Google Updates and SERP Changes - May 2021

(Part 1 of 2)

[sk7411]

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System: The following 21 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5032067.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 9:52 am on May 2, 2021 (utc -5)

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Here we go again ,

Something started brewing yesterday.

[Samsam1978]

I am 31% down from last year. It appears news sites are taking my keywords and other smaller spammy sites, dropping my traffic by 10% every month. Not good considering I am the niche site for the last 15 years - that is much more informative information for the reader and a better user experience.

[saladtosser]

Google organics should just re brand and call itself "People also Ask + Youtube". I saw for the first time youtube videos added to answers in the "people also ask" widget. (maybe others have seen this before)

I see youtube also updated their terms today to cash in further, I expect because they are sending so much traffic from organics now.

"YouTube's right to monetise: YouTube has the right to monetise all content on the platform, and ads may appear on videos from channels not in the YouTube Partner Programme."

Even the ones where the creator hasn't qualified to monetise yet (1k subscribers +4k hours watch time requirement's)

[superclown2]

"YouTube's right to monetise: YouTube has the right to monetise all content on the platform, and ads may appear on videos from channels not in the YouTube Partner Programme."

To be fair, whilst I believe that regulatory control of Google is way overdue I don't see a problem with this. There is after all no charge for uploading videos and there are other options for those who object to this.

[saladtosser]

Yea i have no problem with that either....all I have a problem with is taking more and more organic traffic Google can't monetise from the serps (information serps) and passing the traffic to youtube, so Google can then monetise it. Having got into youtube now myself (because I saw the way the SERPS were going) and gaining 3-8 followers per day, I should be happy... but id prefer not to be youtubing at all and just continue content creation like the old days, but alas I believe all informational content in video format, on Youtube, is where things are heading.

[christianz]

I am not on YouTube and increasingly I believe my decision to not invest any time and effort into platfroms like that has been the right one. I think the tide will change. Because YouTube sucks more every day. It's too late to hop on that train.

I know google is stealing traffic with YouTube but they have been doing this for while now, I don't think it can get much worse than it already is.

[RedBar]

but alas I believe all informational content in video format, on Youtube, is where things are heading.

No, no, no, no, no ... I don't have an issue with good quality videos per se however hundreds of years of books should have taught most of us that videos alone cannot explain many practical and technical details.

My global industry would be in a right mess if all they had were videos, I have technical books in my office that have been out-of-print for years but are still valid and demanded by many countries when quoting for nearly any project.

Referring a planning officer to a YouTube video ain't gonna happen!

[ichthyous]

This is ridiculous...starting my day with -70% USA traffic and it's already 10:30am. Google is determined to destroy all of our businesses!

[superclown2]

I found that when I had YouTube videos on my sites very few people watched them so I got rid of them. Personally I avoid them except when I want to learn how to do something tricky. The ads irritate me, sometimes I can't understand the mumbling or hyperactive 'talent' and it takes too long to get to the meat. Most of the time I seek out the written word - I can tell much more quickly whether or not the site will be useful.

Perhaps I'm not typical but speaking as a searcher I really feel that all the YouTube videos which are cluttering up the SERPs are a complete waste of space - particularly since there is a videos tab I can click if I do want to watch them. Google may want to promote them because they can advertise on them but personally I am suffering from ad overload.

Leaving aside the fact that my income is suffering from Google's awful SERPs, my default is now DDG because I really feel that google is ruining the product that all their income is based on.

Speaking of the SERPs after the last core update; I am wondering just why they are so bad despite the fact that they used to be far better than anyone else's. I'm wondering if they really do give such poor anodyne results to force people to click on ads (in which case the conversion rate, and therefore value, of those clicks is likely to decrease), or whether the switch to AE is very much a work in progress and will improve eventually. After all, do they really make more money by giving everything to the big news and price comparison sites (that can afford to spend big on ads anyway) rather than the quality sites they used to find?

Unless there really is a conspiracy to trade high positions in the SERPs in exchange for high ad spending - which I very much doubt because it would be commercial suicide if it became public knowledge - I fail to see why google should deliberately promote sites based on authority only, which is the effect we are having now.

[yollo03]

Google's new SEO bomb is in its final stages, Multitask Unified Model (MUM). You think it will be a business destroyer? [seroundtable.com...]

[edited by: yollo03 at 3:03 pm (utc) on May 19, 2021]

[samwest]

Videos belong under the video tab...not in the general search results...but to sling more ads...they do.

[mzb44]

I fail to see why google should deliberately promote sites based on authority only, which is the effect we are having now.

Because of this: [theguardian.com...]

Corona likely significantly increased the need to do the above, hence the May 2020 and December 2020 updates.

Since they can't really determine what's accurate and what isn't, "authority" - seemingly in the form of root domain authority (NOT the Moz metric) - seems to be the only way to at least prevent potentially inaccurate and sketchy content from ranking.

Yes, this unavoidably means there will be a lot of collateral damage, but Google may believe this is preferred to potentially having school shooting and vaccine conspiracy and misinformation sites ranking (that would generate massive negative press for G).

"And so to address that [misinformation ranking] we have developed algorithms that recognise that a bad event is taking place and that we should increase our notions of ‘authority’, increase the weight of ‘authority’ in our ranking so that we surface high quality content rather than misinformation in this critical time here.”

They may have decided to make this permanent rather than event-based because of Covid.

It's what we got and once you understand the above you will realise why this will likely not be rolled back, especially not during an epidemic.

What remains to be seen is if they ease this up a bit once the pandemic is over or if they decide to stick with this permanently going forward.

My concern is that since this appears to be an universal change after the last core updates rather than just something medical-search related, they may have decided to make this permanent across all search.

[superclown2]

My concern is that since this appears to be an universal change after the last core updates rather than just something medical-search related, they may have decided to make this permanent across all search.

They are of course entitled to decide whatever they wish <BWG>

Google was a breath of fresh air when they first arrived on the scene. The search results now are so abysmal that is is hard to believe that they were produced by the same company.

They are where they are now because they have established a monopoly by owning Chrome, the most popular browser for desktop, and Android, the most popular mobile OS, as well as by having agreements with other platforms to make them the default advertising agency. Sorry, that should read search engine.

This cosy arrangement is coming up against legal challenges all over the world. It may well be, in a few years time, that what is decided by a company that was a once dominant player, but which lost it's crown because of short-termism, is irrelevant.

In the meanwhile the current google search results are awful. I suspect that most of us are hurting because of this. However the public is fickle. Website creators are suffering. Governments in need of votes are worried. Millions of existing and potential businesses are being crippled. This situation will not continue indefinitely.

Let us not assume that what Google decides is inevitable. Change can happen very quickly on the web and real search engines are only a click away.

For goodness sake; Google does not own the Internet although they behave as though they think they do. They are the default 'so-called-seach-engine' across most major platforms but if/when this situation no longer exists they will be dust.

[mzb44]

All I can say is that despite all these recent changes they showed record revenue growth in Q1 2021 (straight after the - according to us - horrible Google update that we claim screwed up search results) and I don't seem to be able to find any instances of the general public questioning the quality of Google search at all*

I believe the above is a clear indication where things are headed and what the next potential core update might bring.

* Edit: Actually I found a reddit thread from a few months back and by far the biggest complaint there was that they weren't getting served enough known and "trusted" mainstream sites and they have to wade through "random unknown blogs" to finally find a "known reputable site or publication" to click on.

I think it's very clear where we are going from here.

[samwest]

99% of the "general public" hasn't a clue, or frame of reference, but WMs do. Many of us have been watching Gorgs antics for 20+ years. The trend is sickening.

[Runfun]

I'm reading the last pages here and wondering if there was an update that's confirmed by Google or are publishers believe there was an update?

[ichthyous]

I'm seeing this upward step pattern all day followed by a huge drop in traffic on a regular basis now. It's totally abnormal, before my traffic was spread more evenly all day long. Is anyone else seeing this pattern?:
[ibb.co ]

[mzb44]

I haven't seen that behaviour before, ichthyous.

But that may seem like something related to your audience? Depending on what type of site/content you have and what your audience is, that type of traffic might taper off after those hours.

I'm reading the last pages here and wondering if there was an update that's confirmed by Google or are publishers believe there was an update?

There was no update confirmed by Google. It's publishers believing there were updates recently.

Google is only confirming major updates now, such as broad core updates, that apparently are only being one around once or twice a year now.

99% of the "general public" hasn't a clue

Not sure if this matters. It's what we got, it's what Google got. They will cater their search results to whatever the "general public" wants which maximises user engagement and revenues. So what any other business would do.

Many of us here are still from the "old days" where internet and search behavior was totally different. Our expectations aren't the same as that of the current "general public".

[superclown2]

Definite movement here in the UK today. It looks like relevance has had a boost - here's hoping.

[yollo03]

"In the coming weeks, some Android users in the US on Chrome Canary may see an experimental Follow feature designed to help people get the latest content from sites they follow. Our goal for this feature is to allow people to follow the websites they care about, from the large publishers to the small neighborhood blogs, by tapping a Follow button in Chrome. When websites publish content, users can see updates from sites they have followed in a new Following section on the New Tab page."

Source: [blog.chromium.org...]

[RedBar]

So far my global site has seen a steady daily improvment this week:

Monday 65.8%
Tuesday 71.4%
Wednesday 77.4%

The USA has regained its #1 position albeit with thraffic still down 28.25%

I haven't checked the US SERPs to see if there have been any significant changes.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Been seeing a lot of very old content (that show the date stamp in the SERPs, so no funny business going on) showing up for some fairly basic queries. Not ones in a niche I monitor, just genuine queries I am trying to find answers for. I'm up to ten years ago results in the top three/Featured Snippets and even the video results. Nothing wrong with older results showing up, of course, the thing being... sometimes these results....

1.link to sites that have been hacked
2. link to pinterest pins from that date
3. are a terrible ux from the "core web vitals" point of view
4. are absolutely not relevant at all.

some of my own sites continue to be absolutely wiped out by "People also ask/search for/we're just going to take your content and not even show you on Discover anymore".

[MayankParmar]

Something doesn't seem right... Google is ranking my category page and homepage for two keywords instead of the actual article.

[Samsam1978]

Google MUM will end up as their main search engine, that is my prediction.

[edited by: Samsam1978 at 2:52 pm (utc) on May 20, 2021]

[MtraX]

My prediction is that Google MUM will end up as their main search engine

Well there is one MINLTF...

[Samsam1978]

The future looks grim.

[RedBar]

It looks orange ... That's for the Brits here :-)

[ichthyous]

But that may seem like something related to your audience? Depending on what type of site/content you have and what your audience is, that type of traffic might taper off after those hours.

@mzb44 No it's not a normal audience pattern...I am either seeing traffic fall off a cliff around 9am, or at 2pm sharp, or on a stronger day this upward pattern all day until it falls off a cliff and stays down the rest of the day. This to me indicates a hard clamping of traffic on a daily basis. Normal is a gradual upward trend plateauing around 12pm-3pm and then gradually dropping off in the evening. Now it's like I have a random pattern imposed from day to day...

[Samsam1978]

@ichthyous it looks like your traffic is being throttled. Been there had that many times. Currently, I have it every Sunday. Nothing you can do just check how many ads you are serving and reduce accordingly. Must be AI testing other pages in search once yours has hit the allotted amount. Will go back to normal in 4-8 weeks, or you will lose ranking if other sites outperformed you.

[ichthyous]

@Samsam1978 I don't have any ads on my site at all. This pattern used to be a bit more subtle, but now it's every day and it affects my USA traffic only. Huge drops out of the blue that last for hours sometimes. I already lost the ranking starting from about mid-Feb and then really dropping after the March 15 update...a 40% reduction in top three ranking terms since Feb, and even more top ten ranking terms. It has not recovered at all really...it gains one day and loses them again the next.

[edited by: ichthyous at 3:31 pm (utc) on May 20, 2021]

[seomotionz]

Something doesn't seem right... Google is ranking my category page and homepage for two keywords instead of the actual article.

@MayankParmar Atleast Google is showing your live pages. In our case I am seeing pages which were deleted ages ago.

it looks like your traffic is being throttled. Been there had that many times. Currently, I have it every Sunday. Nothing you can do just check how many ads you are serving and reduce accordingly. Must be AI testing other pages in search once yours has hit the allotted amount. Will go back to normal in 4-8 weeks, or you will lose ranking if other sites outperformed you.

@Samsam1978 Traffic is super throttled. And not to mention around 60% US traffic is gone.

It is also frustrating to look at when you see your rankngs has been stolen by useless videos from Youtube. Along with it, ads in Youtube videos have also increased exponentially recently.

[edited by: seomotionz at 3:45 pm (utc) on May 20, 2021]