Google Updates and SERP Changes - February 2021

[JesterMagic]

The following 2 messages were cut out of the January 2021 thread at:
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5022136.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 10:19 am on Feb 1, 2021 - PDT -8)



Notice Google Bot has been extremely active our our site yesterday and today. Probably about 3-4 times the visits compared to a normal day.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 6:25 pm (utc) on Feb 1, 2021]
[edit reason] cleanup after thread split [/edit]

[ichthyous]

Unbelievable...A 31% drop in USA traffic compared to a normal Friday. And this week was looking like a recovery was happening. From what I see the page is just loaded with too much stuff now and keeps pushing it down

[EditorialGuy]

Our editorial travel-planning site has been seeing a steady rise in traffic (including Google traffic) lately. I'm guessing this has less to do with Google than with the impact of COVID-19 vaccines on travel expectations.

[Chickensalami]

Don't worry guys, our traffic will come back next month....... and drop off again the month after that. Super tempted to sell off my site seeing as there's never really any long term consistency.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand up goes the spike on the UK sensors. What fun.

[Subhodip]

There are no such updates on Google SERP changes. According to the SEO community and tracker tools, Google has already made some changes in its search ranking algorithm. Users have already found a massive drop in their ranking positions. However, there is no confirmation from Google yet.

[christianz]

Seems like Google is pushing some BS update again. As usual, the older, bigger site is demoted and my newer, more spammy/parasitic sites are not affected. Seems to be pattern since December "update". Typical Google I would say.

[ichthyous]

The Google train wreck continues...the slight recovery last week was a mirage it appears. Today traffic from every English speaking country is way down compared to the average for a Saturday...USA -38%, UK - 24%, Canada -26%, Australia -100%. This is a total nightmare that seems to have no end in sight.

[mzb44]

Seems like Google is pushing some BS update again. As usual, the older, bigger site is demoted and my newer, more spammy/parasitic sites are not affected. Seems to be pattern since December "update". Typical Google I would say.

Yeah.

There seemed to have been some kind of update the last 1-2 days. Another -20% demotion.

[westcoast]

Huge volatility of our results today. One moment we're #5 on page 1, an hour later we're at #50.

[superclown2]

I am seeing signs of an update today here in the UK. Right now the criteria seems to be, at least in my UK vertical, the domain name (deprecated for so long!) and number of backlinks, the majority of which are obviously bought or injected into CMS sites. All this is trumped by pages from high spenders on the ads with the thinnest of content on a page that mentions at least one of the words in the search term. Original providers of goods and services are buried under comparison sites that are, in effect, merely affiliates who add zero value to searchers but merely add another layer of commission costs to the ultimate buyer.

Coupled with the googlespam the results are beyond awful for a serious searcher.

Google became top dog by being a wonderful search engine. If they didn't now own both the top desktop and mobile browsers, and they had serious competition, they would soon join Altavista, Lycos, Snap and Yahoo in the dustbin.

Roll on the day. it will come. Google delenda est.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Definitely some volatility - although not nearly as dramatic as some of the previous days, most notable on mobile. Oh for just one week of stability.

[strummer19]

The major impact in Europe (for me) seems to concern Discover. -80% in three weeks, step by step to 0, but no sign of improvement for seven days

[ichthyous]

There seemed to have been some kind of update the last 1-2 days. Another -20% demotion.

Last two days? My USA traffic has been a disaster for two weeks now and it's not really getting any better. As soon as it seems to improve a bit it drops off a cliff again. The result for my business is that I went from very busy in January and early Feb back down to zero, which is where Google had me for all of 2020. After two weeks this is most likely the new normal, it's not going to revert back to January, and this is even worse than the 2020 Jan and May updates from what I can see.

[samwest]

Still griping and crying about what cannot be controlled?

[christianz]

Still griping and crying about what cannot be controlled?

Theoretically, it can be changed. Via law and government action. Australia, for example, just passed a law requiring Google & Facebook pay news outlets for the content they are scraping.

Before anyone screams "private company, capitalism, free market blah blah blah", think about whether or not Google actually would be able to maneuver themselves in this pathologically advantageous monopoly position (owning mobile OS, browser, search, maps etc.) if democracy, capitalism and free markets actually existed and functioned as "advertised"?

The answer is no.

[yollo03]

I didnt get a correction to the keywords that got smacked down, one keyword got pushed to 163 (lol). What I did is sign up to oncrawl.com, it gave me reports on thin content and a lot more info. It's good for medium to large sites. I am fixing what I can, hoping for a change. There is a 14 day trial so you can test it for free and see if you get any valuable info.

I am not working for oncrawl and I am not affiliated them. Just a tip for those that got de-ranked and want to try fixing something. I discovered I had some caching issues that googlebot may have disliked. I fixed it among other things and hope for a miracle in the next week or so.

[mzb44]

Before anyone screams "private company, capitalism, free market blah blah blah", think about whether or not Google actually would be able to maneuver themselves in this pathologically advantageous monopoly position (owning mobile OS, browser, search, maps etc.) if democracy, capitalism and free markets actually existed and functioned as "advertised"?

I sincerely believe that if governments were to step in it would be much worse.

For starters, they do not understand the technology. Also, regulatory capture would ensure it would actually be these companies that would write these regulations for themselves.

It won't end well, believe me.

And besides, this has nothing to do with Search. Say, Google gets broken up (it won't), it would be like Search separate, mobile OS separate etc., but in no way would this influence how search and algos actually work in any way. Technically those already function separately from each other. It won't make any difference of any kind.

And to be on-topic: There still seems to be some volatility. There clearly was some kind of update last week.

[System]

The following 2 messages were cut out to new thread by robert_charlton. New thread at: google/5028704.htm [webmasterworld.com]
1:12 am on Mar 1, 2021 (PDT -8)