Google Updates and SERP Changes - August 2020

[samwest]

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System: The following 11 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5001046.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 3:44 pm on Aug 1, 2020 (utc -5)

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August 1st. Big SERP changes and not a single conversion in the past 48 hours. The number 1 result for several of my test queries is now....drum roll please...a single PINTEREST pin....with no followers. Is this Googles idea of a "quality user expetience" and is EAT out the window or is everything just broken? Again...

With no on site changes...bounce was dropping every day for the last few weeks...now over the last two days bounce is way up so traffic behavior has suddenly changed for the worse....which indicates a large algo change.

Anyone else seeing this?

[MayankParmar]

@topaz My Discover also started recovering after almost 12 days of traffic drop. However, traffic has only recovered for Discover in India, Australia, South Africa, and other countries. Discover in the US is still dead, with only 100-500 impressions a day.

I have been monitoring the server logs, site speed to diagnose the sudden drop but it looks like it was completely Google's fault after all.

[Cyril TechWebsites]

@Mayank Parmar

And are you sure that when the core update will be rolled out you'll become happy and face a traffic boost?) What if the next update will only continue this madness?)

[MayankParmar]

@Cyril TechWebsites I've been able to improve the quality of the site lately. Got a chunk of natural backlinks. The last two-three core updates worked in my favour (with minor improvements). And I also jumped during those glitches. These are the reasons why I'm expecting improvements in the next core update.

If I still drop, I will probably retire lol ;)

[Webweeb]

@Cyril TechWebsites
Just keep improving your site for users. If Google cares about them, it will rank well again in the future. Make it faster, prettier, giving the users what they want quicker and easier.

Or join one of the SEO testing groups that are still able to game the system. For now I'm choosing to simply improve, since I think its a better long-term strategy.

[mosxu]

There is no improvement in serps in the last 3 years or so for my industry not a single new website and all sell same crap from China.

Defunding small businesses means no new ideas, no product innovation and so on. AI can’t see the big picture.

[seomotionz]

@MayankParmar Atfirst, let your US Discover traffic recover. Then come to any conclusion. Anyway, best of luck.

[jediviper]

Dooku

What is naive is not to know what official sources you can trust.
And you can't really consider that there is some sort of conspiracy and no one talks about an Update which didn't happen.
So, the only obvious result is this: There was NO update.

[glakes]

@mosxu

AI can’t see the big picture.

When the American people and businesses are stripped of wealth, the populace becomes dependent of Government and corporate charity. Over time, a lack of financial means bakes into society and reduces educational opportunities which will lead to a dummied down population. Maybe this is what AI is after - a population dependent on it/its creators and too stupid to even realize it. Meanwhile politicians get rich by looking the other way. The politicians will complain about looting in cities, but totally ignore China looting our entire country.

The products my company produces are consumed by a wide variety of businesses, including big data. The next time big data wants to place an order, maybe I'll direct them to their Amazon crowded search results instead of closing the sale. If NFL players can take knees for the National Anthem, why can't I tell big data to go pound salt?

Traffic today looks dead and there is an absence of conversions across the board. I know some kids are going back to school (either virtual or classroom) so that may have parents scrambling. Also layoff notices are being sent to non-teaching staff in schools that are not opening in my region. When looked at statewide, this may be another mass layoff event that will cause consumers to tighten their belts even more.

[ichthyous]

Higher overnight traffic, but as usual at 9am sharp it fell off a cliff. The higher traffic shoots up to a 70+% bounce rate I've noticed...so lots of overnight traffic from Botswana, Indonesia, China, etc but the USA traffic never materializes in a strong way. No inquiries, no conversions at all...just lots of spam

Everyone wishing for another core update is assuming that Google will unwind the May 4th catastrophe...recent history from the last couple of years shows that it will only be followed by something worse, or a new effort to wring our necks like chickens. Google does not intend that sites which they cannot monetize will rank ever again. Read that to yourself over and over and either start making an ad budget, or start finding ways to diversify your income away from Google. I don't mean to say it's pointless to improve your site or your content, but it will produce ever diminishing returns where Google organic search is concerned. It might help you to keep and convert the traffic you do get though.

[ichthyous]

If NFL players can take knees for the National Anthem, why can't I tell big data to go pound salt?

What does one thing have to do with the other? Stay focused on why we are here, to share useful info not to conflate totally unrelated issues.

[renatovieira]

@ichthyous - Something similar happens to me. High traffic in the morning until 12:00pm, and then at 12:05pm everything disappears. It's very weird...

I say this in a simple way, but this is exactly what has happened every day since the 8th/august.

[ichthyous]

Something similar happens to me. High traffic in the morning until 12:00pm, and then at 12:05pm everything disappears. It's very weird...I say this in a simple way, but this is exactly what has happened every day since the 8th/august.

@renato I have been posting about this for months now. In my case it's more like 9-10am and the USA traffic just turns off. It starts to rise again around 6pm. If you check it's probably USA only, the rest of the traffic continues the same.

Have you set an international target for your site? I had none for 17 years and recently changed it to USA. The result was that I lost UK and Australian traffic and did not gain any USA traffic.

[samwest]

Chopped again today - the ON/OFF is so drastic that it is impossible to be a natural fluctuation. Week started with best two days in 4 years, only to instantly drop to zero again and yet SERPS appear unchanged.

[KaseyM]

Very quiet today - after a good weekend too.

[glakes]

Not much traffic today. Conversions are coming from existing customers and new visitors are quick to bounce.

Bing is following Google's lead by allowing free shopping ads ( [webmasterworld.com...] ). Those running ecommerce sites may want to take advantage of the offer while it lasts or at least get in early before it becomes saturated...

[mhansen]

@Samwest

Seeing the exact same trend in our market. Over the last two days when the firehose was turned on, traffic and conversions were up to normal levels. I spotted several of the Featured Snippets we used to hold position for return, with fewer "refine search" buttons at the top or none at all. Overnight, everything switched back again, including the changes in FS placement, and the return of the 8-10 or so "Refine your Search" on top of everything.

Today I was working for a client site and doing a bit of KW research in a couple different SaaS markets to observe the SERP's. It's loaded with Google owned properties on page 1 and appeared much more bloated than usual with automated widgets from G, as well as comparison sites. (6-7 of the top results were all for comparison/review sites)

Further, on a search related to WP and customization tweaks of a specific theme, the SERPs were very much dominated by Google Sites (sitename.google.com). It looked like the same kind of crappy SERP as last week when they blamed a glitch.

[Dooku]

To all forum members who have a customer mailing list that they regularly send out commercial emails to:
Is there a difference in percentage from customers opening/responding/ordering from such an email compared to just before covid19 and the last two core algo updates from G and after?
Do you see only a difference in traffic (as many do), or do you see also a difference in response to your mailings?

[mhansen]

Another "feature" I just spotted in Google SERP's today.

- Search
- Click to a result website
- Return back to Google after a second or two with the back button.

Directly beneath result you just clicked is now a box that shows "People Also Searched For", with a list of roughly 8-10 various related search phrases. It pushes all other results further down the page and when an item is clicked, brings you to another page of Google results (with ads of course).

Is this new?

[StupidIntelligent]

@mhansen - No, been like this for at least a year or more.

[mosxu]

@glakes

“why can't I tell big data to go pound salt?”

And why not? Most people seem to be confusing Big Tech with science or some sort of Gods but are they really?

[mhansen]

@StupidIntelligent - Thanks! Not sure why I've never noticed it...

[renatovieira]

Today the ON/OFF switch was turned off a little later. After a slightly better traffic flow than the previous days, G cut off access to my site promptly at 16:30pm.

I followed it all day through G real time and the cut was punctual. It seems to be something scheduled. I would say the daily quotas that G sends me daily.

It's strange and at the same time, pathetic...

[webdev29]

@renatovieira It's kind of weird because I have the exact same behavior (FR) . After a certain time, I have absolutely no more conversions, since 2015 I have never seen this, it's ridiculous...

Where it's starting to get strange is that no matter what day of the week it is, the traffic systematically cuts off (and when I say traffic's down, it's literally like someone hit an on/off switch.) when I theoretically had the most conversions. Also, the bounce rate has been skyrocketing since May (june, july, august...) updates (lets call them Bankruptcy Updates)

[widgetized]

More observations from my website: the switch was definitely ON on Thursday 13 August, I have had multiple conversions (orders) every day, then suddenly it went OFF on Monday 17 August. Everything is dead silent still today, and as usual, I got an increase of spam emails in my inbox.

I'd say I'm very used to this behavior, still it feels disheartening every time it happens.

[Martin Ice Web]

Traffic is cut off by 50%. Conversion from google users are 90% less. But with every google update our amazon sales got higher and higher.
Our vertical is now
1. amazon search result page
2. amazon search result page
3. big brand
4. ebay / ebay reuslt page
5. big brand
6. big brand same as #5

As i only use google for ranking qualitfications then and now I am realy astonished how bad the UE is right now.
-It is hard to get any information out of the 3 lines they present the users. it is a bit fuzzy.
-I don´t like them to chop the title of the page.
-I don´t like that the URL is above the title, it makes the crossreading so mach harder.
-I don´t like picture or search panels between the results. It looks not clean.
-I don´t like search result pages from ebay, amazon and co included in search results

What i could like about google:
-they could do so much better things for the world : spend money, help educating poeple, be a honest business partner

[Webweeb]

I remember back when I used to sell stuff. The mind plays tricks on you. You think you recognize patterns, but its actually just random distribution with a small sample size.

As you get into the range of average 50-100 conversions a day the 'patters' start to disappear and once you reach 200+ its pretty much gone.

If you get an average of 10 conversions a day, 0 conversion days are expected, even if somewhat rarely.

That being said, Google traffic has been extremely inconsistent since the start of this year. Even for my big sites. Whereas the patterns were extremely regular for the last 5 years or so. Which makes it likely that they dont just shift around traffic iself, but also traffic intention. For what purpose... presumably to match the best website to the traffic... or the best ad. ;)

[glakes]

And why not? Most people seem to be confusing Big Tech with science or some sort of Gods but are they really?

It says a lot when those working for a search engine avoid buying the Chinese products their own company ranks. Sadly, this is how Big Tech works - they seek out quality items for their own use within their company and push offshore garbage peddled on Amazon to their billions of users. This is why I think it's time to tell Big Tech/predatory search engines to go pound salt. There's a certain "filth" to Google's money that I just can't explain.

And predatory Google is. I see Google's Shopping Actions program now requires payment to be setup with PayPal. Shouldn't regulators/politicians see a problem with a dominant company ranking pages/products and nudging their way into control of the entire purchase cycle? I get it, Google wants to compete with Amazon. Will there ever be a point when these massive dominant players are restrained for the greater good of innovation, competition and consumer choice?

[mosxu]

@glakes

Consumer choice is affected for sure in my industry another monopolistic entity have bought most of my competitors and shuts every one else out to buy ads and if we get to buy some ads most of the clicks are questionable as you already know.

From legal perspective google plus this entity forms technically a ....

[samwest]

Has Google become intentionally obstinate? This morning I was searching for a site by its domain name and Google just refused to provide a listing for it. Instead, I got something "close" that was littered with ads. I finally gave up and had to enter the domain name directly in the URL bar to get there.

A client recently showed me searches that were based on colors, and sadly, when I search on the color #fffffff, all I got was #000000 results. Now that's just crazy. I reference the hex values to avoid censorship. Seoroundtable is talking about it...Google claims NTSH. [seroundtable.com...]

[BushyTop]

Seeing on and off conversions also to back up some of the comments on here. It's incredibly disconcerting. Additionally, I am seeing some ranking changes that still appear to be happening. I am however making some changes to our onsite, which is impacting page speed negatively (during the development process) that we are trying to avoid, but that we can't seem to at the moment... could be that... could be google.