Google Updates and SERP Changes - November 2019

[engine]

---

System: The following 8 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4966830.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 4:01 pm on Nov 1, 2019 (PDT -8)

---

Not what i'd seen, it wasn't even that.
I'd class myself as an experienced searcher, and, sometimes, when I look at Google's serps it's trying to pre-empt my intent. More often than not, it's presenting either highly-optimised sites, or, in this case, it was all wrong. Something's broke.

It works that way these days.

I don't ever use "best" as that is spammed out.

[ValX]

Everybody whines and blames Google, and I might get stuffed too. Right before Panda - I had a huge bursts of traffic - that really supplemented income - after Panda my traffic was a fraction of what it was originally. When Penguin was implemented I got whacked again, and then strangely re-released when Penguin was updated - which was a surprise as I was using techniques that Penguin was meant to prevent (regarding Penguin I think Google decided that they would only let you go so far - as everyone was doing it). You really have no choice but to wait it out.

[ValX]

Everybody whines and blames Google, and I might get stuffed too. Right before Panda - I had a huge bursts of traffic - that really supplemented income - after Panda my traffic was a fraction of what it was originally. When Penguin was implemented I got whacked again, and then strangely re-released when Penguin was updated - which was a surprise as I was using techniques that Penguin was meant to prevent (regarding Penguin I think Google decided that they would only let you go so far - as everyone was doing it). You really have no choice but to wait it out.

[jmorgan]

Soon google will be a place of mistrust for everybody. Like the politicians nobody really believes what they say.

As I said in my previous post, Google is no longer a search engine, but a Q&A platform which it currently, arguably, does better than anyone.

Until someone else does this better than Google (and that includes integration with mobile devices and virtual assistants), they will NOT be supplanted by a competitor, and will continue dominating.

All these "Google doesn't rank my website, therefore Google will fail" statements, in my view, is just bravado or wishful thinking.

You can, in part, blame the whole "Siri" phenomenon on Google making their paradigm shift from "search engine" to "Q&A platform". So, yeah, f**k you, Siri. :)

[w_hebb]

< moved from another location >


Very interesting article on Inc [inc.com...] seems the Nov 12 update is causing many to see 30-40% drops in traffic just as we enter the peak shopping season. Google says it is "business as usual".

We see exactly a 40% drop and traffic is not converting either. Adwords conversions have suddenly stopped as well, indicative that the traffic we are seeing is garbage.

Wonderful.

Anyone else seeing this?

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 11:42 am (utc) on Nov 15, 2019]
[edit reason] Moved from another location.... [/edit]

[goodroi]

Mods Note: Let's be careful to stay on-topic. If you want to discuss something not directly related to Google's latest update please start a new thread.

[seomotionz]

As I said in my previous post, Google is no longer a search engine, but a Q&A platform which it currently, arguably, does better than anyone.

@jmorgan As, I also said in my previous post. That I don't disagree with you. I completely agree. I just gave a piece of my mind.

Anyway, I saw a huge spike in direct traffic today with 90%+ bounce rate. So, I dug in analytics and found that the traffic's 'Network Domain' is google.com

[mosxu]

[cnbc.com...]

So what is the impact so far on the real traffic? Is it more converting traffic going to their dogs? Why are conversions disappearing during updates?

Surely losing to Amazon 5 million ready to buy searchers every year would impact their business but this is gradually happening.

[w_hebb]

Has anyone seen any info on the logic of the Nov. 12 update? It seems to have hit some sectors more than others.

[samwest]

Once again traffic is back to drip while SERPs remain virtually unchanged. I now firmly believe that certain low quality, low EAT but high ad density sites are hard coded into certain niches. These sites and their placement in multiple spots on page one have the desired diversionary effect.
In my niche, all the compelling useful info has been stripped out, replaced by boring ad filled aggregations. The effect is chilling on traffic and hence conversions.

[mosxu]

@samwest

Very interesting experiment with Adsense it does tell you that your website is not allowed to compete for undisclosed reasons.

It means ready to buy searchers will not even see your website when searching. The fact that you still see your organic positions in incognito mode it does not mean buyers do as well.

[NickMNS]

Interesting AdSense theory, unfortunately it may apply specifically to your website, but not to mine or many others. I have a website that shows Adsense, and my traffic has been obliterated over the past few updates (since March 2018). Only the latest update on Nov 12 has my traffic gone up, as result I am now at about 25% of my peak traffic. Even that uptick is inconsequential in the whole grand scheme of things.

[heisje]

Back then we used to say : whenever there is traffic there will be sales. Never heard of zombies at the time. Progress!

.

[samwest]

@ Nick & Mos, how are your positions? I find it hard to believe that I don't appear when I can call any one of my friends around the US and they see it at position #1 and #2 for the term, as well as all the other suggested terms. Are you saying that those for who Google has telepathically read their mind are seeing different results? That's some true FM at work there and would be totally anti-competitive in nature. I have a hard time buying that. I think the Seobook article that was moved over to the Brands Vs Ads thread explains this wicked wizardry much better...but apparently the mods don't want this topic polluted by that explanation. ;)

[sk7411]

It's been a roller coaster ride for us since Nov 11 . Yesterday was good but bleeding bad today! I guess the algo is still juggling sites.

[samwest]

@sk - yes, I see "Interesting Finds" is once again gone. It's Google SERP Roulette for sure. Traffic is bouncing back here for the moment, but it's in flux everywhere. Enjoy it while it lasts, because it never lasts.

[Shepherd]

[yahoo.com...]

Pichai said that Google had seen "a coordinated effort to share our conversations outside of the company after every TGIF." As a result, it will move to monthly all-hands meetings and rethink how they're structured.

Has Bill Lambert been marked safe yet?

[mosxu]

@samwest

1. Avoid anyone who visited your website ever before or is related to your “phone book” (this is not spooky but this is how how a webmaster always sees their results)

2. Avoid your mobile phone being tracked. Do not take it with you at all. A lot of apps still send your location.

Now you will be opened up to the world of personalisation. High quality profiled buyers who do not even see your rankings or your ads.

The personalisation of every click a buyer has made on websites during the years has been stored. There is no way you going to know that the buyer has searched for your brand and your site or your ad showed.

There is no proof and no guarantee you show.

[mosxu]

And forgot to add it is about the buyer funnel technically when the buyer searches first mostly only a few preferred accounts show then other accounts/websites keep cascading if conversions don’t happen and again need to mention if the buyer visited your site before than you may show too or show under a map.

[samwest]

@mos... I personally think people just have too many options above the fold and the first organic result. Google is also popping my home page in and out randomly all day now. There's too many choices and not enough interested humans.

[mosxu]

@samwest

Maybe your niche is different but running tests is going to give you the answers to what happened to your business.

[seomotionz]

Is anyone seeing increased activity from zombie like traffic or traffic which are generated from bots? My main site is flooded with them since yesterday.

[StupidIntelligent]

Google is scaling back its weekly all-hands meetings after leaks, Sundar Pichai tells staff. [theverge.com...]

[System]

The following 3 messages were cut out to new thread by goodroi. New thread at: WSJ Article on with Google Search [webmasterworld.com]
10:44 am on Nov 18, 2019 (utc -5)

[edited by: goodroi at 3:50 pm (utc) on Nov 18, 2019]

[StupidIntelligent]

Something is cooking up again this weekend. We'll know by Monday.

[goodroi]

Mods Note: If you post something off-topic, there is a good chance it will be removed. This thread is only for discussing Google updates & SERP changes. This thread is a much more valuable resource to all of us when we stay on topic :)

If you want to talk about something else please start a new thread.

[jmorgan]

...changing fine tuning auto-complete to eliminate hate speech

DDG has "Rian Johnson destroyed Star Wars" as an auto-suggest, but Google won't allow it. LOL.

[whoa182]

Pretty sure that there's another big update happening. One of my sites that benefited from the update around the time of BERT has totally lost rankings and it's sitewide. I was about to start working on it again as I had abandoned it. Guess not anymore.

The major swings in rankings like this because of Google is simply ridiculous. It seems like the algorithm is back to ignoring keywords again lol.

[seomotionz]

It is much easier, cheaper and time-saving to read the analysis of others, and have them sort through all the BS for me. FREE!

@SallySitts It is exactly correct what you told. Mostly the large news houses produces fake or completely irrelevant news, which are are nothing but to fuel any propaganda of any larger issue.

Anyway since Friday traffic is mostly bot like. Yesterday real traffic did came back but stayed only for a little while. Anyone else noticing these changes?

[hippypink]

@whoa182

Sounds like you mean: bestreviews.guide

[semrush.com...]

Yes, a bizarre anomaly that doesn't seem like it can last over the long run. However, they generate a lot of PPC traffic, which therefore, must be a signal.

[hippypink]

Oh, and I had 2 sites drop by 50% - 75% last week, and previously they were the leaders in the space in terms of content quality, links, and age.

[cheegum]

makeuseof.com (down 2M)
lifewire.com (down 2M)
inc.com (down 2M)

I can't make any sense what this update has targeted other than guessing that someone at Google gave far too much value to a specific signal which is to value previously under rated sites reason being.

[SnowMan68]

Definitely feels like they are turning the knobs again. We jumped another 5% yesterday. Hourly numbers were consistently up from last week, which was a big increase from the past 8 Saturdays. Almost everything is in the tail.

[southernguy]

Was curious and just did a few searches in my niche as well as others for certain keywords and using different VPN and proxies.

Two of the searches were health related and results for first results came from

ezinearticles.com (this was a rich snippet)
medium.com
Weebly
fr.facebook.com

Google's definitely has got it going on.

One of my sites saw an increase of about 40% traffic over the weekend but 0 conversions.

[SweetPotato]

Google love for medium.com is unfounded.
I can write any nonsense there and rank 1st.
There isn't even moderation, anything goes.
Literally!

[SweetPotato]

Weebly has a huge pure spam issue with autogenerated bot pages. Yet Google ranks it as GOLD.

Domain authority has way way WAY too much weight than it should have.

[whoa182]

@HippyPink

Nah, I was referring to this: [semrush.com...]

I messaged Danny with it as an example. He never responded but maybe he passed it on. It's been sorted now and it doesn't rank for any of the keywords I was looking at and SEMRush spike is much lower already.

@SweetPotato

I agree. People are taking advantage of the fact that medium is ranking based on the authority of the domain and then linking back to their afillate or sales pages.

Is there are a consensus when search seemed better and fairer? I think prior to March 2018, Google was a lot better (or definitely before August 2018.)

[samwest]

@snowman - I am seeing a similar longtail trend. Totally different results in mobile vs. Desktop too. Definite tweaks in process...as usual.

[samwest]

Wow, what a day of Zombies. nearly every visit was one-and-done with 0s on-page time as measured by Matomo. Is that even possible? Triple checked the server page load times and nothing wrong other than very poor visitor quality or targeting. Again, one has to ask "how does it turn on and off like a switch?".

[topaz]

crawling up 300% over the last 3 days. Something else coming ?

[SnowMan68]

Gbot crawling has been running 3X since November 5th.

[seomotionz]

Google love for medium.com is unfounded.
I can write any nonsense there and rank 1st.
There isn't even moderation, anything goes.
Literally!

@SweetPotato Don't jinx it man ! Medium sends traffic to many of my sites. Yeah sure, they are not much targeted and didn't convert so well but sure they can generate ad revenue via adsense.

Wow, what a day of Zombies.

@samwest I am seeing this type of bot & zombie activity since Friday.

[RareBit]

@samwest - the only time I see that (traffic but 0 time on site) is if someone is trying to take my sites down with a DDOS or similar. They hit the page but no assets are loaded

[samwest]

@RB probably not the case because hits are several minutes apart and have no effect on the server loading. Plus, they are all from Google...not direct traffic.

One day I have splashes of live buyers...the next day or two it shuts down or is all Zombie. No consistency as in the days of natural unfettered traffic flow.

[seomotionz]

@samwest If you are relying on Google for traffic then it is the new way. Some days will be good (or not so good) and some days will be very very bad.

[RareBit]

Ah ok, makes sense. I get 2k+ hit per per second when we are under attack..and all direct as you mention

[MarvinG]

Gained good and converting traffic after the september update. All gone since this november update. Traffic dropped 20% :(

[glakes]

Just removed all our Adwords bid adjustments to the plus side. Though we had planned on using Adwords for branding until 1/1/2020, we are accelerating our timeline to depart that marketplace. Google's traffic is pure rubbish, whether organic or paid. I can't see wasting any money even for branding as I believe traffic coming from Google is so poorly matched to our products that even for branding it does not make sense.

[SnowMan68]

@glakes

We recently reduced our Adwords budget by about 50%. It was a joke, our branded searches cost us upwards of $12-$15 per click because our competitors bid it up trying to have exposure for our own keywords. I'd rather lose the business, than lose money or break even on those conversions, while Google continues to profit at our expense.

We've been doing this for about a month and the best part is we've lost very few sales, but saved thousands on just the brand searches alone.

[glakes]

We've been doing this for about a month and the best part is we've lost very few sales, but saved thousands on just the brand searches alone.

Our conversion history suggests entirely shutting down Adwords would not have much of a direct impact on our bottom line either. However, I plan to take the money being wasted in Adwords and reallocate that to other marketing channels that are producing results. I'll have some internal resistance to this, but I can't ignore the poor results from Google anymore. Even for branding, Google is just not worth it.

If you sell products and not services, you may want to take a look at Google's shopping actions where they take a fixed 12% commission from each sale. That may bring some predictability to conversion costs since the PPC model is dead IMO. I've yet to jump into shopping actions, but my guess is that Google will heavily manipulate that in such a way that converting traffic is driven to what makes Google the most money and not necessarily what is best for the consumer. In other words, follow Amazon's lead.

We're just not seeing many conversions from Google at all. Lots of organic traffic, mixed in with Adwords traffic, but high bounce rates and literally no conversions. Does not matter if it is Adwords or organic. I know some have indicated there may have been an update this weekend, but I can't tell. The only way for me to tell is a sniff test - how bad does the rubbish put out today by Google smell? Rotten just like yesterday, the week before, the month before, etc.

[StupidIntelligent]

Anyone else getting fake googlebot visits from countries like France and Ireland?