Google Updates and SERP Changes - August 2021

[goodroi]

As usual, it's both entertaining and frustrating when monitoring Google's SERPs, and the performance of our sites. Google's core algorithm updates have proved interesting, to say the least.

First we had Google Core Update May 23 - June 3, 2021 [webmasterworld.com] referenced in Google Updates and SERP Changes - June 2021 [webmasterworld.com]

Before long, in July, we see a Google Core Update July 1, 2021 [webmasterworld.com] which created much more frustration and angst, with some successes, which we referenced in theGoogle Updates and SERP Changes - July 2021 [webmasterworld.com]

Without much delay we heard of a Google and Link Spam: Qualify Links for Affiliate Links or Sponsored Guest Posts Update [webmasterworld.com].

And during July we had an interesting question How long for Google to Index a New Website [webmasterworld.com]
Did you see the news that we might get a sneak look at Google's ranking algorithm. Google "About This Result" in SERPs Indicates Ranking Info [webmasterworld.com]
Most of us know about the Google search operators, and here's an overview of SEO search operators [webmasterworld.com]
Plus lots of other Google search and SEO topics [webmasterworld.com].

What are your observations on the algorithm updates/changes to the SERPs?

[yollo03]

Looks like a major update is being rolled out, good luck everyone

[KaseyM]

Ugh huge drop - hoping it's just turbulance.

[golderberger]

everything down again, especially sales

[superclown2]

Looks like a major update is being rolled out, good luck everyone

Interesting. What do you base this on?

[RedBar]

Completely normal Saturday for me at 80.3% and so far today looking similar which, I must repeat, is very good for my quietest month of the year.

I do not see any updates other than for a new .UK site I laucned 1st July. Already it is doing extremely well in DDG / Bing, G knows it is there and it has actually taken a a couple of very high positions, I assume the remainder will have their usual slowish climb upwards .

DDG / Bing did surprise me somewhar though :-) In fact their SERPs are looking cleaner again.

[StupidIntelligent]

Or, it could be that everyone is glued on the TV watching the American evacuation from the Kabul Embassy. It's Saigon once again.

[Dooku]

Interesting. What do you base this on?

Easy....check the google "algo changes" websites like Mozcast, correlate those with known google algo changes, then compare those to your log files or stat services like Statcounter. After a while you will recognize the pattern instantly......even for small google algo updates.
It does not matter if your website was impacted or not, the update IS there. I can even tell when the filters are lifted and dropped again.

[antigravity]

Am I crazy or did Google remove the "People Also Ask" feature from the SERPs? I can't seem to trigger it no matter what I query.

[RedBar]

Not missing for me.

[EditorialGuy]

Our Google traffic is down a few percentage points today, but not as much as our direct traffic or our traffic from Bing, Yahoo, etc. I figure this is the usual August doldrums. (We have a travel-planning site, and by now the people who want to take summer vacations in 2021 are already on summer vacation.)

[BushyTop]

Seen some movement this morning... Anyone else seeing anything?

[Martin Ice Web]

Seen some movement this morning... Anyone else seeing anything?

Yes, drop, drop ,drop

And this update hit all our main pages with lots of good content. We only get visits from google search for pages with nearly no content. Main winners in my niche are webpages that sells accessories for e.g. heatings. But this are not shops with a lot of selection. Just this one item. And that are special items only for using it with this heating.

It seems that google sees manipulation in every good written content that is not publiched by big brands.

[Cyril TechWebsites]

My website recovered +15% since last couple of days (I lost -30% during July 2021 update). It's not big numbers, but at least it's not a further drop... :/

[MayankParmar]

In July, I reported (via Twitter) a chain of sites abusing expired domains to rank for highly competitive keywords including COVID vaccines. They've outranked sites like BBC in various niches.

One of the domains: [imgur.com...]

Low-quality articles written by "admin" and they're ranking well because of the expired domains. Of course, Google is doing nothing about them.

Hypocrisy at its peak

[ichthyous]

Traffic was slightly lower this weekend, but it appears that my home page vanished from the serps again since there was a 60% drop in visits overnight and this morning. That is getting really old since traffic to my home page had mostly recovered this past week.

I am seeing a very gradual uptick in clicks in GSC since the beginning of July, but impressions remain about the same. Overall, the clicks and impressions are no where near where they were in January. My ranking on high-volume terms hasn't improved much at all.

There is no real way for a site like mine to recover from this, since Google has decided that only specific types of content and sites will rank now. All of those high-volume search terms that were my bread and butter have been taken over by crappy how-to articles or the same small group of mega-etailers and stock photo sites, and that has not changed since March. Where I was ranking top 10 before, I'm now at 25-70 for many of these high volume terms.

At the same time, all of the image search traffic has shifted to large media sites. Google made a decision to hand all the traffic to legacy media to get them off its back, and did it in one swoop. Only their images are ranking now and I lost almost all of that traffic in a matter of a day or two.

While there are marginal improvements, this huge shift in March (and again in June) means there simply isn't enough viable traffic to make anywhere close to the number of sales I was making in January / Feb. All of this would need to revert itself so that the SERPs are not so totally skewed as they are now...it's been almost six months with no sign that is going to happen. In fact, it might get even worse.

[mzb44]

In July, I reported (via Twitter) a chain of sites abusing expired domains to rank for highly competitive keywords including COVID vaccines. They've outranked sites like BBC in various niches.

One of the domains: [imgur.com...]

Low-quality articles written by "admin" and they're ranking well because of the expired domains. Of course, Google is doing nothing about them.

Hypocrisy at its peak

Meh. The reason this is still happening is because G is still insisting on pushing the authority (measured by strong links) > all approach.

The fact you can buy an expired domain that before was, say, a technology site with a lot of very big backlinks and remake it was a medical, casino, financial etc. site and it instantly ranks high clearly shows that (link) authority > everything.

I'd like to see the E-A-T people to ever address this but they never do.

If topical authority, content relevancy etc. would still matter then zero of these expired domains would work - except in the extremely limited number of times you find one that 1:1 matches your niche.

[edited by: mzb44 at 1:31 pm (utc) on Aug 16, 2021]

[samwest]

Tried to get into search console this morning, my sites are all suddenly UNVERFIED. If I re-download the verification file to the root, it refuses to verify. Something is up...or should I say down. Gorg just keeps breaking the web.

[Edge]

Most have heard claims of G’s “Referral Traffic Capping” or equivalent… Let’s test this theory.

Real example site, 21 years + old, never a manual action, never manufactured links, straight shooting SEO, just hard work and integrity – though not a perfect site.

April 12th to be exact – Google smartphone bot stumbled on a trap and triggered an automated ip ban. For the next several months I noticed a gradual reduction in G referrals (10%) but thought nothing of it as Covid seemed under control we’re out and about, summer, and Olympics, etc.

Then, got hit by the dreaded G core July update… 20%-ish dive in referral traffic overnight – first ever of this magnitude to hit this huge high traffic site.

I seen the chatter on various websites looked at keywords lost or dropped and did logical deep dive and "stop your complaining" investigation ~ “What do I do now to improve and make G love me again!”

I then discovered the April 403 ban and realized that more than 450 important to SEO webpages had been dropped from G’s index. Ouch! and shame on me...

I cleared G’s bots from the ip ban list and hunted down the cause of the auto-ban and began resubmitting the lost webpages back into the index.

As of today, I’ve got everything back in the G index except 16 ancient and minor webpages.

Starting AHEM! July 2 my traffic has not varied much more than maybe 3% on the peaks and totals for the day except one day (July 28) that I had a moderate increase then right back to the consistent and predictable traffic number’s.

I do not have any more insight to the Wizard of G's thinking or algo than the rest of you so therefore I leave it you folks, conclude what you want…

[not2easy]

If I re-download the verification file to the root, it refuses to verify.

Be sure you have not blocked their verification bot. It does not come from the same 66.249. range as their SE bots. I had a problem and needed to unblock a few ranges that had been blocked for unwanted activity: 66.102.0.0/20 and 66.102.128.0/20 for their verification bot. If you use CP you can see any errors due to those IPs in your error console.

[Edge]

So, are we allowed to post keywords for investigative search here?

I've got one that should send chills down your back for what the future may hold..

[StupidIntelligent]

"I've got one that should send chills down your back for what the future may hold.."

@Edge - Not sure what you mean there. And, sure you can post a keyword. Why wouldn't it be allowed.

[Edge]

Ok then... I actually have hundreds...

"Triangle Solutions" See #1 competitor, also see the Wikipedia snippet (wasn't wiki pushed down the serps?)
"Units converter" See #1 competitor
"Mortgage Calculator" Below ads #1 competitor

Now imagine that you're competing with the #1 serp result.

[KaseyM]

Still quite poor this end. Just noticed Google is looking for author URLs in rich snippet. Maybe that'll solve all my problems and send me to the moon (sarcasm).

[EditorialGuy]

Just noticed Google is looking for author URLs in rich snippet.

Sounds like a good idea to me. If you've got a unique name like mine, it probably isn't very useful, but if you're a John Smith or a Jane Doe, the URL should help Google associate your "by John Smith" or a "by Jane Doe" page with the correct author.

[StupidIntelligent]

@Edge - Old story. This has been Google's thing for years now. A decade or so from now; they probably wouldn't even need organic listings anymore.

[BushyTop]

Still seeing lots of movement today in the UK... cant see much from the sensors though?! Anyone else?

[ichthyous]

A decade or so from now; they probably wouldn't even need organic listings anymore.

A decade? Try two years max. They are rapidly heading in that direction because they have realized that users simply don't care whether they are handed a list of promoted ads or real organic serps. As long as people can find something they're good.

Search isn't even a priority anymore, YouTube is. My only hope is that someone will see the drastic decline in search result quality as an opening to enter the market with cleaner results...hear that Apple?!

Apple has the brand trust and the money and it would serve the purpose of undermining a competitor. However apple is very smart about not venturing too far astray in new lines of business and sinking into a quagmire of money losing ventures. MS Bing hasn't exactly been a hit, and they also had to abandon Corbis. Google owns it all and that's why the SERPS will soon be nothing but ads.

[ichthyous]

I had an enormous spike in traffic from the UK at exactly 1pm today...all coming from Google search or direct (Google images UK). All from different IP addresses and cities around the UK, and real traffic that had multiple PV. My UK traffic is up 869% so far today. Anyone else seeing this?

[golderberger]

semrush sensor spiking again, correlates with my sales loss again. So this is the new normal? SERP update every other day?

[engine]

Today's SERPs suggest problems displaying country-specific sites.
No wonder some countries will see traffic loss!

[BushyTop]

Its absolutely insane how much Google is refreshing at the moment. Either something isnt right/performing how they want it too, or they are completely revolutionising the way the algos work.

[yollo03]

Based on my assessment of what's going on, authority is still at the very top but something else was added. To rank well you need high authority and something else, I am not sure what it is but it's not the web vitals. I think it is related to content somehow.

In my case, only the high volume keywords I ranked for got hit, all the rest is normal.

Edit: 2 of my competitors were heavily hit by the update, average rank 20 for keywords Im tracking down to 68 in the past 48 hours. Other competitors were removed from the search in many countries but maintained their position in the countries they are ranking. I think it's a really big update but you cant tell if it's over yet.

NO TRANSPARENCY WHATSOEVER.

[RedBar]

Monday 9th / Tuesday 10th August

How many saw an increase / decrease in traffic on those dates and continuing to, so far, today?

Anyone, no one?

[KaseyM]

Decrease close of last week through weekend. Rise yesterday and slow again today.

[seomotionz]

Monday 9th / Tuesday 10th August

How many saw an increase / decrease in traffic on those dates and continuing to, so far, today?

Anyone, no one?

@RedBar Phenomenal spike in traffic and CTR since the last 48 hours specially in the tech niche. But entire last week was pretty bad, in terms of traffic and everything.

[golderberger]

it's scary though that G can cut your sales down 50% or more just like that and still you can't do a thing to them

[EditorialGuy]

it's scary though that G can cut your sales down 50% or more just like that and still you can't do a thing to them.

Or they could increase your sales by 50% or more, and they don't even have a tip jar or a "thank you" button.

Rankings go up. Rankings go down. Sometimes you benefit, and sometimes other people benefit. But Google isn't "cutting your sales"--it's just being a search engine, as opposed to a business directory.

[golderberger]

@EditorialGuy: I've been running my own business since 2012 and I have not experienced drops in sales like this EVER before this year G update - matter of fact we had a steady growth each year. Right now it seems like we are in 2012 again and starting our business. And this sales drop clearly correlates with the SERP changes.

Right now IMHO this is pure traffic manipulation.

[yollo03]

It's probably temporary. Those that received a boost, enjoy it while it lasts. Every time when an update is rolling out, at the very beginning there is spike, up or down, it then 'normalizes' in the next few days. If after a week you are still ranking higher then you were, it will stick until the next update.

[RedBar]

Right now IMHO this is pure traffic manipulation.

Right now?

You started in 2012, it has been manipulated since you started, you have always had this manipulation and fortunate enough to benefit from it ... some of us have been living with this seemingly for ever, well, certainly far too many years:-(

[mhansen]

Lead Gen / USA Market.

My leading website has not seem much, if any changes in search position change over the last couple years. It's a very small website, maybe just 8-10 pages on a very tightly focused topic that answers only a couple very specific questions. The topic is very transactional and popular.

Though the search positions have changed very little, the number of visitors from G is roughly half what it was just 1 year ago. I have family and friends all over the USA and they too have checked a few phrases for me at random times, just to see what it looks like to them.

In our case, the Google widgets have taken over serps. PAA, local results, map listings, product listings, etc. Basically, even with organic position #1 for high volume queries AND having the featured snippet on those same queries, Google have simply used the space to promote their own agenda versus sending people to websites.

Not much I know of, that we as website owners can do about it.

[shadowlight]

Though the search positions have changed very little, the number of visitors from G is roughly half what it was just 1 year ago.........Google widgets have taken over serps. PAA, local results, map listings, product listings, etc.

Right now IMHO this is pure traffic manipulation.

You started in 2012, it has been manipulated since you started

It has been manipulated ever since the beginning, after all that is what search engines do, manipulate their results to present them to the user. It hasn't always been manipulated to such an extent towards pushing organic listings down as much as they do these days and increasing the size of ads and directing traffic towards the ads. This has only been happening for the past couple of years or so.

It is absolutely disgusting that you can rank number one (organically) on the worlds most popular search engine and get half the amount of sales you used to, they are trying to force businesses into paying for ads and getting users to click on the ads at all costs.

They have been avoiding paying billions of dollars of tax for years, Ireland was pressured into changing their tax laws by the EU in order to prevent them & other mega corps from operating this way and avoiding tax. The Irish times reported that the last time Google did this in 2019 they moved $75 billion. They used a tax avoidance method called the double Irish with a Dutch sandwich in order to move billions and billions back to the U.S from international ad sales virtually tax free, for many years, this has now come to an end.

[irishtimes.com...]

This means their tax bill just got bigger and it is going to become even bigger when new legislation is passed that means they will have to pay tax in the countries they actually make their money rather than the countries they currently shift their profits too with low tax rates. 130 countries are behind the new tax rules and they are expected to take effect in 2023.

[forbes.com...]

So they can no longer avoid paying tax on billions of dollars of profit using loopholes such as the double Irish and soon they wont be able to shift their profits to countries with low tax rates either.

They have also been essentially forced into providing users with a list of up to 12 search engines to choose from on every single new android device distributed in the EEA and the UK on or before September 1, 2021.

[android.com...]

These search engines will appear on their for free, instead of having to win an auction and pay Google like previously, they are having to do this as a result of the European Commission’s July 2018 Android decision in which they were fined 4.34 billion euros.

[ec.europa.eu...]

They will no doubt lose market share because of this. This is why they are monetizing the SERPs they way they are right now. Its all about profit, profit, profit, they want and need to make as much money as they possibly can from search as the net is closing and Governments are starting to reign them in.

The more they are squeezed, the more they will squeeze the SERPs and online business.

[christianz]

Why is Google displaying any organic results at all?

If they change to paid-only (wherever there is enough paid results to make up complete and well targeted result list), they could even remove the "Ad" labels because everything would be understood to be ads anyway. People also ask and other widgets could be removed too. It would be beautiful and super profitable.

The consumer is gullible enough to stomach this and not complain. After all, they are used to consuming content on just few platforms anyway. They don't understand the concept of having choice in online platforms and services. They don't choose between different Facebooks, Twitters and Instagrams. They won't choose between Google and better, organic search engine. They can't type web addresses and most don't even know what domain is.

Seems like an awful waste to still direct all this "free traffic" to sites that don't pay a single cent for ads. I understand in early days they had to maintain credibility as impartial search engine, but these days - they are a verb in Oxford dictionary. Why not just spare us all this slow, torturous decline and just go for all the profit 100% at once. At least we would have more clarity and peace of mind that things can't get any worse - only better.

[ichthyous]

Right now it seems like we are in 2012 again and starting our business. And this sales drop clearly correlates with the SERP changes. Right now IMHO this is pure traffic manipulation.

Was this ever in doubt? Just look at Google's insane revenue growth each quarter. That is coming at the expense of sales for sites that rank organically. My inquiries and sales are a fraction of what they were in January and February before all this started. My image traffic is less than half because it's all going to the largest media companies now. Since Google is afraid of having to pay them for content after the Australian court decision.

All of my high volume terms are gone, only very large sites are taking all the top spots now. The few exceptions are competitors who are writing articles on every topic, because articles have replaced many searches with commercial intent. No variety, only cheap silly how-to articles and lists.

[Martin Ice Web]

All of my high volume terms are gone, only very large sites are taking all the top spots now.

Yes, this last updates aimed 100% to high transactional keywords.I have contact to a lot of shops and all are saying the same. Sales are cut to half and more.

BUt why does google destroy their own image of beeing a middle good search engine?
Searching in my niche is frustrating. 50% of the search has nothing to do with the search. My guess is that they implemented "Poeple also searched for" in normal serps, what would be very, very silly.

And i don´t know if i can trust a chinese seller on ebay/amazon more than one located in my country?

[yollo03]

@Martin, one theory is that this is the best way to get some of them to start paying for ads, no? Users won't see the difference, only shop owners. I was affected as well by the way, only high volume keywords were targeted.

[BushyTop]

I'm seeing a larger and larger disparity between Desktop and Mobile Rankings. Mobile being better for us. Anyone else seeing this?

[Martin Ice Web]

@yollo3+,

i know but everyone knows that google ads do not work. Spend 10 bucks and earn 3 bucks. Therefore the most shops will not participate in google ads. Many of those shops do have unique items. That will not be found on google anymore. Most of these shops will migrate to amazon instead fo paying google for nothing. Can google realy effort this?

And i was total astonished that a friend did tell me that they switched to bing at home. ( they are not very familiar with computers and search). Poeple are sick of to many ads.

[mzb44]

i know but everyone knows that google ads do not work. Spend 10 bucks and earn 3 bucks. Therefore the most shops will not participate in google ads.

It absolutely works for a lot of people and businesses.

There are many cases where it does not work for a variety of reasons a lot perhaps not even anything to do with Google.

I know we dislike Google for a lot of things they did the past few years, but let's not lose our sense of objectivity.

Also, like SEO, adwords is not as simple as many believe. It's not as simple as just loading your account with $100 and adding a few random ads and boom you generate positive ROI. There could be a million reason why some campaigns might not perform, including even some products advertised might not even suit adwords at all.

[JesterMagic]

They have also been essentially forced into providing users with a list of up to 12 search engines to choose from on every single new android device distributed in the EEA and the UK on or before September 1, 2021.

Finally, I hope this comes to North America. We need to end mega corps taking over our devices and controlling what content they show us and what apps we use. Yes I know you can install what you want afterwards but 90% people in the real world do not know how to do this so just stick with what comes preinstalled.

When you first boot up your new device (phone, tablet, PC, whatever) It should not assume what you want but ask what is the default search engine, what browser you want to use, what mail client, what cloud service etc... Not forcing mega corps like Google, Apple, and Microsoft from doing this just intrenches them further and makes it harder for any competition to gain market share.