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?

[samwest]

Same here Bushy...very distinct ON/OFF still happening, probably always will. Gotta have that hand in the cookie jar most of the time. All of the time might get it slapped.

<snip>

[edited by: goodroi at 3:52 pm (utc) on Aug 19, 2020]
[edit reason] let's stay on topic [/edit]

[ChokenBako]

Today I see about 20% less traffic compared to last week. Any Update in sight?

[samwest]

Any Update in sight?

Whatever happening to the "rolling update"?
They way traffic behaves, it appears we are still doing the Google Dance.

[MayankParmar]

[semrush.com...]

5.2

[RedBar]

Any Update in sight?

Yep ...Over There .!.!.!

[Webweeb]

Nothing happening. Keep reporting that spam. They wont change the way things are, if they have ignorant bliss as an alternative.

[Athedian]

Yesterday I searched for: best way to kill off roaches

Google showed:

Youtube
Youtube
Youtube
Youtube
Actual site providing instructions on a a special roach-killing ingredient
Blog site with random ads
Japanese Blog site which I can't read
Images
Suggested searches

Actual search result listing only showing 7 results now compared to the 9 before, and out of the 7, 6 are useless. It's so bad I had to use DDG and Yahoo to search for what I needed.

Oh yeah, and Google Ads account manager called and emailed me again about how to "optimize" the ads to get "better conversions" and "lower" CPA. It's infuriating when they do this. Oh yeah, and one of the things the "account manager" said was: "The more you convert, the lower your CPA will be".

Apparently I know nothing about this! This is news to me! I guess I've been sticking my head in my arse for the last few years. = =

[samwest]

Why is it that we get little to no traffic from west of the Mississippi? I know it's sparsely populated out there, but not even from the west coast...ever. I'm not a local business, and operate worldwide. Looks like an odd localization bug that has been ongoing for years.

[glakes]

Oh yeah, and Google Ads account manager called and emailed me again

This is Google's MO - tank our traffic/conversions and start hammering us with calls and emails to "optimize" our ads. I see the rep calling on caller ID and never answer. Today I got one call and one email. Some days Google will call 3+ times, which I don't answer either. They used to send out ad vouchers about a week before tanking our ranks/conversions, but they must have determined it's either cheaper or more effective to have some offshore rep handle the shakedown.

I'm seeing poor conversions on traffic that is up about 15% since the update on the 15. Along with poor traffic quality/conversions, my average cart total from Google has been cut in half. Surely there is nothing that would compel me to answer the Google ad rep's call and listen to some half baked sales pitch about optimizing my ads.

[Athedian]

@glakes - Yup. And the sad thing is that they didn't even attempt to act like they know what they're talking about.

Speaking of conversions, everything died after 10am today for me. Great fluctuations from Google. So tired of the rollercoaster stats.

[mosxu]

Do guys look at bid simulators? It just tells you a number of conversions and funny some of them show 1 conversion for 10 bids for 40 usd cpa, 120 usd cpa and so on and last 1000 usd cpa still 1 conversion?

Basically that is the quota saying you can only get 1 conversion regardless how much you spend.

So stupid, these genetically modified beings are not getting smarter for sure.

[browndog]

Wow Athedian, that's really bad. I really do wonder if sometimes it's deliberate. The same search for me (in Australia) isn't too bad.

Ad (pest control)
Insider
Youtube
Youtube
Youtube
Housekeeping site
Another housekeeping site
Handyman site
Pest control
Pest control

When using Chrome, I keep getting warnings from Google that search results are now at risk in Australia which will provide us with dramatically worse products. Full story can be read here...I generally only use Chrome as a back up, but have stopped using it because of the really annoying warning every time I open it.

[amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org...]

[Athedian]

@browndog - Yeah it's getting worse right now. If I recall correctly, a long time ago it was around 15 results, almost no ads. Then it became 13 results or something like that with two ads, then three ads, then four ads, then four ads at top and two at bottom, and now it's like four ads at top, three ads at bottom, Youtube galore, one to two decent links to relevant content, and the rest is either random blogs or sites from another country in a language that I can't read nor searched for. :(

That warning scheme for Australia is just another way for Google to force their way through regulations and other watchdog groups out there. Unbelievable.

[Webweeb]

I am now pretty sure that the decline is SERP quality is to do with Google trying to understand 'user intent'. They are trying to go from being a tool to find relevant results to a word or phrase to a prediction AI.

I must admit that this CAN lead to better results IF it works. However, it does not seem to work properly at this time, especially for terms that can have multiple and especially many intents.

What kind of user intent leads to them only ranking spam in some SERPs boggles my mind, but in some cases maybe reality is not good enough for users and only spammers are telling the user what the user wants to see/hear... leading to only dishonest people ranking. I mean I guess a 30 dollar Ferrari sounds good, sadly its not real.

Either way, the technology is in its infancy and I am not sure it was quite ready for release yet, but I guess they wanted to release it may the 4th because nerds. And because who cares if it actually works.

[glakes]

I am now pretty sure that the decline is SERP quality is to do with Google trying to understand 'user intent'. They are trying to go from being a tool to find relevant results to a word or phrase to a prediction AI.

I have an opposing view. Google is not trying to understand user intent to benefit the user, but instead to dig their way deeper into advertisers pockets. This is why the real meat and potatoes of a search query (organic results) are buried underneath ads, YouTube carousels, etc. I would argue AI's primary goal is to balance advertiser and user satisfaction so that neither leaves. Basically, this is Google trying to maximize revenue on a micro/individual level.

I put the user intent theory to rest a long time ago when I realized no user wants to have to scroll half way down the page to see the results to their query. Google wouldn't make users do that, or dramatically reduce the number of organic results, if they truly were focused on users. Google is all about limiting user choice, to funnel users into clicking ads and/or directing users to other Google owned properties where they may also click ads.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Has anyone who appears on Discover noticed a change since the "glitch"? We got tanked around mid-June for whatever reason. Started recovering in late July and heading towards a peak... then the glitch and now wiped from Discover completely, apparently.

We do try not to rely on the Discover traffic, but man it hurts when it is not there - especially when there is seemingly no real rhyme or reason to the change and the patterns do not follow in logic. Our rankings haven't changed.

[ViktorN]

@TalkativeEditorial

we saw a drop in discovery over the past two days. our site is finance news website. What's your site's niche?

[TalkativeEditorial]

@ViktorN sport niche. Definitely gotten worse over the last two days for us too.
Starting to be convinced it is the AMP for WP Plugin, it is forever causing problems whenever it is updated.

[markseo]

Traffic volume picked up today but not on our core keywords so not seeing subsequent uplift in conversions. Usually a sign something is going on. Also saw snippets changing hands yesterday. It's not big but I think something has been brewing in the last 48 hours.

[MayankParmar]

@TalkativeEditorial I just checked and I found that my Discover for the US, UK & Canada dropped sharply on August 11 when the glitch happened!

[imgur.com...] - Console.

I too use AMP for WP plugin but a very old version from last year. Official AMP plugin version 2.0 is a huge upgrade (currently in beta), you can try it when it comes out of beta.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Similar situation, to you @MayankParmar
We recovered slightly and then decimated slowly but surely since 15 Aug....disappeared.


[URL] [imgur.com...] [/url]

It probably isn't AMP for WP but that is the only thing that changed since that date (15 Aug) and the plugin is veeery buggy and I am very grumpy.
It would not bother me so much if the keyword rankings were tanking too (they have actually IMPROVED in some cases).

[MayankParmar]

My keyword rankings have improved too.

There are no technical AMP errors and I still get Discover traffic from Asian countries

[samwest]

Just wanted to chime from posts on page 14 mentioning apparent time if day throttling....I am seeing the very same thing as well as very unatural weekly totals...ie...the same by +/- a very small percentage. COVID started a steep increase because our service helps people cope with isolation..but Google quickly reacted with their May punitive update. Our climb was immediately stopped and clamped. Sounds like many other are seeing the same with no recovery.

[Webweeb]

@glakes
Agreed in that I believe that is what they are doing on top of everything. They dont need to capture more market share, so now they can sacrifice some quality for more revenue.

The deeper problem really is the US global hegemony which allowed this monopoly to develop. If Google was a French company for example, this would have never been allowed to happen. But the US policy is "monopolies are bad for everyone, unless they are US monopolies". So neither Google, nor Amazon or YouTube will ever be splitt up.

I think the definition of a 'monopoly' should be redefined as:
"A lack of positive competitive pressure that leads to the best outcome for consumers."

Because while Google certainly has 'competition', it really has no pressure in the search engine space that would force them to serve the user more.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Discover is such agony, if there were obvious things that can be pointed out like with rankings, fine. But it's like somebody is just sitting around randomly pressing a button every now and then and woosh, gone.

[MayankParmar]

Right. I'm more worried because it dropped when the glitch was reported. I probably wait for the Core update and switch to the official AMP plugin if there are no improvements.

[ViktorN]

@MayankParmar
I'm also with WP4AMP plugin, very old version (I know the newer ones has some bugs). after the fatal drop around the May core update, we had a great month July and first two weeks of August. just the last two days we see severe drop in Discover traffic.
I dont know if it relates to the plugin... not sure at all.

[TalkativeEditorial]

We got a boost after May, then got destroyed mid June, started revolt late July and had best ever two weeks August. Been downward since the glitch..

Just on Discover, mind you. All this while keywords remain consistent and improve in some cases.

I just don't know anymore

[Fabinho]

Has anyone who appears on Discover noticed a change since the "glitch"?

hello @TalkativeEditorial

Yes, the same thing happened here. We have been removed from Discover since the May 4 core update. We are a news site that has existed for 20 years in Brazil and for no apparent reason we lost our main source of organic access, which was the articles carousel cards and the suggested articles from Chorme and Google Apps. But if this tragedy were not enough, since the update we lost positions also in terms of the highest result, both in Serp and in Google News, in this we hid our articles and threw our results on page 20, except when the search is refined by date.

[edited by: not2easy at 8:56 pm (utc) on Aug 20, 2020]
[edit reason] fixed quote tag [/edit]

[TalkativeEditorial]

@Fabinho that sucks. Are you sure it's not a technical issue (ie have you checked the feeds etc?)