Google Updates and SERP Changes - January 2020

[seomotionz]

The following 11 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4974557.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 10:10 am on Jan 2, 2020 - (PDT -8)

20 years of data show that updates have created MUCH more than a "twitch" in traffic.

Its not a twitch if it costs you a significant amount of money.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 6:20 pm (utc) on Jan 2, 2020]
[edit reason] cleanup after split to new thread [/edit]

[glakes]

@RedBar

The fax spam has dropped considerably over the years. Even the spammers know that mode of transmitting documents is all but dead.

[jmorgan]

Ok all those changes you see in those tools like SEMRush was probably not from an algorithm update (from Jan 7). I see absolutely no change in the rankings for keywords I track.

I would suggest all those fluctuations you see in the tools are the result of different search habits from people going back to work or school after the Christmas/New Year.

[TeresaD]

I have spent the last few months shooting myself in the foot, lost all page 1 rankings by being stupid (please don't ask, as a webmaster I focused on the tech and missed the very obvious basics which my CMS should do but does not)

I am now back where I started and have no ghosts or zombies which is a plus, when the "filters" are switched off I get 4 or 5 conversions in minutes then it all dies again so it is real.

[SweetPotato]

@NickMNS No, i checked cloudflare hotlink protection is disabled for both sites. I don't use any other method.

[Ammad_Ali]

I noticed another update from google on 11 January 2020.

[edited by: goodroi at 12:19 pm (utc) on Jan 11, 2020]
[edit reason] thread formatting [/edit]

[seomotionz]

This has started since Christmas. Every Saturday traffic fells. And not even meet the daily quota of Google.

[StupidIntelligent]

Another update on the way now.

[sk7411]

It certainly looks like something is cooking!

[fearlessrick]

Let's hope this update fixes the last one, because it's killing me. I have a small niche, good rankings, good traffic, and use Adsense for "some" revenue. The drop-off in RPM and CPC has been dramatic since just after Christmas. I'm currently looking at page RPM at 0.45 and impression RPM of .09. CPC is less than .05.

Pathetic.

I visit this tread sometimes just to see if Google is killing everybody equally and it usually bears out. This month is brutal. Seriously considering selling my own ads. Wouldn't take much, considering what G is paying me. Maybe that's their goal. Kill off small sites, glom up all ad revenue and share with their mega-corp pals.

My new year resolution was to think positive thoughts. G is making that very difficult. ;-)

[glakes]

This month is brutal.

For us, it's been horrible since the second week of November. I don't ever recall Google's traffic being this bad. The quantity is there, but the quality went right down the toilet. Let's hope what is apparently rolling out now will dramatically improve traffic quality. Here's what I'm looking at for this month:

Users: +9.8%
Revenue: -40.6%
Conversion Rate: -38.2%

Almost a 10% increase in traffic and conversions fall off the cliff? Really?

Keep in mind this is on top of what turned out to be a terrible November and December. Google's traffic has gotten really, really bad. And just when you think the quality of traffic coming from Google can't get any worse, it does!

[NickMNS]

@SweetPotato

@NickMNS No, i checked cloudflare hotlink protection is disabled for both sites. I don't use any other method.

The question then is, are you images being hotlinked by the spammers? And then as result is Google seeing all these hotlinks as links from spammy sites?

[strummer19]

Another update on the way now.

No signal at all from my side

[mosxu]

Users: +9.8%
Revenue: -40.6%
Conversion Rate: -38.2%

Funny thing is a google guy giving advice that searchers are not willing to spend more than a second on a website these days but failed to mention obviously how many seconds are they willing to spend searching with Google itself.

How many ads do they really click? Users up 9.8%?

[glakes]

Funny thing is a google guy giving advice that searchers are not willing to spend more than a second on a website these days but failed to mention obviously how many seconds are they willing to spend searching with Google itself.

I think the guy you speak of hopes that Google's users will spend less than a second on a website, return to Google and click another ad. Rinse and repeat this process and Google can easily make good money from clicks while advertisers get their accounts drained.

I can't believe the majority of Google's traffic is even real. Everything else (Bing, Yahoo, direct traffic, etc.) are all performing far better at just a fraction of Google's total traffic. Amazon is going strong, and I'm thinking its time to spread out into other specialized marketplaces for our products since Google is dead.

[JorgeV]

I can't believe the majority of Google's traffic is even real. Everything else (Bing, Yahoo, direct traffic, etc.) are all performing far better at just a fraction of Google's total traffic.

Might also be the profile of users. This is not the same kind of persons who are using Google, and other search engines.

[seowinning]

Google console is reporting First Input Delay issue for millions of sites and affecting ranks since they started using page speed as a big rank factor.
If you check [tools.keycdn.com...] may the TTFB is ok

[engine]

Searching today, Google's SERPs are very confused.
It's even changing the spelling on some search terms from a correct spelling to an alternative, and nothing about the alternative is correct. It was a town, and that can mean SERPs showing results in entirely the wrong pert of the country.
No wonder people are reporting traffic issues to their sites.
BTW, Bing found it perfectly.

[seomotionz]

Searching today, Google's SERPs are very confused.

@engine On top of that SERP's are filled with ads. Apart from Ads and Q&A's I am seeing only one or two results which are actually organic. And those results are also from the biggest boys in the industry.

[engine]

@seomotionz
I wasnt looking at ads, purely organic.
I just ran the same search again and now it's even more of a mess. Oh, google, you're losing it.
I get an incorrect answer at the top.
Some ads.
Followed by
Three top results, which are wrong.

CRITICS' REVIEWS

GOOGLE REVIEW SUMMARY
Etc.,

All the wrong answer.

Not getting traffic? Check out some of tge serps which are not yours.

[RedBar]

Google's SERPs are very confused.

Were you referring sollely to G.UK results?

If so I have to agree, they're an untter mess in my widget sector, when a several-years-old, one star, one rating EBay listing is #1 then we know they have a big problem.

For the USA things are slightly better however heavily skewed towards localisation, all USA branded sites except for one Indian site which is a blatant scraper of mine.

BTW, Bing found it perfectly.

I've just checked half a dozen SEs and they all gave good, representative results, no scrapers, no garbage, no manipulation ... as a 50+ year professional in my widget industry their results were what I would expect for both trade and retail queries.

Intent? Bah ... humbug Google:-)

[sk7411]

It’s that time of the month again guys, We have an Update incoming , brace yourself, but I believe it already started a couple of days back .

Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the January 2020 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this blog post for more about that

[RedBar]

Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before.

My guidance is that there's absolutely nowt you can do about this therefore expect the unexpected and that nothing will change again, except for the favoured few, until their next core cock-up!

[NickMNS]

@sk7411

Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update...

What is the source of this quote?

[engine]

For the record, here's the information from Google Search Liaison

Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the January 2020 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before.

[twitter.com...]

[sk7411]

And they are saying it’s live now .

[twitter.com...]

[NickMNS]

It would appear from my stats, that the roll out took place one week early on January 6th, as my traffic climbed by 10% since that date and I am not seeing anything noticeable today or yesterday
But then again, I have been seeing a steady climb since mid November with a significant uptick in traffic occurring on every Sunday except for Dec 20th. In the past 6 weeks my traffic doubled as compared to the previous 6 weeks. This may seem like great news, and it is, but the increase is simply a roll back of the losses over 2019. I still at about 50% of my peak traffic.

[Brett_Tabke]

[webmasterworld.com...]

[vphoner]

I was hit by the December 3rd Algorithm change very hard. Worst in years. My overall website rank average for pages went from 8.5 to 30. My traffic has dropped since, little by little. But yesterday (Sunday the 12th), I noticed a little jump up in traffic. I also noticed that some of my positions on searches I check have moved up a couple of notches? Was there a recent algorithm change? Hoping to see more improvements. The stress and anxiety is hard to take, as I think it has caused me physical symptoms this year.

[jmorgan]

Don't really notice any significant change, unless I'm still using an old (yet to be updated) DC.

[TomSnow]

Mozcast shows fluctuation on Jan 7. My rankings changed around that time. I think it was a separate update from the one rolling out today.