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?

[Portland79]

I can confirm for sure it is an old index.

I removed comments after Google deranked me to hell in May.
I was all over page 1, then they slowly moved me from like position 30 to 90 over the last 2 months.

However, MUCH positive movement today.

But my comments are back in the index.
Old index, glitch.

I expect all the trash copy paste spun sites to regain their ranks and take me out again.

Before May, I was page 1 for 10+ years.
Amazon Affiliate site making $3,000-$7,000 a month down to $600 since May.

[NickMNS]

I'm up ~100% since about 8pm EDT.

[faiyu]

Its just a start I guess, this is the one of those rare times when Eu has first reported flux. It still dancing quite a bit

[Webweeb]

Traffic was up to level before all the parasite spam started ranking (aka may the 4th be wtith you lmao xd) for 2h, now back down. I hope this is Google realizing they screwed themselves and their users and rolling this mess back.

May be an old index, sadly I was not available to check the SERPs in the 3h window. I suspect they are testing rolling back the core algo changes of may 4th, since they were clearly a mistake for a lot of queries. Actually it was almost certainly a pre core update index, since the numbers for those 2h were exactly the Traffic I got pre update that time of day.

@Portland79:
Agreed on the old index. But not a glitch. Its was a core algo change... those dont just 'glitch' back. They are real world testing a rollback most likely. It was deliberate. I just love that it took over 3 goddam months for them to realize how bad this update was. How absolutely arrogant and blind do you have to be?

In the meantime I have been using the bad quality of Google results in my marketing, so I have to use the bad SERPS as long as they are still there.
@Google: please keep the bad SERPS for another 2 weeks, so I can make fun of them in my marketing campaign. You ranking trash is actually making my services more useful.

[mandeeptemerity]

My own site has dropped again but clients' have been set back to previous positions.

[Cralamarre]

No changes here, at least so far. Traffic has been pretty consistent since the shutdown in mid March.

[Webweeb]

I suspect they may have tested the old index on the niches most affected by spam. In some niches the algo is literally ranking spam. I have submitted 3000+ spam reports in my niche since may and the Algo just keeps ranking new spam as soon as it is removed. So I suspect thats why they tested the index in my part of the woods.

For me it was +500% for 2h. Lovely... I lost almost 90% of my traffic to spam on may 4th. It would not feel as bad if at least I got outranked by actual content.

[NickMNS]

Well it didn't last long 11 to 12pm I was down to -14%. Now things look like they are back to normal.

[SnowMan68]

Crazy results for a while. Appears to be back to normal again.

[MayankParmar]

GLITCH!

Google admits breaking down its search engine

[twitter.com...]

[Webweeb]

Not buying it. It was an old index, even the comments on seroundtable indicate that. - Or rather the old core algo applied to the new index as my data indicates. I have strong evidence for that that I cannot share.

I guess you cant really AB test different core algos, so they had a 'glitch' instead. I hope they got the data they need to make a non-idiotic decision from it.

A glimmer of hope, since it strongly indicates that they are working on 2 core algos and one of them is not complete trash. Sadly its the one they dont currently use.

[Athedian]

I'm seeing my site back to its original position on the SERP. Seems like it really is a glitch.

[HereWeGo123]

I haven't noticed this chatter or Barry's SEO breaking news until an hour ago today. I immediately checked SERPs for various KWs that I monitor and everything was the same. Then about 5 minutes ago I checked those various Kws and noticed we shot up all the way to the top pages from page 2-3 on over 10 KWs I monitored. I began going crazy and hyperventilating. And then I checked a few moments ago and everything reverted back. So definitely something is underway. It's just odd that Google didn't confirm anything. But they very well may do so tomorrow morning (U.S.) And now as I'm writing this, seeing those changes stick once again and regaining substantial grounds... MAN THIS IS CRAZY. Have NEVER SEEN SUCH volatility like this before, at least with respect to our site. We're a U.S. review site.

[jmorgan]

I wonder what the web would look like if publishers didn't rely so much on Google for their traffic.

[Cyril TechWebsites]

My happiness was 6 hours long. After 6 hours of drastically increased traffic (like in pre-"plannedemia" times), everything back to "normal". Seems like a test. Hope that this one is a test for future SERPS!))

[MayankParmar]

Google Core update should be coming soon ;)

[Cyril TechWebsites]

Guys with websites for FR:

Every year my traffic decreasing sigmificantly from France all August and after 20-th it will back on it's place. This is happening every year due to Assemption Day. The most affected countries in EU are France and Italy. So keep calm!)

[Cyril TechWebsites]

@MayankParmar

Yeah, absolutely agree with that. And I have a reason to believe that rankings we've seen today during this "short test" will not be much different from what we'll see in the near future in the real SERPs....))) I hope that!))

[Cyril TechWebsites]

@Ichtyous:

You have a case I'm watching on. Wouldn't you mind to share if everything happened to your website during this "test"? Have your ranking changed?

[Webweeb]

@Cyril TechWebsites
Did you see what changed? My assumption is that is was a pre-pandemic test, but I have no proof.

Was all the spun content, pinterest spam, weird profile spam, google sites spam and google books gone?

I didnt see the actual SERPS, but the webmaster tools data will probably give some indication. 2h is not much to go on, but it should still be interesting once the data is updated.

[edited by: Webweeb at 8:24 am (utc) on Aug 11, 2020]

[mariagarcia]

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System: The following message was spliced on to this thread from: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5005378.htm [webmasterworld.com] by engine - 9:23 am on Aug 11, 2020 (utc +1)

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Can anybody tell me what is this SERP update and which website affected the most? My website traffic goes down ..

[Cyril TechWebsites]

@Webweeb

I think I don't believe any "pre-pandemic" test. I don't believe any "pre" tests and roll-backs (only very short termed, not core). I think they always moving forward, not backward in terms of SERPs. So the core update is always something new. It's not some kind of "old index" or something like been said here from my point of view.

[Webweeb]

@Cyril TechWebsites
Clearly you never developed software. Some builds are just a dead end. And anything you build on a bad foundation wont stand.
So sometimes you have to take 5 steps back to move forward as any steps you take on a wrong path wont get you closer to your goal.

Same is true for SEO any essentially any project. Lets say you built your site on an old CMS that is not supported anymore. You now get to tare down your site and rebuild it on a better CMS to move forward.

But if you believe Google is too perfect to make mistakes, thats your belief I guess.

[zeus]

One of my sites best ranking pages 1 on page 1 on Google for years just droped to page 7. When I look at the google results 1 page, I dont see 1 results of widgets in blue, but a lot of yellow, green,... even non related at all. So the keyword search is not present.

[Robert Charlton]

I've started a discussion on this issue here, deriving from our Updates thread here and Roger Montti's (aka martinibuster's) article in Search Engine Journal.

Google Suffers Major Glitch in Search Results
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5005413.htm [webmasterworld.com]

Per martinibuster's article in SEJ, it was some kind of glitch or mistake by Google.

[SteveWrz]

Add me to the list of people who saw +100% last night briefly and felt happy again that Google finally got one right. Of course it's a glitch. There is no happiness in this business.

[mosxu]

Maybe not a glitch but search results without personalisation

[MayankParmar]

No happiness in this business unless you are backed by a company :)

[renatovieira]

That Massive Google Update Was Glitch & Bug - Search Results Back To Normal

[seroundtable.com...]

[teokolo]

@Arc Exectuve scraping my tweets and pasting them here doesn't make you smart.

The interesting thing about this update/rollback/glitch is how EAT comes into effect in the last stage of the algorithm: it seems like good websites are in a whitelist applied in the last iterations.
I've seen serps filled at first with spam/phishing websites, then overtaked by news sites, then some relevant website appeared. Now trusted brands are back where they should be.