Google Updates and SERP Changes - September 2021

[goodroi]

August is typically a holiday/vacation month in the northern hemisphere as people take time out to recuperate, and to prepare for a busy quarter, and 2021 is likely to follow similar patterns. Black Friday and cyber Monday, along with many other regional holiday dates usually have an impact on business in the quarter, as well as Christmas and New Year.

Looking back at the past quarter of Google's SERPs changes has brought the usual shenanigans, and winners and losers. Traffic, and most importantly, conversions, is a goal of publishers selling services and goods to business and to end users. Here are a few of the changes worth noting in the past month or so that you may have missed.

The Google and Link Spam: Qualify Links for Affiliate Links or Sponsored Guest Posts Update [webmasterworld.com] took quite a while to roll through, and it was probably a good four weeks or so of changes.

There were quite a few observations of note in our Google Updates and SERP Changes - August 2021 [webmasterworld.com]

Also, there was a Google Image Rendering Bug Causes Some Failures in Top Stories [webmasterworld.com]

Do you want to know how to control parts of snippets displayed in the SERPs "Data-no snippet" How to Stop Parts of a Google SERPs Snippet From Showing [webmasterworld.com]

There was also a piece about How to Remove Web Results From Google Search [webmasterworld.com]

Is it a penalty, or the result of an algo change. [webmasterworld.com]

Google changing descriptions in the SERPs have been going on for years, and here's the latest on the changes in our thread titled Update: Google Generating Page Titles on SERPs [webmasterworld.com]

Supporters forum (paid subscriptions) Google's NLP demo taken down and it's still available if you know how [webmasterworld.com]


Plus lots of other Google search and SEO topics [webmasterworld.com], and recent discussion in other sectors on WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

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

[papux]

What's wrong with Google Analytics? I had xxxx number of visitors till now and a drawback to xxx, wth? Anyone having these issues?

[NickMNS]

might as well as say tracking anything at all is useless

To be clear that is not at what I suggesting. Tools such as Mozcast and the equivalent Semrush version and the many others, measure the variability in the serps and do not account for direction. When the value goes up, it doesn't mean rankings went up, it means that some websites that appeared in the Serps fell, while others gained rank. When the number is small, then there are few changes and the same websites appeared at the same rank.

Now for most websites, there should be no correlation between the site's traffic or rank and these metrics. It doesn't mean there can't be, if a site benefits from series of subsequent updates then yes since the metric is a proxy for an update, an increase in the metric also related to increase in traffic, but it isn't really correlated it's spurious.

The exception to this are website that legitimately see an increase interest when an update occcurs, SEO website like WW and SErountable for example, then yes correlation would exists. But these are exceptions in the grand scale of the web.

[frankleeceo]

@NickMNS

I can also argue "see an increase interest when an update occcurs, SEO website like WW and SErountable for example", is pointless in the grand scheme of things lol. No way a small bunch of us represent the grand sample. it's most likely statistically irrelevant no matter how I slice and dice it.

I stand by my comment "might as well as say tracking anything at all is useless". lol

We represent what? 0.00001% of all traffic? those data sets represent like..1% of traffic?

At the end I stand by my comment, just trust google to do what is best for humanity (sarcasm much?), they have the keys and all data to be able to actually make authoritative calls about their algo changes. everyone else? statistically irrelevant.

with this in mind, they can totally annihilate some sites from thousands of visitors daily to zero overnight. And it'll still be statistically irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

In a sense, I agree correlation is most likely imaginary and "spurious" (man I had to look up this word lol) at this point. It's now a combination of " "might as well as say tracking anything at all is useless"" and "manipulation".

I think a lot of people get confused about algo and google's relationship. I don't understand.

It's either directly manipulation positions, or manipulate or "adjust" algo or "factors" or "weight" that defines the position. It all really points to the same ideas. It's manipulatable. And google publicly says that they employ both tactics lol. So I don't understand. Anyways, I will just trust google to do what is best for humanity. Google's PR makes "algo" sounds so sacred, just, and non-changed, and divine forces change the "algo" for the greater good of humanity. But anyways. lol. It's koolaid.

I respect Google a lot. I love em and a lot of things that they do. But I can't stand this PR spin personally. I would respect them so much more if they can bypass the PR BS. As a private business, they should totally manipulate the algo to satisfy their users and maximize shareholder value (and they do), and obtain total control of the entire market share. Everything else is fluff. Believing anything else in my opinion is -.-.

[ichthyous]

USA traffic down 48% by 5pm today...Australia also down 49%. Searches down 33% in total. Top ten ranking down in the the last month, but not down much today.

[shadowlight]

Anyways, I will just trust google to do what is best for humanity

Google does what is best for THEIR revenue, profits & dominance, not what is best for humanity or anything else.

[KaseyM]

Sustained drop this past week. Guessing we've been hit somehow or it's something technical our end?

Back to 2 years ago numbers.

[ichthyous]

Google is taking out targeted hits on my most important content, and there's no way it's not intentional. My non-USA (read: non-converting) traffic is very high while USA traffic is lower every day since the 13th...yesterday down 37% and today down 47% at 2:30pm. My most important landing pages are all being hit on a rotating basis, normal one day, dropping by a huge amount the next. My ranking is up one day, down the next but no major moves. The overall effect is not one single new customer inquiry since last Sunday from anywhere in the world.

This is clearly just Google targeting the most profitable terms and removing the traffic for that. I am thinking of getting rid of GA completely once again for this reason, I am not going to assist Google in targeting my traffic.

[Dooku]

I am thinking of getting rid of GA completely once again

@Ichthyous, Why did you install GA again, after removing it the first time?
You might already know I do not use any G tools on my websites, not even G fonts or recaptcha.....nothing.
I also mentioned here I do not even accept customers on the checkout page when they enter a Gmail email address, a popup appears requesting them to use a different email........I have now expanded this to 5 websites and I see no real loss of revenue.

Some may think this is just paranoid.....but my data tells me otherwise, numbers just don't lie.

Currently I only build links to let G know a website exists and of course results are certain rankings. But I do ALL my SEO for traffic, NOT for rankings. When you get creative enough you do NOT need G and not even social media platforms for traffic. The added benefit is that traffic arriving that way, even if the visitor needs to jump through hoops, to get to your website converts like crazy.

[mzb44]

semrush Very High range today 24 September
8.2

I never take any notice of these things however does anyone have experience of a direct correlation to their rankings etc?

Why would such a metric correlate with a website's ranking?

You may not always be able to diagnose algorithm updates affecting an individual website using these tools alone, but more often than not these tools can help us determine if there was an impactful algorithm update on specific dates affecting sites broadly.

Like on the 23rd-24th.

I have looked at around 50 websites this morning and clearly there was something around those dates. All sites show some very noticeable movement.

Google likely tweaked something that had some noticeable impact, like they do all the time.

I think there are two camps in this debate and they are both right and wrong at the same time.

One camp focuses too much on what these tools say and usually read way too much into these scores. But then there's the other camp that is extremist in the other direction claiming that all these tools are 100% irrelevant and do not correlate with anything and should be ignored.

The truth is somewhere in-between. Tools like semrush sensor etc. may tell us if something is happening broadly etc. across the web, but not necessarily anything that's wrong specifically with an individual site.

[ichthyous]

An absolutely massive drop in English language traffic this morning...UK traffic down 86%, USA down 42%, Australia down 40%, Canada down 100% (0 visits). It's early yet, so this could be another example of Google turning off the traffic for some hours and then it comes back in force, but the trend since Sept 13th has been just awful and it shows in my GSC clicks, which are down to summer levels again. Meanwhile, my ranking is relatively stable...slightly down after an up day yesterday.

[ichthyous]

@Dooku I reinstalled GA because I was not able to get Matomo to work on my site...it just doesn't work no matter which version. The current tracking app I use is not detailed enough, so that leaves me with going back to GA. I can't fly blind, I need data and I don't want to pay a fortune for it.

[shadowlight]

This is clearly just Google targeting the most profitable terms and removing the traffic for that. I am thinking of getting rid of GA completely once again for this reason, I am not going to assist Google in targeting my traffic.

I also removed GA for the very same reason, why assist them in taking away any traffic that is of value. Using GA just helps them to measure how well their algorithms are doing in directing converting traffic towards ads imo.

[Dooku]

@ichthyous, almost always some configuration on the web server is the cause that is not according to the system requirements of Matomo. Usually this is the case with many hosting companies (shared or VPS)

I first moved my websites from shared hosting to virtual private servers, then to droplets on digital ocean.
This gives you the most freedom in setting up your hosting environment from operating system to versions of mysql, nginx...etc...etc..

Don't get hung up on too much detail and staring at numbers......no tool or other info is going to tell you what G has up it's sleeve or what happened and will happen with any algo update. Put most of your efforts in acquiring traffic from multiple sources instead.

[ichthyous]

@Dooku I have my own VPS, and Matomo install doesn't work either installed as a standalone app nor as a WordPress plugin...I gave up on it, never had the same problem with other apps. I do need detailed stats and info on how people are using and traveling through the site, and for my business there is nothing that can ever, or will ever, touch google organic traffic for conversions I'm afraid. I would need to convert to an older standard model of marketing directly through high-end retail physical locations and that is extremely long-term prospect and much less profitable as I have to pay them half of the sale. Good thing I have plenty of resources to work on it, but I do resent having my business vanish completely at the whim of Google.

[yollo03]

@ichthyous, why dont you use hotjar for tracking?

[ichthyous]

@aremser Seeing exactly the same thing, but all ENG lang traffic is down. Google had dropped traffic to my main landing pages like a stone...down 45-50+% recently. The decline is all in Direct traffic today, but not yesterday. This looks like a dialing up of some of the algo changes from June that were so disastrous. It is time for everyone to start thinking beyond google organic

[RedBar]

25 yearsworth of data would indicate a 15% increase in September traffic over August, at the moment it looks like a 20+% decrease and my lowest month this year PLUS my main global site's worst-ever month on record.

I am currently at my widget trade's second biggest world exhibition and, so far, I have yet to meet anyone with anything positive to say about their websites. I'll see what the trade buyers say when they arrive ... Here's hoping they DO arrive but I have my doubts!

[Dooku]

@ichthyous, why dont you use hotjar for tracking?

Or Inspectlet which is more cost effective.
Tools like Inspectlet are very good to fix websites and "fix" the mindset of webmasters who have been in this business too long and suffer from the "I know what I am doing, I have seen it it all, done it all" syndrome.
Every time I install this on a website of someone and they see what visitors actually do instead of "what the(webmaster) expects" I laugh at the lightbulb moment :-)

Actually a tool like Inspectlet will even fix issues that you are not aware of and resulting in visitors staying longer on your website, improving visitor experience and thereby helping your website rankings as a added bonus.

[BigKat]

Bad day for USA traffic and sales for us as well. We should be very busy this time of year all the way up to November, and this is a terrible Monday for us.

Anyone notice any odd crawling activity on ecommerce sites? For example, Google is crawling /checkout/order-received/1287 which is 301ed to /checkout/order-received/1287/ and is an order success "thank you" page with noindex in meta. This page has no internal or external links and the order is from years ago. Google is also crawling other order numbers, though at a pace of maybe 5-10 per day, with the same pattern of a missing slash at the end that gets redirected to the correct path with slash.

Additional strange crawling activity involves Google sending a search user to a product page, then within minutes Google crawls the page like clockwork. It almost looks like Google is trying to check whether inventory is in stock or not for each and every visitor Google sends.

Google just crawled a non-existent page having %7BUS_CENSUS_NAME%7 in the URL. Some bizarre stuff going on with Gbot lately...

Looking at live traffic, Google appears more inclined to send local traffic as if Google expects them to receive their shipped order faster due to their locality. This may explain why Google seems so dead to us on Saturdays.

[RedBar]

I have no clue as to what's happening with traffic, Monday to my global site was:

110% v former daily average
183% v current daily average

Sources all look "as they used to" and nothing unusual.

[ichthyous]

USA traffic down 66% at 9:30am, and ranking continues a steady decline with big losses in top 3 / 10 / 20 results compared to 30 days ago. Despite that traffic is average today...mostly much higher traffic from non USA sources. Both search and direct traffic seem to be higher, despite ranking losses.

@Dooku I just installed inspectlet...I love it. I will upgrade to the paid version if I think I need it. It does not replace regular analytics though, it just shows an additional layer of how your site is being accessed. I removed GA from my site again...I'll find something to replace it.

[BigKat]

USA traffic down 66% at 9:30am

I see the same on organic as well though a rather large spike in paid traffic. It would appear our dips in organic traffic coincide with a rush of paid traffic. This suggests on the fly layout changes by Google which are responsible for the organic roller coaster rides we have been seeing for days (actually weeks). I've also seen both paid and organic drop at the same time for periods throughout the day which may suggest Google is testing and/or AI is in a temporary learning/training mode. The goofy Gbot activity I noted above leads me to believe AI is poking and prodding in an effort to learn/train on a site level.

[ichthyous]

The goofy Gbot activity I noted above leads me to believe AI is poking and prodding in an effort to learn/train on a site level.

All the more reason to remove analytics completely...which I did again this morning.

[BigKat]

All the more reason to remove analytics completely

I'd +1 you if I could (must be new account restriction). Regardless, it seems all these announcements from Google over the last few years about improvements, AI, Bert, etc. haven't lived up to their hype, In fact the opposite has occurred - fewer sales from Google despite having unique products which are now harder for searchers to find on Google than ever. I'll cringe with the next new feature/improvement Google announces because I know it will likely just squeeze us even harder. Bottom line, I don't blame you for removing GA since distrust in Google seems to increase every year.

This afternoon our organic traffic returned and the spike in paid traffic dropped. We'll see if the day levels out to look like an average Tuesday..

[Dooku]

@ichthyous, have you tried Clicky Web Analytics maybe already? They have a complete demo report on their website.
Make sure you check all sub menus when selecting one of the main menu items.

I use tools like Inspectlet only for a short period of time like one or two months on a new website to check if there are no errors in the site structure, navigation and conversion funnel, and do the same after making changes to a website.

[RedBar]

I have been noticing for a while now that for some of my smaller locally-focussed UK-based sites, that rank extremely well, are getting far fewer visitors and their traffic is gradually becoming bots only ... This is across all engines, not solely G.

[MayankParmar]

A new low-quality site has now started ranking on the first page for a competitive keyword.

[ichthyous]

My USA traffic surged from 9/7-9/14, then quickly dropped back to the old level, which is approximately 20%-25% lower. This coincides with a big drop in top 3 ranking from that date

@Dooku I have Clicky installed in addition to GA, now only Clicky. But it does not offer nearly such an in depth analysis as GA. Matomo just doesn't work at all on my site. The free Inspectlet account stops tracking after a limited number of sessions, so it stops by early morning and is less useful to me than expected because I cannot set the schedule. Not sure if I want to pay so much for more sessions

[yollo03]

@Maynnk, can you check that site backlinks? What is the domain score? The update appears to be all about authority again. The more authority, the better your position. If your authority drops so will your rankings.

[RedBar]

@MP

I see this regularly and especially from journo blogs / scrapers etc, no real expertise other than re-writing, quite often poorly, yet G for some inexplicable reason likes the basicness. It is a perfect example of just how badly G has some signals in its algo.