Google Updates and SERP Changes - April 2021

[goodroi]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5028704.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 5:38 am on Apr 1, 2021 (utc -5)

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With Google continuing to evolve its ranking factors and growing the influence of AI influence on the SERPs, the updates seem to be more frequent (due to so many moving parts) but less drastic (due to most parts only being a small cog in the Google machine).

[mzb44]

Google announces product review update. Live today: [searchengineland.com...]

Seems to be an update targeting affiliate sites?

[yollo03]

Not only but yes, this is big. So this is what they have been up to. Im not sure if this explains my drop as I am not an affiliate. Wouldn't surprise me if next week they will announce something else is live.

[mzb44]

I'm willing to bet anyone right now that what this will mean is that authoritative domains (largely based on links - i.e. major news sites) with review content will get a boost. Lower authority sites will get a demotion. Actual content quality has nothing to do with it at all - as it's not really possible to algorithmically measure what's "good" content.

[Markedd]

@mzb44 Pardon my language, but Holy #*$!! If this update is proper, then my website should rise up to the stars. But it's not going to happen, is it?

[mzb44]

@mzb44 Pardon my language, but Holy #*$! If this update is proper, then my website should rise up to the stars. But it's not going to happen, is it?

We will probably have to wait some days or maybe weeks to be able to evaluate the impact of this update.

But I'm certain Google can't actually algorithmically measure "content quality" so the next best thing they have is to assume that authoritative domains = good content, lower authority domains = potentially not so good content.

And I believe we all know which sites will win and lose in such a scenario.

[edited by: mzb44 at 6:09 pm (utc) on Apr 8, 2021]

[Markedd]

Wait, so Google says that the update is already live? Well, what's going on, where's my money, Google? Seriously now, these guys don't know left from right at this point. None of my competitors go even close to the depth level that I go with some analysis. They should just give up on trying.

[Markedd]

@mzb44 I don't expect anything from Google at this point, I just want them to stop ''trying"...

[mzb44]

Just because it's live doesn't mean it's propagated to all data centers. It will still take some time to notice any effects, probably.

[MayankParmar]

Google News seems to be having indexing issues.

[southernguy]

@Markedd

Yes, they just died, two of the sites are fitness and bodybuilding-related, in fact, I struggled with them about a year ago, in all fairness, I had a lot of affiliate content, about 20%, the rest was informative content. One site has over 3500 articles the other had about 700 articles, I have written a lot of the content myself over the years and outsourced some, in fact, both those sites I have treated with kid gloves.

About nine months ago I began to write a lot more informational content and reduced the affiliate content and traffic improved "some" but Monday it just died on both of them. They are on different hosting tips etc.

I'm hoping it's just a glitch and they will come back.

I still have a few small niche sites bringing in a trickle of income but if those two that have flat-lined don't come back I guess I will have to start from scratch, the last few years have been an uphill struggle no matter what I do.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Strangely quiet on the sensors for an update they say will still take another two weeks or so to fully rolly out.

[Markedd]

@southernguy Thank for the more detailed overview of your websites. I assume that there is no manual penalty from Google and that you haven't build any sketchy backlinks. But even so, did you try to update some of the previously well performing articles? We all are complaining about losing keywords, but I don't think anyone actually went to zero. It's a bit strange, could it be that you're hacked or that there may be a server issue?

[Martin Ice Web]

If this algo realy works than amazon should have a big problem, because of just copy the manufacturer description and then non professional customer reviews with no extra content.
But we all know that this not gonna happen. You donīt bite the hand that feets you.

[mzb44]

If this algo realy works than amazon should have a big problem, because of just copy the manufacturer description and then non professional customer reviews with no extra content.
But we all know that this not gonna happen. You donīt bite the hand that feets you.

Yeah. I still don't believe the way this works is evaluating content quality or expertise directly. I don't think Google can do that yet besides grammar, language structure, etc.

So it will be about off-page signals again that Google believes correlate with quality. Like it is every time with the regular broad core updates as well.

Meaning the big news sites that are mass-producing affiliate review and best x spam will get another boost.

[yollo03]

Its the second day I am getting a high personal score from semrush so something is going on. I dont think its a manual penalty but why couldnt it be an automated penalty by one of the algorithms?

[Martin Ice Web]

So we are in cables and plugs. How deep can you go into it? Nothing big to say.

We provide technical and applications information and lots of pictures (self made).
But jet we are outranked by silly sites with only one sentence for title, meta desc, h1. No extra EAT.
Something like: HDMI cable 2m black

In last time we see "picture sale sites". Lots of manufacturer pictures with one sentence and ALL are leading to amazon.
Best practise for google would be to kill all sites with more then 2 amazon affiliate links per page. That would clean out the serps.

[Markedd]

@Martin Ice Web ...well, yes and no. I have more than a couple of Amazon links on some articles, but those articles are huge (3K+ words, some even 10K). And I'm not really trying to tell you how to it's best to analyze a product, but it is possible to go fairly in-depth even with cables. Check latency, comparison with other brands, material quality and so on. It can reach 1K words really quick without fluff.

[Martin Ice Web]

@Markedd,

this is true but in most cases the customer wants short descriptions like a table overview. We do have a short description about 100-200 words each item but more would lead to go in to unnecessary drivel.

[Markedd]

@Martin Ice Web You did say that you're outranked by single phrase articles, so it's not even worth writing more. I am seriously curious about this new update and its impact. Although I'm afraid that mzb44 is right and it's not going to put the quality articles above the 'high authority' websites. At the same time, there is an old feud between Amazon and Google, despite them working together to a certain degree, so it's perhaps a way to ask more from Bezos or the means to push their own services above the Amazon links. We'll see the coming weeks.

[KaseyM]

Looks like we've been hit hard. Down 20 to 40%

[RedBar]

We will probably have to wait some days or maybe weeks to be able to evaluate the impact of this update.

Absolutely and I'll remind everyone, everywhere of the great Google image theft of 2010. Google told youh how to improve your image rankings etc only for a few months later to steal the lot, well 95+% in most cases.

So, write the greatest review you can and see it at the top of Google, will anyone click thru?

Same old, same old Gorg, get the minions to do the hard work for free and rewar them with almost nothing but the occasional click ... Then again, is that the capitalist system at work?

[TalkativeEditorial]

Well, for us the good news is that ever since whatever it was they did on 2/3 March has absolutely decimated traffic (DESPITE an INCREASE in rankings), traffic is now on track to for being as horrendously awful as last month's curve, so nothing has gotten worse. Something to be grateful for, I guess, thanks so much Google. /sarcasm

[SteveWrz]

I am right there with you. After a year of really good growth and thinking I'm finally in the clear, along came whatever happened end of Feburary/ beginning of March and I have been bleeding traffic and revenue since.

This will likely be my last year running websites. No matter how much I play by their rules, Google punishes me. This is not a healthy way to live. A years worth of investing in content, site improvements, UX, all for nothing. I just can't do it anymore.

[ichthyous]

I woke up to a huge shakeup across the board in all my terms, SEMrush has my personal volatility at 9.0. Seeing huge drops in a broad range of terms...where I was 5 or 6 in January I am now 45 or 85. I've dropped on terms I have dominated for a decade, and yet the same sites that have crawled up all year continue upward, very odd. I was just starting to slightly recover from the Feb 13th and March 15th drops.

[ichthyous]

This will likely be my last year running websites. No matter how much I play by their rules, Google punishes me. This is not a healthy way to live. A years worth of investing in content, site improvements, UX, all for nothing. I just can't do it anymore.

@Steve I hear you, more and more I feel the same. Google destroyed my sales in 2020, and now since Feb and March it looks equally bad. It makes no sense anymore to keep up with Google's constant demands and even if you do your site is not ever going to be rewarded for it. You may have brief, fleeting periods of good traffic and conversions now but good steady business from search is over.

[MayankParmar]

So what about sites with some review contents (like 5%)?

I kind of like the idea of the review products update but I am sure big media sites are going to be the winners.

[TalkativeEditorial]

I just can't do it anymore.

I feel you deeply on that. Just this afternoon my personal Discover feed yielded at least five articles (from the same publication) - not a single one of them with an actual person's byline. 'TRANSPARENCY' lol.

[RedBar]

This will likely be my last year running websites.

Purely coincidentally this morning I began 301'ing all of MY sites to two sites, whether I shall bother to update them any more is a decision I have yet to make however what IS certain is that my core business will undergo a fundamental change in focus. Quite simply I'm opting-out of the race to the bottom for the lowest price.

I have also informed all clients except those personal ones that I shall no longer be maintaining their sites. I have found them all good homes to go to so they'll have a smooth continuity.

[mzb44]

So what about sites with some review contents (like 5%)?

Will just have to wait and see.

JM just said on Twitter that this will affect sites broadly and not just individual review URLs.

They also said it will not penalize but rather reward good content. However, are already several reports on Twitter of review site owners who dropped from page 1 top 5 to page 10+ or even completely disappeared.

[saladtosser]

Wow traffic is off a cliff today, did wonder what was up, guess it must be this update.. I don't have any product reviews or products on my site though so go figure!