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]

[MayankParmar]

[searchengineland.com...]

Recovery has happened for many in past.

[mosxu]

@samwest

Is it true that we all see less and less traffic instead of the zombies we used to get ?

There are still zombies out there. It seems to me their purpose is to compensate against lack of traffic but last updates I see they are meant to get webmasters used to less and less traffic.

We must be the biggest losers.

[Milchan]

Competitors haven't gained traffic, but the new sites with garbage content did.

How do you know that competitors havent gained TRAFFIC and new sites have? I understand that you might see changes in the serps but im off the opinion that you cannot tell by looking at the serps nor using any of the tools how much traffic they might get.

[BushyTop]

Zero conversions for us today. And this sort of thing never happens to us.

[JesterMagic]

@JesterMagic / whoa182
I don't think simply showing an author bio is going to achieve much of anything. John Mueller in the last hangout addressed this issue and in his typical fashion responded that there is no specific way for linking to authors bio's and that one should do this in such a away that is specific to one's niche/needs. See 13:12 mark in the video below for the exact answer (if one can call it that):

[youtube.com...]

Thanks for the link to the video... So what way do you think is better?

I can see for new users to the website having a small on page bio with photo may help convey that it is an article from a trusted source (if it is or not who knows). Puts a face to the piece. Bio's also can be full of marketing speak as authors try to make themselves sound much more authoritative than they actually are. A lot of bios that exist on article pages almost are like ads.

Having an author profile on a separate page allows me to present more information about the author including things like a contact link, list of previous articles, comments, etc... that they did on our site.

I am not sure why Google is publicly pushing this. Like most other things on the internet it is easy to fake authorship and it will get over used.

[MayankParmar]

• Click-through rate of paid ads: up 75%
• Searches with zero-clicks: up 12%
• Click-through rate to organic, 3rd party websites: down 13%

(Google profits since 2016: up 47%)

[sparktoro.com...]

[cabsco]

If anyone go through the entire G.W.F thread here: [bit.ly...] and still believe that G is clean and rightly justified about the core update, especially the comparison of what is considered a good website and a bad website, the person is part of the problem. The judgement, the response and the defense of the G people on the page are scary. Forget the term "free web", everything is bought and paid for. Read the argument and the counterargument and you'll see why the web will never be a better greener place with G in control.

[NickMNS]

@Mayank
That article is bonkers!

From 2016 to 2019 the percentage of organic clicks drop from 54% to 47%, with the trend continuing. This data does not include the latest update. My guess is that the rate of of organic decay will likely increase.

The study provides an aggregate view of all traffic, what would be interesting to see if there are niches where the decline of organic searches is even more pronounced.

[Martin Ice Web]

Sorry for This Post but did anyone know this
[janavirgin.com ]

And with every Update when google pushes more ads and own stupid content it will be more and moee CO2.

[whoa182]

My long articles, with proper steps and screenshots, positive feedback from readers have been outranked by Reddit posts with no comments

I'm seeing this more than ever with this update. Pinterest and Reddit...

But this is exactly why it bugs me when I hear "just create good content" or "Make sure you are very good with your E-A-T."

Author profiles? JM: Who is this person? Do I trust them?

I don't know..

Who are these Reddit users? They are just a few random people commenting on a Reddit thread, why the trust in those answers?
.
And while there are exceptions in that sometimes there is useful information, I promise, the threads outranking me are gibberish and don't even properly answer the question and contain no sources. Which makes me think they are ranking on the Domain authority alone, not because the content is actually useful or quality.

[universenet]

reddit (garbage) is finally on all top search on google..
Very important unique internet garbage..they follow what someone said on street.."very interesting" for everyone
Reddit is so important..same important like 2 billion facebook fake accounts what facebook removed..fake but unique...

[Milchan]

And with every Update when google pushes more ads and own stupid content it will be more and moee CO2.

To be fair , I think the levels of internet traffic and therefore corresponding CO2 would be the same regardless of google being the start point or not. People are going to use the internet no matter what.

it is good to bring attention to it though and there should be a move towards requiring large scale internet companies to run carbon neutral datacenters. I have seen some interesting stuff in regards Amazons data centers and this some time ago, using things like recyclable water cooling systems etc. Elon Musk could probably solve it all in his lunch break :-)

[Dimitri]

reddit (garbage) is finally on all top search on google..

As I mentionned alraedy, my site, which is a message board, gained 20% of human traffic with this update. And as I theorized, may be posts look more natural to Google, than an article written with SEO in mind.

[Milchan]

As I mentionned alraedy, my site, which is a message board, gained 20% of human traffic with this update. And as I theorized, may be posts look more natural to Google, than an article written with SEO in mind.

Possible and interesting idea but I just get the feeling it is something else / far more complicated than that. Hard to to know though really when I/we are not familiar with your site. Is your subject matter YMYL or something that needs proof of "authority" do you think?

[JS_Harris]

- I did not lose rank, I lost traffic, that's an important distinction

I'd be curious to know the political affiliation of the owners who have lost traffic to see if there is any quarelation.

I'm extra curious about that because social media has begun reducing visibility based on owner beliefs, even for things off site.

[paranoid android]

It's a slow but steady purge of independent and conservative content online. Only approved political, homogenized content and big corporate media will be allowed to survive (if google, fb and others have their way).

[JS_Harris]

Did this core update take into account the offline political views of the site owners? It's a valid question given what's happening in social media. How could the SEO community even begin to figure that out?

[jmorgan]

I did not lose rank, I lost traffic, that's an important distinction

So maybe it's just a seasonal thing? How does your traffic compare to the same time last year?

Did this core update take into account the offline political views of the site owners? It's a valid question given what's happening in social media. How could the SEO community even begin to figure that out?

I seriously doubt it. I'm not sure they have that much time to dig into who exactly owns which website unless you were extremely high profile in the political scene.

[C_Zalcman]

By the way Google today launched a new Chrome version and new extension Suspicious Site Reporter that allows anyone to flag suspicious sites.
But why Google mark as suspicious any site that isn’t a top 5,000 site or not visited for the last 3 months? This is not misleading people?
The worst day for millions small web sites.and web masters.

Screenshot from Chromium Blog:
[lh5.googleusercontent.com ]

[Milchan]

I'd be curious to know the political affiliation of the owners who have lost traffic to see if there is any quarelation.

Ive lost a good 30-40% of traffic but my site could not be considered to have any political affiliation at all - doesnt even touch on the subject in any way .

[ichthyous]

- I did not lose rank, I lost traffic, that's an important distinction

@JS It's the same for all of us, not just political sites. My rank and number of impressions has increased steadily for weeks, but traffic is still lower. The page is so crowded now that top three ranking terms simply do not bring in the clicks anymore. The entire first page is taken over with a block of four ads now on mobile....Google's profits are going to soar while we all shrivel up.

[koan]

Just because a site is political and lost traffic doesn't mean it has anything to do with political affiliation. Of course if it's too far from mainstream (left wing or right wing), then it might be classified as fringe, not credible and even dangerous (anti vaccinations, flat earthers, paranoid conspiracies, reptilian overlords, racist ideologies, etc). You can see the damage in terms of pubic education when you let irrational facebookers share sensational news instead of professional journalists presenting real news pieces. It reminds me of the fringe Conservapedia site that tried to compete with mainstream Wikipedia, it was a complete joke but I'm sure they cling to some persecution complex.

[pritz]

There might be a Google Update happen last night. Mobile traffic is getting down.

Mozcast shows 93, even SEMRush sensor shows 4.5.

[BushyTop]

@pritz Not seeing any changes yet, UK

[MayankParmar]

Semrush is 4.5, but everything remains dead as before. Nothing improved.

The new unannounced updates should drop later this month? There are two-three updates every month

[samwest]

@Mos- yes, MUCH less traffic...and of that tiny trickle, still mostly zombies.

@Bushytop, same here, three days of zero conversions. Traffic has been trending down in all analytics charts...just as it's been doing since 2010.

It just keep getting worse and worse, yet #1 listings have not moved. This is evidence that it's some other behavioral issue along with some kind of AI traffic shaping by dynamically reformatting the SERP layout for each user. It's subtle, but effective. Every day I see different layouts for the same searches. This is very clear when using multiple devices. Like I said before, it's like one big A,B,C,D,E,F,G...test. The AI has become adaptive. See: [youtu.be...]

Next stop: Zero.

[BushyTop]

@samwest - seeing any sign of significant changes today over on the US?

[sk7411]

Don’t want to sound excited but i see signs of hope today after the june core update .

[BushyTop]

@sk7411 Were you hit at the start of june? Where are you located?

[Danik]

In Spain this update hit very strong, start date 18 june
Semrush: [semrush.com...]

Google has lied to us and has not announced it