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!

[JesterMagic]

Maybe gained 10% this pass month (which I had loss and more in previous months). On Thursday May 9th something happened as we are down since then 10%+. Doesn't deal with Mother's Day as in previous years traffic should be at least the same or better.

[vlexo]

Hmm, not really seeing any themes as others have said with regards to page speed as the website I work on is at the top of that aspect.

It feels like an amplified version of what occurred in March - with respect to the niche I work in. But then, in April, all of that loss we saw in March, was reversed and our positions got better in fact in April.

[BushyTop]

I find this hard to believe... SEMrush showing our organic growth 69% up Week on Week.....

[imgur.com...]

Anyone seeing anything similar... glitch maybe?

(I know that there's talk of a recent update, but i'm not seeing huge increases in traffic... just consistent with our normal amounts.)

[edited by: BushyTop at 1:39 pm (utc) on May 13, 2019]

[Milchan]

since this last update ive seen about 30% drop in traffic and conversions have all but disappeared. I hope this settles down in the coming days or it might just be the nail in the coffin for me

[ichthyous]

I am seeing an improvement this weekend, reversing some of the losses in traffic to my major landing pages. Not huge, but enough that I received several sales inquiries this weekend, just like the old days. There has been a very small incremental improvement in May but this is a slightly bigger uptick. I'm still down over 50% on some of my most important pages YOY though, so no where close to where I was last year this time.

[universenet]

I am seeing an improvement this weekend, reversing some of the losses in traffic to my major landing pages. Not huge, but enough that I received several sales inquiries this weekend, just like the old days. There has been a very small incremental improvement in May but this is a slightly bigger uptick. I'm still down over 50% on some of my most important pages YOY though, so no where close to where I was last year this time.

All this and all what will happenning in future is product of AI (Artificial intelligence)
We can expect changes for our websites depends of how working AI...
With time we can see if good for our websites or not

[Dimitri]

Risks are that Google's AI, starts enjoying AI generated content, you know, between AIs ... so may be scrappers, who are automatically mixing and shuffling random sentences taken here and there, have a bright future ...

[universenet]

Risks are that Google's AI, starts enjoying AI generated content, you know, between AIs ... so may be scrappers, who are automatically mixing and shuffling random sentences taken here and there, have a bright future ...

For us seems like start was not so good for AI but with time who know what can expect
For good results need longer time ..
Start (12 march) was terrible... I saw many crazy results in google search
Exactly they doing all from 2015 but in last time more active

[StoneSolid]

My first ever (15 or so years ago) affiliate website gig online was "skin care / acne treatment".
I made some nice $ on that, and I sold the sites long time ago. I'm in totally different stuff now, but for fun I did an "acne treatments" search:

[imgur.com ]

Not only there is 1.5 screen of google schemes above organics, but you also have a "people also ask" box right on top of organic, to make sure no one ever gets a click there.

Didn't screenshot the bottom part but there are yet another line of product thumbs + 3 more ads on the bottom.

[jimmydsl]

It feels like an amplified version of what occurred in March - with respect to the niche I work in. But then, in April, all of that loss we saw in March, was reversed and our positions got better in fact in April.

this. I guess Google lost kind of control of the AI driven algorithm cocktail. Wenn John Mueller admits that sometimes they overdo the effects of core updates and sometimes happens just the opposite that means that they are not really knowing what they do. I dont know how they test their algorithm changes but this does not look very professional. My theory is that the ranking AI acts kind of independent and even after a major core update the serps are then slowly moving back to the serps we had before. We have seen this many times: core update, big ranking changes, after weeks and months recovery to the old ones, then again core update just to make clear who is the boss, not the AI but the engineers.

[EditorialGuy]

@StoneSolid: Google has never been shy about discouraging affiliate sites (as opposed to content-driven sites that happen to have affiliate links):

[support.google.com...]

If Google is displaying ads where it could be displaying affiliate results, that isn't a bug, it's a feature.

[NickMNS]

4 organic results vs. 12 or more Google's own results (including ads.), and no organic results above the fold. This goes beyond a feature.

But this has been discussed in this thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]

There seems to be a distinct correlation between the competitiveness of commercial keywords and Google's propensity to push down and obfuscate the organic content. There is no wonder that the only user's left clicking on organic results are Zombies.

[jimmydsl]

There seems to be a distinct correlation between the competitiveness of commercial keywords and Google's propensity to push down and obfuscate the organic content. There is no wonder that the only user's left clicking on organic results are Zombies.

Exactly. A good example is the keyword "russian women". If people search for "russian women" what is their user intent? Do they want to get sociocultural background information about women from Russia? I guess the majority of users want to find websites and dating sites where they can meet and date Russian women Now look at the organic results for that query. Just 2 dating sites, the rest is more or less non-commercial. A few years ago you could find only dating sites in the organic serps. These dating sites now have to spend money for Adwords. I think it is easy to find more examples like this.

[EditorialGuy]

There seems to be a distinct correlation between the competitiveness of commercial keywords and Google's propensity to push down and obfuscate the organic content. There is no wonder that the only user's left clicking on organic results are Zombies.

When AdWords was introduced, a Google honcho (I think it was Larry Page) said that ads could be a form of information. (See Steven Levy's INSIDE THE PLEX, which was published back in 2011.) From a searcher's perspective, does it matter if a commercial result is an organic result or an ad? That's a question that can be answered through testing, and Google is testing all the time.

[NickMNS]

@EG

From a searcher's perspective, does it matter if a commercial result is an organic result or an ad?

Yes you're right, why bother showing organic results at all.

Search engine ==> enter keyword ==> show the ad(s) that fit keyword and pay the most.

[Milchan]

Not only there is 1.5 screen of google schemes above organics, but you also have a "people also ask" box right on top of organic, to make sure no one ever gets a click there.

Exactly what im seeing for my important keywords also. That combined with the fact that the 1 organic result that ever gets above the fold placement is one using blackhat tactics that I just cant compete with and not only is the playing field not level but I feels like Ive been kicked off the playing altogether even though my serps positions havent really change and I am in general at num 2 spot for my target keywords.

[Shepherd]

Yes you're right, why bother showing organic results at all.

Maybe because there are "non commercial" results that fit the query?

show the ad(s) that fit keyword and pay the most.

google ads have not worked like that in quite some time. There are currently more mechanisms in place to keep bad ads out then there are to keep bad organic results out.

[StoneSolid]

Don't know about mechanisms that keep the bad ads away but I visited some of the ads from my "acne treatments" search and most were pure landing pages with basic product info and all kinds of call to action and buy now links. I'm pretty sure that people with pimples are sick and tired of that stuff thrown in their face (literally).

So in short, mechanisms to keep bad ads out of serps, if any, are malfunctioning, just like the ones keeping the bad organic results out of serps.

[JesterMagic]

While I can see "People also ask" being usefully to those who have done a few similar searches and Google detects that they may not have found what they are looking for at this point I can see displaying something like this or maybe on the second page after the user has looked at a number of results. Displaying it right at the top is just a trap for users to stay on Google. These rich results in our niche are often filled with very vague opinions and most of the information is outdated.

[EditorialGuy]

Don't know about mechanisms that keep the bad ads away but I visited some of the ads from my "acne treatments" search and most were pure landing pages with basic product info and all kinds of call to action and buy now links.

Were they affiliate pages or merchant pages? To quote Google, "Ask yourself why a user would want to visit your site first rather than visiting the original merchant directly."

[StoneSolid]

@EditorialGuy not sure if I don't understand you correctly or you didn't understand me.

I clicked on ADS and they led me to landing pages.

Really don't know why it even matters is it affiliate page or merchant page? It was a PAID AD that led me to very crappy sites, top 4 links (I think 2 were pure landing page crap, like from 20y ago). Don't know how that google question applies to that?

[StupidIntelligent]

Pages going from index in and out.

[EditorialGuy]

It was a PAID AD that led me to very crappy sites, top 4 links (I think 2 were pure landing page crap, like from 20y ago). Don't know how that google question applies to that?

Stuff happens, but ad results are a whole different issue from organic search results, and I wouldn't conflate the two.

[Shepherd]

I clicked on ADS and they led me to landing pages.

Every hyperlink on the internet leads you to a "landing page."

very crappy sites

Subjective. Luckily with advertising we don't have to rely on willy-nilly interpretations, we have data and market forces.

[StoneSolid]

Erm, just to make myself clear, I was commenting on AD pages quality because of this:

@Shepherd

There are currently more mechanisms in place to keep bad ads out then there are to keep bad organic results out.

Additionally - this is definitely malfunctioning. I forgot to mention but in my "acne treatments" query, there were 2 ads on the botton for SNEAKERS (acne studios company).
So yeah, if those mechanisms even exist, they fail on basic stuff.

and also
@Shepherd

Every hyperlink on the internet leads you to a "landing page."

Not sure why you needed to write that witty remark because I'm pretty sure everyone understood what I meant - a marketing landing page, designed specifically to sell/upsell the product, with no other quality guideline in mind.

[Shepherd]

That's the problem with "pretty sure", it's often an incorrect assumption.

[StoneSolid]

No problem, I'm happy to make myself clearer to those who need it. Glad you understand now.

[JesterMagic]

Regarding the May 9th algo update I see I am down more like 16% (instead of the 10% I reported earlier). Traffic wise, my main focus is the US market which is down about 10%. The UK which had increased this past month is down about 35% and Canada is down 16%.

Based on this info, the update appears in part to reshuffle international traffic.

[Poshnjari]

I lost my website traffic more 80% Now what to do?

[Cyril TechWebsites]

Since the last 2 days seeing traffic increase at approximately +10%. I'm pretty happy with that, but I doubt it will last long. My experience tells me that something very big is going to happen soon. All of the Algo weather tools showing lowest level of changes. It scares - for me it's a sign that something is brewing. Fingers crossed.