Google September 2019 Core Update

[MayankParmar]

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System: The following 22 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4962430.htm [webmasterworld.com] by brett_tabke - 9:39 am on Sep 24, 2019 (cst -5)

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Holy #*$!, official core update will be rolling out later today!

[twitter.com...]

[samwest]

Does anyone remember the penalty that occurs when Google removes your home page yet sub pages remain? All my images have also been removed. The remaining images that appears are all stolen versions on scraper sites....which is infuriating.

[JorgeV]

Hello @samwest :

- Does Googlebot still visite your site? at the same rate?
- In the GSC, does it work if you do a "fetch as googlebot", on your home page?

I had a similar misadventure several years ago, when using Cloudflare. My host, was blocking some of the requests, because they were all from IPs from CF, and the anti-ddos system of my host thought it was an attack, and was mitigating it. As a result, Googlebot was, randomly, not able to access my pages.

[samwest]

This is a real head scratcher. My GSC performance graph is showing a considerable uptick in impressions and a simultaneous decrease in clicks which just means I'm lower on the page and poorly targeted for search. Makes sense when my home page has been omitted.
[imgur.com...]

[TeresaD]

I have found my problem, nearly 2k pages have dropped out of the index. When I live test the URL it is mobile friendly and can be indexed so no problems or reason for them to have dropped out.

[TeresaD]

It will not let me edit, in site:search I have 30 pages of indexed products. No sales in 4 days....I give up trying to figure it out it is frying my brain!

[EditorialGuy]

I just did a comparison of September 24 - October 12, 2019 with the equivalent period last year, and the numbers of users and sessions on our main travel-planning site are nearly identical. Pageviews are down a bit, probably because (1) mobile is now a larger percentage of our traffic, and (2) I've consolidated a number of our top-performing multi-page articles into single pages in recent months to accommodate mobile users who prefer scrolling to clicking.

Obviously, there have been some changes in the site's content over the past year (some pages added, others gone),. but for the most part, it's an "evergreen" site with the same top-performing pages this year as last.

[Milchan]

yesterday terrible for conversions, today even worse . Nothing

[BushyTop]

@samwest we have the exact same pattern. clicks and impressions have always been tightly bound. Now there are huge discrepancies.

[zeus]

samwest - I think google filters you be cause they think the other content is the original.

[ichthyous]

@JorgeV thanks for the info, I suspected a while back that something similar was going on with cloudflare on my site because the number of inaccessible pages seemed too high. How did you resolve this? Did you have to disable your host's brute force attack rules on the server?

[ichthyous]

@samwest I am seeing a constant state of flux in GSC. From the March update forward clicks and impressions went totally out of whack, and recently this September seem to be more aligned again. Since the end of September I've been getting more inquiries, but still nowhere near what it was before the March and especially early June updates. We are just the guinea pigs Google uses to test which algo updates drive more and more profit into their own hands. Whether our businesses survive or not is completely inconsequential to Google.

[EditorialGuy]

We are just the guinea pigs Google uses to test which algo updates drive more and more profit into their own hands. Whether our businesses survive or not is completely inconsequential to Google.

Google's target audience consists of searchers, not businesses that rely on organic search traffic. Even if Google did care about businesses surviving on free organic traffic, why would it want to favor John or Jane's business over Bob or Bobbi's? Search results aren't a zero-sum game: For every site that loses in a Google update, there's another that gains.

[samwest]

I think google filters you be cause they think the other content is the original.

Well, then Google is wrong. I mean if they can't determine the post date and simply use that then they are not as sophisticated as we think. On a brighter note, it seems that my images are starting to reappear. Like I said in the separate posts about this, after all these years, core updates still look like an old fashioned bubble sort. [en.wikipedia.org...]

[JesterMagic]

For every site that loses in a Google update, there's another that gains.

Not always true. If Google adds more widgets or feature snippet data to the search results then every one looses except Google (who are not part of the results but displays info from the result pages). Google's main goal is to keep users on Google until they either click on an advertisement or click on another Google property.

[JesterMagic]

Notice the last few days Google bot has been visiting my site about 4 times the normal amount. It's also thanksgiving weekend in Canada so that will affect things a bit for some off us.

[BushyTop]

@jestermagic I was literally just coming on to report the same. Huge bot activity too

[Milchan]

Not always true. If Google adds more widgets or feature snippet data to the search results then every one looses except Google (who are not part of the results but displays info from the result pages). Google's main goal is to keep users on Google until they either click on an advertisement or click on another Google property.

Was going to reply with something similiar. There are plenty of reported stats that show that google is increasing the number of clicks that go to google property sites or non click searches (via the answer boxes etc). They clearly have a tactic of trying to force businesses to pay for advertising by driving down their traffic levels and conversions. With that in mind also, it would make sense to have the organic part of the serps serving less relevant sites which will drive users to search again or click on the ads

[EditorialGuy]

Not always true. If Google adds more widgets or feature snippet data to the search results then every one looses except Google (who are not part of the results but displays info from the result pages

"Answer boxes," rich snippets, etc. may be a mixed blessing for sites that provide quick answers from the public domain (the capital of North Dakota, the current price of gold, the director of Titanic), the temperature in Timbuktu), but for sites that offer more depth--and that attract users who want more depth--they can be a great source of traffic

[skaterpunk]

I mean if they can't determine the post date and simply use that then they are not as sophisticated as we think.

The published date can be changed to whatever you want it to be. I'm not an advanced coder, yet in WP the date can be changed in each article, or I can go into cpanel and modify the dates.

Have you checked the code and compared dates?

[RedBar]

The published date can be changed to whatever you want it to be.

Agreed however surely the date ought to be the one G first spiders?

I believe they used to do that many years ago for articles and images however that bit of very important historical recording seems to have gone by the wayside over the years hence the proliferation of scraper information out-ranking the actual original.

[Milchan]

"Answer boxes," rich snippets, etc. may be a mixed blessing for sites that provide quick answers from the public domain (the capital of North Dakota, the current price of gold, the director of Titanic), the temperature in Timbuktu), but for sites that offer more depth--and that attract users who want more depth--they can be a great source of traffic

That is (was?) certainly true also. Whenever Ive had the featured snippet at the top it bring more traffic although I don't think "People also asked" boxes bring much traffic to sites as they post a question and answer it in one go (not the question being searched for and often different enough to not result in people wanting to go deeper). The reason I have a was? in brackets though is that it seems to me that the featured snippets no longer appear , or at least far less frequently than before (I couldnt get one to appear then just trying with various searches in my niche) and that serp space is entirely taken up with more ads now. Another example of google putting revenue before user experience , as they always said the featured snippets were a user experience enhancement (which ads certainly are not)

[samwest]

Results continue to bounce. I'm in, I'm out. Round and round she goes, where it stops nobody knows. Absolutely zero traffic all day. John Mu must have responded to my twitter post and "fixed" the site for good.

[edited by: samwest at 2:09 pm (utc) on Oct 15, 2019]

[topaz]

Just the opposite i'm seeing. Absolutely no movement for the last few days. Not much traffic from AMP/Discover. Slow indexing, stale results in Google News.

[samwest]

Today I'm uninstalling Google Analytics. It's pointless and maddening to watch this circus. Time to just walk away and let the chips fall where they may. There's no point in fighting this monster. Maybe I'll pick up a few ms in site speed.

[BushyTop]

:(

[zeus]

samwest - Then try Matomo its also free and does a good job. I have never used Google tools, but for 10 years Matomo (Piwik)

[RedBar]

Today I'm uninstalling Google Analytics.

Only a decade behind me:-)!)!

[Milchan]

I will be setting up a new server soon and I am going to install my own analytics like nagios or icinga on that and ditch GA also so I know for sure what is the real picture. I will take a look at Matamo on premise also though as it also looks like a good option.

After several days of next to nothing yesterday I had a decent day with conversions to decent pre update levels. Today google has realised the mistake and turned of the internet again and nothing what so ever. Anyone that wants to tell me there is not manipulation / throttling / filters - what ever you want to call it - going on is completely deluded (or works for google)

[skaterpunk]

Today I'm uninstalling Google Analytics…Maybe I'll pick up a few ms in site speed.

You should gain more than a few ms. Analytics is script heavy.

[samwest]

Good news for WordPress operators - Matomo for WordPress! Time to dump GA. Nice! [matomo.org...]