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]

[HereWeGo123]

@StupidIntellegent - what are you seeing on your end? Our traffic is higher today than yesterday but hard to attribute it to an update since it’s Christmas. I could be wrong

[seomotionz]

@HereWeGo123 Traffic is not high nor its low. More or less its the same.

[hopepro]

Something is cooking up again, I'm having a 3,000 active users on site shown in GA. I believe these are bots where the real human traffic should be around 400+

[mosxu]

The capped traffic only resonates with webmasters who are not brainwashed. LOL Most webmasters will not get to see information like “Bing’s traffic converts twice as much as Google’s traffic”

Jen Gennai in her famous video said “People like us are getting programmed” Webmasters are fed only information that “programs” them if I may use her own words.

Merry Christmas!

[SweetPotato]

@hopepro 3,000 Active users in GA unless you are huge is a reporting bug. Not bots. It happens often, active users rise to infinity and it goes back to normal after a while.

[heisje]

2019 over 2018:
- traffic: - 59%
- income: - 45%

And the party goes on . . . .

.

[griffinx]

@hopepro. Yes, agree with @SweetPotato. GA has a bug - I have noticed it numerous times on mobile and can even now replicate. If you keep it open for a long time - the traffic will keep adding and go to about 10,000 active users and then come back down once you restart the app.

[samwest]

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

No, Redbar, you are not alone. I thought I was hallucinating yesterday as the cap and throttle appeared to be turned completely off. It was exactly like 2010 again.

Funny thing is, traffic was not higher, it was just full of buyer behavior. Conversions all day.

Today the 'anamoly' seems to have passed...which is very telling because since 2000, December 26th marked the spike for the highest converting period of the year, which used to last until April 15th.

So far today, it looks like the cap and throttle is back in place.

December 25th was historically quite calm....but not yesterday.

If it was a gift from Google, all I can say is 'thanks'... but please, take your hand out of the cookie jar this year.

[edited by: samwest at 2:28 pm (utc) on Dec 26, 2019]

[southernguy]

The capped traffic only resonates with webmasters who are not brainwashed. LOL Most webmasters will not get to see information like “Bing’s traffic converts twice as much as Google’s traffic”

Yes and from what I see Bing shoppers seem to be smarter and pickier, but if you have a good product it will convert well. I continue to see an increase in both DDG and Bing traffic and have been over the last year. I believe it is true that most people who use Google today are pretty much programmed (yes consumers and webmasters), so as far as marketing goes it is important to target people with the same Google mindset which would be using Instagram and Facebook. They fit well within the Zombie mode consumer which seems Google has managed to nail because I don't feel they offer much relevance in search anymore.

In the meantime Zombies have been at an all-time high today, seems to be the new norm.

[samwest]

Yeah, I can verify that the clamp is back on today. Zombie visits and capped at 2 or 3. This is so unlike previous December 26th activity. While I appreciate the gift yesterday, it's infuriating to see the effects of their throttle. If you don't see it, feel blessed...as many of us do.

[glakes]

I can verify that the clamp is back on today.

I second that. I'm seeing one page wonders (each Google visitor lands on the page then quickly leaves). This is some really low quality traffic, if it's even real...

[kireb]

All my SERPS have plummeted since Devember 25th. My traffic is 30% of that of last year and my main keywords have dropped to positions lower than websites I had never heard of.

Nice Christmas gift from Google for all the hard work Ive done this year.

[jmorgan]

Are people seriously blaming Google for sending visitors to their websites that bounce off immediately?

[HereWeGo123]

Since we launched our website in early 2013, the same pattern occurred every year. Apart from fluctuations throughout the year, going into the week before actual Christmas week, Traffic would take a dip by roughly 20-25%. Then slow on Christmas eve and Christmas day. On December 26th, every year, traffic would go up by ~30% and continue on an uptick trajectory throughout New Years. After New Years, it would go up another 25-30% and sustain new highs for the next month and then slowly taper off, but never below where it was prior to the most recent Christmas. So far, the same is occurring this year as well. Traffic today was up by roughly 30%+. I can't say I am noticing too much volatility in the SERPs on my end, although it is normal to see dances daily now. But I've also noticed there has been SERP fluctuation chatter every year on or around Christmas.

[glakes]

Are people seriously blaming Google for sending visitors to their websites that bounce off immediately?

Yes, particularly when visitors from other traffic sources don't bounce or exhibit bot like behavior as they are with Google. This is why I question whether the bulk of the traffic coming from Google is even human.

When looking at landing page quality, it's difficult to use Google's traffic as a judge when their SERPS are constantly bouncing, they are butchering titles/descriptions by re-writing them on the fly, personalizing results and utilizing AI in an attempt to better understand queries. The only constant with Google is unnatural volatility, which is why the other search engines consistently outperform Google in both traffic quality (time on page, page views) and conversions.

[mosxu]

There is actually a way for authorities to investigate if the bouncing users were really on glakes website or their device is being used to create traffic. LOL

[samwest]

Yeah, no joy on the traditional post holiday surge... historically and without fail, every year since 2000 my site experienced a substantial surge in traffic and conversions starting on exactly December 26th, but not this year. In fact, as traffic starts to build on GART, it's like a sawtooth pattern, 1,2,3,4,5, then bam zero. Rinse and repeat. Looks like a traffic governor. Any traffic that does arrive is all zombie non buyers. They have also clamped down on competitive key phrases, giving them all to ad filled brand name content farmers and oddly enough, Pinterest (I suspect it is being groomed for acquisition [socialmediatoday.com...] ). Nice way to keep Gorg's holiday stocking full. Can't wait to see Q4 results.

[topaz]

Maybe it's a local issue to me..but recently traffic from Discover and the Google News app are going to the canonical page, instead of the amp page which sucks as RPM is much higher on amp pages. AMP pages are still getting regular SERP traffic. Anybody else seeing that ?

[EditorialGuy]

Our Google traffic was up 31 percent yesterday, compared to the previous Thursday. Then again, it always jumps right after Christmas. (We have a travel-planning site, and people are already thinking about their spring and summer vacations.)

[jrpfhc]

I have an Automotive site. It's about half recovered from the loss in traffic (15% loss) that happened mid November. Of course Christmas Eve and Day are always a dud, I'm looking forward to another year of riding the Google roller coaster.

[OldFaces]

Anyone else notice that Search Console hasn't updated their Index > Coverage details? Typically we find that the data is updated in 3 day increments, normally a day or two after the '3rd day'. Our "Last Updated:" is stuck at 12/20/19 (top right of the page) and it should have updated to 12/23/19 on the 25th or 26th.

Neither here nor there, but makes me wonder if some poor engineer at Google literally has to push a button to generate these updates :)

[samwest]

Slightly higher traffic, but all zombies. Strange for this time of year when people are typically flush with gift cash. Looks like we are getting the chaff...again. Not even adsense is converting much.

[widgetized]

@griffinx

What will be the SEO impact of taking out or disabling GA on a website? Has anyone tried?

I did. Six months ago I suspected Google was using my data against my site, so I decided to get rid of GA from my website. I didn't see significant changes since then, so I guess I have been worried for nothing. Still, I keep GA away from my website, it's just a precaution.

[samwest]

I run the GA app on Cloudflare and then Matomo on my server to cross check. I set goals on Mayomo but just dont trust Google to reveal revenue numbers as goals....as if they haven't already figured that out by spying on my financial accounts and the Matomo links. I'm not that paranoid, but when a company operates cloak and dagger and brags about being 'spooky'... they instill little to no trust. Zombies still prevail today....lots of em. No conversions. Spooky. Right.

[browndog]

Anyone else notice that Search Console hasn't updated their Index > Coverage details? Typically we find that the data is updated in 3 day increments, normally a day or two after the '3rd day'. Our "Last Updated:" is stuck at 12/20/19 (top right of the page) and it should have updated to 12/23/19 on the 25th or 26th.

Mine is stuck on 21st December.

[seomotionz]

as if they haven't already figured that out by spying on my financial accounts and the Matomo links. I'm not that paranoid, but when a company operates cloak and dagger and brags about being 'spooky'... they instill little to no trust. Zombies still prevail today....lots of em. No conversions. Spooky. Right.

@samwest Google may not take a look intentionally but that doesn't mean that your data is only visible to your eyes. And using a second tracking tool is a wise idea these days. GA shares information with Google or not, doesn't matter GA is unable to share exact data with its own users which is us.

[mosxu]

Only zombies here

[seomotionz]

Only zombies here

@mosxu I am getting real visits alright. But they are only visible in GA real-time. GA is showing again incorrect data.

[samwest]

Yesterday marked the highest traffic level of the year (as should be expected for the period), yet at the same time absolutely zero sales conversions and adsense very low. All Zombies. Bounce rate was considerably higher, so looks like user behavior and intent can indeed be controlled and filtered. No surprises there. No changes to site whatsoever, so the algo appears to have been tweaked for maximum SE profits, again. Happy Festivus.

BTW - a note on Matomm vs GA...Matomo is real time, GA adds a considerable amount of false page dwell time, so when a visitor actually leaves a page, GA takes up to a minute or sometime more to reflect the status change. GART is not real time.

[RedBar]

Judging by all the genuine, especially Indian, scraping visitors I am getting, I am expecting lots of new competitors soon ... I have no doubt whatsoever that Google will soon rank them above me since there is definitely an in-built, manipulative algo in favour of this type of scraper these days!