Google Updates and SERP Changes - November 2019

[engine]

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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)

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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.

[dethfire]

Down 30%, this is real bad

[RedBar]

<snip>
All the different results I am seeing are from 2017 to 2019 with only two from their forum, one dated June 2019 and the other August 2019.

Have you cleaned your cache and history?

[edited by: goodroi at 6:19 pm (utc) on Nov 13, 2019]
[edit reason] Please no specific keywords [/edit]

[samwest]

What a difference a day makes: bounce up 30% today...no filters? yeah...right.

(oh wait, it's my birthday today...must be affecting the entire planet)...lmao

[engine]

@samwest

How does Google measure the success of each update? Is it accurate, quality search results or increased revenue? Right...dumb question.

There's the challenge.
I would imagine Google looks at the big data of click trends as they happen, along with their own individual SERPs tests.

[seomotionz]

I just don't get it. Why SEMrush and other tools aren't much reporting these days. There are many changes in Google algorithm, then why can't they detect it?

[RedBar]

then why can't they detect it?

Meltdown of their own algos? :-)

[glakes]

why can't they detect it?

Because all of these SEO tools run on servers and Google knows it.

[SweetPotato]

Wat. Everything runs on servers.

[samwest]

Since BERT, Adsense conversions have skyrocketed while sales conversions have dropped to zero. Seeing better traffic but it only converts on Google interests.

[KrystianSzastok]

Anyone noticed a potential reversal today? There was a mini bump in some sites I saw lose visibility and a small decrease or a big in some, that gained!

[mosxu]

@samwest

It sounds like a human reviewer has classified your website as a informational resource with Adsense potential not a shop.

Funny enough analytics used to give me messages to put Adsense on my site.

AI needs to become transparent there must be a law protecting small businesses against “unknown practices”

[BushyTop]

another mess... just keeps getting worse.

[jediviper]

Some good increase in traffic (25-30%) -according to Ahrefs- at Australia and NL for one of the websites that I am managing, since the 11th of November.
No changes at the website happened recently.

[seomotionz]

@KrystianSzastok Yup you are right. The traffic that we gained yesterday. Vanished today.

@BushyTop Today I saw ads in the SERP's or show should I say "SERP of the ads". Previously from what I have seen so far after Friday is that ads were all over the first page. But then they got relaxed, I mean in the second and third pages there were atleast organic results, irrelevant ones but organic. Not now even the forth and fifth pages are flooded with ads. Every page has got 7-8 ads out 9-10 results. Now, I am thinking how much more messed up can it get?

[System]

The following 2 messages were cut out to new thread by goodroi. New thread at: google/4972443.htm [webmasterworld.com]
11:02 am on Nov 14, 2019 (utc -5)

[Selen]

I normally never click on ads, but with this current Google or Bing search layout I clicked one today because I didn't notice it was an ad. I hit the back button after a few seconds since the landing page wasn't what I was looking for. Advertisers may notice a higher CTR on their ads, but the ROI isn't likely to match.

[whoa182]

Is there a way to share with Google Search Team some search results without showing your keywords publicly on Twitter or Google forums?

It's shocking to me how a website (powered by AI) is able to rank as of right now #2 and #3 for a "best widget supplement" keyword phrase and two of these pages have different URLs but are essentially the same with the products in a different order. All 10 products are affiliate links/images and the description is pulled right from Amazon itself. There is precisely zero original content on the page.

It really frustrates me when Google says just put out "great content" and then these kinds of sites take your spot after the update.

How can they get it so wrong? :( Whatever happened around the 8th November was a terrible update.

[whoa182]

I looked at the history of the spam website that I wrote about above.

Here is its traffic now: [imgur.com...]

[ValX]

Whatever the change was it was huge for me - almost a doubling of google organic referrals.

[seomotionz]

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

[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.