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.

[TalkativeEditorial]

If one is fortunate enough to have been visited and it's in G's history / cache one has more chance of repeat visitors however the probability is that one's site is not going to be seen hence the publisher has to pay to be seen ... correct?

Incorrect.

Discover ads are available but I have personally never seen them in my own feed. And the mechanism / ROI for them is still sub-par vs search ads.

There really is not a straight forward answer for why impressions would drop to zero. And we really do mean absolute 0. Not a case of somebody clearing their cache and forgetting your website existed.

That, and as mentioned, seemingly favourable treatment of larger publishers (although I am not always sure this is always the case for getting zero'd) and Google's inability to provide a straight or even consistent answer on signals, is the source of much frustration for many publishers.

[MayankParmar]

Still zero lol [imgur.com...]

[TalkativeEditorial]

Feel for you @MayankParmar. Some recovery for us, but have learned now not to get our hopes up and not get too excited too easily.

[RedBar]

So there is no evident or clear way of advertising on Discover, it's seemingly purely down to luck for "smaller" publishers to be featured?

Let's say you're like MayankParmar concentrating on the entire Windows eco system, do I assume the problem is getting G to feature Windows stuff per se or getting G to feature MP's pages at all?

As a matter of interest in his case whose Windows pages are they featuring, MS or independents?

[shadowlight]

Well as previously stated on this thread. Both traffic & conversions in Aug were good for me.

September looking like a different story alltogether. Traffic is still up but conversions are terrible, anyone else in the same boat?

[glakes]

Traffic is still up but conversions are terrible, anyone else in the same boat?

I'm in the same situation (USA market) - traffic is about the same yet conversions have fallen substantially. IMO, this has nothing to do with Google but is the result of COVID stimulus money petering out, the Labor Day holiday weekend and many schools starting their first day of classes on the 8th. For my household anyway, just getting things ready for two children to participate in virtual classes cost me money (new wireless router) and certainly some time. I still have to make sure their desks are cleaned off and put down some ground rules because they will be home alone. If my rules are broken, I'll setup some tables at the shop and they can go to work with me. I could only imagine what working parents of young children are going through.

By next weekend I expect the Labor Day holiday and back to school impact on conversions to have waned. However, it's the economy that I'm most concerned about moving forward. The data I'm seeing leads me to believe the economy will continue to deteriorate.

[MayankParmar]

@RedBar That's correct to a certain extent. It boils down to luck and competition. If there are articles from bigger publishers on the same topic, they'll surface those articles over smaller publishers.

The problem is with my pages only, not the topic. Google still shows articles from other sites for the same topic. In fact, they show articles that have linked back to me but they wouldn't show me - so the problem is with Google.

Google is unable to identify the obvious difference between original content, aggregated content, and spam/scrapped content. This applies to all three areas: SERPs, Google News, and Discover.

[ichthyous]

September looking like a different story alltogether. Traffic is still up but conversions are terrible, anyone else in the same boat?

No...August was deadly slow...very little improvement in traffic and no conversions either. September has me ranking higher, but with less traffic. The last two days brought the first spate of new inquiries in a while but I wouldn't call them terribly high quality. My most lucrative sales are to business and that has come to a complete standstill this entire year. I'm writing 2020 off completely.

[samwest]

They are still eating our lunch. Dropping again on what was always a booming holiday weekend. Sickening.

[MayankParmar]

Abnormally low traffic day. Hopefully, it is related to the Labor Day.

[jmorgan]

Hopefully, it is related to the Labor Day.

More than likely if you have a decent amount of US traffic.

[ChokenBako]

Also European traffic is very slow... -20%.

[RedBar]

So far European traffic normal for me today, US traffic down about 16% at the moment however far too early for anything statistically significant.

[MayankParmar]

CA, UK, Australia, India, etc are normal. The US is down but it's definitely because of the Labor Day.

[mosxu]

I am only getting defunded

[RedBar]

I am only getting defunded

Defunded from where?

[MayankParmar]

More on Discover drop from French SEOs: [twitter.com...]

[mosxu]

Defunded by zombies clicking on my ads

[Athedian]

Almost no conversions for the month of Sept so far. Traffic stats are a lie.

[RedBar]

Monday's traffic was 8% down for me as to be expected.

[MayankParmar]

Traffic is slow today as well :/

[Webweeb]

Still waiting for the May 4 spam update to get reversed.

Trying to figure out user intent might make some SERPS better, namely the ones where it works, but if it doesnt work, it can mess stuff up bad. And Google clearly has not figured out a lot of topics. Sometimes its better to just rank based on authority, rather than on concepts and expectations and user data you do not understand what it actually means.

I mean if your assumption as to the intent is wrong, then your interpretation of user data is automatically wrong too... so many points of failure.

I think with this update, they put their trust in AI just a little bit too much. A step back in quality for a possible step forward in the far future.

I doubt it will work out.

[SweetPotato]

Is GA detecting 1/8 of the users or am i offline everywhere but home?
Anyone seeing this in GA now?

[ichthyous]

Still waiting for the May 4 spam update to get reversed.

You may be waiting a long time...Google has never once reversed an update in full that I can remember. You are assuming that this update is a mistake from their perspective. Perhaps all the chaos is intended to drive more desperate businesses to pay for ads? The updates will continue and they will always benefit Google at our expense, so any improvement would only be temporary until the next disastrous update. That has been the pattern for years, my traffic has been dropping since 2018, with only one six month period last year where it actually improved.

[MayankParmar]

They don't reserve updates, but they can always make changes that will fix the problem/ranking issue for Webweeb's site.

Hopefully, the update will be out next Monday!

[jmorgan]

@SweetPotato

Is GA detecting 1/8 of the users or am i offline everywhere but home? Anyone seeing this in GA now?

My GA has been showing numbers inconsistent with GSC and my ad impressions (i.e. less users on GA despite higher clicks/impressions on GSC and higher ad impressions). Although, I'm not sure if it's the same issue you are experiencing.

[TalkativeEditorial]

We have had some decent recovery on Discover over the last few days (including the US holiday).
Amazing what happens when that algo actually picks up content that is timely and relevant. Shrug.

[RedBar]

Hopefully, the update will be out next Monday!

Past major updates would suggest the week after however that's not a guarantee!

[ichthyous]

What I'm seeing is a perpetually lower amount of traffic from USA. Every place else seems normal, but USA traffic is regularly below normal. UK traffic is unusually strong.

[samwest]

Moderate, spotty recovery over the weekend, but now traffic has gone back to full zombie again. It's there, but all brain dead high bounce. SERP's rarely change, but user behavior varies in very distinct unnatural patches. Amazing.