Google Updates and SERP Changes - May 2019

[Mark_A]

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System: The following 12 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4940766.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 12:25 pm on May 1, 2019 (utc -5)

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For my main current site, Google Organic accounts for 28% of sessions.

I swear it takes up 80% of the effort though!

[EditorialGuy]

Wow that link from universenet about Google Structured Data shows you what Google is concentrating on. Structured Data use to be about the search engines better understanding pages so they could better organize the organic results. Now it is all about rich snippets which they are now calling "rich results". All the photos seems to show these rich results pretty much answering the questions completely. No need to visit the website providing the information.

For some businesses or organizations, that's actually welcome. Let's say that you're running a dental clinic, a museum, a restaurant, or the local branch of a drugstore chain. If someone is trying to find out your hours of operation or your address, you want them to get that information as quickly and easily as possible. Having the information displayed on a SERP is a good thing, not an annoyance.

Structured data could also be useful if you're a manufacturer, for example. Let's say your company makes a baking ingredient. Your company's Web site has recipes for brownies, fudge, chocolate cake, etc. that feature that ingredient. ("Use one bar of Widgetco Sweetened Chocolate.") By using structured data and making it easy for those recipes to appear directly on a SERP for a query like "brownie recipes" or "fudge recipes," you're getting free promotion of your product on Google.

[ichthyous]

Google only continues to look for these pages because there is still something to find. If the pages is gone, then its gone, return a 404 and forget about it.

Nick, it was my understanding that Google would stop looking for the old page once it encountered a 301 (permanent) redirect. Why bother still looking for the old url when you've been instructed for years that the page moved permanently? Let's say I drop these tens of thousands of redirects all at once...so now I have endless 404 errors reported. Won't that hurt me even more than a huge .htaccess file? And yes, the huge file is a pain to maintain and it does slow down the site...you see it in the TTFB I believe. Luckily I have a very fast server, but it would be optimal to get rid of these 301s. Sometimes Google is looking for 10+ year old urls!

[Selen]

Companies that manufacture their own product or provide a service could benefit from the Structured Data by using the "product placement" marketing. Affiliates and webmasters who don't manufacture their own product or don't provide a service should contact companies and make a deal with them to make money. For example, if you review mobile phones, you should contact Apple or Samsung and get them to pay you for promoting / mentioning their brand.

[BangkokBaby]

Anyone notice a change in traffic on the 9th or was it just me?

[seomotionz]

@BangkokBaby me too. All day traffic become high at unusual times and fell during the regular time.

[Mr_Dok]

Seeing big fluctuations in serps. another update?

[southernguy]

Yes, I am seeing the same thing since late yesterday evening, they seem to be going from bad to worse, I am suspecting something to do with links again. The reason I say this is because I have one PBN that after the August update shot to page one for several keywords (and remained there). In April, it went to page 4-5 and as of yesterday its been climbing back up, now sitting on page 1 again as it was before.

[KaseyM]

Had a big drop ~15% in traffic - could just be seasonal...

[jayjay123]

Big drop 20%.

[seomotionz]

@jayjay123 I am looking at about 30%.

[Mr_Dok]

Google will do anything in the name of the "adwords coin". its bsolutely chaos now in SERPs. rich and quality content sites has no more priority. such a shame.

[KaseyM]

Do any of you who experience drops use AMP? I'm seeing a lot of warnings pop up.

[Milchan]

Nick, it was my understanding that Google would stop looking for the old page once it encountered a 301 (permanent) redirect. Why bother still looking for the old url when you've been instructed for years that the page moved permanently?

It doesn't seem to work that way but what it does is it doesnt index them and just indexes the new page , maybe putting the old link in the excluded list. One other thing to consider is that there can be links to the original old link from other sites still , so google can follow those also to check their link is valid.

[Milchan]

I also am experiencing a big drop today in traffic, zero conversions also. Seems like there was an update again of some sort for sure. Seeing some strange patterns earlier also were by I get a block of visitors , then nothing for 5 mins, block of visitors, then nothing for 5 mins - continuing like this for some time but with pretty much the exact period in between. really weird.

Something else I just saw was about the new Faq and How To markup and that google now has a facility for people that do not have a website to upload How Tos and Q&As to google for them to use in the SERPs. If that results in an army of people doing that , like the likes of wikipedia have, then that will have an even greater effect on web sites especially if they decide to favor this non linked content.

[JesterMagic]

@EditorialGuy - Your right having information like address, hours of operation and phone numbers appear as a rich result is a good thing and makes it easier for the end user. I am sure there is other info as well but I would have to disagree a bit about your recipe example. If I was the website owner of the recipe (even if I sold the ingredients) I would still rather have the user visit my site instead of seeing it all on Google. This way I would control what else is promoted on the page (instead of Google being able to benefit from it). Who knows maybe the user would be interested in other similar recipes I offer or maybe even some new ingredients we just started selling.

[Dimitri]

Why bother still looking for the old url when you've been instructed for years that the page moved permanently?

Because one day, the old URL might become active again.

[universenet]

Why bother still looking for the old url when you've been instructed for years that the page moved permanently?

FIRST: you need REMOVE links from your websites or just RENAME folder or url name that google or any search engine can not find
SECOND: you need put address of old links in robots.txt file
Disallow:/old_links_folder/
or
Disallow:/filename.extension

and you need hold it maybe more of 1 year or longer

[NickMNS]

Just for 404 and forget it. There is no negative impact. Over the years I have had hundreds and thousands of 404 reported in GSC and it never impacted me.

[universenet]

Just for 404 and forget it. There is no negative impact. Over the years I have had hundreds and thousands of 404 reported in GSC and it never impacted me.

robots.txt show to spiders that this url no exist more... if you do just 404 without display in robots.txt so spiders will still not do doing.. so spiders taking it like temporary no available..and url can be still in search results

[Dimitri]

robots.txt show to spiders that this url no exist more

How do you do that?

[universenet]

How do you do that?

You can see some examples here
[moz.com...]

[samwest]

7.7 billion humans and after 22 years, can't manage 1 visit on a #1 (and #2) ranked term at mid day. How whack is that? Funny thing is, I'll get a sale tonight at 2:30am from one lone straggler...wait, that's not even funny.

[mosxu]

@samwest

It may be personal are you a conservative?
You did not get banned so AI keeps moving the cheese and waiting for you to change.

[samwest]

MAGA! does that answer your question?
Just got a J.O.B. after 15 years on the sideline living fat & easy off the web....BTW I'm down to 98 lbs soaking wet thanks to Gorg eating my lunch every day. ;)

[Selen]

If I was the website owner of the recipe (even if I sold the ingredients) I would still rather have the user visit my site instead of seeing it all on Google.

I think there is misconception and fake news within the webmaster community about that. If you allow your website to be crawled, you allow 100% of your website content to be organized and displayed to maximize user satisfaction. I (and most other users) find it more convenient to view your content that answers my query directly on Google than to wait for a slow server full of ads or other useless content to load.

[jayjay123]

Any updates about an algorithm change? My website has 30% less traffic and semrush is reporting a lot of (bad) changes.

[KaseyM]

@jayjay123 where are you seeing that? The SEMrush sensors are pretty low

[mosxu]

@samwest

God Bless You!

[jayjay123]

@kasey personal score

[paulphin]

You two should get a room at a trump hotel.

Definitely seeing a drop in traffic starting yesterday but much worse today.