Update Maverick : Google Updates and SERP Changes - July 2019

[Malanje]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4947706.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 1:17 pm on Jul 1, 2019 (utc -5)

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Many advocate that to combat reliance on visits through Google Search you need to build a brand. Obviously it is not enough.

[riccarbi]

I have a radical idea for Google. How about you let the public decide who to trust and who not to trust? The funny thing about living in a free society is that you are free to do pretty much anything you like as long as its not breaking the law! I know, I sound extremely radical right now.

That way, Einstein would have probably never left his job at the Bern patent office ....

[Eucalyptus]

Positive impact here. I'm managing an e-commerce platform for Netherlands, France and Germany and while the Netherlands has been stable for quite a while now, both Germany and France have shown a lot of fluctuation last months. Over the last week, rankings for both sites have significantly increased while most pages remained unchanged.

[Robert Charlton]

riccarbi, we both posted at almost the exact same time, so it's possible you never saw my post about why manufacturers often don't rank, which was directed at you. My comment had nothing to do with E-A-T or trust... it had to do with why some manufacturers aren't showing up, answering a post that you made earlier.

[seobiweb]

My website was very impressed with the update. It's bad for me. When will the rankings be fixed?

[Dimitri]

My website was very impressed with the update. It's bad for me.

Never heard that being "impressed" was something "bad" :)

When will the rankings be fixed?

Tomorrow at noon, UTC.

[riccarbi]

Robert Charlton. I agree with you. The point is that I, as a design professional, can no longer find what I am looking for in Google (Bing and DDG are only marginally better so I agree with you that is a general problem and not just Google's fault). In general, it looks like the web search has become largely ineffective and unuseful in some professional niches, to the point that I have been forced to revert back to paper catalogs for many building products and appliances.
Probably this means nothing to Google, Microsoft and the like since their business relies on a large, general audience and not on professionals. A look at Google Trends stats confirms that.
Therefore I don't mind about things such as "authoritativeness", "expertise", "authorship" and so on; despite what they say, I am pretty sure Google doesn't care a fig about them.

[Dimitri]

I would assume that professionals are using their own networks of partners and resources. My dentist for example, is not using Google to do researches about such or such thing, or to stay up to date, he refers to professional publications, seminars and exchange with other professionals.

[paranoid android]

I was searching yesterday for something sport related. I assumed the thing I was searching for was not that popular as I couldn't find the service I needed. Decided (after reading much discussion on here about it) to give DDG a try. I was stunned at just how many services i was presented with and it made me realize how utterly, utterly CRAP google is at being a search engine right now. All it does it give you the most bland, mainstream (vaguely related) drivel at the top and then bombard you with ads.

[Bluejeans]

Also something that happens ALOT in the travel niche is full time travel bloggers writing articles about a destination, often never even visiting the place or usually at best passing through for 1 to 2 weeks and then proclaiming themselves as 'experts' on that place. Ive lost count of the times ive seen these so called expert articles appearing in the top results yet they are full of incorrect information. They are NOT experts but they have lots of relevant links - just because lots of people don't know the info is wrong.

True story. One of the destinations I cover has completely overhauled its public transport system including, most critically, how to get back and forth from the airport. A couple of weeks ago I posted a lengthy article outlining the changes and how they affect travelers. The article is now on page 4 of Google. Every single result before mine, including the featured snippet, is either flatly wrong or you have to click around the website for a while to find the correct info. On DDG, I've been ranking number 4 for about a week. Pretty soon one of the big "authority" sites will stumble across my article and one of their miserably-paid authors will rewrite it and Google will rank them for it.

For this and other reasons, I've made DDG my new default search engine.

[ichthyous]

My site saw no changes in traffic, neither positive nor negative. This update didn't exist for me. Despite my slow and steady recovery of top-three ranking terms, my traffic has stabilized at a low level after months of declining. Ranking has recovered, traffic has not. I am starting to see some real inquiries this week however...after a frighteningly quiet June and July thus far. I am focusing my efforts on improving my site and marketing outside of Google.

[aristotle]

It's disappointing to read this thread and see that some members have serious mis-conceptions about how google's search results are determined.

[riccarbi]

I would assume that professionals are using their own networks of partners and resources. My dentist for example, is not using Google to do researches about such or such thing, or to stay up to date, he refers to professional publications, seminars and exchange with other professionals.

That's true also in my profession (architecture). Apart from more generic searches, it is almost impossible to find professional products on Google since they are relegated on page 15 and below. Yet, it was different some years ago, before Google's SERP started being filled with low-cost and uncertified Chinese products, Alibaba pages, eBay offers and the like.
To cut a long story short, this means that today's Google-led web, for many professional fields, is simply failing to work properly.

[Selen]

I commented in the past about DDG's rebranding, and maybe they think about it too (which would be a very good thing) - they own Duck.com - [duck.com...] which now redirect to the site - now it's not a problem for me to remember / type-in the name. In long term, they should market Duck.com only.

[Milchan]

I commented in the past about DDG's rebranding, and maybe they think about it too (which would be a very good thing) - they own Duck.com - [duck.com...] which now redirect to the site - now it's not a problem for me to remember / type-in the name. In long term, they should market Duck.com only.

Agree with this , the current name just doesnt quite sit right - duck.com would easily stick in peoples brains and im sure marketeers could push it better. They need a top marketing team and they could really make inroads into the market.

True story. One of the destinations I cover has completely overhauled its public transport system including, most critically, how to get back and forth from the airport. A couple of weeks ago I posted a lengthy article outlining the changes and how they affect travelers. The article is now on page 4 of Google. Every single result before mine, including the featured snippet, is either flatly wrong or you have to click around the website for a while to find the correct info. On DDG, I've been ranking number 4 for about a week. Pretty soon one of the big "authority" sites will stumble across my article and one of their miserably-paid authors will rewrite it and Google will rank them for it.

Yes certainly an issue in that respect and very common for articles to become outdated like that but I would say that is at least more understandable from googles/search engines point of view - having to know what content is at risk of getting outdated and what stays relevant over time is pretty complicated for many subjects. I have more of an issue that many of these travel bloggers are being seen as authorities in the first place. I know for a fact they simply pass through like your average traveler would and do not undertake the research like say a travel guide writer would. Incidentally travel writers will usually use local travel operators, hotel owners etc for a lot of their material.
It is patently clear that the people that work in the travel industry at the local level are going to be more expert than the travel blogger couple made up of an IT guy and a marketing girl (a very common combo for this) that have been traveling around on freebie tours they have manage to get from operator in return for publicity (exactly how the entire travel blogger industry works in a nutshell). Yet , travel blogs dominate, take many of the top serp positions and mostly are riddled with incorrect info.

It could be that Travel is one area were a future algo change will hit like the medic update did at some point. Who knows. Also im sure there are plenty of niches with the same kind of issues and I thinking there must be a better way.

Maybe having some kind of label/icon on results that show verified professionals as being so. Im not sure and would have to think about it more, but for the example discussed in this thread about qualified doctors maybe a solution would not to penalize the sites offering alternative solutions but to simply have the articles that are written by qualified doctors with a Bold Q or V icon that indicates the article is written by a certified/ licensed person and has been verified as such thus leaving the searcher to decide what they want to read, dismiss, believe etc based on their own decisions and not what google decides they should be seeing.

[EditorialGuy]

This has nothing to do with a professional reputation, these days.

Google Search indexes and ranks Web pages, not professional reputations. Still, Google continues to take citations seriously, as its Google Scholar Metrics suggest:
[scholar.google.com...]

[Dimitri]

Also a "reputation" is suggestive ... this is why Search Engines are basing (trying) their algorithms on "popularity" , which is different.

[iamlost]

I find it amusing that while it was the various travel bookings platforms that almost ran the once numerous and lucrative travel agents out of business I now use one to get me the seat on the flight at the time I want at a reasonable price, similar with hotel et al.

Would be hysterical of business travel generally moves away from them; not soon at least but fun to imagine.

Bl**dy irritating algos (and I use algos and ML on my sites)

[Milchan]

all the large travel platforms like viator, tripadvisor (the fact they are allowed to do bookings whilst being a very dodgy review site is whole other thread), expedia etc are not good places to book as they are generally around 20% to 30% more expensive. Even on booking.com for the most part you can get cheaper prices or better deals by booking with the hotel directly.
Whilst some of the flight engines can get you good prices sometimes it is often not the case plus so often they show cheap prices that are not available to entice you in.
Unfortunately people think booking with these platforms is a good idea simply because they are a big brand option although many people are realizing it is not when they find out how much more they have overpaid when they arrive.

[southernguy]

Its not only travel sites that are expensive the same goes for Amazon but people continuously buy from then thinking they are getting a great deal. I always price shop for just about anything and I have always been able to find it cheaper from independent sources.

[MayankParmar]

@flatfile that's what I feel. Only yesterday I broke a scope on a future product and a dozen of big publications linked to me (all dofollow). I am last on Google News and nowhere on SERPs. That was not cased before the update, I did rank and appear on Google News/Discover and fetched 50K+ views to such article overnight.

For other normal blog posts where no big sites are competing, I have been outranked by a content aggregator of a competitor. I was even outranked by Reddit post which linked to my article, though it did rank after a day and half.

Big publications, readers trust my contents, but Google can't. I don't know even know what to fix. The same site ranked before the update.

[zeus]

the view of EAT from Google is just ridiculous, a person without any degree,... is also able to find a cure for a problem. They really shot out A LOT of quality content. With Google EAT, I recommend nobody to write any article about a topic they dont have a high degree in. Which of cause is totally crap, but its not worth you time if you want to rank on Google. Lets hope DDG and other SE keep getting more visits, DDG is at 40.000.000 a day now.

Im speculating on removing 60 articles I have created over the last 7 years, which have really help a lot of people, but I think thats the reason I dont rank that well. Or maybe just add a no follow on it, be cause my visitors love the articles. I will try that, this or next week.

[heisje]

Google : the one everyone loves to hate.
Well, try to visualize where you would have been today solely (and sorely) dependent on the likes of Bing, Duck, Yahoo, etc clowns.
Get it?

.

[cabsco]

@heisje Nope, I'll say it this way "Google made everyone loves to hate them". I lost 75% of my traffic overnight and there was "no hint", "no warnings", "no pointer" of any sort prior to that demolition from the almighty G. That's an archaic sort of action in this modern age where there are law and order. I compared that action to a company firing half of its staff overnight without any notice. It is simply archaic no matter how much anyone twist it.

[Martin Ice Web]

This last update took away 95% from converting traffic. All that has left is zombie traffic. And this is for 5 e-com pages that we manage (germany).
On the other side amazon sales are 3 times more since this update. This itmes are just that dropped from google traffic. Soi it seems that poeple not finding us on google are going to amazon right away.

Nice way to make amazon a little bit bigger though.

[zeus]

on your ecom site do you have articles

[samwest]

Back to oddly clustered conversion patterns where we get several sales withing a few minutes of each other, then crickets the rest of the day. Not complaining, but it very strange. Feels like a traffic quota.

On the bright side, this means that site conversion rate is high, because even these small bursts generate some sales....nevertheless, it just pizza money level. The lions share of traffic still goes to gorgs interests.

[skaterpunk]

nevertheless, it just pizza money level.

I would think this is the next bubble burst. At what point, even for the hobbyist, do people just fold up shop and move on with their lives instead of spending so much time scraping for lunch money.

[riccarbi]

Feels like a traffic quota

Shhh, don't say it too loud. There are people here ready to tell ya you don't understand how Google works, that traffic not increasing is your fault, etc, etc...

[Milchan]

Google : the one everyone loves to hate.
Well, try to visualize where you would have been today solely (and sorely) dependent on the likes of Bing, Duck, Yahoo, etc clowns.
Get it?

no , dont get it. How can anyone visualize with any accuracy what is essentially an alternate reality? and what is the point anyway.

[riccarbi]

Google : the one everyone loves to hate.
Well, try to visualize where you would have been today solely (and sorely) dependent on the likes of Bing, Duck, Yahoo, etc clowns.
Get it?

No problem, I was there when Google came out of the blue. Until that moment (in the late 1990s), I had been using Altavista for years. Google was better than Altavista. Marginally better. Yet, even that small advantage had been enough to erase all competitors within a few years.
I honestly think the only really groundbreaking things brought by Google in the last 20 years are Maps and Street View, the rest has never been that fantastic, and its SERP quality is now slightly worse than that old, primitive Altavista search, to tell the truth.