Google Updates and SERP Changes - March 2021

[MayankParmar]

The following 2 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5025541.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 1:12 am on Mar 1, 2021- (PDT -8)


Web vital update is expected to live in May and there should be a core update too. They might be testing something for the next core update...

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 9:19 am (utc) on Mar 1, 2021]
[edit reason] cleanup after thread split [/edit]

[yollo03]

Googlebots woke up early and are all over my website, I wonder if another update was made.

[mzb44]

Not sure if there is an indexing bug or Google is just ignoring my site now after the most recent demotion a few days ago.

I have 4 days old posts and articles not indexed.

Ok, so I submitted the URL manually and it almost immediately got indexed.

Seems like the indexing bug is back again.

If they are unable to fix such a pertinent issue such as indexing (core #1 Google feature) for almost a year now, then no wonder why all the latest updates (core or not) seem like such a huge mess.

[superclown2]

Another day of reduced clicks owing to even more googlespam for my sites yesterday. Looking through the G SERPs for an answer to my exactly worded search term is like wading through treacle.

Thank you for another abysmal update, Google. Appreciate you screwing with my site again and again. One day you like the site, the next day you hate the site.

Google doesn't care about your site one way or the other. The SERPs are designed to make them the maximum profit so unless you are a big spender on their ads it doesn't matter how good or bad your site is.

It's time to recognise the fact that until this monopoly is broken up and new search engines (as against privacy and copyright ignoring advertising companies) emerge this situation will only get worse. Perhaps the public will finally recognise that Google's huge profits come out of their pockets in the end, and the cosy way that Google is the default advertising agency on so many browsers will finally be outlawed. Until then best find another way of feeding the kids.

[superclown2]

I have some sites that were pure informational. No attempt was made for years to moneytise them. I puts (non-obtrusive) ads in a sidebar on a couple of them two weeks ago and within days they were getting around a third of the clicks they had beforehand.

The information on these sites is still the same. Is their drop in the SERPs coincidental? Are they less valuable to searchers because of the ads? Or doesn't Google like the competition for advertising income? I don't need three guesses.

[mzb44]

The information on these sites is still the same. Is their drop in the SERPs coincidental? Are they less valuable to searchers because of the ads? Or doesn't Google like the competition for advertising income? I don't need three guesses.

Hard to tell. Could be coincidental considering the apparently large number of significant updates released in March.

[MayankParmar]

I miss Discover traffic. 21 days and counting :(

[TalkativeEditorial]

Same here, Discover is dead. And yet, I'm seeing a site that has ZERO author info, only using Staff Writer and no contact information, surface pretty much as every second article. LOL

[RedBar]

@MP

I miss Discover traffic. 21 days and counting :(

And what will you do if it never returns?

For me traffic last week ended-up completely normal with the weekend at 70% and 80% for Sat/Sun, completely average but two noticable things this last week:

1. A lot less spam etc
2. Fewer business enquiries, ok it's only one week, no panic however enquiries down.

[MayankParmar]

@RedBar I am changing my approach. Instead of just news, I'll produce more evergreen contents.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Ah man, now GA real time is all over the place again - I know this is a frequent occurrence these days but it always sends me into a panic when viewed in context of all the other rumblings. Total real-time figure is lower than the total from active pages (it's sometimes the opposite.

Out of interest, does anyone use PPC here and did anyone see the "bug" of "smart match" KWs some time ago? Just wondering if there is any correlation between the recent plunge (2/3 March) and the "bug" appearing. I know there were some reports around 10/11 March from PPC folks, but curious if any webmasters who frequently use PPC noticed it earlier.

Edit: Additionally interested if anyone here who has seen these extreme swings use the Google Site Kit Plugin?

[yollo03]

Like I thought, the recent update reduced my visibility by +6%, which is a lot. Not sure what else I can do.

[gatormark]

The number one website in one of my niches has a website redirect problem (they must be unaware of it) and my website has jumped to the top positions in many keywords. Hehehe.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Also, has anyone ditched AMP completely and monitored its impact? It is starting to become more trouble than it's worth and since it's no longer a requirement for Discover / Top Stories.... seriously considering ditching it. Would be great to hear how others have experienced it.

[saladtosser]

TalkativeEditorial + im testing ditching it now (when i say ditching it the pages are just no longer AMP valid but still use many of the scripts) The reason for doing this is to test adsense auto ads vs amp auto ads which is sooo constrained. So far my adsense has doubled and around 200 pages flagged in webmaster tools as no longer valid amp. No drop it traffic yet!

[yollo03]

Im using a CDN without AMP, my score is 99/100 in desktop for almost all pages, in mobile its around 92/100. This is pagespeed insights.

[RedBar]

@MP

I'll produce more evergreen contents.

Knowing your site, which I do like and use, do you feel you can cover evergreen articles any differently than has already been done by many others plus rank well?

[gatormark]

@TalkativeEditorial
Sorry, I never converted to AMP. It always seemed like a programming waste of time and one of those technologies that would soon go the way of the dinosaur.

[TalkativeEditorial]

adsense auto ads vs amp auto ads which is sooo constrained. So far my adsense has doubled and around 200 pages flagged in webmaster tools as no longer valid amp. No drop it traffic yet!

Yeah, AMP ads are a nightmare. Please keep me in the loop. Have your rankings and impressions stayed the same (the chaos of the algorithm swings aside of course))?

[yollo03]

I did some more digging into google per country. I found that in some keywords I rank in the US in the top 10 and in UK I am ranked at 80 and in Canada 70. Is there a reasonable explanation to this? I also noticed that most of my keywords are in US while in other countries I almost don't exist. That explains the drop in impressions. This is not local targeting but global. Any ideas as what might be causing this? It all started with the updates in 2021.

[Dooku]

"Also, has anyone ditched AMP completely and monitored its impact?"
@ TalkativeEditorial,

I have never used it, but have criticized it's use on this forum a few times. However I know how it works and I have cleaned 3 websites of good friends and removed AMP the PROPER way. You can find many info online about results mostly being positive.
However from first hand experience, all three websites improved over a period of 6 months for impressions, user engagement and especially conversion rates.

However, I do NOT think the improvement will be the same if you have a website that is 100% publishing based.

The hardest part of cleaning those websites was convincing my friends to go ahead for me to remove AMP. There is this typical phenomenon of people standing in the headlights of an upcoming speeding car and being unable to step aside. They are caught in this G trap and scared sh|tless that moving away will do even more harm.

[saladtosser]

TalkativeEditorial webmaster tools show a very steady (slow) increase in clicks/impressions and average position month on month for me (excluding dec core update) and since running non valid amp my average position has reached a personal best for me but probably 2 soon to know for sure, ill let you know what the next core update does for me based on running non valid amp pages.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Thanks @Dooku and @saladtosser

Super interesting. Not sure if you have any threads already running on these but if you do, please link me up so I can bookmark. Would love to keep track of your progress.

I like that AMP challenges me to keep things simple in some ways, but the risk/reward is so minimal and there are clearly so many other problems with Google that I can't keep up with whatever AMP decides to demand on top of everything else Google demands already (and not get the 'rewards' consistently).

[TalkativeEditorial]

Do any of you look at and engage with your personal Discover feeds on a regular basis?
Been running some anecdotal experiments and the results are wildly inconsistent (not exactly surprising), but would be very interested if anyone else would be willing to 'log' (anonymous if you wish) some of their interactions so I can get a usable data set to actually write a white paper.

[RedBar]

All my sites are like this board for the last 12 hours, very quiet!

Only me ?

[BushyTop]

No @redbar, we're quiet too

[Neohippy]

Real-time's playing up a bit over here; numbers seem OK, but it's showing a WAY higher proportion of desktop than usual, which doesn't seem right.

[gatormark]

Was there a major Google update over the weekend?

I had a significant shift in the SERP rankings of one of my websites.

[widgetized]

Something definitely happened after this weekend. Spam emails coming in, and no more conversions (right after a pretty good weekend). Also noticed a new small decline of the Average Position curve in GSC, which is a bit worrisome since looking back at March 2020 it was the exact opposite.

[ichthyous]

I wouldn't call it "quiet", at -37% searches and -79% direct traffic it's a disaster. My USA traffic is -69% this morning. Oddly, I gained a few spots in the SERPS, but last week I lost two to three high volume terms. It seems to be cycling a lot, but overall trend is strongly down for about the last 8 days.

[gatormark]

Whatever happened this weekend was the first positive shift I’ve had since 2016...and it was a major swing.

The only thing I did differently was removing all link ads on this one website before the deadline.