Google Updates and SERP Changes - April 2020

[michaeldhayes]

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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)

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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.

[RedBar]

"bravo" for the comment

There's no such thing as a "silly" comment, ambiguity is open to all sorts of interpretation.

[RedBar]

I've been going through my metrics for this year so far to see how Covid has affected traffic etc, so...

Global trade site 1 PVs based upon the average of weeks 1-11
Weeks 12/13/14 = -64%
Weeks 15/16 = -47% so far

This site's PVs have noticeably increased the past couple of days.

Global trade site 2 PVs based upon the average of weeks 1-11
Weeks 12/13/14 = -2.5%
Weeks 15/16 = +7.6% so far

The last couple of days on both these sites has seen more European activity especially from Eastern and Mediterranean countries.

However, so far, there has hardly been much enquiry activity which is most unusual at this time of the year plus just how many of these PVs are due to better SERPs' rankings is unquantifiable however this must have had some influence.

[JesterMagic]

Anyone else see a down swing in organic traffic yesterday from Google?

After falling a good 40% in organic traffic since February we had started to rise a bit over the last week and a half but yesterday traffic dropped again.

[markseo]

I've started to see changes in ranking today for page 1s - traffic may have slowed a little too. There is some volatility picked up in semrush.com/sensor/ as well.

[samwest]

I just see dead people...zombies.

Traffic on both Matomo and GA concur... while traffic has increased, quality traffic has decreased...but bounce is down from 57% to 53%, so nothing makes any sense.

It's been like this since 2010, you couldn't give gold bars away to this traffic....but every few days I get a window of "normal" conversions, then POOF! Gone.

AI hard at work.

[westcoast]

It has been a crazy few weeks for us. We are a large entertainment/educational site that had been losing traffic from google every single update for about 10 years straight (our site is 25 years old..)

We tend to get a lot of traffic from schools so our traffic cratered the week schools shut down. Since then though traffic has gone up vertically -- up pretty much every single day since, and we're averaging triple the traffic daily that we did pre-covid.

A lot of it can be traced to bored people at home googling our stuff more often. Also seems to be interest from home-schoolers. But -- we're also seeing a lot of our tail query pages suddenly popping with consistent traffic. It's as if suddenly google has given our entire site a boost. Perhaps real covid traffic has helped boost the entire site in some way?

One of the strangest things though is that UK google loves us all of a sudden. Pre-covid we'd get maybe 20% from UK. It's up to around 50-60% now. Huge bursts of traffic have come in from the UK last and this Friday for some reason.

Another observation: the weekly traffic curve is all whacked out from what we've seen for 20 years. Fridays are now the biggest traffic day of the week. Sunday is lightest, then it ramps up daily through to Friday where it peaks, and then drops Sat and Sun.

Weird times. So happy to finally be revisiting our glory days when Google used to pay attention to us. I know better than to expect it to last.

Our SERP positions don't appear to have changed. At least, none of the big obvious terms. Shrug!

[samwest]

But -- we're also seeing a lot of our tail query pages suddenly popping with consistent traffic. It's as if suddenly google has given our entire site a boost.

Agreed, when I see a burst, it's typically traffic coming from old long tail searches or sub pages rather than via the home page. In my case, every query usually takes me just to the home page, with only a few other pages getting their own search result. When it opens up, I am suddenly getting a wider range of pages, very temporarily, in the SERP's. Focus is immensely better in those searches. 20 year old site here. I fondly remember unfettered traffic.

[shadowlight]

The reason why traffic from google is up one minute and down the next (at least for my site) and probably a lot of others is because they are constantly changing the layout of the serp pages.

Ranking doesent change but the serp features and the layout of the serp features does which can make a huge difference in the amount of traffic you get.

Im guessings its ai figuring out what layout is more profitable for them.

[samwest]

@shadow... Exactly what I see. The Interesting Finds block comes and goes. Had a good half day today until noon...but the second the IFB appears...my conversions disappear for the next 10 hours and still turned off at 10:30pm. Half a day robbed. Quota applied.

[RedBar]

That was an interesting Saturday with almost completely pre-lockdown PVs and visitor numbers even one of the UK sites was normal, the pub / hotel was not ... are people, in general, settling down to their new lifestyles?

[samwest]

Funny how in my case Adwords is losing big time to FB Ads. ATM, FB ads are converting very well, especially with the FB pixel installed and months of data under my belt. Of course depending on how you deploy, YMMV.

I'd rather click visual ads on the most popular social media communication platform for a quarantined population than on a now outdated search engine page or boring text ad. Looks like the logos moved the cheese on Google this time too. Bravo! But watch them shift gears and really upset the Gorg apple cart. The bigger they are, the harder they'll fall. Seems we have discovered some new cheese...for now.

[ichthyous]

Traffic for me is recovering slowly but surely. I'm still not back to normal levels, but these aren't normal times. Unlike the first three months of the year, there are inquiries coming in again from USA and Australian customers, not from Europe or the UK though. Not sure if Google has updated and I am now back in favor, but I have had a slight bump up in SEMrush, nothing huge.

As usual Google has anointed a new site to shower with its largesse...it has been racing upward for three months now taking over ALL of the top three spots and pushing the rest of us out. It offers free image downloads in exchange for backlinks to the site so no mystery there...free always wins.

[RedBar]

not from Europe or the UK though

Europe is one of our main markets and enquiries are dead, dead, dead however the entire B2B wholesale importing widget trade knows that India is in lockdown plus most, if not all, widget retailers have their shops / work places in lockdown. Those who are doing a very small volume of trade are drawing on their own existing stocks or from the wholesalers when / if available.

I already know of at least a dozen widget retailers NOT re-opening whenever, they've simply "had enough" since 2008.

A lot of experienced people will disappear, will they be replaced? Doubtful since the majority of these are 40-50 year apprenticed master tradespeople, machinery does not replace their skills and knowledge.

</end little rant>

[shadowlight]

@shadow... Exactly what I see. The Interesting Finds block comes and goes. Had a good half day today until noon...but the second the IFB appears...my conversions disappear for the next 10 hours and still turned off at 10:30pm. Half a day robbed. Quota applied.

Its terrible. What iritates me the most about google is if it wasnt for people like me, you and everyone else that creates web sites and content for google to index then they would have absolutely nothing in terms of search, no content whatsoever to make billions off. Its people like us that make it possible for google and other search engines to even exist.

[jmorgan]

Noticeable spike up in my traffic. Anyone else notice anything?

[glakes]

Anyone else notice anything?

As others have noted, keep an eye on the interesting finds box and layout. Ranks appear to be stable, but the layout changes throughout the day/night cause traffic to fluctuate. Spikes in traffic I see occur when the SERPS are not cluttered with all that Google garbage.

It would be nice if ad blockers would block that interesting finds box by default. It's absolutely useless IMO and is designed to keep Google's users chasing their tails until they click on an ad to get out of the Google's trap.

Regardless of the above, my organic Google traffic is about as normal as can be expected in a heavily manipulated environment. Conversions are rock solid. Funny how a little small business can eat Amazon's lunch when it comes to shipping and delivering non-essential goods. Maybe I should get the same tax breaks the electric company and city/county/state are giving to Amazon...

[mosxu]

“Funny how a little small business can eat Amazon's lunch when it comes to shipping and delivering non-essential goods”

That sums it all up in times of pandemic

[ichthyous]

Well, I spoke too soon...after 4 days of a rush of new inquiries Google seems to have reverted back to it's old self. Silence for the last two and a half days now...I went from one new customer inquiry every two hours to zero for the last two and a half days. Not much if any difference in SEMrush and traffic hasn't dropped. I have noticed for years now that this rush of inquiries usually coincides with updates...usually right before or during the first day. It's as if Google lifts the veil on it's own throttling for a day or two while the update rolls out and then it drops like an iron curtain again.

So how is Google controlling this with such pinpoint accuracy? Are they able to determine the searchers with the most serious intent and steer them to ads, while the rest of us just get the leftovers?

[RedBar]

So how is Google controlling this with such pinpoint accuracy?

Cue samwest ... one thing is for certain insofar as I am concerned, they'd never understand my intentions:-)

[samwest]

Cue samwest

Exactly how they do this so precisely it will always be a tightly kept secret...better to just accept it and smile. ;)

[markseo]

Has anyone else been seeing ranking changes since last Thursday / Friday. I'm seeing a lot of fluctuations in our niches since then, sites bouncing in and out of page 1, and unfortunately we have not fared well. Trying to figure out if there is any pattern to this.

[Jez123]

after 4 days of a rush of new inquiries Google seems to have reverted back to it's old self. Silence for the last two and a half days now...I went from one new customer inquiry every two hours to zero for the last two and a half days. Not much if any difference in SEMrush and traffic hasn't dropped. I have noticed for years now that this rush of inquiries usually coincides with updates...usually right before or during the first day. It's as if Google lifts the veil on it's own throttling for a day or two while the update rolls out and then it drops like an iron curtain again.

That's EXACTLY what I see / saw. The latter part of last week was blazing with orders - so much so that I thought I was going to have to recall my furloughed staff. Glad I didn't as that would have endangered my business and their jobs.

[RedBar]

Traffic to global site 1 is still holding at 100%, to global site 2 it's had almost a consistent doubling since Easter Monday and is now down about 25%, one UK focussed site has seen precisely the same since the same date and with a bit of luck may only end up -50% for the month.

The UK hotel / pub site understandably is still -90% however the good news there is that people are enquiring and booking accommodation principally from June onwards and no one is cancelling even those through booking dot com

People seem to be calculating their own exit strategies regardless of what any governments may say! The hotel is 50 / 50 business / tourist and always top 3 on the various search engines for hotel(s) town, hotel(s) region etc, therefore should be a good indicator of what's economically happening in the middle of nowhereville ... I hope!

[samwest]

The latter part of last week was blazing with orders - so much so that I thought I was going to have to recall my furloughed staff. Glad I didn't as that would have endangered my business and their jobs.

I saw the same bump and dump. This is exactly why I believe it's foolhardy to base any business on Google these days. I fully trusted their stability in the first decade from 2000 to 2010, when I could set my watch by conversions. But after 2010...forgetaboutit!

Is it Google or is it simply increasing entropy?
Lots of other factors to consider...and most boil down to greed on both sides of the ball.

[ichthyous]

That's EXACTLY what I see / saw. The latter part of last week was blazing with orders - so much so that I thought I was going to have to recall my furloughed staff. Glad I didn't as that would have endangered my business and their jobs.

In my case these periods of high activity are so few and far between now that I am spending most of the year with no real business from Google. According to SEMrush my ranking has held up nicely, and my traffic has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels...but no inquiries from customers. Yet when Google lifts the veil for just a few days I am flooded...so paying customers must still be out there in droves. Either SEMrush has a major problem in the way it is calculating its visibility and needs a major update, or something else is going on at Google to siphon away all the customers with strong intent to purchase.

I think we should name this phenomenon: "Google Gaslighting"

[samwest]

I think we should name this phenomenon: "Google Gaslighting"

That's exactly what it is... why? because years ago people began gaming the system. Google responded with something they learned from Regina Dugan and DARPA...avoid tactical surprise and asymmetrical threats. Making the system less "stable" and predictable eliminates the reward that gaming used to provide. It's the "one bad apple" thing. It also has left all legitimate webmasters to question their efforts...and their reality.

Unrelated observation: Has anyone seen the GART page get stuck and count up, rather than show the actual real time visitors? MY GART page has 10 live people but the counter is showing 100+ and counting up. Can't reset with a page refresh.

[ichthyous]

That's exactly what it is... why? because years ago people began gaming the system.

@samwest I think the real reason is that Google needs to cover its tracks and hide the high level of manipulation and throttling of their search results. In the old days Google used to just whack your traffic through the floor for no reason, and that was suspicious. Google managed to cover their tracks now so that the EU, US and other government investigations can't so easily see and prosecute their monopolistic tactics. Google needs to push everything towards paying ads in order to increase quarterly profit and share price, and that means squeezing and killing off anyone who doesn't pay. They are a monopoly masquerading as a company that gives everyone a fair chance...those days were over years ago. From January of this year though they decided to just turn it off completely, at least for my site.

[nomis5]

The UK hotel / pub site understandably is still -90% however the good news there is that people are enquiring and booking accommodation principally from June onwards and no one is cancelling even those through booking dot com

Not sure that is true Red Bar.

Take a look at the share prices over the last month for the hospitality industry in the UK - hotels and pubs included.

That tells the real story and it's horrendous. And my guess is that it won't improve over the next two to three months.

All the news those hospitality companies are posting is "the government will buy our stock if this continues", "we have secured waivers from our lenders to avoid a breach of finance terms" ---- it goes on and on. They are all deep in doggy poo and many of the small to medium sized hospitality firms are going under as I write.

They aren't cancelling because there are no bookings left to cancel.

[RedBar]

When I write not cancelling from June onwards I mean this specific hotel. Insofar as the UK per se is concerned watch what happens in the USA and Germany, their experiences will dictate what will occur in the UK. It is already evident that the so-called "experts" here have screwed-up big time, whichever party was in in power would have done the same because of our Civil Service ... think Yes Minister etc. I'm well on the inside of what's happening, there has been gross mistake after mistake.

[RedBar]

Back on track ... Who is / are Iomart Cloud Services from the UK?

Why are my sites suddenly getting multiple daily visits from these people?

Do they need blocking or are they creating a new search engine or something?

PVs across multiple sites are in the thousands this week.