Google Updates and SERP Changes - August 2018

[yollo03]

System: The following 2 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4909313.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 3:47 am on Aug 1, 2018 (PDT -8)

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HERE WE GO! Get your sit belts on:

Google Search Algorithm August 1st Update Rolling Out Now; Might Be A Big One
Aug 1, 2018
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-algorithm-update-26141.html [seroundtable.com]




[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 11:57 am (utc) on Aug 1, 2018]

[yollo03]

Semush is picking up algorithm change, I hope when this is done I will rank well again.

[givinguponlife]

All last 4 or 5 updates benefited my site, this one killed it, non spam niche, never bought a sidebar link or other non sense, my competitors are all buying links on sidebars and have 200-400k links each ...

All my articles are detailed while competitors are doing lets say top 10 PC tables and write 3 sentences about each... i am really confused and frustrated, spent at least 4-5 hours daily on site writing a single article

[edited by: givinguponlife at 11:55 am (utc) on Aug 1, 2018]

[yollo03]

Same here, the last update at the end of July boosted my site. This one is a real killer. It could be temporary so just need to see how it goes for the next 24 hours. My best guess is that this is some sort of a quality update.

[JesterMagic]

Not sure if I see much happening in my niche this morning beyond the normal small churn of rankings.

[JesterMagic]

@MayankParmar. Agree this looks pretty scary.

At Google Dance Singapore, Gary Illyes from Google revealed a new feature that is coming to the Google search results. The new feature would see specific content from a webpage, including FAQ, Q&A and how-to verticals being highlighted in the search results for those pages. And these rich results take up nearly the entire screen on mobile.

Mods should probably split this off into a separate thread.

Another rather large step by Google to keep people on their site. I wonder how many more websites this will kill?

[yollo03]

The update is still going, im still seeing huge shifts in my niche.

[givinguponlife]

I don't understand how google is doing stuff like this, googling on mobile products that we ranked for and now it is:

top 1-4 spots: mobile ads
top 3 spots: local reviews / google business pages
youtube carousel
articles carousel
SERPS

WTF, first 10 links are basically all google sites / links to their sites.

[mosxu]

When was the deadline for mobile first index?

[MayankParmar]

How hard is it for Google to update the console daily? It's so frustrating. Not seeing any drop in traffic. The last June 29 update trashed my site so I hoping that I'll recover with today's update

[yollo03]

It is not a speed penalty for sure because my site is fast. I am getting back links every day (not paid) so thats not it either. This has to be something related to quality content.

[pritz]

@yollo03,

All are talking about this, even we are also facing this situation from July-18. We have dedicated developer working only for page speed & light house. Moreover the graph of visibility is pretty high in SEMRush. But still struggling for consistent conversions.

[pritz]

@Webmasters,

Blocking spammy bots is this something that make sense? Is there any list of spammy bots, actually I have review my website's logfile and found many unwanted bots.

[Jez123]

I think this is link / Penguin related. I am seeing some sites that I am pretty sure were hit by Penguin coming back. Or maybe just a temporary lifting of filters which always seems to happen on updates.

[yollo03]

I agree I am also seeing sites that were hit resurfacing again but why at my expense? The next 24 - 48 hours will tell

[jmorgan]

I see no difference with my site.

[Jez123]

but why at my expense?

Collateral damage perhaps? If so, you should bounce back in a while, hopefully.

[givinguponlife]

I just want to die

[yollo03]

You'll have to wait a few days until the dust settles. Getting bumped from page 3 to page 9 hurts like hell. I am also noticing domain authority plays a big role in the ranking change.

[yollo03]

I already accepted it, I wont be back up again until the next algorithm update. Its going to take months until Im back on page 3.

[penitentman]

@yollo @givingup You should wait until the dust settles and evaluate all your metrics before going crazy. Also do you just rely on semrush or do you have searchconsole and GA?

[yollo03]

Im waiting for semrush to show my new ranking in a few hours. There are a few key words I test every day. Before I wasnt showing on mobile devices at all but now im on page 5 on mobile (I was on page 2 before the algo-mess). I dont know if this is the mobile index.

Its the biggest drop I had in less than 24 hours in more than a year. Im using semrush, I will know in a few hours just how bad it is really is.

[yollo03]

Because I test a few keywords every day I know my average ranking (page 2 and page 3 on desktops). I literally worked my ass off to get to page 1 and now I have to deal with this. Lets see how it rolls.

[yollo03]

For anyone that is interested the update is still rolling, Im still seeing big shifts so its not over yet.

[whoa182]

One of my older articles from 2017 which I ranked number 1 for several related terms has fallen to 6 in the SERP. I'm hoping it will bounce back since it is a high quality and high converting article with 3500 words. Right now there are big sites like health.com dominating it, and they aren't even targeting the specific search query.

I've never seen this article drop so far down though. So it's a bit worrying. It normally changes between position 1 and 2.

[yollo03]

Is your domain authority above 50?

[whoa182]

Mine? No.

For long tail keywords in my niche, I haven't really found that it matters what the competitor DA is as long as my article answers the question in a more specific way.

[samwest]

On the last day of July (yesterday) I had 5 sales between 6:30 am and 9:30 am. That's beyond what I've managed to do on any single day this year so far. Traffic was up only slightly, but conversions were crazy for that 3 hour window. I was behind my quota, so it really looked like another "catch up" session. I guess I should be thankful that they allow me that. The day ended +7, which was the best single day in a year. BTW - back in the "good old days", 10-15/day was the norm, every day. Haven't seen those levels in over 5 years.

Today, it's right back to crickets...

When I see stuff like this, it really indicates that some kind of control mechanism is in place. Coincidentally, during that same time frame, my phone was ringing off the hook with Google Listing scam calls and solicitors. Way more than usual. Nine calls in the morning alone. Did the powers that be temporarily deactivate their master firewall?

[yollo03]

Google gave you a taste of what its like to be on top again. It happened to me as well a long time ago. I think DA has some role in ranking now, at least for my niche. Google did update their quality guidelines a few days ago, it wouldn't surprise me if today's update is related to it.

[samwest]

Yesterday I was seeing free flowing traffic patterns and great page to page transitions, a sure sign of human (vs. zombies), today it's right back to "drip traffic" and page sitters. (refer to post on prev page)