Google Updates and SERP Changes - October 2021

[goodroi]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5046713.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 7:12 am on Oct 2, 2021 (utc -5)

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As we reach October we're gearing up sites for the holiday push through to the new year. Most of us have probably had our plans laid out for this coming quarter, and there's always a hope that Google's SERP changes are kind to us all.

Here are a few of the Google changes and threads worth noting in the past month or so that you may have missed.

Firstly, here's last month's Google Updates and SERP Changes - September 2021 [webmasterworld.com]

Brett noticed more exposure for Google making moves into auto industry ecosystem. [webmasterworld.com]

We've got more on Google changing titles in SERPs [webmasterworld.com] with a little clarification from the company, following the earlier confusion. [webmasterworld.com]

Although the search console reports seem to have delays built in as it refreshes, this last month it became a bigger problem, however, it's now fixed. [webmasterworld.com]

Just recently Google made a number of announcements on how MUM AI Model is changing its search. [webmasterworld.com]

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

How's your traffic holding up, and, importantly, your conversions? Let's discuss your observations on the Google algorithm updates and changes to the SERPs?

[BigKat]

are you seeing an increase in traffic from ads as your organic traffic declines?

Yes.

Would that not imply that the traffic is real, and just people clicking ads because they can't find the organic listings anymore?

Our cost per conversion has doubled, though the percentage of paid clicks originating from Google owned IPs has only increased slightly. While I understand some of the paid clicks coming from Google owned IPs may be legitimate, there's simply far too many questionable clicks to be real which explains the ever rising high cost per conversion. Comparably speaking, with the same campaigns, our cost per conversion on Bing is 1/4 of Google and we don't see anywhere near the questionable clicks as we do with Google. IMO Google has devalued their ad platform to the point where spending money with them is akin to flushing money down the toilet. Unfortunately I don't have permission (yet) to end all spending on Google but am working on it.

To specifically answer your question, yes some of the increase in paid clicks is likely the result of diminished organic visibility. However, this brings in tire kickers as well. When tire kickers are combined with a slight increase in questionable Google owned IP traffic, our costs are rising rapidly.

As it pertains to my role with this company, my position is justified by revenue (profits) from paid/organic sales and not traffic. At the end of the day I must justify my earnings with results showing how much I spent as compared to how much we earned. The quality of Google traffic has declined substantially over the years and has reached a tipping point in the last month. The doubling of our cost per conversion gave me all the justification I needed to reduce spending with Google so those funds could be reallocated elsewhere. My higher ups are result driven - organic sales drying up, combined with a doubling of the cost per conversion, does not reflect well on me and my expertise.

[RedBar]

Has G just changed all its settings in Chrome for non-US users?

Generally I do not use Chrome except for testing and to check my USA Serps with it set to a US search, however I have just tried using it and it had changed ALL my setting plus was mostly serving UK results.

I cleared my cache, history etc went back into settings and re-set to US for search and there they were mostly UK results, G had applied safe search PLUS told me I have to sign-in =.

Soooo ... went to a clean Firefox and all was as I expected, US search gave me precisely its regular results therefore did I fall on a G test or is this new?

If they're going to do this then I shall remove Chrome from all devices except one for browser testing. I do not want G telling me the type of results I should be seeing.

Is it just me or anyone else experiencing this? If it is a new feature then I'll start a new thread.

[yollo03]

@RedBar, if I recall correctly this was done a very long time ago. You can no longer view search results from other countries aside local search. The way that I do it is via VPN.

[RedBar]

this was done a very long time ago.

Definitely not for me, I tend to do my Chrome SERPs checking on a weekend and it was "normal" for me last weekend using Chrome, it's only happened in the past couple of days plus using G on Firefox still shows me the selected country results through settings.

I have just searched with a squeaky-clean Chrome and it has returned to "normal"!

[Martin Ice Web]

I think we are on a new update right now. Big changes in germany.

[ichthyous]

Starting the morning with a massive decline in USA traffic, -74% at 10:30am. CA -40%, home page down 40%. UK / AU normal. Rather than the usual starting off normal and dropping off a cliff at 8-9am sharp, today traffic has been very low across every hour. This is happening so often now that you really can't call in an "update"...Google just goes from massive decline to the next 2-3X a week now...traffic has been abysmal since September 14th.

[Neohippy]

I do wonder if/when the tracking tools will change their threshold for what 'normal' is. Is G just in an insane testing period, or is this volatility the new normal?

[westcoast]

Huge decline so far this morning in traffic... -20% or so. Haven't ever seen this happen before....

[ichthyous]

Search is down 30% and direct is down 35% as of 12:30pm today...what a freakin catastrophe Google is every day now.

[RedBar]

For me traffic is steady and similar to last month which in historical terms means down. Realworld enquiries and repeat orders are down and all regular order clients are saying the same, they're selling exisiting stocks and waiting to see what happens with international shipping rates let alone the increased cost of getting their containers from the ports to their depots!

It will be interesting to see who runs out of which widgets first in which country ... then watch the panic buying set-in!

I am seeing the usual G fluctuations plus the continuation of US bias in the international G.tlds and a lot of Pinterest again.

[crissdinesh]

Traffic is declining for the past 2 days. I feel that a SERP update is going on.

[yollo03]

Big drop in rankings. All google did today was downrank dozes of keywords.

[RedBar]

Even for a Saturday this is very quiet, 15 hours of my Googleday gone and traffic at 26% of average. The last 3-4 hours of my Friday night were also quiet.

[RedBar]

I have just checked 30 of my top keywords in the US SERPs and I honestly cannot complain, great rankings for me, nearly all the companies I would have expected to rank are there, the occasional new one but otherwise ok therefore why such a drop in traffic?

Is it all the images and PAA stopping people from scrolling further down?

[samwest]

New worst week in 20 years, yet on page 1, but nearly zero traffic, converting or otherwise.
It's all fake and manipulated.
A HUGE gap between impressions and conversions started at the end of May and continues to this day.
They skim it all with AI.

[yollo03]

@samwest, one of my top competitors has been obliviated (including me btw). This has nothing to do with domain rating for sure. I think its about trust score but I am not sure. I notice a big drop in the backlinks in gsc. Did you experience this as well?

[renatovieira]

Huge drop today...... Certainly today will be my main site's worst performance in years. Congratulations G!

[ichthyous]

therefore why such a drop in traffic

I have been scratching my head all week. My ranking is up and won but not dramatically different this past week...but USA traffic was way down all week and especially yesterday. Today its recovering back to normal levels. I think we can expect to see these huge drops more and more often. The days where my traffic is inexplicably low outnumber normal days since mid September

[RedBar]

I think I must have flicked the switch yesterday afternoon with my questions since traffic started to flow resulting in a completely normal day with the USA performing Octiber's average. Today's started well with some big hits from the Indian sub-continent which is cimpletely normal for me.

Overall though still averaging the 60% level since end March.

[MayankParmar]

Long holiday weekend in India.

[RedBar]

My Indian traffic is pretty consistent all year long no matter the festivals.

Anyway, how's Win 11 going?

[samwest]

Zombie traffic appears to be back in full force...even at this low volume, it's all zombie,

[ichthyous]

Saturday traffic was relatively normal, but today USA and UK traffic are both down more than 40%. My daily home page traffic is perpetually down for weeks, sometimes by as much as 60% on any given day. This was also the case in June, when my home page would just vanish from the SERPs every other day.

[frostitomik]

Maybe the huge traffic drop everyone is experiencing doesn't have much to do with Google search itself, but more witch actual people doing less searches. What if the next supercycle and great depression just begun? Customers are burried in depth and don't have money to spend anymore.

[yollo03]

Great depression? Unless you targeting Lebanon what great depression? The drop occurred following an algorithm update, all sensors spiked.

[frostitomik]

It is a gradual decline of traffic over the last month. This doesn't seem like a usual update.

During covid lockdowns, everyone was spending like a maniac, but it just couldn't last forever.

By the way, my non-retail websites traffic actually increased.

[widgetized]

Zombie traffic appears to be back in full force...even at this low volume, it's all zombie,

Same here, since last week. I'm always surprised by how artificial everything looks when I check my ecomm sales report. All of the sudden, going from everyday orders to zero for one whole week. Crazy stuff, and not new at all, sadly.

[DjDidier]

Very big update in Germany. Not only my website has lost massively, also all websites from the competition have lost over 50 percent of visibility.

The big winners are big publishing houses and newspapers that link to each other massively. The content is mostly lousy and stuffed with up to 17 ads.
For whom do the Google webmaster guidelines actually apply?
Is what we see here, a collaboration of Google with the big publishing houses at the expense of websites that dont belong to such a media group?

[samwest]

It's another "perfect storm" brewing. Thousands losing their jobs over mandates, rising fuel prices, food prices and a rapidly growing distrust in Gorg. Once Google's traffic starts dropping, they will amp up their harvesting techniques, which will wipe out those of us who are still hanging on by a thread. This is part of their plan I guess. Great unsustainable business model. Greed. Does anyone else notice Youtube now placing an ad at the END of all videos? First, it was one, then two, then three...

[DjDidier]

I forgot to mention something. Additionally, spam content sites rank in the top 10 for some terms only with keyword text deserts that are spammed with many links.