Google Updates and SERP Changes - June 2019

[EditorialGuy]

The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4944194.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 11:00 am on Jun 1, 2019 - (PDT -8)

Also, with the ad model a majority of people know that you are trying to get something out of them - a purchase, a signup etc - so there is a lesser level of trust there but if they find you through organic whilst they are in the research stage and you provide good info and value, then there is trust built and you get more sales.

On the other hand, people who are actively shopping for a product or service may regard ads as useful information. That was the concept behind Yellow Pages directories and magazines like Computer Shopper.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 7:07 pm (utc) on Jun 1, 2019]
[edit reason] Cleanup after thread split to new thread [/edit]

[BangkokBaby]

I believe this is the calm before the storm boys!

[sk7411]

I would expect another 3-4 hours before Danny gets active on Twitter and then another 6-7 hours before we see any activity of the rollout. These are just my observations from the past rollout patterns .

[drkinc]

Last week I have seen so many fluctuations in my traffic numbers, so this week it showing again normally. Not able to understand what exactly happens.

[Milchan]

They said they will announce it on twitter when it starts and it will most likely take many hours (maybe even days) to roll out so I doubt people can see impact yet.

I hope that whatever happened last week though wasn't an indication of things to come because that has really hit me hard. Cant see how it can get much worse though or I will end up with negative traffic and conversions!

[Mark_A]

Last week was better for us (G organic) than the previous 4 weeks, a return to a slightly higher peak of traffic which had eluded us.

[Mark_A]

Milchan

They said they will announce it on twitter when it starts

Useful to know.

[jmorgan]

So between the last major/core update till now, my rankings have crept up a little. Let's see if this coming major update reverses that or augments it even further.

[ichthyous]

Two articles from NYT and CNBC today. It appears that an antitrust case against Google could proceed much more rapidly than the Microsoft case in the 90's. This would be a boon to all of us. I think everyone has become concerned that one company controls the flow of information on the internet to such an extent.

I have noticed that I am steadily losing ground to huge corporate sites, which have taken over the top four slots completely since March. I think Google knows that large corporations have the pockets to sue Google, and they have brand power so they won't pay Google to advertise if they lose half their traffic. Small businesses can't sue and don't have the brand power, so they are completely dependent on search and will have to pay Google.

In any case, at least something is being done about it... Hooray!

[nytimes.com ]

[cnbc.com ]

[Milchan]

So between the last major/core update till now, my rankings have crept up a little. Let's see if this coming major update reverses that or augments it even further

Rankings are no longer the best indication of getting traffic & conversions though , at least it seems that way to me and have seen others comment the same.
Has your traffic increased in correlation with your rankings improvement? I can see some improved rankings but decreased traffic and conversions over certain periods recently . Traditional markers, measurements and patterns do not seem to be reliable measurements any more and we need more than ever to be analyzing a combination of everything in order to see overall performances and effects.

[SEO programmer]

Rankings still slightly improving but traffic and user engagement metrics declining. Just as a note, no major changes have been implemented on my site. The joys folks...that's all I can say.

[whoa182]

I'm not seeing anything either yet. SEMRush is very quiet right now... how often does it update?

I got hit in August 2018, recovered in October before losing rankings on Halloween. I got a big bump in traffic in March (after a huge overhaul as well) from the core update. Things have been gradually getting better each month after that... instead of the gradual decline after each spike that I was noticing before.

[imgur.com...]

[StupidIntelligent]

They may delay it because of the cloud fiasco.

[StupidIntelligent]

And like Milchan said, rankings don't mean crap nowadays. You could be in top 3, yet only get 10 to 20 visits on a keyword that gives 1000 clicks to the top ads per day. Organic is dead. We are worrying about a storm in a tea cup.

[sk7411]

I believe sites will fair in the same direction up or down as they have been impacted in these past broad core updates . I am all braced to take a nice nose dive as it’s the new normal for me in all core updates since 2017 .

[StoneSolid]

This is me, waiting to see how google update will affect my site - [prntscr.com...]

[universenet]

New update google is not started yet.. it is morning here in America
So.. we need wait some time

[ichthyous]

Rankings are no longer the best indication of getting traffic & conversions though , at least it seems that way to me and have seen others comment the same.

I agree... My ranking in SEMRush has improved steadily for about ten days now. My traffic according to GA and my own server shows a continued decline in traffic.

A few observations:

1) SEMrush is no longer accurate because it is weighting its visibility score to account for rank 4-10 and 10-20 too highly now. Ranking third or fourth provides no traffic. In reality ranking anything but first is doesn't drive much traffic at all.

2) My top three ranking terms have been slowly picked off by large corporate sites like Etsy, Getty, etc. It could be that they all suddenly have dramatically improved their SEO, but I doubt it. Google's algo is now clearly favoring large corporate sites. I've lost one third of my top three ranking terms to large corporate sites since last September, and it got worse after March 12.

3) Dropping out of top three now means you will take a much bigger hit to your traffic than before. I have gained in the number of top ten terms according to SEMrush as my top three ranking terms drop to fourth place. However my traffic is down 30+% overall from this time last year. Some of my worst hit landing pages are down 57%. Those landing pages are exactly where I lost the most #1 or #2 rank terms. Now I'm three or four and getting nothing as a result.

[universenet]

ichthyous today will be core update.. this is almost like system update...new version of search...

[seomotionz]

So far no fluctuations. What update is this actually about?

[EditorialGuy]

My ranking in SEMRush has improved steadily for about ten days now. My traffic according to GA and my own server shows a continued decline in traffic.

How accurate are SEMRush's ranking numbers? I'd put more faith in traffic monitoring than in ranking estimates.

[whoa182]

SEMRush is WAY off for me. My traffic is far higher than it says.. about 10x higher.

[samwest]

I'm seeing changes in my niche and they are NOT positive. Lost the nice image banner at the top of my #1 listing. First time that has not appeared in years. They are toying with titles again too...at least from where I stand....as EG would say, YMMV.

Noon traffic on site= zero.

[Milchan]

The update has NOT started yet

latest tweet a few mins ago is "For those asking, the June 2019 Core Update has not gone live yet. This thread will be updated when that process has begun."

For those wanting to check the updates are posted at [twitter.com...]

So anyone seeing changes etc or thinking they are impacted in some way it isnt that yet (if google is telling the truth and in this case I dont see why they wouldnt be for once) - probably just the usual AI juggling and turning your traffic on and off that seems to be par for the course now.

I find SEMRush to be way off for me also - my favorite tool was Ahefs but I don't use any paid service now as I think you just end up spending so much time and effort trying to find patterns, reasons and magic bullets and it is like wandering round drunk in a maze - fun at first but you just end up swearing to yourself about stupid it all is. The game has changed and I also needed to cut costs across the board so couldn't justify paying for such things anymore either.

When it does actually roll out that I wouldn't pay too much attention to what happens in the immediate hours after as that never seems to be a good indication. The serps always seem to be super volitile when updates are rolling out most likely as indexes are processing the new updates so probably lots of working out for the ai to go through. More likely a good 24 hours later is a better indication of what the effects might be.

[edited by: Milchan at 4:49 pm (utc) on Jun 3, 2019]

[Shepherd]

Not seeing any significant changes as of noon est in the U.S.

Some formatting changes in the images box for a few searches I watch.

[universenet]

[twitter.com ]

Not update yet
Later...

[lostshootingstar]

It's live and rolling out according to Danny S. Good luck everyone.

[HereWeGo123]

The update is now rolling out

[universenet]

and now update is LIVE
[twitter.com ]

Need some time for full active

[Shepherd]

Would love to see the jump in search stats as that tweet went out...

[penitentman]

@universenet

Need some time for full active

-spoken like a Google Search Liaison.

Anyone seeing anything yet? My traffic is stable. Nothing on SEMrush sensor but someone on twitter said the rank checkers are on fire... hmmm?