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.

[engine]

Quick observation: Certain queries are broken - SERPs returns entirely irrelevant results in the last 24/48-hours. It was so wrong that I had to change my query to get anything like accuracy.

Additionally, Google has still failed to get the localization correct: Search on a regional Google and i get, most noticeably, Google US results. Relevancy must be working so hard as to overhaul localization.

I'm hoping it's just an adjustment going on and we'll see better accuracy.

[yollo03]

Big spike in semrush, means there is a very, very high probability an algorithm update is taking place. Watch the serps, it looks as wacky was it was in August. I am still checking how it affected my website. Fingers crossed for everyone that got hit by the recent updates.

UPDATE! I dont see any major changes on my end yet.

[Shaddows]

Certain queries are broken

I concur. We got hit overnight 6/7th September; we've been researching it since then. At some point yesterday, various types of queries started returning rubbish.

Some were irrelevant. Some were extreme domain crowding. I saw one query (for a 301'd domain) come up with two full pages of results for the same review site, reviewing that domain. (It's now back to showing the redirection target domain).

Yesterday:
[BrandedExample.co.uk]
AcmeReviewSite: See reviews for Brand Name
AcmeReviewSite: See reviews for Brand Name
AcmeReviewSite: See reviews for Brand Name
AcmeReviewSite: See reviews for Brand Name

Today:
[BrandedExample.co.uk]
BrandedExample.com/
BrandedExample.com/somepage
BrandedExample.com/anotherpage
BrandedExample.com/yougettheidea

Odd things happening at the moment.

[yollo03]

my competitors (as usual) got the upper hand in the current update. I didnt budge anywhere yet but it can take more time, my guess is another 72 hours. I did improve a few things on my end, I truly hope google will 'reward' me with my old keywords.

[Nutterum]

Quick observation: Certain queries are broken - SERPs returns entirely irrelevant results in the last 24/48-hours.

I can fully confirm with multiple replications of query result behavior. Relevance is trumping local to the point where businesses that do not operate even in the same country are shown straight after the 3-pack. Google is definitely testing something or adjusting something as this is not even close to normal.

Wrote a colleague in another country to search make a cross-search. Pretty much same results, big brand trumps relevancy which trumps local business results.

Be ready for another algo shift I say.

[glakes]

Big spike in semrush, means there is a very, very high probability an algorithm update is taking place.

It would appear that you are correct. The update Google pushed on 9/5/18 killed off what little conversions Google was sending to our site, though this was made up with increased sales on Amazon. Info queries remained about the same, but it does underscore the problem Google has with their attempts to remain relevant in the ecommerce sector after years of promoting Amazon with top domain crowded results. For some of our most important buyer keywords, Google had no problem giving Amazon the top three organic results. Google taught shoppers to go straight to Amazon and that's what most of them do now - cutting Google out of the entire shopping cycle. We'll see if what Google is pushing today will have any impact on conversions, but I'm not holding my breath.

[NickMNS]

Monday's traffic remained on par with Sunday's. Compared week over week the percent gain was only in the range 6.5%. My traffic is up but not by as big a margin as it first appeared. The strange thing is that I'm seeing high variability in traffic levels throughout the day. Hopefully when(if) this all settles down it will settle and the top of the range.

[arunpalsingh]

It is shaking up things every now and then. It seems that despite the probable algo changes, Google is not able to achieve what it wants to.

or AI is taking over and things are getting out of control :D

[Rahul951]

Also facing the same issue of negative ranking from last week!

[Jhurwith]

We definitely saw a drop WOW. Seasonality is in play, but WOW on Monday was labor so it should have been up. Leads us to believe something is going on.

[MayankParmar]

There are way too many updates to handle. We're humans, not bots :)

[Cralamarre]

All I know is, my traffic this month is up considerably over last September. So instead of questioning it, since I have no control over it anyway, I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts and hope it lasts for a long time.

[lostshootingstar]

Every industry is different and is affected differently by various forces but this week last year was by FAR our worst week of the year, and it looks like it will be the same this year. Very, very low traffic yesterday and so far today.

We are 100% US traffic, and last time this year Hurricane Harvey had just flooded Houston (4th most populous city) and Hurricane Irma was baring down on Florida (third most populous state), so I suspected that had at least some impact on our traffic patterns. This year is better than last year, but much of the south east is preparing for Hurricane Florence, which is setting up to be the strongest hurricane to hit North of Florida in history.

And now with SEMRush at 9.3...it's really hard to say what is seasonality and what is not!

[yollo03]

semrush showed my site got affected but Im not sure how much yet, I will wait for the reports so I can see the damage (probably damage) this caused my website.

Rolling out an update can take a few days to a week so give it time until its over.

[whoa182]

I don't want to get too excited, but most of my main keywords are moving back to where they were before August 1st update.

[NYCTech]

I'm curious whether anyone has thoughts or opinions on the continued need to disavow links following recent updates. I periodically check our links in Search Console and, at this point, the majority of new links are obviously spam links. They're not ones we're built - they're scraper sites and negative SEO, and I'd like to think Google is smart enough to recognize we aren't building these (many are from obviously hacked sites, and, increasingly, sites that I don't actually want to visit as they have obvious #*$!-sounding names). At the same time, they're usually keyword rich and followed, so they do share some attributes with what companies do with link-building schemes.

Is it worth the time and effort to disavow these based on the current state of Google's algorithms?

[cr1t1calh1t]

@NYCTech

I've got some opinions about disavowing links, strong ones in fact.

I have been implementing on my own sites the steps you took to combat the Negative SEO and slow-speed attack on your sites that you mentioned in an earlier thread.

Prior to this, I had only been disavowing spam links.

The verdict is still out about the effectiveness of implementing a firewall and IP filters to block slow-speed attackers, in light of the 2 recent updates that have rolled out, and the fact that it has only been about 2 months since I have done this. I think that it is having a positive effect on my sites, but the magnitude of this effect is not clear yet.

I have been disavowing spam links since January - and I know that this has been effective. From my experience, it is definitely worth the time and effort to continually disavow these links.

I have not tracked it very closely, and there could be other factors at play as well - but I believe that in periods where I have not disavowed any links for about 1 month - then my recovery stalls or even begins to turn around. Once I submit an updated disavow file - shortly thereafter there is a turnaround for the better.

It is important to point out that not only have I been disavowing bad links that I find in Search Console - but I also end up disavowing many more links that I find in Google's own search result using the site: search operator coupled with TLDs.

Example:

MyOwnWebsite.com site:review
MyOwnWebsite.com site:ru
MyOwnWebsite.com site:online
....

At times, I feel like I (and other webmasters in the same position) have been co-opted by Google to do their own spam-link identification for them.

Their algorithm clearly cannot identify these spam links, nor does their algorithm mitigate the negative effect that these links have on legitimate websites, and as such - their own search results.

cr1t1calh1t

[Cralamarre]

@NYCTech I know this sounds naive, but the only thing I've ever focused on with my site in the 13 years I've been running it is content. I spend no time at all worrying about links (other than internal links to my own content), and the only technical issues I care about are ones that affect the speed and performance of my site (which are thankfully pretty rare). Everything else, to me, is a meaningless waste of time.

People will argue that the days of "winning" in the SERPs by having the best content are long over. My own experience says otherwise.

[heisje]

Madmen at the helm - Captain nowhere to be seen.
.

[crobb305]

I rarely look at any of the SERP volatility tools, but I just noticed that SEMRush is showing ~9.3, which is among the highest I've ever seen on that particular tool. This is as of Wed 9/12 at 2 am ET. Visually inspecting a few phases across a couple of sectors that I monitor, I am not seeing any significant changes. Are any of you noticing anything noteworthy?

[jmorgan]

Wow so many updates.

[mosxu]

@NYCTech
It sounds like your site is under serious attack:

1. Slow speed attack, this where you worked hard but still to see results

2. Spam links, disavow is need as too many would influence the balance.

3. Negative plublicity ? This combined with inflitrated raters would definitely bury you forever.

Problem is that there is a problem and there is no way for you to communicate this to Google.

[browndog]

Big drop in traffic today, despite posting an article yesterday and it already reaching position zero. Google is like being friends with a narcissist, one day you're fantastic, the next you're dirt.

[Harika]

The scenario of random page indexing is well said. And also the discussion helped me to check my website traffic.

[southernguy]

In my Niche, "fitness" Parasites are still ranking at the top 1-5 positions, they have 4-5 3000-4000 (rewritten) word articles, they are old domains 10 plus years, high DA PA.

Some domains are exact match huge link profiles PBN, blog comments etc. I have been duplicating that pattern for 10 days and now have a domain on page 2. Gotta give the Google machine what it wants. If my theory works this should be pretty easy to continue to replicate, feels like I'm back in the year 2000.

[yollo03]

I agree with the above. Doing what he said does improve ranking, this is what my competitors are doing and rank very, very well. The catch is that it can change in a single update.

[Mark_A]

I check rankings monthly - but I check traffic daily - google organic is down a lot this past 30 days. It was our largest category of visitors, now it is in 4th place!

[Cralamarre]

My Google traffic was up 10 percent yesterday over the previous week, and 20 percent over the same day last year. Today is looking just as good.

[Mark_A]

Cralamarre, you must have been doing right things while we were wasting our time on wine women and song :-)

Now is obviously our time to repent!

[NickMNS]

My traffic is holding up. Not quite back to pre-August update levels but not too far off.