Google Updates and SERP Changes - April 2020

[michaeldhayes]

---

System: The following 6 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4986200.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 6:28 am on Apr 1, 2020 (PDT -8)

---

Not aimed at anyone in particular, but I've noticed this thread is littered with people complaining about not getting traffic.

It makes the whole thread rather painful to read through.

SEO is about competing. It's not about complaining. If you can't compete, find a niche where you can. Screaming into the ether and lobbying for some sort of cosmic justice for small businesses is not going to get your anywhere, in life or with google.

We don't negotiate with google for a fairer playing field. They are the playing field. So find an area where you can win, and exploit it.

In more pertinent and less rant-y news: I'm seeing +20%, +20%, and +10% week over week. Tech and industrial. Still think it's COVID related, but with all the volatility indexes going crazy, I'm starting to lean toward update. However that's what I thought last week also, so who knows.

[jmorgan]

@michaeldhayes, just to break the trend of people "complaining", in the last week or so, my traffic has been at record levels ironically (though only half as well-monetized due to the depressed market). Not sure what the rebound is due to. Was there an update? Are more people jumping online while they're quarantined/isolating?

I can only imagine how good it would be without this pandemic.

[Samsam1978]

My traffic is back to normal but my ad rev down due to RPM crashing. I am to thinking after this virus things will be good.

[RedBar]

@michaeldhayes

Is this the Google April Fools Joke?

I'm not complaining about Google traffic, I gave up on Google almost 10 years ago with its great image theft.

What you evidently do not see or experience is Google's deliberate and overt manipulation of its SERPs in favour of its "friends".

Yes, it is basically the only game in town however let's get it right, it hasn't been a "search engine" in years, it is an advertsing platform for those who can afford to speculate and, in many cases, destroy their competition.

Haven't you ever noticed just how many of these companies are public companies and not private? It's the great global gambling game of using other people's money to enter and play the game.

And lastly, Google does not even play by its own rules insofar as localisation is concerned outside of the US, it is extremely biased towards US companies regardless of whether they can supply or not.

Nope, I'm not complaining, I'm merely telling you the facts about what it is doing and could be doing to you soon.

[glakes]

Is this the Google April Fools Joke?

Doubtful.

The post generalizes those who are on the opposite side of the fence. Those posting about lower traffic are seen as whiners by those getting more traffic. On the other hand, those posting about increases in traffic may be seen as boasting. Either way, I don't see the value in scolding others for discussing their unique observations. This forum consists of many different types of people, in various niches from all over the world, and not all posts will apply to everyone's situation.

Anyone that has been in SEO for a while understands keyword positions have a value that is measured in traffic/conversions. With that in mind, there is no need to belittle anyone talking about declines in traffic.

[mosxu]

I am seeing less and less ads that means conversions should improve for organic traffic. Better give the traffic for free to organic? Most of small businesses are in lock down and badly affected surely not in the mood to pay high CPCs but the price is the same.

[renatovieira]

March 27th I had my biggest traffic spike of the year. Since then falling after falling ... Today it seems that the whole world has disconnected from the internet.

At [algoroo.com...] I see a high movement yesterday.

[sk7411]

At [algoroo.com...] I see a high movement yesterday.

Google is just shy to announce this core update or whatever it is . They don't care pandemics , epidemics .. nothing!

[glakes]

I am seeing less and less ads that means conversions should improve for organic traffic.

Fewer ads could just be temporary. I know with some algo updates Google drops our ads. Today I see fewer paid impressions then I would expect at this hour, but it does appear we are still in the middle of some sort of multi-day algo update.

[Rndm]

Anecdotal, I know a lot of people in the agency world. Yes PPC budgets have been slashed and paused minus a few industries. Could be short term, could be longer. Everyone is playing one day at a time.

[aristotle]

Anecdotal, I know a lot of people in the agency world. Yes PPC budgets have been slashed and paused minus a few industries.

Doesn't that mean that google's revenue has probably dropped? If fewer ads are being shown, then most likely fewer ads are being clicked.

[RedBar]

Doesn't that mean that google's revenue has probably dropped?

Probably however will it be by enough to be noticeable this quarter?

What I find frustrating is that most of my UK widget industry is on lockdown and has mostly stopped advertising completely yet several publicu quoted companies are still allowed to continue with their online offers.

This could be catastrophic for a whole swathe of industries and extremely damaging for consumer choice.

Post 2008 in the UK alone 33% of my widget businesses closed with the vast majority being small family establishments.

[jediviper]

@jmorgan
Are u working on the online marketing area and you are wondering if more people are getting online during the isolation?
Even people who are not working in the digital world can tell u that.

So of course it makes sense that traffic can appear to be increasing during the last weeks and it's mostly related to the virus. So it doesn't mean it's something u can expect to continue for ever.

Apart from that, Semrush Sensor shows that for Australia, USA and some other countries a a very high SERP volatility on the 31st of March and for the last 2 days it's still remaining at high levels. So definitely something is happening with Google.

[RareBit]

@RedBar we had to shut down but worked out we could import (and negate the UK lock down rules) then do basic 1 man manufacturer/adaptations in the UK - so there are ways round the lock down. Due to this we are seeing increased traffic via all channels

[RedBar]

so there are ways round the lock down

For some maybe however my entire widget industry in India, the world's #2 producer for my widgets, has been completely shut down for 3 weeks and I feel this may probably be extended which will obviously affect the entire supply chain. A month's loss of production is $millions for us then multiply that across an entire country's industry, and that's just ONE sector.

I actually have importers in several countries wanting to place orders BUT they need to know by when they would be receiving them, like many industries we have selling seasons, and when customers' customers are requesting when their orders can / will be supplied, we can't give them any answer whatsoever.

Back to SEO :-)

[RedBar]

Is anyone else seeing really thin pages with one single image ranking extremely well?

There's definitely something happening and there's a huge disparity between G USA V G UK.

A quick check of half a dozen keyword1/2/3 searches delievered the following.

1. For all 6 searches I ranked #1 in G USA, some improvements, some consolidated.

2. For all 6 searches in G UK from the top 50 only 1 ranked, it was on the first page.

3. In both sets of SERPs, apart from my pages, ALL the results were 1, sometimes 2, images with just a couple of brief widget text paragraphs of no more than 100 words.

When did content die a death?

What the heck happened to my UK rankings?

Is anyone else seeing similar in their sector?

[BoredMeteor]

Wild swings of hour-to-hour traffic the past week or so. Never really seen anything like it.

I've noticed quite a few stock photo places (Shutterstock, etc.) getting multiple listings for keywords I never used to see them in. Amazon listings zooming to the top, too. Last month I mentioned that single page with no content other than a 7-year-old video embed (everything else is literally links to other pages) getting rank 3 for a decent keyword. Still there.

It's a messed up time in so many different ways.

[Anis]

I think this time we need to focus on organic traffic rather than paid traffic

[Shepherd]

I am curious to know how the AI is handling this complete, almost instant, shift in searcher behavior. And, how long this massive disruption of data is going to affect assumptions moving forward.

[RedBar]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld Anis

Most probably all of us agree with your sentiment however there are a few problems with it:

1. Everyone wants to rank in the top 3 for searches, obviously this is an impossibility.

2. In normal times even when ranking in the top 3 the organics are almost drowned out by the ads surrounding them.

3. It is a fact that because of all these ads that being in the top 3 no longer drives anywhere near the traffic it used to.

4. Depending on one's niche sector, one had better be niche since generalisation is almost pointless, how much is that sector already extremely well-developed and dare I say it, mature? And if entering a mature, niche market one had better be very, very good and be at the top of one's game. Copy and paste is all but dead.

Granted I have seen many amateur WP blogs plagiarising the quality sites and when I do see them in my niche I immediately send feedback to G, it takes a couple of months however it usually gets done. The quantity of these sites has reduced dramatically this past couple of years.

This is 2020, the unfortunate situation for many new sites / projects is that it takes several months for them to establish themsleves in the SERPs and that is assuming that your SEO / webmaster actually knows what he's doing otherwise months could have been wasted when a pay to play campaign could have already proven successful / unsuccessful.

For people like me doing this continually for 25+ years, new pages, new sections, are part and parcel of every day work for a long-established business, many, in fact probably most, do not have that time nor luxury of on-going business trade etc. with so many fast-moving and ever-changing product lines / models / whatever.

If one is considering an evergreen site / project then the situation is different since one has already commited to a long-term project however, and I repeat what I wrote above, to succeed with this type of site one needs to be at the top of one's game with unique quality text, unique quality images and be prepared for awkward questions since that is usually part and parcel of this type of site.

Yes, good organic rankings are possible however it just ain't that easy!

[StupidIntelligent]

Lots of fluctuations.

[BoredMeteor]

I've seen some of you mention this in the past, but this is the first time I've seen it, myself: Four ads at the top of a mobile search result. That's more or less the whole screen. Have to scroll down to see ANY organic results, but then you immediately run into one of their "interesting finds" boxes, and more ads at the bottom.

Second page had a carousel of ads at the top (never seen that before, either), with another set of ads at the bottom. Same for page three.

[glakes]

Wild swings of hour-to-hour traffic the past week or so. Never really seen anything like it.

Seems to be some sort of crude rotation of results. Maybe the intended goal is to spread the wealth. But as one of the few domestic manufacturers of certain specialized widgets, Google is spreading the wealth to our Chinese competitors via Amazon.

Considering how hard Google and Amazon have been on domestic manufacturers/retailers, spreading the wealth in this manner will most likely add to the damage and drive more domestic businesses under. The CNBC's Kramer noted that post-coronavirus he is worried there will be just three retailers - Amazon, Walmart and Costco. See [cnbc.com...] and refresh page after loading to get rid of ad block notice if you use it. Kramer states:

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Friday he fears that the coronavirus-driven halt in the economy could leave the U.S. with only three retailers after the crisis ends.

“If we come out of this sooner, then other, small businesses can open. If we come out of this later, there are going to be three retailers in this country,” the “Mad Money” host said. “There’s going to be Amazon. There’s going to be Walmart. And there’s going to be Costco.”

As many smaller retailers and mom-and-pop shops struggle to keep their doors open, Amazon, Walmart and Costco are thriving on a surge in demand from consumers who need the essentials to run their homes.

I am still seeing wild swings in traffic to our ecommerce site as @BoredMeteor noted yesterday. These swings are occurring at a time when SERP trackers appear to have stabilized. The swings I am speaking of include bursts of traffic from Google. We may have 0 Google visitors on our website for up to 20 minutes, then a burst of 5-10 visitors from Google show up within 2-3 minutes and the process repeats.

[jediviper]

Seeing ADS at the 2nd page of results is something that is happening for a while now?

[Dooku]

@michaeldhayes, well that is a very interesting way of viewing the world and how people should react to google updates. According to the Cambridge vocabulary litter/littered with is not a very nice term to use especially in regards to human beings. After all we are all living on this same planet. So you starting your sentence with "Not aimed at anyone in particular" is very pathetic to say the least.

If you want to talk about google updates, than that is fine but please dispense with the derogatory attitude towards people who are not as successful as you and instead provide some beneficial advice to others maybe?

If you need to ask, yes I am doing fine thank you in my business. But that is despite the idiotic efforts of google and their updates to "trade against" the users/visitors/business owners. Google is using my content and traffic to make money so I use all the info of my 25+ test websites to work the system, exploit it, and use it to make money.

I really don't need to repeat the facts which Glakes and Redbar already stated many times how google does not play by their own rules.........why do you think they have been fined over 8.5 Billion in total by the European Parliament?

Telling people they are basically intellectually challenged because they have a hard time fighting these google updates is a character deficiency. So fix that ASAP by providing useful information about the current google update maybe?

[azlinda]

@Dooku - Right on. Thank you for the thoughtful post.

[mosxu]

@Dooku

You only comment here when a star gate is open or so... Tell us more about your experiments please.

[edited by: mosxu at 8:11 pm (utc) on Apr 3, 2020]

[mosxu]

“Google is spreading the wealth to our Chinese competitors via Amazon”

Trump does not understand that, he wants 5G, he also wants a deal and people again have little or no value at all.

[glakes]

Trump does not understand that, he wants 5G, he also wants a deal and people again have little or no value at all.

I don't think the problem is party or politician specific. We are living in times where the failure of our leaders (past and present) to actually lead has come to a head. We see how these failures have manifested themselves all around us. For example: The Chinese threatening to withhold medications from the USA. A USA headquartered face mask manufacturer selling masks to other countries, despite the war powers act being invoked, because other countries are allegedly paying more. The Chinese, chief among other countries, dictating USA trade policy with little resistance. The vast majority of the USA economy allowed to be controlled and largely self-regulated by handful of companies (Amazon, Google, Walmart). Politicians, much like Google, simply pour glasses of Kool Aid and a thirsty populace keeps on drinking. The only difference is which flavor a person prefers.

[mosxu]

“ The vast majority of the USA economy allowed to be controlled and largely self-regulated by handful of companies (Amazon, Google, Walmart). Politicians, much like Google, simply pour glasses of Kool Aid and a thirsty populace keeps on drinking”

And every time we vote for a change there is no change really