]

Those that thought zombie traffic was bad, sure will think otherwise when they get a dose of this crap. Whatever Google changed in the last day or two is pure rubbish. No conversions, very low pageviews, etc. Seems like pure bot traffic. I've never seen pageviews this low from Google's traffic. It's hard to believe, but Google outdid themselves....

[Leosghost]

it would be much more user friendly, and people could have the choice to check what they want easily and quickly.

It isn't about what you want..it is about what google want you to click on.
It is much harder for people to use youtube and block ads there, that it is for people to visit "text sites" in SERPs and block ads during their visit..so Google emphasise ( think "heat maps" ) adwords and youtube "thumbs" over text SERP "snippets"..
Google ( and those who make videos to put on youtube ) "win".
Plus..people read far far less nowadays*..but the moving pictures hypnotise them..we here, are probably amongst the ranks of "I usually prefer the book over the film"..whereas the vast majority of people don't read much, or cant read, or don't understand many of the words...reading takes effort..watching a video and listening to someone or listening to music takes far less effort.

I was at the village refuse dump earlier today, two guys drove in with boxes of books, they asked my friend ( who runs the dump for our town hall ) "where do we put them ,"..His reply.."nowhere, we don't take books anymore, too hard to re-cycle, and the charities that we used to send them to won't take them off our hands anymore because people don't / can't read anymore, they just watch youtube or TV"..that applies all over..sad but true..unless your audience is specifically of the type who likes to read..you need to be making videos or podcasts..and youtube is where most of the video watching eyeballs are ( those that are not on pronhub et al ) or on Netflix..

So..G promotes youtube wherever they can..ads there are hard to block ( for joe and jane public )..G wins..average public is pleased..and youtube is sticky as all hell..and it is all UGC..G only have to pay the bandwidth..which due to "peering etc" they don't really..the residential service ISPs pay..and then charge their customers.

[Leosghost]

Oh..and I forgot ..the only thing that tracks their users harder and deeper than youtube is facebook..and given that G have most of the world's webmasters running ganalytics..So G's combined tracking overall the web, including youtube makes facebook's tracking ( even with "shadow tracking" and "like buttons" on 3rd party websites...look like nothing

[Cralamarre]

we don't take books anymore, too hard to re-cycle, and the charities that we used to send them to won't take them off our hands anymore because people don't / can't read anymore

My wife volunteers at a Goodwill thrift store, and her job is to clear the books off the shelves that have been sitting there too long. Even when books are being sold for 50 cents, no one wants them anymore. Meanwhile, people can't get enough of the VHS tapes and DVD's.

[whoa182]

@MayankParmar

It doesn't seem like Google is doing what is "fair" anymore, just what can get them the most profit. The video bar on the Google is very inviting for users to click on. Pretty thumbnails vs regular text links.

[MayankParmar]

Clickbait thumbnails actually, with emojis lol vs boring text.

[Leosghost]

It doesn't seem like Google is doing what is "fair" anymore, just what can get them the most profit.

Google haven't been "fair" ( if they ever where ) since the day that Eric was put in place by the investors to make certain that their investment paid off financially..Then they got into bed with Double Click..and what remaining ethics and fairness there might have left been was expunged..the two "kids" were more or less told "go play with your billions, and leave the decisions to the adults"..Then when Larry "got with the program", he was allowed to "front Google" again..Now the original 3 are enjoying their billions, and the next gen of management are busy making theirs and keeping Wall st and the 3 letter agencies happy.

The Google "fair boat" sailed away before I joined here..it isn't coming back.

[Atomic]

There's this really cool thing called Kindle. You should check it out. Millions of others have.

[mosxu]

It is no longer about fair competition as most webmasters still believe in, the machine walks on dead bodies and nothing happens!

There is no law for the machine. The zombies loophole is still not closed.

[jmorgan]

SEM Rush sensor says high activity with Google serps. Anyone notice anything?

[glakes]

SEM Rush sensor says high activity with Google serps. Anyone notice anything?

Sure did notice. Less traffic, far fewer page views (most are one hit/pageview wonders like bots) and few conversions that came in towards the end of the day all in a row. Half the conversions are from Canada, and we are a business in the USA. We rarely sell outside of the USA, so this is bizarre.