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.

[EditorialGuy]

now if you do NOT make the article for google you will rank no where.

That hasn't been my experience. YMMV.

[steffanlv]

The most likely reason is that his site is under an algorithmic penalty.

@aristotle, I don't believe that. "Algorithmic penalties" is just another name for the discounting of either content or backlinks or both. A good test to run is to use the domain name or Page Title and search to see where the site ranks for the those ranking signals. It's not universally applicable but it's a good general test.

My recommendation to MayankParmar is that he get a report from a tool like CORA and compare known ranking signals from his site versus the competitors he is referring to. @MayankParmar, if you would like me to run a report for keyword phrases in your article using CORA just let me know. Just mail me with your site URL, targeted keyword phrases and competitor URLs.

Edit: If anyone else would like a CORA report for a couple of keyword phrases for a website please let me know and include the information listed above.

[aristotle]

@aristotle, I don't believe that. "Algorithmic penalties" is just another name for the discounting of either content or backlinks or both.

Well we're always seeing reports here about an article that ranked near the top of page 1 for years, then suddenly overnight drops to page 5 or lower. The algorithm had judged that it deserves to be near the top of page 1, so if it no longer ranks it where it deserves to rank, to me that's a penalty.

[thecassiecorner]

Hello everyone,

Want your expert advice. Our website is still not showing on SERP. We didn't receive any email from Google regarding block our website. Want to increase visibility of my targeted keywords on SERP. Please help.

[Dimitri]

Our website is still not showing on SERP

Do you mean that you created a new site, and that it is still not yet showing in the SERP? Or do you mean your already existing site disappeared ?

[mosxu]

@TerrssaD

What you are describing are signs of the system running out of buyers and we all know what’s coming

[Milchan]

What you are describing are signs of the system running out of buyers and we all know what’s coming

I don't understand this to be honest. I don't see how the system is 'running out' of buyers - there is the same amount of buyers I would imagine.
What is happening is the search results and the way they are presented are meaning that legit and previously successful businesses no longer receive the same amount of traffic that they used to and that the traffic they do get is often not as relevant.

[EditorialGuy]

What is happening is the search results and the way they are presented are meaning that legit and previously successful businesses no longer receive the same amount of traffic that they used to and that the traffic they do get is often not as relevant.

There's a lot more competition today than there was a few years ago. I think many Webmaster World members tend to forget that.

[RedBar]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld thecassiecorner

Our website is still not showing on SERP.

If it's a relatively new site it could take months to gain a good SERPs position unless it has some really good, unique content, unique content these days generally means low traffic levels on specialist widget sites. High traffic volumes also means high competition therefore your content will need to be extremely good, unless you're a scraper and then G seems to not give a damn!

We didn't receive any email from Google regarding block our website.

Not too sure what you mean by this. I've been dealing with G for 20+ years and have never heard of them sending such emails, are you referring to AdSense?

[cnvi]

We tried google ads in June at the lowest possible CPC (not even trying to even compete with our competitors) just to see if it would affect organic - and it did.. up about 21% from May. So I wonder if you give G a little bit of $ if that affects organic rankings? I do not know the answer. Still, with our keyphrases some long tail, we have dozens of competitors paying over $8 cpc so the first page is full of ads and on mobile, its all ads no organic for page 1. How is that even legal?

[Dimitri]

How is that even legal?

I doubt that lawmakers (yet) had the idea to regulate the number of paid and organic listings at Search Engines...

[NickMNS]

@cnvi

just to see if it would affect organic - and it did..

That's amazing, I've seen a similar effect.
In May I started getting up on the right side of my bed, and my rankings dropped 30%. Last week I went back to getting up on the left and now I'm seeing a recovery.

[Milchan]

There's a lot more competition today than there was a few years ago. I think many Webmaster World members tend to forget that.

That is true and it is something I totally account for. I can accept that also as that is just the norm with doing business. But the effects of that are nothing in comparison with what google does.

[mosxu]

@Milchan

Yes buyers dry out, seasonality or Chinese manufacturers start fulfilling your type of product with Amazon.

A lot of things can happen but one thing is for sure that whatever buyers are left need to be fed to big advertisers or the click price collapses.

Very unlikely that buyers would even see your ads or even organic results can be personalised under a map or up and down to to influence conversions.

In my industry I see this a lot.

[whoa182]

John Mueller mentioned how Google algorithm might find it "weird" that the person is using a stock image for their photo on their website.

Interestingly (and I can't believe I never checked this before) one of my main competitors in the space I'm in uses a Stock photo (pretending that it's him) and is doing amazingly well from the last update.

I had my suspicions before.. it didn't seem authentic and was clearly an affiliate marketer who builds a lot of sites. Big sites link to him with his fake photo as a 'professional' in the area too.

Sigh lol

[jmorgan]

I am not even able to rank for a story that I published first and others linked back to me.

Could you provide an example of this?

[RareBit]

We gained massively from the 3rd June update, after tanking in nearly all updates since August last year. I did a lot of work on the site (Internal links / titles / reduced KW density and added a lot of related KW's / ensuring help pages were all indexed / shaved 2 seconds of my loading times on all key pages) nothing seemed to make a difference until that update. I don't know if I was just lucky and just happened to optimise for this update but my ranking for all main KW's have improved (except one on a low quality page) and have held since then.

I though I would share this to try give some hope as I was in a similar situation to a lot of people on here for the last 9 months!

[equidistant]

I did a lot of work on the site (Internal links / titles / reduced KW density and added a lot of related KW's / ensuring help pages were all indexed

Thanks for sharing.

Internal links: Did you add more internal links or reduce existing ones?
Titles: Did you make the titles less SEO/keyword centric?

[Jez123]

@rarebit. I am interested in how long after you made those changes that you noticed the improvement?

[RareBit]

Hi,

I added more internal links from ok ranking pages to categories & product pages. On the titles I just used my main KW then most relevant related KW then non SEO text like 'free delivery' or 'buy online' so less SEO centric than we were doing really as most titles repeated a variation of the main KW.

I also set up some exact match URLs which are now ranking either on their own for terms I could never get any coverage on or sit under my HP for a lot of terms giving double coverage, which is really helping now rankings have improved.

I started all these changes in October and saw slight improvements (1 or 2 positions) but every update just pushed us back down the SERPs. Site speed was improved towards the end of May and this lifted us a couple of places, but it wasn't until the 4th June that I saw a huge spike in traffic and rankings (8th to 3rd position overnight on my main KW and other lower volume KW's now sit 1st) and this has held - although I am dreading another big update..

[Jez123]

@rarebit. Thanks for the answer. Good luck. I really hope that sticks for you.

[aristotle]

but it wasn't until the 4th June that I saw a huge spike in traffic and rankings

That could happen if you suddenly escaped from a penalty.

From you description it probably would have been a site-wide penalty

[samwest]

Users up 4.1%, sessions up 3.8% Bounce Rate down 1.9% session duration up 17.9% - look, whoopie, a full recovery!
First time I've seen that kind of a positive trend in years....it's usually nothing but an ever downward slope. Is there hope? Doubt it...just wait till next week.

[jmorgan]

@samwest Compared to last week? It was around the 4th of July then.

[bophakh]

have to wait and see.

[Milchan]

now a bit of time has passed since June 1st update I can see a more accurate picture. GA showing I lost about 17% of traffic after that update. Although Since July 1st I saw a bit of recovery, with a small dip July4th/5th which is probably US holiday related. Overall the main thing for me in July is not just that traffic recovered a bit (not the full 17% I lost though) but that conversions started coming in again and have been steady. I have already reached about 60% of the revenue I did for all of June in the first 10 days of July. So at least the most important metric for me is up and Im less stressed due to that for the time being - gives me breathing space.

[StupidIntelligent]

@Milchan - Quality of traffic has increased for you.

[whoa182]

@aristotle

Just wanted to say thanks for your feedback... I took another look at all my posts, especially the older ones from early 2018, and it seems that in many cases I have repeated the H1 and H2 (identical or almost the same). And they are long-tail phrases, too.

I imagine that if it happens across a lot of pages, it looks spammy or could signal overoptimization to Google?

And probably looks weird to users as well... I don't even know why I did this, especially the type of posts it seems to be on most, which product pages like: "best widgets for xyz...." - when the title [h1] already describes what the post is about anyway. I'm sure they didn't need a reminder, even if the products were listed after a fairly long intro and buying guide.

Aside from that, I'm structuring the content a bit better and making it more scannable. Already made some good changes after some feedback from people.

Conversions and time on page are much better in the last two days. Could be luck, but we'll see...

Thanks again!

[thecassiecorner]

@Dimitri

Do you mean that you created a new site, and that it is still not yet showing in the SERP? Or do you mean your already existing site disappeared ?

Yes, we created a fresh new website before 3 months. My main concern is why we are not getting organic traffic & why our website is not showing in the 1-100 position for our targeted keywords. We already optimize all the necessary things for our website.

I'm a newbie here. Is it ok if I put my website here or Is there any other way? So, that you can do a proper analysis. Guide me.

[thecassiecorner]

@RedBar

First of all, heartily thank you for your guidance. It helped me a lot.

Not too sure what you mean by this. I've been dealing with G for 20+ years and have never heard of them sending such emails, are you referring to AdSense?

Actually, I read on many websites that if Google found any spammy/black hat activities on your website, it will ban that website. Person will get notification through webmaster if their website is banned or not. So, it's not related to AdSense.

Our main concern is after optimize all the necessary things, why our website is not getting organic traffic and why our website is not showing in the 1-100 position for our targeted keywords. Guide me.