Google Updates and SERP Changes - December 2019

[glakes]

This post and the following 3 posts were moved from Nov 2019 thread [webmasterworld.com...]
by not2easy at 5:42 pm (utc) on Dec 1, 2019

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Solid quantity of traffic coming from Google, but it's all rubbish. I'd likely have a better conversion rate with the same quantity of traffic using pop-unders on unrelated sites.

Bing/Yahoo are converting well and Amazon is solid as always. Just another day of Google proving their irrelevance in my ecommerce industry...


[edited by: not2easy at 5:42 pm (utc) on Dec 1, 2019]

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 8:44 pm (utc) on Dec 2, 2019]
[edit reason] split cleanup [/edit]

[RedBar]

By heck, it's completely dead in my widgetworld today ... I don't even have ONE piece of email spam, in fact, not one email!

Hopefully I will now get the chance to get caught-up on loadsa stuff.

[StupidIntelligent]

@strummer19 - Is your traffic all gone?

[HereWeGo123]

Last year beginning on the week before Christmas, traffic was down by about 25%-30%, and then reverted back to normal the day after Christmas, December 26. The same pattern began this year as well. I'm sure many moving variables come into play, also depending on niches, etc. I'm hoping it's the same this year too. I know the impeachment hearings and debate all last week did not help traffic (at least not in our case).

[strummer19]

@StupidIntelligent -80% with Google.....

[RedBar]

I was contemplating closing some speciality widget sites because I've been scraped so much that, especiallly in the G image SERPs, I'm no longer there ... scrapers have won HOWEVER I have to ask for what benefit?

They don't have advertising on their sites, they can't offer the product, they have nothing there except for copies of my images.

What the hell is the point of these sites? The sites are useless yet Google ranks their copied images versus my original ones.

I have the product, they do not, in fact many do not even offer the product ... and then again, I check other search engines and every one of them delivers the correct result WITHOUT ANY scraper in sight!

Google SUCKS more than it ever, ever has done.

[hopepro]

Positions have been very fluctuated since the past 5 days and so as the traffic. Google is still limiting the traffic to my site. I guess this is not over yet?

[Michelle Ecker]

Google seo algorithm update?
Traffic drops by 50% As of December 18, 2019
what about you
What has been updated in the Google algorithm recently

[edited by: not2easy at 4:01 am (utc) on Dec 23, 2019]
[edit reason] thread splice cleanup [/edit]

[OldFaces]

You're the 1st I saw mention a potential Algo shift. For us Michelle we saw a 50% traffic dive to all pages contained within a specific url folder (e.g. /widget/123, /widget/345) beginning at 3am PST on 12/16 (This is unrelated to the GA bug on 12/16 btw) which has been consistent through today. All other traffic to other urls contained in other folders has been consistent if not better.

According to Search Console CTR & Average Position is consistent, and also our pages indexed seem to be on the rise. No idea WTH is going on but assume, as with everything G related, that it's temporary.

For us, we made up our mind that the days of making what G considers important as OUR top priority are over. We didn't go self-employed to work for someone else...let alone a 3rd party. Our community members seem to love all of the new features & functionality & UX enhancements we have been releasing one after the other with all these new found developer and time resources on our hands that is a direct result of stopping to care as much about 'what G thinks'.

[glakes]

Google is still limiting the traffic to my site. I guess this is not over yet?

As some have noted in other industries, this traffic cap may be permanent. It's possible that Google simply pushed the cap out into other sectors. I hope this is not the case, as I appear to be capped as well, but the potential exists. My fingers are crossed that it's just Google's oppressive holiday algo that will be reversed after Xmas.

Two new products we launched a couple weeks ago are nowhere to be found in Google. Considering we are 1 of 2 companies manufacturing this type of product, it's bizarre that Google would hide them from their users. Which brings me to this point - people that are not finding them in Google are going to Bing or Yahoo where they can be found. I hope this helps to train consumers to avoid Google and use a different search engine instead. Google has become so bad they are completely useless when it comes to finding new and innovative products. Google would rather display Amazon product pages even though these products are not available on Amazon.

[hopepro]

@glakes It's just got a bit better in my area. But it seems to be down again (eg., avg pos from 9.9 - 8.8 and then last week from 8.8 to 10.1). AVG traffic today is getting better though provided that avg pos drop

Anyway, can't say anything yet, since avg pos could be something like

newly published contents >> started to gain rank and might be at 15th-20th while the other kws are already rank top.

This is just my thought

[griffinx]

@glakes @hopepro

What if we are the only ones stuck in this traffic cap?

If all or the majority of websites are stuck to a traffic cap, wouldn't there be more discussion about this on Twitter or other forums?

[BushyTop]

I'm basically seeing all the big players rise to the top, even if they don't offer the best expertise on that particular product. Its been going this way for a while and this update just seems to have pushed that agenda further.

[hopepro]

my region all quality sites are still up and down and it is definitely affecting most of them including me.

I’ve been working with country top 3 e-com sites, they all increased their adwords and fb budget to maintain traffic.

So my guess is the algo change this time is quite devastat

do not panic, build more contents

[glakes]

@hopepro

Our positions have been bouncing all over the place. One minute we are at the top of the page and the next on the bottom. SEC and keyword trackers aren't accurate for me as positions are constantly changing. Has Google eased up on the traffic cap for you since this started? Google appears to have increased our ceiling slightly.

We are an ecom site as well, though we manufacture/sell industrial type products that are not subject to seasonal holiday sales increases. We reduced our Adwords bids by 40% which resulted in a 75% drop in total spend. The total number of conversions did not really change, but our conversion rate from paid ads shot up to 16%. I was pleasantly surprised to see this, but that is just a 7 day range. I will need to see how our conversion rate averages out over the course of 1+ months.

@griffinx

I don't think we are the only ones stuck in the traffic cap. The reason why social media is not going crazy about caps in traffic is because the SERPS have not settled down. Everyone is focused/reporting on ever changing SERPS instead of the net result it has on websites - the cap in traffic. Though this cap may be limited, as you implied, to certain types of sites within ecommerce.

[samwest]

I hope this is not the case, as I appear to be capped as well, but the potential exists. My fingers are crossed that it's just Google's oppressive holiday algo that will be reversed after Xmas.

Totally capped here as well. traffic is tracking EXACTLY the same pattern as the prior week (and every week) but minus 9%. Always trending slightly lower. Funny how everyone simultaneously reports tracking minus 8 to 10%, despite completely different niches. This is NOT in line with 20 years of data for the period. I guess we can only smile and accept having Google's hand in our pockets 24/7/365 from here on in...Merry Christmas.

[skaterpunk]

…they all increased their adwords and fb budget to maintain traffic.

This has been up for discussion many times. Is google forcing pay to play?

do not panic, build more contents

I believe this is a problem with the internet, currently. I'll see the same site regurgitate the same main topic a dozen times in a week, just to keep pumping out new articles.

[griffinx]

…they all increased their adwords and fb budget to maintain traffic.

Certainly forced me as well to increase Adwords budget as well.

[heisje]

Is google forcing pay to play?

Nooo, I won't have that - conspiracy theories!
.

[widgetized]

I'm just here to confirm that I'm experiencing the same behavior with my site: same curve of traffic (highs and lows) as previous weeks, but minus 10%.

Funny how I come back to this forum when I notice something weird and always find other users talking about a new shady move by Google.

[rbrtrbrt]

@widgetized I see exactly the same behavior: 40 active users and than after 15 minutes 3 active users. For me it looks like A/B test.

[SteveWrz]

10% down every day this week, continuing the trend since November 8th update.

This one feels more like Christmas events slowing things down instead of an update from Google though.

[EditorialGuy]

Our Google traffic has been up (year over year and week over week) every day but one since December 16. Not by a huge amount, though, so I wouldn't read too much into it.

[NickMNS]

I've also had a great December in terms of traffic, ending the year where I started "U". I'm also seeing drop, I guess Christmas is starting early this year. Adsense revenue is still doing ok despite the drop.

[samwest]

These short windows of conversions are beyond maddening. Two conversions within 30 min then nothing all day...again. Impossible to duplicate in a natural setting. Happens nearly every day. Not complaining but very unnatural. Clearly throttled.

[Athedian]

Had to increase Adword, FB, and MA budgets just to stay afloat... traffic coming in were all going to non-relevant blog pages that had rarely been seen before. Compared to previous weeks where users were going to actual pricing page, the last week and a half were filled with nonsense.

Ahref's showing slight increase of ranking for two days, then another drop for two days, and then another increase for two days. Competitors seem to suffer the same fate, possibly worse, and they were increasing their keywords as well as backlinks heavily.

[samwest]

The reigning content farms seem to have some agreement with Google because their thin ad filled spin ranks across the board, even for obscure variations of the queries. Great platforms for slinging ads and great Google ad partners as it appears in my niches.

[griffinx]

Great platforms for slinging ads. Great Google ad partners it would seem.

Good point. We focus on high quality content creation to promote our website / products. So, there is no Adsense integrated and we monetize internally. I think this would be true for most webmasters.

But, sites having Adsense would be required for Google to manage their inventory.

[RedBar]

Am I the only one who finds today THE most productive of the year not having any interruptions whatsoever?!?!

Merry Xmas:-)

[StupidIntelligent]

Another update seems to have started today on Christmas. We'll know the results by Monday.

[MayankParmar]

everything looks pretty normal on my end.