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]

[superclown2]

Still movement here in my UK niches. Not a lot but with so much Google clutter a shift from third to fourth can decimate traffic and below that the site might just as well not be there.

Seems like the rest of us just need to accept this and move on. It does not help being bitter about it.

You presumably have a vote and government representatives. You can complain to them and suggest to others that they stop using Google. All my sites now have ads for DDG, I'm very impressed with how they have improved.

I've improved a lot of my sites with technical enhancements to make them load faster (they are all hand coded) and made them more visually attractive. It has made zero difference to rankings but maybe after the next core update? Who knows.

[yollo03]

I read about technically indexed and practically indexed. If you are not entirely sure what it means, technically indexed means it is index but you get no impressions. Practically indexed means its indexed and you get impressions. I know this from my website. I've been constantly trying to improve things 'broadly.' So far I cant say anything I did produced good results, very small ones.

[mzb44]

No its not their right and its not their platform. It is force-fed to nearly every living human being who has a computer or phone (minus Chinese, bless them), and there is no alternative, because most people aren't even aware that other search engines exist, much less hot to set them up as defaults in their devices.

Yeah, I'm speaking from a hands-on SEO/business owner perspective. Having philosophical debates will not improve our sites in Google search.

I'm not saying we shouldn't talk about those things or that your arguments are invalid, I'm just saying that it has little practical value on the performance of our sites and businesses.

We all need to eventually look past the bitterness and negativity and maybe in some cases admit that Google's vision and goals simply do not include our types of sites ranking in Search (no matter how we disagree or think that it's unfair). This way we can make correct choices regarding SEO and even decide to pivot away completely from G Search as solo / mid / small publishers.

[TalkativeEditorial]

@mzb44

your overall point is spot on, but there is fair, but there is some nuance that, even when considering that you're not part of Google's plans, can be extremely frustrating. And for many who take an interest in SEO, I am assuming you are data-driven to make your decisions. the frustration which I feel many on here share is that the data is too inconsistent to even make the informed decision of not being part of Google's ranking plans.

[mzb44]

I don't disagree, TalkativeEditorial. I know very well how frustrating all of this is. But in most cases we are powerless to influence this. Google will obviously never come out and openly say that it'd rather prefer to show big and established brands where available, even with mediocre content, rather than smaller ones with superior content. It would be a PR nightmare if they did.

So, we are left to figure this out on our own after still seeing only downgrades and demotions update after update, regardless of what we do.

[MayankParmar]

I have been trying to improve the quality of the site by taking down old 'thin' posts. Do you guys recommend 404 or 410?

[ichthyous]

even when considering that you're not part of Google's plans, can be extremely frustrating.

We are ALL part of Google's plan...that plan is to force us to pay them to get the traffic back that we used to get for free. I have declined to do that for years now, but I am thinking about it. I cannot have Google and my website continue to dominate all my time. I have tried search ads and they do not work for my business, but perhaps remarketing will. It's extremely expensive though.

[mzb44]

I have been trying to improve the quality of the site by taking down old 'thin' posts. Do you guys recommend 404 or 410?

I did it with 404. I believe that's the standard practice from a technical point of view.

I believe it may be simpler to set up a custom 404 page and just use that for such cased.

If you want to, however, you can definitely do a custom 410 as well to distinguish those URLs as former pages that don't exist anymore.

[TalkativeEditorial]

@MayankParmar been doing the same. If there is a relevant section, I've been putting in a redirect to the section. I think Google handles those (the 401/404s) the same in the short term though, so if you're straight pruning, it shouldn't matter.

[Mandeep Singh]

Didn't hit me or my clients' websites. Good so far. :)

[whoa182]

I was hit by the core update in December and lost about 30% of my traffic. The last few days my traffic is down about 70% from where it was in November.

But then I know how it goes when you're hit by a core update... it rarely ever improves until a new core update is released. Up and down like a rollerocaster.

Edit: I was just looking at one of my posts and I have a Pinterest post of my blog post outranking the actual blog post lol.

[MayankParmar]

Discover sucks. 12 days and no recovery. Sites linking back to my original reporting are in Discover. But original content is the king ;)

[Athedian]

I have been trying to improve the quality of the site by taking down old 'thin' posts. Do you guys recommend 404 or 410?

Me, personally, I try to avoid 404 altogether. I just do 301 on all 404 pages or pages that have been horribly written based on multiple times that GSC has been telling me that it has detected 404's and counted that as "errors". Plus in terms of user experience, I'd rather get redirected to a page with content than a blank page with 404 message.

[strummer19]

#MayanParmar Same for me in Europe. And sensor are crazy today....

[RedBar]

@MP and others

Discover sucks.

I'm not being rude and I know many of you used to have big volumes of traffic however many of you have been complaining about Discover for what, 12-18 months now?

Isn't it time to accept that G is not goiong to change, that it has its own agenda and that it does not include you?

I gave up on G years ago, 2010 to be precise. Sure I still check my SERPs and the current trends for ranking well however my business does not solely revolve around G's flawed algo.

But I am NOT a pure online business, I have realworld customers and products and for those of you who are in this Net only situation I feel you really need to look at your business model, which seems to be heavily reliant on free search traffic, and seriously consider whether it has a future when almost the entire game is skewed against you and will, if the same dominance continues, get harder and more difficult.

This is my observation, I am not saying you are doing anything wrong or that your sites suck, merely that you are a very tiny pawn being manipulated to G's needs, not your own and most definitely not the user!

[ichthyous]

for those of you who are in this Net only situation I feel you really need to look at your business model, which seems to be heavily reliant on free search traffic, and seriously consider whether it has a future when almost the entire game is skewed against you and will, if the same dominance continues, get harder and more difficult.

This is correct, but I think that everyone already knows this. The problem is that real world business models require a physical location, staff, and marketing budgets that have become way beyond the affordability of most small or startup businesses. If you want to spend all of your income back on rent and marketing sure. I opened a physical space in early 2019 and it did ok, but the pandemic ended that by January 2020. My business has not suffered for getting rid of the location (and certainly not the rent) half as much as from Google's constant manipulation. I will probably never open another physical location...it took too much time to manage and returned too little.

I have tried all kinds of third party platforms and partnerships for referring new customers. To the last they were expensive and overhyped...they were all a loss. If you have some sort of old school business that relies on personal relationships etc that's great, but it's not 95% of most businesses. I rely on a steady stream of new eyeballs and my happy repeat customers. The absolute best way to grab them is when they are searching for exactly what I have. Everything else other than email marketing has proven disappointing. I have also tried social media ads...a huge waste of budget and no sales. People aren't looking to buy high-price point items from social.

[TalkativeEditorial]

I feel you really need to look at your business model, which seems to be heavily reliant on free search traffic, and seriously consider whether it has a future when almost the entire game is skewed against you and will, if the same dominance continues, get harder and more difficult.

Your point is correct, however, myself and I am sure many others are in a start-up phase, where there is a lot of bootstrapping going on to get to the point of pursuing additional revenue streams. The enormous frustration is - and not helped by a global pandemic - the absolute contradiction and inconsistency make it extremely hard to get to the next phase.

So when we are doing all the things (AMP, Core Vitals, original content) and dancing around trying to make sure we are doing all the 'right' things that G keeps telling everyone will help you succeed....and then either seemingly randomly or incomplete contradiction (especially in terms of content) to their own "rules" it becomes a toxic tango of trying to find whether there is something technically wrong our end or if it's just the almighty algo being what it is.

Is it the best way to do things? No, probably not. But, personally speaking anyway, this forums and the "complaining" helps keep some of my sanity because it serves as a sort of benchmark that I have not inadverently broken something in a blind panic.

[Athedian]

It's not so much that people want to complain for the sake of complaining but more so of the frustration for trying to conform to Google's standards, the same standards that they've been stating and yet changing all the time. So it's not that people want Google to accept their sites as they are but they just want Google to really stop screwing with people by lying to them or by providing an unfair environment.

I'm pretty sure it's blatantly obvious that people are trying to search for other venues to make money from without being reminded to do so (because everyone should know not to put all their eggs into one single basket) but the reality is that it's easier to be said than done. And depending on the type of business an individual owns, what works in a physical store for some will not work for the others. Some just don't have the finance to find other ways or opening up a physical store.

So in my view, people complaining is just a way for them to vent their frustrations because there's no other place to talk about such things as it's hard to find a community that knows as much about SEOs as they do. And saying that people have complained for months while yielding no results, in my personal view, is pretty much the same as telling people they should try to find a different method that's just not feasible for many to begin with.

There's nothing wrong with business models for ones that know what to do and given the amount of limited resources that they might be facing, they can review their business models dozens of times and still won't get any better because what they have currently is the best they can do at the moment.

[ichthyous]

There's nothing wrong with business models for ones that know what to do and given the amount of limited resources that they might be facing, they can review their business models dozens of times and still won't get any better because what they have currently is the best they can do at the moment.

True, and most people need a constant stream of revenue coming in. They cannot wait for two years to entirely rebuild there business model, IF that is even possible. I started online in 2002. I always believed in online-only business model. I do not believe in paper marketing, physical business locations (unless it is extremely high foot traffic, which nobody can afford), or other old school business tactics. The entire world has shifted to online since I started. The problem is that a small number of monopolies now control access to everything, making online almost impossible for smaller businesses. You end up having to pay them everything you earn for access. Some businesses just are not conducive to old school business models, they flourish online or not at all. Google is doing it's part to kill as many off as possible while hoovering up more and more revenue. No, there's not a thing we can do about it other than directly complain to our elected representatives AND to write about it here...this forum is closely monitored.

[mzb44]

AND to write about it here...this forum is closely monitored.

As if they sincerely give a crap about what we think. :-)

[lammert]

Google doesn't give a crap about what the general site owner thinks, but they are interested in the effects of their algorithms from other perspectives than what they find in their big data.

[saladtosser]

>>>>I gave up on G years ago, 2010 to be precise. Sure I still check my SERPs and the current trends for ranking well however my business does not solely revolve around G's flawed algo.<<<

RedBar, don't take this wrong but if you gave up on google 11 years ago and your business is not worried about google organics, why do you post so much in a forum about google organic search?

[insideout]

Definitely a major Algo update running

[swright]

I don't really understand what's going on. Most of my keywords are in the same positions - based on data from Google Console, Semrush, and my anonymous searches - yet traffic for many of them is drastically reduced. Now I know that these tools and methods are not 100% accurate, but when the same position is confirmed by multiple tools and my own searches, I tend to believe that. My only explanation is that a significant part of these traffic drops is Google tinkering with the SERP layout for a sample of the searches, which changes the CTR to our sites, while the positions stay the same. I'm not saying there is no volatility in positions as well, but I'm looking at a sample of my KWs that haven't changed positions and the drops there are not explained by ranking changes, so it makes sense that there is something else going on.

[ichthyous]

As if they sincerely give a crap about what we think. :-)

I'm not talking about Google, we know they don't care whether they destroy our businesses or not. Regulators, government, media all want insight into Google's manipulation

[yollo03]

I am seeing the same thing, impressions dropped by ranking remains unchanged. One of the algos doesnt like you and thats why you are getting lower impressions. Its not a glitch. I have the exact same thing. My initial thought is that this is an automated penalty.

[swright]

Why do you think it's a penalty? Wouldn't a penalty result in downranking rather than not showing your page for a certain query at a given time but showing it other times? To me, not showing a given page sometimes for the same query sounds more like an A/B test to rotate different pages through the SERPs and gauge the reaction of the user in order to infer their intent or whatever other reason G engineers might have to do that. Don't really know, just a speculation.

[samwest]

Went from last place on page 1 to first AND second place on page 1, yet traffic appears to have been quartered. The old bubble sort effect again. Whatever changed, it was dramatic, but results in less traffic? All you can do is laugh.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Those asking about rankings staying the same and traffic dropping.... two questions...

1. Is it your organic search traffic dropping for sure?
2. Do you have any featured snippets? Those have been swinging in and out - and generally if you have featured snippets, you'll lose a chunk of traffic if they are for "answering questions" terms.

[strummer19]

Worst and worst and worst.....update after update after update..... Total disaster since a few weeks.