Google Updates and SERP Changes - May 2020

[RedBar]

The following message was cut out of the April, 2020 thread at:
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4990589.htm [webmasterworld.com]
by robert_charlton - 1:39 am on May 1, 2020 (PDT -8)



A quick review of a few of my sites' this past month:

1. Global trade directory site about -10% but with increasing PVs as the month has gone on.

2. Global B2B widget site, -20% v Jan / Feb however +15% v March and over the past 4 weeks a nice, steady increase with this week probably being the highest of the year.

3. Global B2B widget site that was hardly affected at the start of lockdowns and has shown a steady PVs increase to the extent that April has been it's highest-ever month at +17% v 2020 average and +8% v March. Good quality enquiries continue.

4. UK B2C widget site has seen a dramatic recovery. Overall PVs are still -20% for the month however since Easter PVs have been completely normal. I need to investigate the actual business performance of this site for more details.

5. UK hotel / pub site, understandably still on its back at -90%, all rankings fine, awaiting lockdown to be eased however I do know future accommodation enquiries are consistent.

6. UK urganic meat and bakery site. This has maintained its +400% increase in PVs and its actual business has now gone national rather than just regional. I'm really surprised with this business since its products are NOT low cost!

Several other sites mostly down in varying amounts however they're all brochure / informational sites so that's not a surprise.

Anyone else with interesting stats?

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 9:47 am (utc) on May 1, 2020]
[edit reason] split thread to new month [/edit]

[gatormark]

In some ways it is a zero-sum game, however, the gains are made by Google. This is not going to bode well for them because they are now in monopoly territory. They need to be very careful, but it is probably too late. It seems like they've opened Pandora's anticompetitive monopolization box.

[RedBar]

Just in case you don't know I have been anti-Google antics for about 10 years now, I do not use any of their programmes, apps, gmail, anything, and I wouldn't have ANY Android phone even if you gave it me for free!

Insofar as this update is concenred it seems to have settled now therefore expect another in September. My global sites have all gained in its SERPs, many were already doing extremely well and where possible have improved. Pages I was working on all last October through to December have ALL risen, some quite substantially however the few pages, about a dozen, that have never ranked, always indexed but never ranked, still do not rank.

They really puzzle me since those are not competitive widget terms whatsoever whereas really competitive ones I have undoubtedly gained in the SERPs and genuine enquiries.

Like everyone else the incestuous relationship between G and Pinterest is well and truly evident yet I still do not get the point of that site. One arrives at a site with stolen images and, in my widget world, there's only usually 2/3 applicable searched for images, the remainder have absolutely nothing to do with it.

It is very noticeable on examination that Pinterest traffic basically only emanates from three countries!

[MayankParmar]

Is the update still rolling out? No confirmation from Danny?

[joshd2]

The update is definitely still rolling out. Something went live last night and completely messed up the way Google indexes my site again. This is by far the most inept update I have seen in 14 years in the business. Google should be ashamed.

[samwest]

@redbar - are you seeing the ridiculous Pinterest infusion in your vertical?
Can't believe a single pin with one follower is now in the #3 position.

Just found this article regarding the "Pinterest Problem" in the SERPS.
It's been happening on and off since 2015. I'll be harping on this hard until it get's fixed.
The latest update seems to have removed any previous Pinterest filters.
This infusion appears to be a result of the latest update.
Article: [seo.xenite.org...]

Get it together Google.

[jxlarrea]

Did Google rollback the update? My sites are getting their usual traffic back today after getting completely obliterated since the May update.

[MayankParmar]

[twitter.com...]

The rollout has just completed.

[markseo]

I've seen a real slow down in traffic in the last few days after a big uplift over the week of the roll out. Not sure where we will end up - probably around about where we were a month back when this all started!

[ichthyous]

There seems to be a disconnect between GA and GSC. GA shows a 9% decrease in traffic from the 6th-17th vs the previous Wed-Sat period, and a 6% increase in traffic for that same period YOY. GSC paints a much more dire picture, with impressions down 24% and clicks down 21% comparing the 6th-17th to the previous span.

I tend to trust GSC more because it's hard to pull all of the bot visits from Amazon Boardman etc out of GA reports entirely. The traffic decline came from "Direct" visits only...Organic held steady Anyone else seeing similar? Also, GSC has not updated speed metrics in a long time and has disabled validation.

[edited by: ichthyous at 6:40 pm (utc) on May 18, 2020]

[whoa182]

My traffic has bounced back to near where it was before the update. Not that it matters too much right now as Amazon cut my earnings by over 70% anyway.

[RedBar]

@redbar - are you seeing the ridiculous Pinterest infusion in your vertical?

The Pinterest promotion has been farcical, plus the occasional wtf site, otherwise my widget sector seems to be actually fairly reasonable although some pages are a bit thinner than I would prefer.

One thing I do know is that the ranking pages are not receiving much more traffic as yet since I have spoken with their respective webmasters, however they are all putting that down to the Coronavirus for the moment.

[NeapTide]

Instant major drop in traffic. SERPs in my niche flooded with FB pages, twitter pages, irrelevant youtube videos, *people also search for* right below 2 - 3 results and other crazy bullsh*t.

Google is intentionally doing this to confuse people and make them stay on Google Search more thus increasing chance of clicking on ads cutting down publishers and sharing revenue with them.

Google is putting nails in its own coffin now. I feel ashamed to even work with Google when they all care about is their own profits. Plus whole Adsense business is shady and probably they steal money from advertisers and publishers too because no one can see what they are actually doing behind the closed doors.

I am going to dump Google soon.

[worker]

Worst daily traffic and revenue I've seen in over a decade.

A review of the SERPS in my area show results that indicate whatever is ranking the results cannot determine the intent of the search phrase. On top of completely inaccurate results, there are thin Pinterest pages, (literally) broken pages, and pages to 404 pages where there is no content that matches the search phrase (on a site that has nothing to do with the search phrase).

On top of all that, my domain is entirely missing from at least the first 5 pages (I stopped looking after that) when it used to show up on the first page, many times in the first position. Objectively, it exactly matches the type of result that would be expected by the search phrases I use to test.

Basically, Google Search is broken (badly) and in very obvious ways.

[redgorillas]

So just want to share some results from my side.

We have several sites in same niche. We are selling some niche software and there are around 20 companies doing same. Also there are several big sites that parasite on our keywords

We got good increase in positions right after May Core update for 2 our sites. Unfortunately till the end of the roll out we went back to the same positions were at the beginning of May.

Unfortunately we got really bad situation with our third site. We have one site devoted to just one narrow topic and it's really good. Our rivals usually have just 1-2 pages devoted to same topic. This site got top 5 positions for several years and was punished by core update last autumn and heavily hit by January update. After each drop in positions it took from 1 week to 1 month to got back some positions. On May 5 we got all our positions backs but on May 12 we were heavily punished and moved from page 1 to page 2 for all our target keywords in all countries except USA. It's quite strange as we are selling software and all rival sites are in English but our site still has good positions in USA and was heavily punished in EU and Asia.

[mara89]

The May 2020 Core Update rollout is complete.

[seomotionz]

I still don't understand why the big players in twitter and all, acting like that its nothing.

[frostitomik]

Ok. Let's all wait for the June Core Update when all gets reverted again :-)

[RedBar]

Let's all wait for the June Core Update when all gets reverted again :-)

June of which year? :-)

Next update should be September however it wouldn't surprise me if there is a Pinterest tweak otherwise "job done".

[BoredMeteor]

Yeah, I don't see how my site will just suddenly recover. Looking at search console, I've lost pretty much all of my keywords, and they haven't just fallen in position. Some are completely gone from the serps (for one, I went from position 6 to 134 to nothing. Same story for a number of others).

Has to be some kind of algorithmic penalty. Or it at least feels like it. Nearly ten years just to be grounded into dust.

But hey, I know where to go if I ever need to look up Pinterest images. I mean, I'll go to Pinterest...but Google is apparently a good second choice.

[gatormark]

@BoredMeteor

Similar situation for me. All of my main keywords are gone from page 1. They are now, at the very best, on page 3 but most are completely gone from SERP. I don’t know why. I got hit big in the Dec 2017 update too. This May update is just as painful...maybe more since I’m making less.

[ichthyous]

Next update should be September

Last September my site started to climb strongly for a month. That new higher plateau lasted three months before down it went again fist week of Jan 2020. Whatever changes Google made in the first week of January affected conversions, and not so much traffic. Traffic was doing fine until mid March, but sales vanished in Jan, Feb and March. That has never happened in 18 years of business. I don't think it's the quantity of traffic that matters so much anymore, it's the quality of traffic hitting your site. Google has managed to skim off the customers with highest intent to purchase...and they've done a very good job of it.

[RedBar]

Google has managed to skim off the customers with highest intent to purchase...and they've done a very good job of it.

I've read that a lot over the years, how do you think they do that?

They would never know my intentions since I am constantly clearing browser data etc however could they really tell from cookies and following people around who actually intends purchasing v a very interested visitor?

I know I see on my sites a visitor from a country looking at a specific widget and quite often see an enquiry for that widget but I also see many, many more visitors who are simply researching a specific widget and wanting to learn more. Two reasons for this, firstly in general even fairly qualified sales people in my industry are not that well-informed therefore secondly they invariably find my sites with the info they are seeking.

Bearing in mind I am B2B only I do not expect huge volumes of even weekly enquiries.

[gatormark]

Between SERP updates and COVID-19, my advertising income is down 55% (and decreasing) since the beginning of April.

[NeapTide]

@gatormark my Adsense revenue has fallen 75 percent now and traffic is in gutter too. My first page ranking results are now on second page pushed down because Google decided to put other bullsh*t on first page like "People also search for" irrelevant Android apps and games boxes, Irrelevant FB and twitter pages and so on. They don't even bother to introduce continuous scroll feature for Google Search like they have on YouTube. The stubbornness of Google is insane.

[Dooku]

@Redbar,
"I've read that a lot over the years, how do you think they do that?
They would never know my intentions since I am constantly clearing browser data etc"

This is a good example of how clueless you and MANY others are regarding the digital footprint you have accumulated for years and handed over for free to Google. If you have used their "products" for years than you should download your XML log file of your profile from the google servers and be prepared to be shocked. Every time I show this to someone, without exception their chin drops to the floor and slowly they start realizing what is happening. It's like living your life with Google looking over your shoulder using an action cam on your shoulder 24/7.

They are so good at it that from your digital profile they can for example predict your religion with 98% accuracy without you having mentioned your religious background EVER online. I have seen this in an actual test. Based on your digital profile it's even easier for Google to predict what your next step will be when your searching for something and when you are about to make a purchasing decision.

You really have no clue as to how good they are predicting your "intentions" nor have you got any clue of how your giving Google all that information for free each and every day that your online and using a phone, or the worst of the worst, using the Google home speaker.

Most webmasters are handing over their most precious business data each and every day to google using Google Search Console and Google Analytics........so why are you still surprised at how they can know your "intentions"? With all of that info it's very easy for google to make sure any traffic they think will produce any profit to NOT end up at your website but on another location which is more profitable for Google.

The result of all of this is what we are all seeing in regards to the website rankings with every new google algo update.

[Kash1111]

This update is a complete mess, whatever google tells you to improve on is complete bs, EAT? don't make me laugh google. All I see is spun content and low-quality pages on the top 3, Pinterest TLD's are on every search, how does a Pinterest pin have EAT? I wish they would stop giving us this advice.

Personally I don't use google search, and now I am advising my users to switch as well.

[gatormark]

I have never seen worse search engine results in my life.

[paranoid android]

Has anybody checked the speed insights in webmaster tools? Nearly all of my pages have gone from 'moderate' to 'slow' since this update stopped rolling out.

[immrrobot]

@redbar Just removing the browser history won't cut it. They are tracking us literally from everywhere. If you use youtube, you are tracked there, if you are using an android phone, you are being tracked, if you are using gmail, you are being tracked, if you are using google maps, you are being tracked, if you are using chrome, you are being tracked. Even if you remove the search history, it will only leave the footprints from your computer's browser, G still owns it in its database. So, you see we can't run away from Google as its products are everywhere.

Although we can minimize it through blockers and using browser like "Brave" (no affiliation what so ever). We can also switch to a transparent search engine that doesn't track like duckduckgo, but we all know that's not going to happen.

[Abaros]

When you lose 30% of your organic traffic, that 30% doesn't go to another site, but rather Google divides it among (for example 10 sites) including their own ecosystem.

That's why we see a lot of spam irrelevant pages, as there are not enough quality sites to distribute the traffic, these sites appear.

Google has been doing this since 2012.

In the end no online business has enough traffic to survive without buying ads from Google.

This is our pitiful future.