Google Updates and SERP Changes - December 2021

[goodroi]

What has December got to offer us, I wonder. In an unusual move, Google announced a broad core update in November, just before Black Friday was due to hit. Many questioned this move, just before the start of a big online shopping season. Our November thread monitoring the reports indicated a mixed bag of results. As of this moment, the broad core update is almost complete.

In case you missed it, here's a quick round-up of some of the Google news.

Google Updates and SERP Changes - November 2021 [webmasterworld.com]

Google Broad Core Update Released: "November 2021 Core Update" [webmasterworld.com]

SEO video about targeting by Intent [webmasterworld.com]

Google has announced some new features for local publishers, and tools for reporters. [webmasterworld.com]

Podcast: Google Talks About The Future of SEO [webmasterworld.com]

Best ways to hide a site or pages from search engines. [webmasterworld.com]

Take a look at the other Google search and SEO topics [webmasterworld.com], and recent discussion in other sectors on WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

Let's start the conversation and observations for December's Google SERPs Changes.

[Jez123]

Can anyone explain why, during updates that the little traffic that you DO get is of the poorest quality? All the idiots come out of the woodwork. Enquiries for stuff you don't sell, people that can't work a phone or have an email address etc. It's like a google update lowers IQ of traffic somehow.

[engine]

Google confirms that the November 2021 Core Update rollout is now complete.

[twitter.com...]

[NickMNS]

It's over Yeah!. My main site was up a whopping 6% hardly ground breaking, probably not attributable to the update, but given our jaded view, the fact that my traffic didn't fall off a cliff is a reason to celebrate, and the fact that it is trending up is the icing on the cake. (as soon as I click submit my traffic will tank LOL)

[RedBar]

At the moment I cannot see any significant changes, what is concerning me mostly are the sheep panicking and cancelling restaurant bookings, largest one so far is 60 this Saturday alone!

[samwest]

@Red - the only significant changes appear to be much less traffic...and a trickle pattern, one-visitor-at-a-time, single file like. Maybe they are socially distancing our visitors now.
@Nick - you're becoming as cynical as I am. LOL - Happy Holidays all...

[CheeTaH007]

Guys, I've lost all my featured snippets in this update. Lost close to 50%+ traffic. Actually, losing featured snippets is one thing but I've lost all of them even for the terms which nobody searches for but you rank for them. Now when I search them, although, I'm still at 1st position, there is no featured snippet.

Let me give you some background info, my site is almost 2 years old now. I've been a lurker here since May 2020 update which hit me, though my site was new at that time and was getting 300+ visits then that update hit me and I was down to ~150+. Fast forward to December 2020, I was growing consistently and the December update gave me a boost and then the next ones.

In May 2021, I was about to cross 50k sessions/month, as my goal was to qualify for Mediavine, but then came the June update which hit me down to 1k visits/day from 1.6k/day but I slowly grew back to 1.2-1.3 even 1.4k someday, then again came July update and hit me again down to even 800, which was again slowly climbing up, comes another minor update and then another.

But I was still fairly around 1k/day mark. However, November 17 update hit me again and I was back to 800/day, which again was slowly climbing back to 1k mark. And then something happened again on 25 Nov, which hit me harder and now I'm on ~600 sessions/day, the same traffic level I was one year ago.

Can anyone tell me what happened with featured snippets, or is anyone else facing this? Also, the posts I published after 25 Nov, just aren't indexing, not even a single one of them, though I requested one post to get indexed which got indexed fairly quickly.

I finally decided to make an account here and ask for help from experienced players, cause I've never been hit this hard and this does seem like the sky is falling down. Is there even a way I can turn this around? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Martin Ice Web]

The update was good for us in the beginning. Lots of converting traffic. All the hits from further updates seem to be reverted. But then came the 30. November and it reverted alöl back within seconds. So we are back to rubbish traffic, not converting.
Sometimes when i don´t find solutions for my problems ( sql database, Server related stuff ) on bing i take a look on google. But man, what google is presenting is silly stuff from 20 years ago just ignoring all keywords. And most annoying is that even for informational and solutions oriented query google says: Hey look we found stuff you can buy on amazon for your query. Nonsens. google is getting usesless with every update.

[Neohippy]

Oh fun! They're doing a product reviews update just before Christmas! (luckily we're not ecom, and have minimal reviews content, but still, just on principle: WTF are you doing with all these updates in the core shopping season? And now a product-specific one just before Christmas? So much for 'do no evil'...)

[twitter.com...]

[yollo03]

You will never have a moment of peace by the looks of it. Even if your site ranks well after an update it can get slammed in the next one that is just around the corner. I assume this is done intentionally to 'force' websites into google ads prior to Christmas.

[christianz]

luckily we're not ecom, and have minimal reviews content

Don't overestimate the I of AI. To a hammer everything looks like a nail. Does your site mention any object that can be bought and sold? If yes, then the fuzzy AI may think your site is X% review-like and still punish you.

If they can't distinguish fake and auto generated sites from real sites that "kinda look similar", I would never expect them to be able to reliably classify anything else about a website.

[Markedd]

Oh that's great news. So finally, with this new review-oriented update, one of my main websites will be at the top again! Yeah, didn't think so.

[Neohippy]

Don't overestimate the I of AI.

Haha, very valid point! (I actually find it hilarious that the term AI is so widely used nowadays, when most of it's just what I'd consider AA - advanced algorithms)

[Dooku]

If they can't distinguish fake and auto generated sites from real sites that "kinda look similar", I would never expect them to be able to reliably classify anything else about a website.

That is the reason why the google serps are full of spam. Also because the algo is not (really) searching for spam or thin content or anything else that google always blababla about.

The algo is ONLY searching and learning where good traffic is leaking to. Google constantly monitors that and every algo update is geared towards plugging more and more leaks where good traffic is leaking and how they can stop that and how it can be retained within the google environment. The proof is very obvious, ANY OTHER traffic source besides google is MUCH better and converts like crazy.

Only when the collateral damage get's too big then google will run an "algo" update like this product review update. Because it has become clear that more an more people are fed up with all those thin content "Best mirrorles camera to buy in 2021" kind of websites which are nothing more then a glorified summary of specs pages with affiliate links to large retailers. Probably "banner blindness" has now also set in with these thin content websites.

[samwest]

The "count up" bug seems to have returned to Google Analytics. Right now, GA is showing 60 visitors on the site, when in reality, there are ZERO visitors on the site. If a new visitor arrives, the count goes up by one, and when they leave, it stays at 61... Matomo shows the correct live visitor count. No matter how many times you clear cache or refresh the page, the stuck count sticks. FUBAR again.

UPDATE, less than a minute after posting this, it finally dropped to zero having been stuck all morning. I seriously think their AI or web team watches this forum and laughs.

[mrkhalilaslam]

My website is not about product reviews website and google core update was completed yesterday. But why the hell I'm seeing huge fluctuations in SERP?

[BigKat]

If they can't distinguish fake and auto generated sites from real sites that "kinda look similar"

I don't think Google really cares much unless a widespread problem arises. Organics are buried under paid ads and the number of organic listings on a page continues to shrink. Google could distinguish original sites from fakes/auto generated sites, but that costs time/labor/resources (money). Why bother if the end game is to have SERPS comprised of all ads and organic listings used as filler material that few will ever see?

[ichthyous]

Organics are buried under paid ads and the number of organic listings on a page continues to shrink. Google could distinguish original sites from fakes/auto generated sites, but that costs time/labor/resources (money). Why bother if the end game is to have SERPS comprised of all ads and organic listings used as filler material that few will ever see?

You got it...that's exactly right. More and more ads and organic is getting buried. There are so many ads and options on some layouts on mobile results now that even I am getting bewildered looking at it.

All of this AI and testing is not to see which are the best organic results, but rather how many ads can we stuff the page with on the fly before users abandon Google Search altogether. I used to think they would accept whatever Googlw threw at them, but lately there are so many ads that I do think they will lose some users.

The testing is determining whether it is more profitable to sacrifice some users while gaining more ad clicks from the rest.

From what I can see the new ad-stuffed pages seem to be generated for specific terms and at certain high traffic hours. During these times I can clearly see traffic to some of my landing pages drop by 50%+. If Google determines that this tactic results in more ad revenue then they'll probably start using it all the time and for every search. Just my hypothesis.

[Neohippy]

@SamWest - when the ‘count up’ bug happens, I find that if I go to ‘real time > content’, the ‘metric total’ usually shows the correct number of users

[Martin Ice Web]

It is friday and we see a big drop again (-45% so far). And since yesterday google sends emails with the option for google ads to find new customers. Ha good joke.

[BigKat]

It is friday and we see a big drop again (-45% so far).

I believe Google's product review update is still rolling out. For an update being so narrow in scope, SERP trackers are reporting major volatility.

[MayankParmar]

Big drop in average position starting Monday :(

[RedBar]

Not seeing any noticeable SERPs changes however global site averaging -25% in PVs this week, a couple of UK local sites -50%, even the pub / hotel site is down even though we have live music tonight and tomorrow ... this will be interesting.

[renatovieira]

Here too... -50% or more...

[ichthyous]

My traffic is higher again today...it's been higher for perhaps 10 days now. However my ranking is stuck in neutral and not improving much and zero new inquiries since Monday...zero. So despite much better traffic, no sales.

Google briefly returned my ranking for my important "place name" searches on the 26th-28th and my traffic surged and I saw a big influx of customer inquiries. Then off again and not one inquiry this entire week, let alone a conversion.

[Soulofmonk]

25% down

[blend27]

@RedBar --> even though we have live music tonight and tomorrow ...

Well, that sounded like an Ad a bit, ;), & I hope Everybody has a good time!

[ichthyous]

UK traffic down 53% today...first time UK has been down in a while. UK traffic tends to drop on Saturdays but not 53%. Anyone else seeing this?

[RedBar]

Well, that sounded like an Ad a bit, ;), & I hope Everybody has a good time!

And that just goes to show how wrong one / I / management can be assuming a quiet site is a pre-cursor to a quiet night!

It heaved from the very start, 8pm, through to finish at 1am, we didn't get all the sound gear packed down until 3am, the bar takings were way beyond expectations and last night, Saturday, was even busier which was a real surprise for the beginning of December :-)

[ichthyous]

Huge drop in traffic today...USA -50%, UK -41%, AU -50% and almost no traffic from Western Europe at all. Instead mostly visits from E. European countries. Anyone else seeing this today?