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]

So, in case you were wondering why Google decided to do an affiliate / review site update last week.

This is what Google put live a few weeks ago:

[blog.google...]

[shopping.google.com...]

[google.com...]

Please check out the above links.

I'm just going to leave these here without any further commentary. But I'm sure you all get the idea. :)

[Markedd]

@mzb44 Yeah, I did think it was a move to go after Amazon, Google is lusting after the popularity of the largest e-commerce website for a very long time.

[MayankParmar]

@Markedd No, it did not work.

[superclown2]

Today I searched for a scientific topic. The SERPs are full of books on the subject and there is a huge ad on the right for a book I can buy from - yep, Google Books. No comment is necessary.

[RedBar]

Google is lusting after the popularity of the largest e-commerce website for a very long time.

IMHO the ones that ought to concern them, and Amazon, are the likes of Alibaba etc.

I haven't bought anything from Amazon in the Uk for years because the price was not competitive and that was even IF it was available, most often, not.

[saladtosser]

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin join $100bn club [theguardian.com...]

Maybe they will be happy with a cool 100bil each and loosen the screws on the content creators that gave them the information to get rich off now? ;)

[yollo03]

In case you missed the update:

April 13
The CLS metrics have been updated to reflect a more accurate representation of layout shifts on the page. You might see changes in your page CLS statuses (mostly positive) reflecting this change.

[jediviper]

So @RedBar,
are you saying that you are buying all computer hardware, home devices, etc while living in the UK from Alibaba and not from Amazon?

[RedBar]

are you saying that you are buying all computer hardware, home devices, etc while living in the UK from Alibaba and not from Amazon?

Nope, I don't think I've ever bought anything from Alibaba however I have from other Chinese platforms and all without any issues.

However you must remember that this is my track record, my family business had already outsourced to India in the 1960s, I became heavily involved with setting-up and training our new factory in India in the 1970s way before many countries even considered these ideas. The same happened with China when it first opened-up ... In I went to set-up production there.

I'm not your average buyer but it is very common now, I just have 50+ years experience of it therefore why would I go to Amazon for stuff when I can buy not only cheaper but usually much better specifications at lower prices.

[superclown2]

Has anyone else come across the 'key moments in this video' bar which I've now found in the middle of youtube videos, which have started appearing at the top for non-commercial search terms? They seem to have no other purpose than to encourage people to click on the videos - most of which contain ads, naturally.

It looks as though G is seeking to monetise just about every set of search results, commercial or not.

[saladtosser]

superclown2 yes that's been going on a while now. It may be time for everyone in content creation to consider converting their website information into youtube media and putting more effort into that than actual website content. Googles clearly giving organic preference and screen real estate to youtube (we know why, ads) and I only see it increasing as time goes by..Youtube videos used to be great but they have increased the number of ads shown in videos dramatically recently, I suspect one day they will insist on the user watching 2-4 ads before the video even begins.

Sadly breaking into youtube is very difficult since they give preference to youtube authority other relevance on that platform as well, (Authority on youtube is basically who has been doing it long enough to have built up the most followers = likes, much like websites with links) anyone who got in on youtube a few years back must be laughing right now, especially with the massive increase in traffic to their videos directly from organic search intensifying.

I started a channel several months ago, have around 150 followers but I prefer to make content for websites than parade myself on camera like an attention-seeking school girl, so haven't taken it as seriously as I probably should. Youtube rewards popularity rather than factual correctness, if you have good charisma and are loud and animated BUT have poor knowledge on a subject you will win over the shy reserved quiet person with extensive knowledge, why? Because Youtube is basically just a popularity content IMO.

[christianz]

Video (YouTube) is inferior medium to websites / webapps for most use cases. It is a static, non-interactive recording which you have to sit through and wait for minutes before you actually get to valuable information. Add the interstitial ads (hugely increased in frequency lately) and its not just time consuming and clumsy but also super annoying.

There are many use cases where video is obviously superior - how-to tutorials for example. But Google thinks all infotainment queries must absolutely go to YouTube.

And don't forget - YouTube, just like FB, Instagram, Reddit or Twitter is a mass concentration camp where you (content creator) have absolutely no power and no recourse if the big brother decides to punish you.

You also have no alternative to AdSense, which, by the way, absolutely sucks in terms of RPMs. At least in my experience.

Invest your time and effort in any of those gulag platforms at your own risk. It can be taken from you with no warning at any moment.

[superclown2]

superclown2 yes that's been going on a while now.

Yes I think a lot of these annoyances are tested first before they get rolled out to other countries. I often feel I'm behind the curve when I read people discussing things I've never come across <G>

Video (YouTube) is inferior medium to websites / webapps for most use cases. It is a static, non-interactive recording which you have to sit through and wait for minutes before you actually get to valuable information. Add the interstitial ads (hugely increased in frequency lately) and its not just time consuming and clumsy but also super annoying.

I absolutely agree. I've read on many forums that video is the future of search so I put some on a few of my sites but they were generally ignored and since they were affecting load speed I eventually took them all off. Pity, they represented a lot of work!

Personally I avoid them except when I want to learn how to do something I have no experience in, such as replacing batteries on gadgets that come with instructions in Chinglish. I don't have time to waste and many of them seem to be just ego trips for the producers.

When I want them though I click the video button, so what is the logic in putting so many in the SERPs? Simple, it is yet another way to show ads and shove organic results even further down. It must be hacking off a lot of surfers though. Sadly many of them don't know that proper search engines even exist. Perhaps it's time for DDG and Ecosia to spend some money on advertising (but not on adsense hopefully!).

[yollo03]

I need some help from those that are familiar with ads.txt. I dont use adsense, never have. There are no ads on my website. Since the beginning of April google is trying to crawl /ads.txt and gets hit with a 404 every time. How do I stop it and is it really a must even though I have no ads? I have no idea why did it start now and how to resolve it. Thanks in advance.

Update: I created ads.txt with placeholder.example.com, placeholder, DIRECT, placeholder If that is the wrong solution just pm me. I am leaving it here in case others might need this.

[lammert]

ads.txt has nothing to do with AdSense ads, despite Google trying to tell publishers otherwise. It is a way to detect fraudulent resellers of ads who are not authorized to sell ads for specific sites. Just ignore the requests.

[yollo03]

Thanks for the reply. I added example.com so it will stop the 404's. The 404's are shown in the google crawl logs so that should end it. Source to solution: [adstxt.com...]

[mzb44]

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin join $100bn club

Maybe they will be happy with a cool 100bil each and loosen the screws on the content creators that gave them the information to get rich off now? ;)

I don't think Sergey and Larry are at all involved these days in the workings of Google Search.

Which is why it's going downhill imo when it comes to quality. All the appointed and non-owner execs and managers at the helm today only care about share price during their tenure. So they need to squeeze out as much revenue growth as they can at any cost.

I think it would probably be slightly different with founders/owners in charge, but it is what it is.

[superclown2]

Right now I don't think the words 'Google Search' and 'quality' really belong in the same post.

Yesterday I went deeply into reasons why a particular price comparison site page is number one for the name of a particular service, above numerous specialist sites that actually provide the advertised service, and which have stacks of relevant information. Content? Thin and boilerplate. Other pages relevant to the service? No. External backlinks to the page? None. Added value to the searcher? None. They don't even link to any providers of that service, but just to their own generic widget search engine. Which is no use at all to a searcher who is looking for that specific type of widget.

Conclusion? My feeling is:

This particular site is currently spending an absolute fortune on TV advertising the generic service it compares prices for (so much it's driving me nuts) with multiple giveaways. People will be typing the site name into their search bar in Chrome and Google will have picked this up and assumed that the site is expert in anything at all connected with said generic service.

There may well be a stored cookie effect when people visit the site to look for their giveaways.

The algorithm is assuming that because it is a very successful and popular price comparison service it is automatically an expert on every subject that it compares prices for. This is not a logical conclusion however. It is an excellent price comparison service: full stop.

Google: fix this flaw, and similar ones, in your algo and your search results can be great again. You will earn the respect of the webmaster community (which made you in the first place) rather than their contempt and you will assure your own long term success.

<justjoking>If your software engineers can't manage this, ask those at DDG to help you </justjoking>

[RedBar]

Google Search has been an oxymoron for years ... well, it has insofar as I am concerned:-)

[Markedd]

@superclown2 Nobody from Google cares enough to listen to what we beta testers of their pathetic algorithms have to say. I mean I was able to reproduce the same problem twice and I can do it again and again. A reddit post of my own article will get the top spot in minutes, while the article itself is not even indexed. Funny thing, the article that I managed to push on the second place (the one that I mentioned a few posts up) is now deindexed again after the Reddit juice stopped flowing. And it's not only my website (since we clearly can't see the wrongs in our own loved creations), but I was looking at a beautiful, well-researched and well-worded huge website (not my own) that got kicked around by Google like it was a dirty rag. This is disgraceful.

[superclown2]

Which is why it's going downhill imo when it comes to quality. All the appointed and non-owner execs and managers at the helm today only care about share price during their tenure.

They have no choice. Google doesn't pay a dividend on shares. Instead it buys back shares occasionally. If profits went into reverse and the share price fell it could be disastrous because there would be no reason for anyone to hold their shares let alone buy them. Add the legal issues on the horizon and the share price could be under huge pressure. Add a load of bad publicity or (please, please) a good competitor coming along, helped by a ban on their cosy monopoly agreements, and a share price collapse could result. Rumours of Apple bringing one out persist but rumour is all there is.

In the meanwhile I'm still seeing movement in the SERPs in my vertical with sites moving randomly a few places at a time. Today the massive use of youtube videos that I noticed two days ago has decreased. Instead of a mass of videos at the top there is now, for many of the search terms I checked, an organic result, the usual 'people also ask' garbage (which personally I find insulting; please answer my query google! I know what I'm looking for!) then a box with three youtube videos in it. No ads, but then these queries, being non-commercial, rarely had ads anyway.


Fewer videos are welcome but I fail to see why they are there at all when we can get them if we want them by clicking the video tab. But then logic and Google no longer go together.

[Cryogen]

March and the first 5 days of April were pretty good for my sales. I got more than I expected, to be honest. It wasn't anything amazing, but there were one or a couple sales every day (which in these times is almost like a miracle). However, on April 5th there was a brief increase in traffic and then after that slow decrease (but again nothing too drastic) in traffic. But the sales were affected very negatively by whatever happened on Apr 5th... it's as if the type and quality of traffic has changed since that date, but not so much the quantity.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Absolute decimation of traffic continues - yet rankings remain strong for most of our usual search terms that were reliable before.
Makes no sense. So tired.

[mzb44]

Did anyone else notice that it's mainly informational sites that get massively hit during updates - especially core updates?

Maybe Google came to the conclusion that there's just too many informational sites (usually made for affiliate or display ads) and most are just regurgitating the same stuff anyway.

So, why not just decide on a set of sites that should rank for most informational queries and nuke almost anyone else. Mainstream brands make a lot of sense here, as the chances of them posting shady stuff is lower than no-name sites.

I know a lot of here - me included - were negatively affected by these and we may think the above is unfair. But I think it actually makes sense.

The implementation is still clearly very crude and deeply flawed (press releases ranking, quality info sites nuked), but is the underlying principle really that bad? - I know it's difficult to think in these terms but a lot of us need to eventually admit that perhaps the way we built and ran websites in the past is now outdated and won't work anymore.

I'd say in the near future if you want to rank then you're either a real brand with a product or service, or in cases of info sites a real registered publisher with regular organic (non-search) readership.

I feel that "made for Google traffic"-only sites will be completely nuked soon.

[superclown2]

Absolute decimation of traffic continues - yet rankings remain strong for most of our usual search terms that were reliable before.

That's the whole purpose of 'people also ask', popup boxes and all the other garbage that G uses to push the organics out of sight. Search result personalisation will also be having an effect on what the 99.9% who never clear their cookies see.

I'm also wondering if people are stopping searching on G so much. After all what's the point when the results they see are so awful?

Dunno about you but I only use G now to see how my sites are faring. Search is too important for results to be based on financial considerations rather than relevancy.

[Markedd]

@mzb44 I do think that you're not far from the truth, well, Google's truth, but in my niche, things are essentially stupid. There are websites that copy Amazon description and rank above respected websites with a cult-like following - think SNB-type websites that no other authority website will ever match in content. Google is currently brain dead. There's no other way to put it. Its intentions may be good (they're not, but could have been) and that's how you get to hell.

[superclown2]

Maybe Google came to the conclusion that there's just too many informational sites (usually made for affiliate or display ads) and most are just regurgitating the same stuff anyway.

Most information sites I look at are run by people who are genuinely enthusiastic and knowledgeable about their subject. These are harder to find after the last update.

When the big corporations publish articles way outside their expertise they are doing it for purely financial reasons, and who can blame them when they know that their offerings will appear well ahead of the really valuable stuff.

[christianz]

Maybe Google came to the conclusion that there's just too many informational sites

There are too many AI generated fake information sites, information sites with scraped / stolen content and overly commercialized product pushing affiliate type sites.

Genuine information sites are rare. There is oversupply of YouTube "creators", affiliate shills and scrapers and undersupply of real enthusiasts, domain experts and web developers in general who develop valuable information apps/sites. Which is hardly surprising knowing where Google's priorities are.

[mzb44]

Most information sites I look at are run by people who are genuinely enthusiastic and knowledgeable about their subject. These are harder to find after the last update.

When the big corporations publish articles way outside their expertise they are doing it for purely financial reasons, and who can blame them when they know that their offerings will appear well ahead of the really valuable stuff.

What if Google with their massive data determined that the average searcher actually prefers to click on results by the big corporations with mediocre content, rather than an expert written well-detailed article by <randomSite>?

What if the general public genuinely wants this?

We on this forum are a biased sample when it comes to search habits.

What if Google is just genuinely serving what people actually want?

*I know the above may seem a bit cynical, but seriously, what if that's how it actually is?

[shadowlight]

What if Google with their massive data determined that the average searcher actually prefers to click on results by the big corporations with mediocre content, rather than an expert written well-detailed article by <randomSite>?

What if the general public genuinely wants this?

We on this forum are a biased sample when it comes to search habits.

What if Google is just genuinely serving what people actually want?

If that is what people actually wanted it wouldnt have taken Google 20+ years to finally figure this out, they would have done it a long time ago.

They don't want great organic content at the top of SERPS it's not good for their bottom line.