Google Florida Update 2 March 12, 2019

[BushyTop]

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System: The following 23 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4937425.htm [webmasterworld.com] by brett_tabke - 8:43 am on Mar 13, 2019 (cst -6)

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Seeing some changes this morning. Anyone else. UK.

[JesterMagic]

Just passed our 1 year anniversary for our main site on March 8th when we lost over 20% of traffic which would reach 30%+- in April. Have done a number of changes over this past year but have not been able to increase traffic back to historic norms.

[samwest]

After a decent last few months, yesterday the bottom dropped out. Traffic is at nearly zero all day. Past few months were almost like the good old days. Figures.

[markseo]

Seems like there is an update today in UK. Traffic has certainly decreased in last 7 days. Google seems to work in cycles - very hard to know if its what you're doing or what the algorithm changes are doing that makes the difference.

[markseo]

BTW an anyone here tell me - how personalised are SERPs? For example, when I see myself ranking number 5 for a keyword, can I be sure that is what everyone else sees? Or is it possible that for other people's SERPs I am down on page 2? And if it is personalised, on what basis is this - by IP, or browser? Just trying to work out the cleanest way to see what is actually happening in SERPs.

[ichthyous]

Traffic is 40% lower than this time last year and zero emails or calls. Not to mention that the high traffic I was getting from Australia and Canada two months ago has fallen back to a trickle. (I'm US based). Now I'm getting inquiries from places I don't serve and which can't possibly afford my prices, like Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. That to me is useless traffic.

[glakes]

when I see myself ranking number 5 for a keyword, can I be sure that is what everyone else sees? Or is it possible that for other people's SERPs I am down on page 2?

Google will display what they think the user wants to see, so I'm surprised when you check you are not #1. :) You are correct that Google's index is dynamic and constantly shuffling. To some degree I'm sure it's Google's way of spreading the wealth, but ultimately Google wants to show results that will produce the most revenue for Google while meeting their users expectations.

And if it is personalised, on what basis is this - by IP, or browser?

Geographic location, past search history, past browsing history, etc. Keep in mind Google has code on many, many sites. Everything from embedded fonts, embedded YouTube videos, advertisements, analytics, etc. all collect data on you. If Google can ascertain your age and gender, that's in play as well. Google is the #1 data mining company in the world, and they use all that data in search and ads.

[browndog]

I agree with glakes, it's personalised. I see so many people on here talking about seeing Amazon results and I never, ever see them. Amazon isn't that big a deal here (Australia) and I never buy from them. Google have to know they'd be wasting their time showing me results from Amazon.

I was just thinking about a post Goodroi (I think) posted yesterday about creating compelling content, which I agree with. But it got me wondering (in response to somebody responding)...is that what Google want? What is compelling to them? I'm not saying they have a bias...maybe they do, maybe they don't. But I have always taken great pride in creating the best possible content I can, but there is one site that always beats me, no matter how hard I try. Their content is good, but it's not great. They use generic stock images of a 'unicorn', while I use an image of a 'unicorn with wigititis', so the reader can see what it looks like. But is that what Joe Public wants? Detailed (and sometimes graphic) images...or do they just want cookie cutter content that is accurate but not in depth? I am thinking I've got this wrong, and am trying too hard.

[markseo]

Thanks for the insights - that's really interesting. Kind of what I expected. I also get an idea of average rankings from keyword tracker in AHREFs so thats helping.

[BangkokBaby]

Google don't just want great content, they want everything.

-fast site
-great content
-good UX
-authority (from back-links)
-good site structure (for their crawlers)
-mobile first website
-good on-site and off site optimisation
- [insert many other factors here]

It's not just any one thing they want. If you have the best content on the internet but you lack in the other areas you cannot expect to keep your rankings in 2019, it worked in 2011 when their algorithm was weak and there weren't many websites. Now everyone man and his dog has a website and if you're not willing to focus on all aspects of SEO you'll go lower in the rankings.

I see a lot of comments from people saying they focus on content content content and some state they never go looking for back-links yet their competitors are and they are out-ranking them. That should be enough to know that you too need to focus on other areas.

Some of you're in competitive niches where the big guys can spend $$$ to get links and you cannot, so think outside the box. Write content for a particular town or city then reach out to newspapers or whoever is in your niche, position yourself as an expert and get them to interview you, or write for them.

@MARKSEO , it depends on where the searcher is located, I rank for various positions based on the location of the user. You can use a incognito tab and VPN, then use Google com, uk, au, nz to see where you rank.

[sofie77]

Biggest impact since EAT update. Something is going on with EAT.

[BangkokBaby]

@Sofie77 do you mean today (apparently the search tools are showing signs of movement) or do you mean the last few weeks? If the last few week or so I agree there's been a huge shakeup a massive change, however for today my sites seem to be doing the same although tools are showing movement.

[sofie77]

I mean today. The last 5 hours. I think google made huge adjustments in the medicine sector.

[mosxu]

@markseo

Good question, personalisation goes very extreme in competitive industries. It depends if searcher has been on your site before and how many times and so on.

If none of the above you might not show at all, this is why we lack buyers they all seem to disappear mysteriously

[Danbob]

Interestingly we are also seeing big changes for our site (over the past 5 hours) which was hit fairly dramatically by the E-A-T medic update back in August. Positive at the moment (up around 20%) - we have worked hard to improve quality covering Page Speed, Content, Reducing number of pages on site (site bloat), addition of HREF Lang's, adjustment to canonical links and a huge reduction in bounce rate by making the site more useable. Will be interesting if this continues.

[glakes]

People are seeing changes?

Yes, big flux going on here in USA. Should be interesting to see what Google does for ecommerce. The last update was horrible. Google can't take away anymore converting traffic because it's all gone. Google is dead....

[sofie77]

@Danbob

yes, I can see also a improvment arround 10-20% and we made NO changes.
For example we have lost our (non commercial) main keyword on EAT in august. Drop from position 1 to 8. This keyword and a few more are now back to position 2.

For a other medical page I have checked arround 100 keywords (longtail included) by hand via webmaster tools.

In my opionion this update is a change on EAT in combination with the user search intent. Google was collecting data about the search intent over the last month and now google knows better what the main focus of a website is. For this main keywords some sites see now a improvement. The serps are now more keyword based.

The biggest winners are pages with a proove of trust and the right user search intent for a every single keyword.

When USA is woke up we will read more posts here about this update ;) - Good Morning guys, already lunchtime here

[BangkokBaby]

Good to hear @DanBob and @Sofie77, I'm not in the EAT niche and see no changes on my site so you may be on to something there. In before Barry Schwartz uses our comments in and upcoming SEO updates article on his blog.

[broccoli]

I hit the first page for my niche’s short tail yesterday. Position 8. It’s been a long time! My traffic is back where it used to be. But I’m only earning half the adsense revenue I was last year, so it’s a bit of a hollow victory.

[markseo]

Thanks for all comments re:personalisation. I am assuming that means that because I'm always on my own site I am more likely to see it higher up in SERPs?

[mosxu]

@markseo

If you have chance to check on real people devices completely unrelated to you than you can get a real taste of personalisation.

You may be surprised to see that even your brand name may not show at all or see it buried under a big map.

[engine]

According to Google, the update started yesterday and is still going on.

This week, we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before.

[twitter.com...]

[rustybrick]

Now confirmed [twitter.com...] started on the 12th [twitter.com...]

[NickMNS]

This started well before the twelfth, I started to see changes over the weekend and potentially as early as last week.

[rustybrick]

There were 100% fluctuations prior, as you guys have been chatting about. But Google is telling us this one started rolling out yesterday.

Why is WebmasterWorld naming in Florida 2? Because PubCon last week was in Florida? Just checking...

[engine]

Why is WebmasterWorld naming in Florida 2? Because PubCon last week was in Florida? Just checking...

Yes, what timing, eh!

[rustybrick]

Gary Illyes is to blame. :-P

[Rusbellmadrigal]

Not huge fluctuation on my travel website (so far...)

[Shepherd]

Seeing some decent looking organic results in the SERPs... left to wonder if the tide has passed or if this is the outflow before the tsunami...

(By decent looking I mean, very little domain crowding, diverse results, and pretty on topic)

[engine]

very little domain crowding

That's progress. It's been one of my pet hates. Let's hope that side of it sticks, eh!