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.

[RedBar]

A very unusual Saturday with valid-looking traffic at 92% of my weekday average PVs however so far today, Sunday, the vast majority of "visitors" have been single-page US bots, loads and loads of them from all over the USA.

My global site rankings still appear to be unchanged.

[not2easy]

Could be a knock-on effect of the turbulent weather. There are about half a million homes without electricity (or walls) across the US today due to tornadoes. There are many thousands more people trying to assist those folks, so not as much 'shopping as usual' for the season. Areas not affected will have holiday travel this weekend. It is bound to affect online traffic.

[Markedd]

I don't deny that this could be a possibility, but, exactly when a new update rolled in (in a matter of hours), the conversions simply disappeared. This is not the first time I saw this, so I will continue to blame it on Google more and less on bad weather. The latter will affect the web as well, but I think in a more natural manner and not directly linked to Google's algorithm adjustments. I am curious if others have seen a similar behaviour as I did the last couple of weeks.

[ichthyous]

This is not a normal holiday drop at all. I just calculated my clicks in GSC for the period 12/3/2021-12/17/2021 to the period 12/4/2020-12/18/2020...which is Friday to Friday. There is a 35% decline in clicks this holiday period vs. last year same period. For most terms, clicks dropped to one or zero during this holiday season.

This is almost all due to Google's manipulation during the prime holiday sales season...presumably to boost ad conversions and send sales to ads instead of organic. I have never seen this kind of drop in the 17 years that I have been doing this.

[KaseyM]

Shocking traffic since Friday

Been hit.

[yollo03]

According to google the final part of the core update (thats how I call it) is rolling out. They said the update will continue until right before Christmas. This is the last chance for recovery. I did recover some of my lost keywords. Traffic is still very low at the moment.

[techyboy]

Literally Exhausted of updates of google. Actually we were recovering very well in early of November almost we were going to reach our all-time high ranking & this core updates almost push back up to the 20-25% drops. Pls suggest what i should, i do next

[techyboy]

i think we can see the better results after the chirstmas ends

[saladtosser]

Anyone else seeing the youtube pack has been extended to full screen videos on mobile? Seems to be rolling out now! Youtube videos now take up an additional 50% vertocal space compared to the previous youtube widget layout!

[samwest]

This is disgusting. No traffic, no conversions, nothing for days. Google has the spigot turned off and is grabbing up all the traffic and sales for themselves. What will they do with the billions they steal from content creators? They'll go buy a few skinny highrise towers in New York and never even visit them. All Google is trying to do is beat us down into abject poverty, along with that other crazy old man. Merry Christmas.

[christianz]

Sharp drop at 9am UTC. Could be related to @saladtosser mentioned increase in YouTube googlespam, but more likely just part of the general ranking turmoil.

[ichthyous]

According to google the final part of the core update (thats how I call it) is rolling out. They said the update will continue until right before Christmas. This is the last chance for recovery. I did recover some of my lost keywords. Traffic is still very low at the moment.

Which update is this, the ecommerce update? These updates are not geared at improving results but at finding ways to squeeze out organic results out entirely so people click on more links. My search traffic was down 30% yesterday, and today is starting off worse. I don't think any of us will see a lasting 'recovery'...this is the new normal, more days with miserable traffic blamed on perpetual 'AI' updates which are just a thinly veiled excuse to find ways to keep all the traffic. Soon Google will leave nothing but crumbs and we will all have to decide whether to block Google from our content and move on, or become full time youtubers (until they make that impossible too). I am putting all my efforts into finding new real world partnerships and opportunities as continuing to let Google dominate my time is pointless.

[saladtosser]

Unfortunately google will need to retain more and more traffic each quarter so anyone expecting a recovery of traffic (esp if they haven't lost positions) will be sadly disappointed. I personally put it squarely on the widget spam, its literally everywhere and takes up 50% more screen real estate than all the organics combined, while I see our website traffic going down month on month with positions improving (against other organic results) our YouTube traffic climbs month on month which I'm not surprised about given the prominence YouTube receives. Google will be reporting a record breaking quarter again and they will need to beat that quarter next quarter so expect more widgets and less traffic!

I don't blame the Goolers though, they are just doing there job.. I blame the game itself, had google never floated I believe it would look very different than it does today!

[BigKat]

I disagree with those blaming poor Google traffic/conversions on Omicron, inflation, Xmas, the weather, etc. Looking beyond Google, to other traffic sources, we are actually doing fairly well as compared to last year.

I don't blame the Goolers though, they are just doing there job..

Google compartmentalizes staff so their contribution to the net effect is likely unknown or rather limited in scope. I look at Googlers as a firing squad where multiple rifles are pointed at a single target with only one of the rifles having a live round. When the triggers are pulled, Googlers don't know exactly which rifle/bullet carried out the sentence and they all sleep well at night. In this scenario, I feel it's domestic small businesses facing Google's firing squad and their rifles have been replaced with machine guns with many of us lined up and blindfolded together. Heaven help us for allowing such companies to wield so much control over our lives and those of future generations...

[christianz]

Googlers don't know exactly which rifle/bullet carried out the sentence and they all sleep well at night.

I like your firing squad analogy and it is correct. But at some point some engineers/executives should be noticing that the direction they are on for the past 5-10 years has been toxic to the web ecosystem.

There is someone who orders the firing squad and others who are complicit or indifferent about it.

No one can look at the rats nest of googlespam widgets in google "organic search" pages and come to conclusion that this is healthy for the web. Obviously they view the distributed WWW as something that they used to get to this position, but no longer need and will view as competition or "threat" to their traffic/eyeball hoarding business in future.

[BigKat]

But at some point some engineers/executives should be noticing that the direction they are on for the past 5-10 years has been toxic to the web ecosystem.

I'm sure some engineers have left for the very reasons you mentioned. The problem is non-compete, non-disclosure, etc. contracts limit their ability to speak. I feel, though unproven, that Matt Cutts fits this mold which is why he departed Google. Eventually higher level engineers, such as Matt, get replaced by those without a conscience.

As we've seen in other industries, engineers can and have automated themselves and many others out of jobs. If AI were previously given boundaries, where it could perform its own testing, engineer involvement on changes may be circumvented with the final change approval being made solely by executives instead.

[EditorialGuy]

I disagree with those blaming poor Google traffic/conversions on Omicron, inflation, Xmas, the weather, etc. Looking beyond Google, to other traffic sources, we are actually doing fairly well as compared to last year.

As always, your mileage may vary. At any given moment in time, different sites will lose (or gain) traffic and/or sales for any number of reasons. Google is just one possible contributor to change.

[BigKat]

your mileage may vary.

We're driving on four 60,000 mile tires with one from Google, one from Bing, one from Yahoo and one from DDG. If all the tires are performing well, except for Google's flat tire, it's safe to assume the loss in mileage is because of Google.

This is where analyzing all traffic/conversion data, not just from Google, comes in handy. Compare all traffic sources to prior periods, and it's easy to spot an external event impacting traffic/conversions as it will be noticeable across the board. In our case, the problem is unequivocally isolated to Google.

[ichthyous]

I feel it's domestic small businesses facing Google's firing squad and their rifles have been replaced with machine guns with many of us lined up and blindfolded together. Heaven help us for allowing such companies to wield so much control over our lives and those of future generations...

Let's not forget that it's their platform and none of us would be here if Google didn't first offer up the opportunities. My entire career was built on search going back to 2004. It allowed me to leapfrog over the gatekeepers and competition in my field, which was slow to adopt ecommerce and search etc. Having said that, Google has become a utility in my opinion and so needs to be more regulated. The reason being that the current situation is permitting an extreme concentration of resources and wealth in just a few corporate entities at the expense of small business. They are monopolies now and are rapidly closing off all the paths to success on the internet that do not involve paying them a fortune. That is bad for business and for society at large as many small businesses will simply close.

Impactful regulation will never come from the US Congress, which is on the take from the tech lobbyists. I am slowly moving back to the old sources of sales, which Google allowed me to leapfrog over for many years. Those days are over now and I am fortunate to have made a good living all these years on the back of Google search. I'll now use that cushion to escape the vice Google has my business in right now. It is a very slow and painful process moving away from dependence on search, but push has come to shove.

[christianz]

Let's not forget that it's their platform and none of us would be here if Google didn't first offer up the opportunities

My traffic is 80% search traffic but Google hasn't given me any opportunities. If Google didn't exist, some better search engine(s) would exist and give me my organic share of traffic. Google is not giving traffic, they are, increasingly, taking it.

Its also not "their platform". WWW is free, distributed network of websites. Google has inserted themselves between it and the user, and the user has no clue that the middleman is taking advantage of them, and no knowledge that alternatives even exist.

[shadowlight]

Let's not forget that it's their platform and none of us would be here if Google didn't first offer up the opportunities

Lets also not forget that Google would not be here and what it is today without content creators (us). It works both ways!

In fact if all content creators along with their content disappeared off Google, what exactly would it be left with to wrap ads around?

[christianz]

The 9AM UTC drop seems to have reversed by the end of the December 20. But not sure if it sticks. May see similar lows tomorrow around same time. Traffic is very volatile for a relatively high/stable traffic site, so definitely update rolling out.

[ichthyous]

@shadowlight Also true! Unfortunately content creators are legion, while search engines with market share are not. If the market fragmented into the public using numerous search engines everything would change.

Traffic is abysmal today...USA is down 28%, UK down 41% at 6pm. Search down 21%, direct down 30%. I've never seen such a huge drop and it has been getting worse since the 13th. I always see a drop about a week before Christmas, but nothing like this.

Is anyone seeing stable or increased traffic since the 13th?

[edited by: ichthyous at 11:51 pm (utc) on Dec 20, 2021]

[Jori]

If I may suggest : don't panic before january.

[Markedd]

@ichthyous Yes, I did see both stable and increased traffic since the beginning of November, with no significant change since 13th of Dec. The quality of traffic fluctuates insanely though, depending on the 'small' algorithm adjustments.

[Alex_1729]

@ichthyous Informational site here, I've seen a change on the 14th of Dec. The drop seemed to stop, then on the 17th and 18th a slight increase. Then yesterday a bigger increase. Now almost as high as it was last week, but much lower what it was two or three weeks ago. So far today seems to be as high as yesterday, though I've had some new content going a bit viral, while older pages are still struggling to regain what they lost.

[Dooku]

Google compartmentalizes staff so their contribution to the net effect is likely unknown or rather limited in scope.

Sorry, but your analogy is completely wrong. In the past year I have spoken to two google employees at the same (personal) venue. And that discussion went haywire after about 15 minutes of me confronting them with the issues we all notice on this forum.

Although I do not like G, I always gave their employees the benefit of the doubt.....not any more. It turns out that almost all know exactly what G is doing and they contribute actively to reach that goal and their personal targets. The only difference being that a small group of engineers within the company actually lays eyes on parts of the algo itself and its development.

However all of those "widget ideas", "psychological methods" and "testing lab" are done by a very large group of people all of them actively contributing with ideas to squeezing organic traffic for everyone out there.

I always guessed they must be a "certain type" of people that work at G and I could not have been more wrong......it's worse then I imagined. Why do you think G uses their special interview method and tests to hire employees?

But the most shocking part of that conversation with the two G employees was the fact of their lack of empathy at what their actions are causing. It's like they do not understand basic principles of decent behavior which they should have learned by the age of 12. Whatever you "think you know" about G employees, just forget it, it's far worse than you can imagine. Why do you think the internet is in the state it's today? A company is not just a name or it's building, it's the employees that actively contribute and move it forward in a certain direction.

Until some government will stop them like the Chinese did, than each and every algo update will get worse than the previous one.

[Jmh90]

Its got to the point where we can almost read Google like a book. A good day of sales is always followed by an imminent nosedive in traffic or conversions.

For the last 2 years, we haven't been able to celebrate any good days of sales or traffic as we know what is round the corner. It's now a running joke in the office where we actually dread high performing days as we know it is about to be snatched away from us when the guys at google turn the tap off. It's too inconsistent.

[RedBar]

Monday surprised me with 72.7% of average traffic for my global site however UK localised sites are struggling to get to 50% of average with some at 33%. For several of these UK sites it is normal however the UK Govt's XMess ditherings have seemingly smashed the hotel / pub site visitors.

I say seemingly since its realworld takings although down have not yet been obliterated, quite simply visitors are not searching for accommodation at the moment. Overall trade is down but not disastrously so, yet!

Rankings for all sites maintain their high levels.

[ichthyous]

A major part of the reason my traffic is so low is reduced UK traffic. I have had stable and strong UK traffic for most of this year, even when USA traffic is weak. This past week that all changed...the UK traffic is dropping dramatically. This morning it's an 83% decline. Yesterday 36%. USA is also down but not nearly as much. Perhaps a major update in the Uk serps?

[RedBar]

the UK traffic is dropping dramatically.

Many UK businesses closed last Friday until Tuesday January 4th ... Assuming we're not locked-down!

For me UK traffic will decline to almost nothing Friday / Saturday / Sunday, if traffic is siilar to previous years Monday to Thursday next week should pick up and then dead again until Monday / Tuesday with nothing getting anywhere normal until Monday 10th January.

[ichthyous]

@RedBar this was never the case for my traffic in previous years. It always declines the week before Christmas but not nearly this much. Perhaps Omicron has everyone scared now. The stock market is dropping every day too.

[seomotionz]

@ichthyous Indeed this time of the year traffic do falls. But this year it's a bit much. <snip>

[edited by: not2easy at 3:12 pm (utc) on Dec 21, 2021]
[edit reason] Please stay on topic. [/edit]

[ichthyous]

Here is my December...today is even worse, with a 76% decline in UK traffic at noon, 26% decline in USA...25% decline in overall search. Straight line down since the beginning of the month. This is reflected in my ranking, which has been mostly down this month and now rests at the lows for the year again, with a few days where it recovered sharply and dropped again. Destroying everyone's traffic for almost an entire month is basically a declaration of war on Google's part against small business and content providers. This company lost ALL integrity now.

[ibb.co ]

[RedBar]

My 2021 UK PVs average is 6.9% today so far is 6.8% plus my traffic with 3 hours to go is at 64% therefore my global site is performing "as expected".

All my UK-focussed sites seem to be achieving their average today.

[samwest]

@ichthyous - the gap you have between clicks and impressions, when did it start getting that wide? I have seen the same pattern, but prior to April 1, 2021, those two lines were overlapping, now like yours, mine are a mile apart. Run your report back to 16-month scale and see if you see the same. Must have been an AI tuning for maximum fleecing.

[saladtosser]

@ichthyous that's pretty typical to what I see (information only) and I believe is caused by the google widget spam. People are clearly still searching at the same level (impressions), average position has improved or remained the same but the searchers are finding the answers from the widgets above/below so don't need to click onto sites.

I expect Google will start auto generating there own content for certain information very soon and after the first test then expanding that out over the course of a couple of years to cover all evergreen content.

Then they can remove any dependence on them *pesky* webmasters expecting free traffic ;).

[Jez123]

@saladtosser Surely if it's due to widget spam then ads will be suffering the same losses?

[Jori]

@samwest : like you, prior to mid-april 2021, my two lines were overlapping. Not any more.

[saladtosser]

Jez123, the widget spam is always below the ads, above organics, so won't be impacted?

We don't have ads in our information area, so organics are pushed down by widget spam rather than ads. This was never the case then widget spam started to infect information niches

If I look at commercial queries for a service I'm looking for, I see the same widget spam but 100% below the ads.

The AI kinda says, "Here are the best results for this commercial query (4 ads)".

If the user scrolls down further than the four ads then the AI kicks in and says

"Well, clearly, the user didn't find what they were looking for if they had to scroll that far. So let's put in a few widget spam blocks here to loop the user to a "similar" query, so they have to scroll down past an additional four ads. Hopefully, this time, they will click an ad so Larry Page can make rent this month ;)

[samwest]

@Jori - so it's pretty clear whatever happened in April is the culprit...now, what exactly happened in April? Super clamped here again today. Why would I expect anything else? Without Google's interference, we'd all be doing well by now, but they just can't let that happen. They must have it all for themselves. I seriously believe those punk googlers read this forum at their planning meetings and come up with more ways to confound webmasters, then have a good lobster dinner and a laugh.

[BigKat]

it's pretty clear whatever happened in April is the culprit...

April 8, 2021 Google announced the launch of a product review update:

[developers.google.com...]

Despite the algo update in April, I believe layout changes in the SERPS are also a significant contributing factor.

[Rndm]

One company that I work with is also experiencing major ranking swings on a daily basis. It is most noticeable in Search Console when you only select rankings. This seemed to start in April around the time of the Product Review Update. It isn't an affiliate site, but it does have a lot of in-depth informative content around their products and the situations in which they are used.

@ BigKat I said the same thing (above) a few pages back.

[yollo03]

It wouldn't surprise me if google employees visit this forum for a good laugh.

This is something I wrote in the past. John Muller said that if your website has a single page or very few pages selling something, you do not need an authority to rank well. This is true, I have seen new websites outranking big websites. The common denominator was very few pages in those websites.

He also mentioned that there is no point in making any changes over the holidays or weekends because the algorithms assess your website based on 'long-term.' My impression is that your website will not budge an inch until the next major update, which will be in many months ahead. If you were hit by the update the only way to recover by the looks of it is another major update.

source: [seroundtable.com...]

[BigKat]

I said the same thing (above) a few pages back.

What I'd like to see are visuals of Google SERP layouts before and after April. That alone may shed some light on what people are reporting. I do recall Google updated how they calculate CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) in April and noted it would be reflected in core web vitals. To what degree this change in calculation may have impacted the SERPS, I could not say. A local update occurred that same month which impacted us more than anything.

[System]

The following 3 messages were cut out to new thread by engine. New thread at: goog/5054443.htm [webmasterworld.com]
10:28 am on Dec 23, 2021 (utc 0)

[topaz]

my discover traffic evaporated when the product reviews update started rolling out on dec 1. they announced it was finished rolling out yesterday-and my discover traffic returned.
Not the first time I've noticed this with updates.

Seems like it is the rollout itself (to all their servers and data centers) that affects the surfacing of some new content, and not what's in the update itself.

[ichthyous]

@samwest Looking back I see another period of similar divergence starting in early April and lasting until mid September. Then the gap closed until early December. I do not have discover traffic and the product rating update would not affect me. My ranking since the beginning of December has been lower and it isn't bouncing back as it usually does, but more than anything I see this lower traffic as the result of all the ads and widgets loaded on the page

[Neohippy]

FWIW, our clicks/impressions lines were overlapping until the July update - that's when impressions started climbing higher for us *shrug*

[Neohippy]

Still having indexing problems. Two new pages (def not thin), manually submitted multiple times since the 14th, still not even crawled.