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.

[joshd2]

@StoneSolid No manual penalties according to Webmaster Tools. The site is 12 years old and extremely popular. In the top 5,000 in the world according to Alexa. This is definitely an algorithmic penalty or a test of some sort. It hit right around the same time as yours. Is your site a large popular site as well?

[StoneSolid]

Hmm, definitely not in top 5000 but very popular and high traffic, with thousands of pages, media, pics.

Really strange difference.. I'm yet to see a full day of stats after this event but it even seems like my traffic ended up even higher.

[joshd2]

@StoneSolid Thanks you are giving me hope.

You know what is really strange is after doing some research testing different keywords. I can get 2 results of the exact same URL on my site in the same SERP. It looks as though there is some sort of corruption or error in Google's database that is causing it to see my domain differently. Has anyone ever seen anything like that before?

[RedBar]

How bizarre / coincidental is this?

Yesterday saw my highest daily PVs of the year for two global .coms. Bizarre? They both had precisely the same PVs!

Different sources, different countries, different products yet exactly the same numbers, one site had more than double the sessions.

Sure it's possible, I need to do the lottery:-)

[StupidIntelligent]

@RedBar - You're one of God's most favorite people.

[samwest]

End of month clamp is on. Q1 pulled in an obscene 41B for Gorg...yet they are disappointed in the March decline...so look out.. they are preparing to step it up in April...as we all suffer under stay at home orders and small business shutdowns. Anyone else see the obvious death spiral this is setting up? Yet they want more.

[RedBar]

If, and I have absolutely no doubt that this May will be any different since I had my first G slapping with a massive penaly on 05/05/05, if / when the update comes it is usually in the first week of May if previous years are anything to go by therefore get ready for the garbage to fly in our direction and the money in G's.

When it happens, as it surely will, do not do anything until the 7-14 day "dance" has finished.

[ichthyous]

Big drops in visibility last two days according to SEM Rush. I hope that reverses itself, but I think not... When the general trend is downward for too long it usually intensifies into a total rout. I may have done it to myself as I have been avidly building new links with my pandemic downtime. Perhaps too many links too fast and using too similar anchor terms. The same competitor who has been zooming upward for months continues to zoom ever higher.

[browndog]

I am seeing brands, brands and more brands with thin content.

[Leandro]

Google has been killing millions of sites in exchanging of nothing. Lots of spam and strong domains with thin content is taking the place.

[System]

The following message was cut out to new thread by robert_charlton. New thread at: google/4994037.htm [webmasterworld.com]
1:39 am on May 1, 2020 (PDT -8)