Google Updates and SERP Changes - February 2020

[Shepherd]

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System: The following 6 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4978307.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 6:54 pm on Feb 1, 2020 (utc -5)

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FWIW, seeing the featured snippet holder (wikipedia in this case) gone completely from the SERPs this morning, no longer listed on page 2 or anywhere.

[Sissi]

Depends on the language
Snippet holder are still there for non english european languages.

Just noticed that for two major finance keywords in a non english language, my page is ranked number; this page wasn t listed in the menu nor in a sitemap.
Conclusion: leave it like it was 2 years ago and enjoy your weekend.

[glakes]

It's Saturday February 1, and I see SERP monitors are on fire. Yet another update?

@TeresaD

I've received no conversions from Google ads in ten days. I've never seen it this bad, though I did slowly reduce spending since conversions disappeared in November. I'm probably going to drop out Google's ads though will remain active in Shopping Actions. But we haven't received one order from Shopping Actions either. Google organic and paid is just dead.

I know what you mean about being in season and sales covering you for the rest of the year. My busy season is late fall, and we completely lost November and December. It's already had an impact on staff hours and jobs. All I can say is hang in there. Maybe the update rolling out today will help us, though I fear the trend of conversions getting worse with each update will continue.

[ichthyous]

I've received no conversions from Google ads in ten days. I've never seen it this bad

This week I had one inquiry on Monday and two on Friday...that's it. USA economy slowed this quarter considerably, UK was anxious about Brexit, and Australia is in crisis...those are my top three sources of inquiries so I think that also has a lot to do with it. I've started to recover strongly from the January 13th drop already and it's still quiet.

[swright]

A huge spike of traffic classified as 'direct' today - I suspect this is again misclassified google traffic.

[ichthyous]

A huge spike of traffic classified as 'direct' today - I suspect this is again misclassified google traffic.

Yes it is, that's been well know for a while. Google doesn't want us to even know where the traffic is coming from anymore. That way when you get whacked after an update you can't blame Google for a huge drop in organic traffic. After all, the drop could be coming from anywhere if you can't actually see the source, right? Google is trying to perpetually hide how, and to what extent it is manipulating the search results and the traffic it sends...and it's working...look at their latest profit reports.

[TeresaD]

somebody cut the power of today, nothing, nada, on both organic and paid

[jmorgan]

Is the Super Bowl affecting traffic for anyone (else)?

[Shepherd]

Is the Super Bowl affecting traffic for anyone (else)?

So far (friday, most of saturday) we are down yoy for SB weekend. Initial scientific gut feeling is this has less to do with the SB and a lot to do with the featured snippet = no organic listing. Adding in that the CTR is being aggravated by the image from a different website in the featured snippet. I wonder if this is causing issues for the average user.

[MayankParmar]

Analytics still delayed for me.

[UpdatePains]

In my sector, the featured snippet and organic listing removal has been reversed. Big old G just can't get it right. If they could, there would be no need for such huge repercussions after every update. Just proves they are desperately trying to get something right but really, they have messed up so badly but think they can just 'make tweaks' to fix it. It's broken. They can't tell us what's in the secret sauce because they don't know anymore themselves.

There are a few sites in my niche, buying links, hundreds of thousands a month, to pages no-one would link to, I know as I have tried for years. What does G do? Ranks them higher and higher with every update. It really couldn't be more obvious to anyone what they're doing but G's algo can't figure it out or doesn't want to.

[JesterMagic]

Yeah traffic for my site is down about 10% over last Saturday. Not sure why. Keywords continue to bounce around a bit so it is very hard to pinpoint the cause. I hope it is the Super Bowl but I don't ever remember it affecting a Saturday since the game is on Sunday.

[StupidIntelligent]

Can confirm another update rolled out. More chatter will come about in a few days.

[universenet]

Can confirm another update rolled out. More chatter will come about in a few days.

Exactly will be two updates
1+1

Now 1 update will be gratis from google

[worker]

Exactly will be two updates
1+1

Now 1 update will be gratis from google

Sorry to sound thick here, but I can't tell if you guys are being serious about 1 or possibly 2 updates, or if you are just speculating and/or joking.

Maybe I need more caffeine today but just not getting it.

Can you spell it out for me?

[glakes]

Can you spell it out for me?

SERP tools often are a good indicator of an update.

[semrush.com...]

[worker]

I had posted a reply but after looking at the SERPS data, now I see what the previous comments were referencing. Thanks for putting it on a silver platter for me because I've got so many plates spinning right now, I overlooked checking the obvious. Thanks again!

[fearlessrick]

Super Bowl sunday used to be my best day of the year. Today, it was 50% below an average day.
Whatever G is doing, they're doing it wrong, as far as I'm concerned, and apparently, I'm not alone.

My opinion of AI is FUBAR. It's a pipe dream and experimentation with its supposed miraculous saving grace is likely the cause for most of the current experience.

From where I sit, I see the whole online ad biz undergoing a huge crash. Seems to be pretty serious. Google, 3-5 years out, probably won't be a player. Heck, they're hardly one now.

[seomotionz]

Heck, they're hardly one now.

@fearlessrick They are a big player. That's why we all are talking about them?

And yeah yesterday was a bit harsh. AI or no AI, these updates are doing one thing for sure i.e, killing small businesses!

[TeresaD]

Exactly will be two updates
1+1

1 update to break it, 1 update to "fix" it

[RedBar]

Exactly will be two updates
1+1

I don't understand why anyone talks about them any more, the entire G system is in everflux, everything is changing all the time regardless of whether anything actually requires changing / fixing / updating / improving / downgrading / upgrading / adding to ...

Google is a jobsworth Corp now, everyone working there has to be seen to be doing something regardless of whether it is required or not, they're like a government, stuff has to be changed because ... because what would they do if they didn't change anything? Put themselves out of work?

So there's another update, so what? There'll be a few hundred more by the end of this year, get a life, stop fretting about something about which you can do absolutely nothing whatsoever. If your site construction skills are solid, if your SEO skills are solide, if your overall strategy and implementation are solid, if your informatiion and authoritativeness is solid, it is most unlikely that you'll be affected by updates too much.

I tell you what, I'll give you a very accurate forecast, there will be a major update about the 5th May ... How do I know? Because every year for at least 15 years there has been a major update around that date! I first noticed it it on 05/05/05, it may have been around before then however that was a significant one and every year since there has been one around that date ... Except for this year now, possibly:-)

[mosxu]

Not many ads displayed when checking different ips but still getting clicks like before

[samwest]

@Fearlessrick - in Google's eyes they are doing it right $ $.

Same historical data on Superbowl , and while SERPS appear unchanged... traffic and conversions gone. The ramp down has begun...two months earlier than usual. Problem these days is that any ramp down means OFF. Yet still hold many page oneresults. Time to start a new SM campaign. (I meant social media to all you perves) :P

[glakes]

still getting clicks like before

@mosxu

We've had no conversions from paid ads in 13 days though budget depleting clicks continue. Daily organic transactions from Google pre-Bert in October have dropped substantially each month and are now 60% less.

A product we manufacture, which no other company does, resulted in 33 unique organic Google transactions during October and also declined substantially each month since Bert's release in November. January's total transactions coming from Google organic search were just 10 for this unique product. Bing, Yahoo and Facebook have become the primary sales driver for this unique product and the other far more popular products we sell on our website.

Google can't seem to send any conversions, but wants to keep their hands deep in our pockets. It's an unsustainable proposition where one party takes and takes yet gives nothing in return...

[samwest]

Anyone else see a crazy high traffic spike with high bounce on Saturday 2/1/20? Double the traffic, no conversion.

[RareBit]

I saw a big spike from the US on Sunday (+98%) but it had a 50% bounce rate which is better than my usual UK traffic!...and we dont even sell in the US so I need to have a dig and see what they were looking at.

EDIT: so, the majority of the traffic had 0 sessions and a 0% bounce rate - I am guessing it was an attack or bots of some type

[mosxu]

@glakes

What the heck! Checking a few ips and seeing less and less ads although there is real estate no ads show.

[glakes]

@mosxu

All my clicks from yesterday came from YouTube. Not one click from search...

[StupidIntelligent]

There are something called post-retrieval filters or algos; that prevent a URL from showing up in SERPs. Over time, these are removed, as the page gets older.

These algos are temporarily shut down (usually a day or so), when new changes are made. This is the main reason for these spikes in both sales as well as irrelevant traffic.

Any page less than 3 years old in "competitive niches" will experience these every week nowadays.

[samsseo]

Anyone else noticing changes in the featured snippet = no organic listing? I can see we have featured snippets on the right side with No.1 organic positions