Google Updates and SERP Changes - October 2018

[broccoli]

The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4918232.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 4:08 am on Oct 1, 2018, (PDT -8)


I seem to have recovered most of my rankings from before my suspected mobile-first Fred penalty, apart from the very highest volume ones, where an annoying thin-content site is still pushing me down.

The traffic to my site has doubled to about 4K. I’m still well off the 10K figure I was at before the March update pushed up a bunch of low quality sites in my niche.

No corresponding increase in adsense earnings though. As I’m a viral site I see weird, unnatural adsense drops after traffic increases all the time. CPC is still the same but CTR has halved. I hope it settles down. If not, my entire niche may no longer be financially viable.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 12:11 pm (utc) on Oct 1, 2018]
[edit reason] Cleanup after thread split to new month [/edit]

[Shepherd]

After watching the results of the many updates over the last few months on traffic we receive from google I'm noticing a "ratchet" effect. Seems every update results in an immediate decline in traffic from google followed by a steady increase until the next update. Obviously YMMV, just what we are seeing.

Could be some sort of machine learning/teaching mechanism.

Could be a decline in our perceived value followed based on traditional indicators followed by an increase based on new metrics.

Could just be a big wonky mess.

[analis]

I have not seen any changes since the google medic update, while in this one on the 27th of September I had a big drop.

The updates of December 2017 and that of January 2018 hurt me -50% but I recovered everything in June / July.

- At the end of May I was included in mobile first.
- At the beginning of June accuranker reported large movements in google. -> [seroundtable.com...]

- in July then there was an update on speed. -> [seroundtable.com...]

- another update in July -> [seroundtable.com...]


----------------------


I closed June at -9% compared to 2017, so the bulk of the recovery I had from the inclusion to mobile first and from the June update. From 1 to 15 July 2018 I had the same visits of the same period of the previous year. Something then came from the update on the speed of July that I closed at + 2%.

Last week they included many sites in mobile first ..

[edited by: analis at 1:47 pm (utc) on Oct 1, 2018]

[givinguponlife]

>

The updates of December 2017 and that of January 2018 hurt me but I recovered everything in June / July.

How>

[Cralamarre]

After my traffic drop on Friday continued over the weekend, I was expecting today to be a disaster. But apparently I was wrong. Traffic seems to have recovered this morning.

[yollo03]

Ranking is up, traffic is up, if this continues I will fully recover from August's update. I am pretty confident they reversed some of the major August's update, thats why I am getting all this traffic and ranking back. They will probably do another 'small' update soon, my hunch.

[Cralamarre]

@yollo03,
I see no evidence of a rollback. My site's traffic has been steadily increasing since August, and continues to be strong. The only setback was a minor drop last Friday, but I've recovered from it today.
Stick to facts. Your ranking is up, traffic is up. The end.

[yollo03]

Quote from serountable:

"There is chatter and I'll share that chatter below. Some are thinking that maybe there was a reversal to one of the previous and recent Google algorithm updates."

URL: [seroundtable.com...]

I agree, there are no facts besides that there was an update. Others like me speculate it was a partial rollback.

[Cralamarre]

First of all, we need to stop linking to articles on seoroundtable that are based on comments from these threads. Circular logic is not proof of anything. And Google did confirm the update, so the update itself is not in dispute.

Others like me speculate it was a partial rollback.

But your speculations and crystal ball predictions are meaningless and serve no purpose other than to annoy people who are here looking for facts and real information.

[yollo03]

I am not sure I am following. A few years ago google said they will not discuss what's been affected by algorithm updates. Any discussion on what was tweaked is therefore a speculation. I am therefore speculating like others it was a partial rollback. Please clarify to me what is annoying by expressing my opinions.

[Cralamarre]

Please clarify to me what is annoying by expressing my opinions.

Sure. Your opinions are exactly that - your opinions.
<snip>

[edited by: goodroi at 5:08 pm (utc) on Oct 1, 2018]
[edit reason] TOS #19 [/edit]

[yollo03]

From what I understood before joining the forum is that every post is the sole opinion of the poster, its in the terms and conditions. Everything I therefore write is solely my opinion and based on my experience. I cannot analyze other people's websites aside my own. About saying my posts are useless and offer no facts, you are entitled to your opinion but there is no need to get personal and offend me at a public level.

About my website, I am in a highly competitive niche, I have zero chance of making it to the first page in all my keywords or my main keywords. I do have a bunch of pages at the first page. I will be very happy being in page 2 for my main keywords. I dont have any ads on my website, page load is under 2 seconds on desktops, in mobile about 2.5 seconds. TTFB is less than 180 ms.

I am using a CDN for obvious reasons, I use http2 and I am looking to move over to TLS 1.3, I am on 1.2 a the moment.

[Cralamarre]

I dont have any ads on my website, page load is under 2 seconds on desktops, in mobile about 2.5 seconds. TTFB is less than 180 ms.

All of that is fine, but I'm sure many of your competitors can make the same claims. Content is what ranks, not technical specifications. I am also in a highly competitive niche, but my site has been on the first page of the SERPs for years, and most of my articles are at the top of page 1 for their search terms. Yet I spend no time at all caring about technical issues. Content is everything. Everything else is a distraction.

[yollo03]

Thats good for you but I am not going to get into page 1 for main keywords. The websites that are on the first page are powerful websites that I have zero chance of competing with, their DA is very, very high. I just accepted it so I am targeting page 2 and even 3. The converting traffic I get from being ranked in these pages is enough for me.

I am just adding that in some countries I am at the bottom of page 1 but it's very few countries and not the dominating ones.

[NickMNS]

@yollo03
You do realize that you are making a circular reference with:

Quote from serountable:

Because the story states:

Here is some of the chatter at WebmasterWorld:

So SER is using WW to substantiate it's claims and then you are using SER to substantiate yours.

[yollo03]

I understood that now, not when I posted it. I think I am going to leave the forum if I am not contributing at all. I wish everyone good luck with their websites. I might follow the forum but I am not planning to comment again in any threads.

Take care everyone and an early happy new year.

[justpassing]

The websites that are on the first page are powerful websites that I have zero chance of competing with

Oh, you never know. This is rare, but it happens. I have several pages which are "somehow" outranking big brands, or big community sites (the kind which are popping for nearly anything).

[Cralamarre]

I am not going to get into page 1 for main keywords. The websites that are on the first page are powerful websites that I have zero chance of competing with, their DA is very, very high..

Just a quick story... When I first considered starting my website 13 years ago, people at the time told me "Don't do it. There's millions of websites for it already. You'll never get anywhere". Well, I did it anyway.
Fast forward 13 years. A quick search for my main keyword just now brought up 415 million results. My site is #5. Most of my articles are #1.
I recently started up a YouTube channel, competing from the bottom against established channels with millions of subscribers. My videos now have over a million views, after only a few months.
My point is, if your content is good enough, don't limit yourself by settling for page 2 or 3. Aim for #1 and keep at it.

[Shepherd]

I've been around here for a long time and I just don't remember members treating each other like this before. Times, I guess, they are a changin...

[goodroi]

Mods Note: Respect others at all times. None of us are perfect but we should all treat others the way we wish to be treated. One way to guard against misunderstandings is to read over your response before you post it. Avoid personal insults or off-topic comments.

Let's keep the focus on the SEO.

[Cralamarre]

Has anyone else who was hit by the update on the 27th seen a recovery today? My traffic was down 10% since Friday, but today it's back, and even slightly better than before the update.

[soloiptv]

hi , every day i lose 600 visitor some rank word back to second page . 80% visitor from google if the update keep like this it's hard back again

i have blogger website i want comptition some other keyword but i can't . they are some solution & sorry for my english so bad

[HammerDown]

Completely puzzled.

I manage two sites in the same niche, different owners. One bombed August 1, the other, larger site bombed September 27.

I'm seeing tons of Amazon and Linkedin articles that are circa-2012 spam (all H2's hyperlinked to guest blogger's BS little affiliate site) supplanting this big, established sites better content.

[ichthyous]

This is just all over the place. I'm continuing to drop like a stone in SEMrush since the 27th, however no real drop in traffic in Google Analytics yet, and in fact yesterday traffic was strong. Sometimes SEMrush can be off for a few days during times of high volatility and then suddenly snaps back inexplicably. I have not been affected by an algo update in as long as I can remember, or to such a small extent that I didn't really feel it.

[HammerDown]

What's the chance that for those who survived August 1 update but are getting hammered now AND recently went to Mobile First Index are being penalized for slow loads?

[ichthyous]

What's the chance that for those who survived August 1 update but are getting hammered now AND recently went to Mobile First Index are being penalized for slow loads?

Interesting hypothesis...I just got Mobile First notification on the 19th, and started to plummet on the 27th. My site is responsive so the load times could be better on mobile...Google says an average of 3.96 secs mobile load time on my site.

[Shepherd]

We have not received the "mobile first index" notification for our site. Our PageSpeed Insights show Page Speed: Fast (0.7s FCP 0.6s DCL), Optimization: Good (93 / 100)

Looking at stats, when the updates roll out google traffic drops about 20% yoy and then climbs back up to about even yoy after a few days. Previous years have seen consistent 30% growth yoy.

[pritz]

SEMRush visibility is going down from the date is 25th sept... Again facing the problem with conversion.

[analis]

Speed is not the problem all my pages have:

94/95 score
0,8s FCP 0,7s DCL

yesterday did not recover

[Jez123]

Here's my story so far. I gained around 20 to 30% traffic with the "medic update" I then lost around 15% to 20% of that with the following tweak / roll back / another update (I can't remember the date). Then on the 27th / 28th of September I regained the 15 to 20% that was lost in the last tweak. I think they are all related to the same "medic" update and the updates following have been tweaks to that.