Google Updates and SERP Changes - September 2020

[RedBar]

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System: The following 5 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5004404.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 6:16 pm on Sep 1, 2020 (utc -5)

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I know some of you are not going to like this however here are my metrics for August 2020:

Global B2B Site 1 PVs v July +27.7%, v August 2019 +332%

Global B2B Site 2 PVs v July 22.9%, v August 2019 +299%

UK Hotel / pub PVs v July 60.3%, v August 2019 +40.25%

All other sites have shown excellent traffic increases, several with their busiest month ever for instance:

UK Specialist widget site v August 2019 +212.2%

The B2B sites ought to continue to show growth as I add more specialist widgets, the interesting thing will be my melding of 90% of Site 2 into Site 1 as from today, 1st September.

Realistically I cannot see the hotel / pub site doing more simply because we're not adding any more information plus the live music scene is still not happening other than selected outdoor acoustic sessions and with the end of the Government's Eat Out to Help Out promotion we expect the food service to drop considerably.

All-in-all, for an August, a quite unexpected traffic month plus all the respective businesses are reporting good enquiries and real sales which is the real test insofar as I am concerned.

[BoredMeteor]

You know, even if Google would just fix their goofy Pinterest "bug", things would get at least a little closer to normal.

Getting outranked by a page that's literally just an image and a link to your website is infuriating. It's like Google is only looking at titles. It makes no sense why an empty page would rank for anything.

But then again, they're still ranking 404s, so trying to rationalize Google serps right now is pointless.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Getting outranked by a page that's literally just an image and a link to your website is infuriating. It's like Google is only looking at titles. It makes no sense why an empty page would rank for anything.

Ditto for the Discover randomness. Completely fine with better content being picked up, but so much of it is complete trash.

[Webweeb]

@BoredMeteor
Been saying that for months. Pinterest bug has been officially acknowledged since may. Never fixed.

I suspect the issue is much deeper than just ranking pinterest under many CCTLDs. In my niche Google is ranking anything that looks kind of like pinterest on top of that. Usually spam profiles, directory links ect. So the pinterest bug goes much deeper. It makes actual spam rank. Pins and thin content pages linking to bitly and deindexed sites that are fraud, fakes and criminal in some cases. Somehow Google simply cannot figure out that users end up on undesirable sites, even though they have all the data to figure it out from all their browsers.

In my niche it looks like by "trying to make pinterest rank", they made spam rank. Why not just make a whitelist if you want pinterest to rank? Why make any spammy thin content rank instead? I get it you want a universal algo that works for the next pinterest as well ... BUT ITS NOT WORKING! SO STOP!

And lets be honest... if you look at an average pinterest pin, it does not look all that different from a spam profile page. Image, keywords, link, description.... just like 90% of blackhat backlinks and spam. But instead of giving pinterest a pass on looking spammy, they do it for everyone in some niches... based on user 'intent' i guess... Which leads... who would have guessed... to spam. Sorry Google, but I'm quite sure no user ever wanted to find spam and fraud.

Im not sure if Google is too stupid to figure it out, if they are not trying, not noticing the problem or if they actually dont understand their algo anymore. Something is going on and its bad. And thats only the bugs we know about and have been officially acknowledged... most bugs are far less obvious than that.

I suspect the algo is getting too complex. There are maybe 3 people on earth that can trouble shoot this thing anymore and I bet they are already working non stop.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Could also be the algorithm isn't as smart as they think. Had an interesting incident with a client this weekend. An article of theirs showed up as a featured snippet, but the information it extracted as the answer was wrong, despite the fact that the correct answer was in the next paragraph and in table form in the article.

And still they cannot explain how publishers just vanish from Discover.

[MayankParmar]

If they're unable to fix their algorithm, they should be at least transparent about something that's being widely reported.

For example, there's a month-long Discover issue caused by their fault, but where is the acknowledgement from Search liaison account or anyone working at Google? The way they treat small publishers is inhumane.

If a big publisher dropped suddenly after Google issues, they'll reach out to Google and Google will acknowledge, investigate and fix it in a few days. On the other hand, we're here stuck waiting for fixes for an issue which isn't even confirmed by Google

[JesterMagic]

"AMP was suppose to be a project to reduce bandwidth and increase usability for mobile devices."

No, it's about G controlling the delivery of content. I could explain all the serious cons of AMP regarding the displayed links, your domain, and harm to your own brand.......but please check for yourself online.

@Dooku I totally agree. Google's main hidden agenda behind AMP was for them to gain more control of delivering content.

@MayankParmar Since Google is a monopoly in search they don't really have to worry about these type of issues. We can't go anywhere else and just have to deal with it. Google use to be good at reaching out to the community but not anymore.

[brazilsuper]

There is no bug at Google. All mistakes are purposeful.


Now is the time of recession in the world. So Google and Social Networks reduced the reach of organic traffic on purpose.

All errors that occur are always on purpose!

[westcoast]

Our traffic has plummeted over the last 48 hours. Haven't seen a Sunday evening this bad in 20 years.

[Athedian]

Traffic still increasing here but definitely it's all bad traffic, conversion is almost non-existent. It's like Google decided to flood the site with useless target audience.

[BushyTop]

Anyone else seeing reported huge drops in Bounce Rate?

[Athedian]

@BushTop - Nope. Massive, massive bounce rate here still.

[TalkativeEditorial]

If a big publisher dropped suddenly after Google issues, they'll reach out to Google and Google will acknowledge, investigate and fix it in a few days. On the other hand, we're here stuck waiting for fixes for an issue which isn't even confirmed by Google

The other thing is they show a lot of articles from publishers behind a paywall, which goes against the motto of "our aim is to deliver the best experience and results for our users"

[glakes]

which goes against the motto of "our aim is to deliver the best experience and results for our users"

I don't think Google's "users" have been treated like actual users for a long time. Google treats them as a monetized herd of sheep, which is not much different than webmasters. The big difference is Google's "users" are led down a path to click paid ads while webmasters are led down a path to pay to be seen. In the end the only party satisfied is Google with all the money they have made.

From my perspective traffic and conversions are solid. Same applies to Amazon as well, though I will be jacking up the cost of shipping on Amazon by 20% to offset more of Amazon's small business crushing policies.

[TalkativeEditorial]

The big difference is Google's "users" are led down a path to click paid ads while webmasters are led down a path to pay to be seen. In the end the only party satisfied is Google with all the money they have made.

Sure, that does apply in some niches. But I do think there is a difference between webmasters whose primary approach is content (as many struggling with the Discover inconsistencies are). That's a whole different level of challenges.

[MayankParmar]

Sensors are very calm again

[ViktorN]

@MayankParmar in regards to what you have said,

seeing clearly that over the past 28 days we got 12K clicks from Discover, with 180K impressions.
Out of those, over the past 7 days 306 clicks and 8K impressions, while I see a fatal drop in EU and USA Discover.
Does anyone have a clue what can be the reason? We are using AMP4WP plugin

[RedBar]

My B2B weekend traffic levels ended up within my normal range with Sunday being lower than Saturday. I usually expect 60-80% of the weekday average, Saturday was 70% and Sunday 60%, today has started normally.

This is the week I wouldd expect a core update to happen or possibly next week, it's not that often they roll it into October'ish.

[MayankParmar]

@ViktorN More on Discover drop caused by Google's August 10/11 glitch here: [webmasterworld.com...]

News article: [seroundtable.com...]

[TalkativeEditorial]

@ViktorN do you mind sharing your niche?

We similarly had a decent recovery after the 10/11 glitch, and now in a similar pattern as you.
Also with the AMP4WP Plugin. When last did you update your plugin?

[ichthyous]

I'm seeing a slow de-ranking of my top 3 terms this month...down over 20% in two weeks. However, GSC is reporting much higher impressions for both web and images. Web clicks are trending slightly down, image clicks strongly up. Traffic on my site seems unchanged...no conversions whatsoever, and only one new inquiry for the entire week. September is usually quiet, but not this quiet...

[glakes]

Sure, that does apply in some niches. But I do think there is a difference between webmasters whose primary approach is content (as many struggling with the Discover inconsistencies are). That's a whole different level of challenges.

The challenges are really not all that different. You have a single company so ingrained into the economy which has next to no accountability. Google has a market cap of a trillion dollars and a support department that consists of a handful of people. When I think about it, I find it ludicrous that politicians/regulators have not required Google to provide something so basic as a support channel considering how much financial impact Google has on entire economies. For the big players, I'm sure they have contacts inside Google. But for the majority nothing except trying to catch the attention of Mueller, Sullivan, etc. And if Google's "problem" is making Google money, then I don't expect them to act quickly to fix it if they do at all.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Slightly less of an issue with having to pay for visibility, though.
Although, on accountability etc, there is (I think still ongoing) lawsuit by several European publishers vs Google for much of what you mention. Including a suit for their featured snippets etc stealing content without consent.

[RedBar]

You have a single company so ingrained into the economy which has next to no accountability.

Absolutely and what needs to be emphasised is that it is the GLOBAL economy over which it has so much impact. If its influence were only one country we all ought to be concerned however when it basically affects most economies then surely Governments need to take a much greater in-depth review of what it is actually doing?

Then again if it is working at the behest of the US Government then nothing whatsoever will happen since it is doing the job it has been told to do, the control of as much of the world's economies as possible hence why some of the biggest global players are from the USA.

[glakes]

Slightly less of an issue with having to pay for visibility, though.

True. However, how many websites dependent on discover traffic would fold if it does not return? I fully expect Google to push ads everywhere they can, and it's not just organic search results that will suffer. Any free source of traffic from Google is at risk of being replaced or at least heavily supplanted with paid ads.

there is (I think still ongoing) lawsuit by several European publishers vs Google for much of what you mention. Including a suit for their featured snippets etc stealing content without consent.

Which is good IMO. However, smaller publishers/businesses don't have the resources to litigate and their interests are often not represented. This is why regulators need to do their jobs, as well as the politicians that oversee their departments, so that economies can be freed from the stranglehold the handful of big multi-national companies have over their markets.

what needs to be emphasised is that it is the GLOBAL economy over which it has so much impact.

Agree and why I noted entire economies. Google is the biggest data harvester there is, and I'm sure the US Government loves having access to the search history of many in and outside their borders. Admittedly, the US Government has an extra hurdle to jump through to obtain data on its own citizens but it's widely known how corrupt that process was. But Google is not alone in collecting all this info. Amazon is as well, and it's no surprise an ex-NSA chief in the USA joined Amazon's board of directors. See: [webmasterworld.com...] for more info. According to some reports, Amazon hosts 6% of all the websites in the world.

[TalkativeEditorial]

However, how many websites dependent on discover traffic would fold if it does not return?

Difficult question. Suspect it returns on how new the website is and their niche. Newer ones who have not built up a body of work and audience will struggle, yes. More established sites will be OK if they have been diversifying.

[ichthyous]

After a relatively high traffic weekend, my USA traffic dropped off a cliff today. Anyone else seeing low USA traffic today?

[glakes]

@TalkativeEditorial

I do hope that discover traffic returns for everyone. But with the hammering Google has taken by losing travel related ad spend, I suspect they will accelerate integrating more paid ads into areas where organic/free traffic remains.

[Athedian]

The big difference is Google's "users" are led down a path to click paid ads while webmasters are led down a path to pay to be seen

And even with that in mind, Google screw up on their own ad results as well. Yesterday Google Ads showing +20 conversions and today when I checked the same report, that 20+ conversions disappeared. It's like Google can't even report their own stats correctly anymore. No wonder the entire algo is messed up.

[HereWeGo123]

I'm surprised no one is talking about the volatility here. I am seeing major fluctuations in the SERPs and daily traffic. Maybe an update will be underway soon ? Or maybe it's just me :)

[MayankParmar]

Not seeing any sign of updates. Like RedBar, I'm also expecting core update this week. Last year, the rollout began on the 24th.