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]

[insideout]

HUGE traffic fluctuation going on now UK and France

[TalkativeEditorial]

Also seeing a modest uptick - US and UK mostly - but not sure anymore if this is the daily issue with Google Analytics being completely out of whack or an actual sign of improvement. And even if it is an actual improvement, it's probably only going to last for an hour.

[saladtosser]

A few years this forum and SER were bustling with users, new comments every few minutes! Now it's way down to tumbleweed territory compared to the good old days (penguin 1 days and before). Any theories on why these forums/sites are dying? The only things I can think of are

1) Google killed the webmaster community.
2) Everyone who used to post is doing so well they don't need to come back here.
3) Social platforms have taken over and the days of the forum are limited and dying.

Thoughts? Sad because I really enjoy the forum format of this site for the last 15 years! (I used to have a different name but forgot my login)

[KaseyM]

Is analytics for yesterday slow?

[MayankParmar]

Some have stopped posting because they've given up on ranting (they don't care about the regular algorithm changes anymore unless there is a change for them) and some are doing fine (they'll be back when a new core update is released). Others might be reading our posts but they don't participate anymore.

@Kaisey Not seeing any Analytics issue currently.

[saladtosser]

@mayankParmar, that's true, I stopped posting for around 5-6 years because everything was stable (plus a sudden divorce after 22 years because I was working too many hours, ironically to keep up with Google updates lol) and only started again once things started going south, so could be most of the old-timers are happy?!

[edited by: saladtosser at 3:54 pm (utc) on Mar 4, 2021]

[mzb44]

Any theories on why these forums/sites are dying? The only things I can think of are

1) Google killed the webmaster community.

It's partially option 1, in my opinion.

I mean, Google didn't kill the webmaster community but recent updates - especially core updates - have significantly trimmed the herd, so to say.

It's getting increasingly difficult to compete in search as a solo / small / mid-tier publisher.

Everything is nowadays dominated by big and mainstream brands with massive brand and link authority. And this is not a natural evolution of the industry but rather a direct consequence of recent Google core updates.

It seems Google decided that brand authority is now the main ranking factor and if you have a lot of it, you will rank for everything you target by default. But if you do not, you will get demoted during every new core update, even if you have top-tier expert content and amazing user experience.

So, yeah, a lot of webmasters are out of the game now and most who remain are either spammers (who are active on other forums) or big players who work for big mainstream and established sites.

[saladtosser]

@mzb44, kinda reminds me of eBay way back when they started and wanted the small sellers then went for the big brands and forgot their roots, actively penalised them for the sake of the big brands. Guess that's whats happens with any company when you float on the stock market, forget the little people that made you big in the first place?! And yeah agree on a lot of spammers but still some good guys trying to hold onto the good old days on here and e-bay. I never made it big because I didn't want to rip anyone off and was always content paying the rent, luckily went heavily into Facebook for traffic so have managed to keep a roof over our heads, miss the old days though when the internet was open to anyone with an idea. And that was back in the day connections WHERE really bad and sites took FOREVER TO LOAD. Nowadays most sites are done, even though with the modern tech they don't take 100th of time to load they used to (don't get me wrong I'm all about site speed and score 90's plus across the board) I do miss the mom and pop sites, I didn't mind waiting 3.5 seconds for them to load lol! Sad, the current state def crushed innovation and ideas for the most part!

[NickMNS]

Any theories on why these forums/sites are dying?

The main reason => Reddit, Facebook and Twitter
another reason => The domination of this thread by a generally negative tone, which sometimes degrades into Google conspiracy theories and for which the general theme is that it always someone else fault, typically Google and / or spammers.

There a very few valuable or actionable posts in these threads, just pages of "Google is throttling my traffic", "Google is ranking spam ahead of my website", or whatever... here are examples from this month alone (4 days in):

Guess that's whats happens with any company when you float on the stock market, forget the little people that made you big in the first place?!

And even if it is an actual improvement, it's probably only going to last for an hour.

It won't. It never does. The charade goes on and on.

Traffic SUCKS. Constant decrease starting Feb 17th

Or maybe their reputation, quality and usefulness perception is broken and somebody senior at Google needs to be fired...

I'm not disagreeing or agreeing with any of these quotes, and yes they are all out of context, the point however, is that none of these comments are productive or positive, and people recognize this immediately and move on.

[saladtosser]

Thanks for the feedback @NickAMS, I mean the only argument I could suggest is people were complaining all the time back in the day as well, there was never any shortage of that lol. There is just way less of it in terms of quantity. Do you remember the days when you literally had to build backlinks like a mother because it seemed like all google was was a glorified link counter? That was hell, but back then you had little choice because that's how Google ranked sites, then penguin 1 struck and it was like, shhhhhhhiii.... But back then google created the problem they then wanted to solve, ironically.

Just wish they had a system that didn't revolve around links, youtube is a good modern-day example of google ranking, its structure is to promote the most popular, and that's based sadly on "who got in there first" and has the bigger following because they get the most likes for the most point. Just so hard for today's ideas and creators to breakthrough based on merit rather than a long history, make any sense? Obviously, there is no perfect workaround... hey how about google release a retro search version, that could be cool, find stuff based on old metrics, loving my Halo 2(and Shadowrun but nearly no one got the awesomeness that was that game, halo 2 is fine lol ) still, some people like retro lol

[christianz]

Reddit, Facebook and Twitter

All three are trash and do not allow for interesting people with unorthodox views to even be there.

none of these comments are productive or positive

Because there is nothing productive or positive to say about situation when one corporation effectively is suffocating the Internet and you are left with no real recourse.

The negativity in this thread reflects the current landscape of free Internet and changes that have been going on in past couple of years which make independent websites almost as unreachable as AM radio stations.

Sure, you can buy an AM radio, find the frequencies and tune in. But how many people would go though all those steps?

The same way you can, technically, reach independent websites today with your web browser, but how do you even discover them? And who under age of 30 even knows how to enter a web address (that thing with https at the beginning) in mobile web browser?

Internet and WWW is network of independent servers owned by different people hosting many independent web sites or niche platforms/apps. Corporate-net of just a handful of large platforms (Reddit, Facebook and Twitter) with everything else berried down on SERP page 10 and practically unreachable (unless you tune in the right frequency via that pesky web address bar) is simply not Internet. It is not "different", "evolved" or "consolidated" version of Internet - it is no Internet at all. There has to be a new term for it (corporate-net for example).

sometimes degrades into Google conspiracy theories

I don't know what "Google conspiracy theories" are. Can you give me examples? The fact that Google is your biggest competitor is not a conspiracy theory.

Usually, when someone calls my arguments "conspiracy theories", I simply walk away, because there is never going to be intelligent discussion there.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Is anyone experiencing a general issue with Google services overall?
Not necessarily related to your sites (although bigger picture and all of that). But Gmail, YouTube, Analytics, even the Discover Feed and News app have all been really buggy today, lots of lag, sometimes just a blank screen, no response on the Chrome Android App sometimes when scrolling through search.

[lammert]

The idea that search engines are the only entrance to web properties is a large obstacle in getting one's site going. There are many ways to get quality traffic to a site, get it known to the general public and in that way get links and rise in the SERPs. Nowadays it is not Google or other ways to get traffic, but Google and other ways to get traffic. Instead of whining in this thread, many successful website owners are just busy with that.

[madhuB]

lammert + What other ways to get traffic? One will be social media and the other search engines...what else? Advertising will be too pricy, isn't it? Sorry if my question is stupid...

[lammert]

Get your site known off-line. One of my best performing sites is only promoted through a link on a piece of paper. People type it in in their browser, put it in their browser bookmarks, discuss about it in forums and on Facebook. Total marketing costs for me $0.

[madhuB]

lammert + That's creative man...awesome...

[lammert]

When enough people enter a domain name in the browser or in Google search, Google starts to recognize the name as a brand which helps to get higher in the SERPs. This site is currently market leader in its niche and in the number 1 spot in the SERPs.

The trick is to get this going. My best sparring partner for this is my spouse, who doesn't know anything about internet, but understands people's behavior.

If there are brick and mortar companies in your niche, try understand their needs. Maybe they are willing to put your domain name on their paperwork for free, if you can offer something online which they are not able to offer themselves. It's a win-win situation for both parties when done correctly.

[EditorialGuy]

A few years this forum and SER were bustling with users, new comments every few minutes! Now it's way down to tumbleweed territory compared to the good old days.

I'd guess that it's partly because (a) forums are a bit old school for many of today's site owners, (b) the "monthly dance" no longer provides grist for fresh or meaningful discussions, and (c) the signal-to-noise ratio in these threads has declined over the last few years. (There's always been a lot of venting in this forum, but these days it doesn't seem like there's much else.)

[madhuB]

lammert + Thank you so much for this...I'll try this for my website...

[Hollywood]

I think Google did get too big. It's about big names and who gets more in their pockets, watched this for a long time now. I also do think that they want to manually-algo-tweek/punish others who are not on the same page as them politically, Google has been accused of being a bit Commy lately.

[TalkativeEditorial]

politically, Google has been accused of being a bit Commy lately.

Whoever made that accusation needs to go back to Political Science class.

[strummer19]

- Discover always down
- No signal from a Core Update

[HereWeGo123]

The SERPs today in US have been dancing like I haven’t seen since a few core updates ago. Nonstop volatility and it still hasn’t stopped. Given that we’re due for an update soon ( if following the 3-month schedule), this definitely appears to be early signs. Best of luck to everyone one.

[superclown2]

Definitely something going on here in the UK. Initially it looks like a further turn up of the Authority dial and a turndown of the Relevancy one.

A few years this forum and SER were bustling with users, new comments every few minutes! Now it's way down to tumbleweed territory compared to the good old days.

It's simple. Back in the old days we were able to swop information that helped us to improve our sites, and therefore our rankings. It now seems that the only way to have high positions in the SEPs is to spend heavily on adwords. Not that Google is doing this deliberately of course, perish the thought.

Google delenda est

[TalkativeEditorial]

Curious how "stable" the sensors look, but as others have mentioned already, UK and US rankings are swinging pretty much nonstop.

[seomotionz]

Facebook, Twitter, Reddit all are garbage now. They are filled with paid minions and bots. Why? Just to create fake narrative and promote propaganda..

I posted something in reddit about the US elections.. My POV was neutral as I am an outsider (non-US citizen). I pointed out some goods and bads in all leaders. And got blasted away..People directly attacked me through words..

And speaking of Google. Google is just aiding it's corporate interest and interests of it's other large friends..

I think Google did get too big. It's about big names and who gets more in their pockets, watched this for a long time now. I also do think that they want to manually-algo-tweek/punish others who are not on the same page as them politically, Google has been accused of being a bit Commy lately.

@Hollywood Commy or not. Google is going sway according to it's majority share holder's interests.

[ichthyous]

Get your site known off-line. One of my best performing sites is only promoted through a link on a piece of paper. People type it in in their browser, put it in their browser bookmarks, discuss about it in forums and on Facebook. Total marketing costs for me $0.

Who uses paper anymore? I haven't sent a paper invoice or paper marketing materials in a decade. When I receive them they go straight into the recycle bin.

[superclown2]

Get your site known off-line. One of my best performing sites is only promoted through a link on a piece of paper. People type it in in their browser, put it in their browser bookmarks, discuss about it in forums and on Facebook.

Interesting thought but would you mind telling how this is done?

[TalkativeEditorial]

@spencerross

Yes, same problem with the cache, posted on this thread a few days ago.

[MayankParmar]

Had the same problem with the cache last month and it got fixed after 9 days.