Google Updates and SERP Changes - September 2018

[lostshootingstar]

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System: The following 4 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4913603.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 12:54 pm on Sep 1, 2018 (PDT -8)

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It's a holiday weekend in the USA, I don't think anyone should really worry about traffic volume until next week.

However, I did see some negative ranking shifts yesterday that are concerning and can't be explained by a holiday.

[yollo03]

It could be related to that new google search for China. What I do know for a fact is that google killed my main keywords since August's update and it is intentionally preventing me from getting any traffic from these keywords. Nothing has changed for me yet despite the recent updates.

[MayankParmar]

Thanks to this new update, my high quality article dropped to 8th position from 1st/2nd. I don't know how I can make it better anymore :/

[yollo03]

I was unaffected at all by the update so I have no idea what it was targeting. I got hit worse than you. My daily impressions shrank by 90%, my traffic was killed as a result. It all started in August and I have yet to recover. The fact I am getting an extra +200 impressions a day is meaningless.

I am almost convinced this is an algo penalty from August's "quality" update so I accepted that there is absolutly nothing I can do to until the next "quality" update.

[samwest]

Two positions with flashy thumbnails above the fold on page one in a decent volume topic and yet drip traffic and zero conversions again for two days. TKZ's strike again.

[yollo03]

Google confirmed that being in the mobile index at this stage will not affect your rankings. For anyone that thought you might get more traffic because of the mobile index (like me), keep dreaming. Nothing will be changed until the next core update, which will take place at God-knows-when.

[Halaspike]

@yollo03 you need to stop always saying that "Nothing will be changed until the next core update", you don't know that.

I received the mobile-first indexing message 3 days ago & since then my traffic has been going up, it has actually doubled.

If you think your site won't see any improvement till the next core update that's fine.

All sites are not the same so you really can't always be coming up here generalizing what you think about your site on others.

[Cralamarre]

yollo03 has an unfortunate habit of making comments that place him firmly at the center of the universe.

As for the mobile-first index, my site has been there for about a week now and I haven't seen any change in traffic. My traffic has been on a slow and steady rise all month, but being added to the mobile-first index does not appear to have made any difference.

[Halaspike]

I think why my traffic doubled after receiving the mobile-first index is because the mobile version of my site uses a different theme & it's 3 times faster than the desktop version of my site.

[mara89]

While Checking Cache View In Google ("https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:URL") Its Shows 404 Error - [prntscr.com...]

But two days before we checked that Cache View Its Shows , Suddenly its not Showing that View .

If any problem in my side only Or something else.

[yollo03]

Google said that mobile index will not have much impact on your rankings, this is not an opinion. The only time it will actually have an impact on the rankings is when the algorithm is coded to give higher rankings for mobile index, which means a core update.

"So sites that did migrate over, according to John, really should not see a shift in rankings because of being in mobile-first indexing at this point. The sites Google migrated over are current designed not to see such ranking shifts."

Source: [seroundtable.com...]

I am not trying to place myself at the 'center of the universe.' Not sure where you got that impression from. @Halaspike, if your rankings got a boost it is almost safe to say that it has nothing to do with the mobile index.

[MayankParmar]

Yeah, cache pages are 404 here as well.

[RedBar]

@mara89

This 404 thing has been ongoing for ages now:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Martin Ice Web]

Todays traffic is very low, drop by 95% again. google traffic conversion 0, amazon conversion +80% again.

[renatovieira]

@Martin Ice Web

Here's the same. Traffic and conversion almost zero. It does not seem like today is Monday. It looks more like the first day of the year.

[Martin Ice Web]

Just a survey for information.

Do you have errors in WMT when fetching and rendering a page with googe mobile bot?

When we fetch and render with google mobile bot we get serverla errors because the bot can´t reach serveral files ( css, jpg, js.... ). Each time the files not reachable are different.
All browsers can load the files without any problems. It is only google having the problem.

[yollo03]

I'll tell you what I think it is. Google is fetching those files from the server even if you have a CDN or caching mechanism. If your server is a bit slow then google will not wait a long time to get those files so it marks them as temporarily unreachable.

It doesnt mean to say there is an issue with crawling, just google being impatient. I think you can ignore it or test the server your are on. The other possibility is that those files are blocked in robots txt. I'll add that its not related to google algorithm update.

[BushyTop]

we're getting loads of bot/zombie traffic today. Not a great day for conversions so far either!

[Halaspike]

@yollo03 you don't belong on this forum, you really dont know anything but act like you do.

If you received the mobile-first indexing message you will know that the mobile version will be used for indexing & ranking. Google themselves stated it in the mobile-first indexing message that was sent to me. You obviously never received the mobile-first indexing message and are just using information from another site so please shut up.

Below is part of the mobile-first indexing message i received from Google & anyone who has also received the message can confirm that it's legit.

"Mobile-first indexing means that Googlebot will now use the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking, to better help our (primarily mobile) users find what they're looking for. Google’s crawling, indexing, and ranking systems have historically used the desktop version of your site's content, which can cause issues for mobile searchers when the desktop version differs from the mobile version. Our analysis indicates that the mobile and desktop versions of your site are comparable."

So never come up here with unverified information please @yollo03

[yollo03]

I have received a notification like many others and I wrote earlier that I was notified. It doesnt contradict the fact google said it will not affect you ranking at this stage. I provided a url for the article, which Im not sure you read. To have a positive impact your rankings google will need to change the algorithm, hence the core update I referred to. What unverified information are you referring to then?

[Halaspike]

@yollo03 i read the information in the link you provided & like i said, you don't know anything, so stop acting like you do.

[yollo03]

There must be a misunderstanding then. Google said that it will not affect your rankings at this stage because its not meant to. In order for it to affect anyone's rankings the algorithm must be tweaked. Do we agree on this?

Based on the above I wrote to you that you rankings may have got boosted by something else and not by the mobile index because google said it will not affect anyone's rankings at the moment because its not designed to.

I hope I cleared the confusion now.

[Halaspike]

Like i said, the mobile version of my site uses a different theme & it's 3 times faster than the desktop version, so me seeing a big boost really means that Google is now using the mobile version of my site for indexing and ranking as they stated in the mobile-first indexing message that was sent to me.

If you never saw any change after receiving the mobile-first indexing message (which i doubt you did), then your site's theme & speed on mobile & desktop is exactly the same.

A message sent directly from Google is far superior than a message from a John Mueller who just works at Google, get that to your head.

[jmorgan]

John Mueller provides some great insights into how Google thinks when it comes to ranking sites, albeit sometimes in vague generalities. I recommend everyone watch the hangouts on the Google Webmaster channel on YouTube.

[RedBar]

Todays traffic is very low, drop by 95% again.

What happened?

My biggest site did not get one visitor from 21.45 last night until 09.45 this morning ... Did someone switch off my part of The Net?

[BushyTop]

Big update coming?

[whoa182]

It seems as if I am recovering and then traffic drops. I'm used to seeing constant and steady growth over weeks and months as my articles begin to rank and start ranking for long tails, but now it feels like the amount of traffic I'm getting is limited by something.

Is anyone else annoyed by the youtube videos in the SERPs? How on earth is this fair? a) they have the advantage of inviting thumbnails and b) it's not as if we (people who write content) can compete in the youtube SERPs.

Does Google think people are still unaware of what youtube is? Surely if someone wanted to find an answer on youtube, they'd go to youtube?

[Leosghost]

it's not as if we (people who write content) can compete in the youtube SERPs.

You are producing content to be seen on a screen..images are far more appealing , especially "moving images" on a screen than fixed text is..Hence TV became "far bigger" than books..Use movies on youtube to drive traffic to your site..
I said this here ( agree or disagree, but think about it )
[webmasterworld.com...]
a while ago..But..not many people read areas of WebmasterWorld that do not have the word Google in the forum..

[aristotle]

Leosghost -- The complaint is that extremely low-quality youtube garbage is ranking above high-quality informative articles.

[Leosghost]

@aristotle

Leosghost -- The complaint is that extremely low-quality youtube garbage is ranking above high-quality informative articles.

You must be reading a different thread..
I replied to this ..

Is anyone else annoyed by the youtube videos in the SERPs? How on earth is this fair? a) they have the advantage of inviting thumbnails and b) it's not as if we (people who write content) can compete in the youtube SERPs.

Does Google think people are still unaware of what youtube is? Surely if someone wanted to find an answer on youtube, they'd go to youtube?

The words "garbage" and "low-quality" are nowhere to be found in the post#4921057 made by whoa182 ..which is the post that I was replying to..

[aristotle]

Leosghost -- Well the obvious implication is that google treats youtube like a big brand and gives it far higher rankings than it deserves.

In addition, it was mentioned that people who want to waste their time on youtube can go directly to youtube. There's no justification for featuring it in the general organic results.