Google Updates and SERP Changes - May 2022

[goodroi]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5060824.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 3:51 pm on May 1, 2022 (utc -5)

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Here's our May 2022 Google SEO discussion.

Google's tests are constant, and it seems to have found a way to iron out the huge SERPs changes we've often seen. Throughout April we've seen the winners and losers in the ranking and traffic roundabouts and swings.

Just keeping you up-to-date, here are some of the announcements and changes we've seen in April.

Google Updates and SERP Changes - April 2022 [webmasterworld.com]
Google Webspam Report 2021 Published [webmasterworld.com]
New Options For Removal of Personally-Identifiable Information From Search [webmasterworld.com]
Using Google Trends to Help With Planning New Content [webmasterworld.com]
Podcast: The Importance of Structured Data [webmasterworld.com]
Google Introduces Multisearch Lens [webmasterworld.com]

Let's try and work out what is causing the shift in ranking and traffic, so it's time to dig into the latest SERPs observations for May.

[Martin Ice Web]

As you think it could´t get any worse, we see the next realy big hit tonight. Another -50%.
This traffic ist non converting at all.
The traffic is from all over the world and sometimes we get 5 hits in a row for the same item from different IPs.
It is very strange as we seems to get more and more #1 places with every hit we take.

[shadowlight]

Leading up to May 2 something definitely did happen with Google.

Yes that is what I meant in the post above, I mistyped beginning of Aril, I meant the beginning of May.

[RedBar]

Things simply do not "feel" right this month however my "feelings" do not agree with my traffic:

1-5 May 115.3%
6 May so far 50.7% with 12 hours remaining of my Googleday

Noticeably my traffic this month is well ahead from India and down from the USA. I always get quantity traffic from India since we're a 50-year-old Anglo-Indian company plus India is one of the top 3 global sources for my widgets.

I'm currently constructing a completely new specialised section for our global site, initially it will have about 100 pages, it will be interesting to see how long, if at all, these pages take to rank well.

[Martin Ice Web]

@redbar,

same here. Yesterday normal, today 58% down so far.
But amazon sales shot up 250% today.
Meanwhile we have traffic from india ( we are in germany ) .

[KaseyM]

The only thing I'm hanging/clinging onto is the amount of spam in the results.

Good thread here: [twitter.com...]

[robertmiler]

Google will be recognizing content with the most relevant and reliable information and rank only the site with high-quality content. That means it will be way harder to have a good position on Google ranking search.
If you will put an effort into making your content with all the best experience and knowledge that you have and giving it your unique spin you will succeed and make your SEO be seen by Google.

[Markedd]

@robertmiler I do fully agree but there's a but. You need eyes to see your awesome content and there is a constant stream of people that only want to make a quick buck, without the idea of creating something that will last (moreso now than ever due to the pandemic). This means that your website will sort of survive Google updates, but not really grow, ever. And, eventually, it may actually drown in the sea of spam. Or not, what do I know.

[shadowlight]

Its not just conventional spam you have to contend with, its googlespam and the ever increasing efforts on their part to get users clicking on ads and make ads more visible than any other content on the SERPS.

A lot of the above the fold ads i am seeing in the past couple of days now all have images, whereas most organic content dont.

My site has good SEO & good rankings yet decent traffic and conversions continue to dwindle.

CTR on my most important revenue generating pages is down 95% since the beginning of may, impressions are the same on most days. Ranking hasn't changed.

[ichthyous]

@RedBar @Martin My USA traffic also way down today... down 45% at 11:30am. Check your stats for previous Fridays. I am seeing this huge drop in USA traffic every single Friday like clockwork. Meanwhile plenty of Peru, Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, Iran, etc...

[javelin]

@robertmiler the problem is not solved with the standard Google and seo propaganda to make good content. An example to you for this is in the past weeks an Indian lending company ranked #1 in South Africa to people who cannot borrow a rupee.

Further examples that prove the premise of creating good content to be in error is how much spam and copied content will outrank truly authoritative content not to mention the original authors.

Add to this how much space Google takes on page one to dedicate to paid ads. Truly the issue is that Google has destroyed real seo and content creators. If they continue with this trend they will ultimately make themselves irrelevant.

Notice I am not one of the people here complaining about my websites. I am doing alright. It does not stop me from seeing the insanity. Furthermore I have also noticed a rise in how many users are adopting Bing. Google is losing market share daily and its for a good reason.

[Samsam1978]

@robertmiler - that is not true from what I am seeing it is INSANITY. AI generated sites have popped up in last 12 months and Google is just LOVING them and giving them all our rankings. For example on one term in my niche.

1. Position 1: Domain registered in January 2021 AI content generated, Word press, Spam and grammar such as "he or she" clearly not a person writing the content. Word count of 1300 words has around 400 articles on the whole site. CMS: WORDPRESS / cheap out of box/Great core vitals (Written in the 3rd person)

2. Position 2: Ranking SEMrush in December 2021 OMG google is giving this site 1- 3 million users a month, Google just loving this spam. AI content but articles are only 2,000 words has around 400 articles on the whole site. WORD PRESS / cheap out of box design/Great core vitals (Written in the 3rd person)

3. Position 3: AI content spun which contains 5369 words, but this site uses a Dr from a foreign country (probably made up) to try to make themselves look official but the English when reading is obviously spun WORD PRESS/cheap out of box design/Great core vitals. (Written in the 3rd person)

3. Position 4 - ME site registered in 2009, Article is written in 2012 updated last in 2021. My article has 8,000 words, custom written. Includes a video posted on Youtube with my voice over, I have 7,000+ articles on the site. DRUPAL (expensive CMS) / Custom design so poor core vitals due to ads, images and youtube video but I refuse to create my site like a spam blank page, as my users love my images so I weighed up I would rather please my users than Google's core vitals. (Written in the 1st person) e.g. I will help you .... by the way this is difficult for AI writing software to replicate.

@robertmiler - it's just not good for humanity when the best result is being outranked due to spammers knowing how to manipulate the AI over at Google. If you guys don't fix this soon the good guys will be gone. So, for the long timers with sites over 10 years old - why can't we report these poor results in webmaster tools?

[christianz]

Another big drop at around ~1 AM GMT, all my sites affected, not just the usual suspect (the much tormented senior site).

I absolutely love Google!

[SteveWrz]

@samsam1978 you are describing what I'm seeing exactly. My site has been around since 2007. Articles are constantly updated with well researched and expertly written content and I'm being destroyed by sites that have popped up in the last few months with totally unreadable garbage. It is BAD and it doesn't seem like Google cares to even try to fix it.

[RedBar]

totally unreadable garbage

Any specific topic / genre / widget subject?

[shadowlight]

Little to no spam in my niche, on the first page anyway. I am seeing it in other niches. Its the huge ads and whatever other tactics they are using that is destroying decent converting traffic.

[javelin]

I have often wondered how dangerous these AI generated sites can be. Think of how if enough manipulation was implemented Google could be tricked into giving basic information incorrectly.

Imagine if grass was blue and the sky was green. Google only knows what it is fed and ranks based upon factors that do not prove credibility. Now grass being blue and the sky being green is silly. Yet if we continue to allow AI generated content to rule the day far more serious implications can arise that impact lives in very real ways.

I really see this issue as a problem that extends beyond mere misinformation and potential individual harm. It also extends into national security of many nations. When AI can generate millions of web pages so quickly, no human army of content creators can change the tide if bad actors decided to manipulate this world.

I wonder how long until someone realizes the scary part of this and actually cares about giving a crap about what is real again?

[RedBar]

Google could be tricked into giving basic information incorrectly.

Absolutely and this was one of my driving factors when creating my global site in the early 90s, many of the sites being created were posting incorrect information simply because of the creator's lack of knowledge and the biggest offenders of this by far were in the USA.

My raw widget supplies emanate from many different countries yet are processed in volume in about ten, note volume.

Until the late 90s by far the largest widget processor and exporter was Italy and many, many USA sites carried the incorrect information that the raw widgets emanated from Italy amongst other on-page factual errors. Over the last 25+ years I have managed to get many widget sites to correct their info BUT I still see sites with blatant errors and still mostly from the USA. This is not something Google can correct by itself with it being a scraper however it is very easy to see how mal / mis / dis / bad info can be generated as the accepted answer.

At one time G had a response box to advise it of incorrect information, what happened to that or was G simply overloaded with corrections?

[renatovieira]

Huge drop today. Something new going on today...

[RedBar]

Mostly single page views so far today but coming up to 40% with 7.5 hours to go for me, yesterday was an average Saturday at 61.3%.

[ichthyous]

@renato I second that...an 86% drop in home page visits and a 70% drop in direct traffic this morn. Yesterday was also low, but not like this.

[javelin]

Volatility has kicked into very high territory for most categories. Since May 2 I saw a dip but then with some recovery. Now today looks like another dip.

I know Google has not come out with anything official but it definitely shows they have been letting the monkeys hit the keyboards again. It feel like they are piecing in something for a larger core update. You can kind of see it in the volatility of certain categories over the past week. I cant help but feel like there is a bigger nuke right around the corner when something rolls out.

[RedBar]

Volatility has kicked into very high territory for most categories.

You can kind of see it in the volatility of certain categories

Please clarify ... "most" and "certain", which and why and your justification for saying this?

I am not doubting you however it is very noticeable here these days with so few posters as to what actually may be happening to many others and ... trust me on this one ... how many other than us fanatics, actually give a give a damn about what's happening.

Quite simply, many "sales" companies prefer a "sexy" site and pay G its ransom since they can't / won't wait for quality SEO to kick-in and then hope that potential buyers will scroll down that far.

[ichthyous]

Catastrophically low traffic today...really just negligible. I've seen a lot of crap traffic days from Google lately but nothing like this...home page and direct traffic down 70% at 4pm. USA traffic down 37%. They have to be stopped now...Google is going to destroy millions of small businesses online just to satiate their greed.

[shadowlight]

Anyone else noticing converting traffic being non-existent for hours on end, then all off a sudden its like a flipped switch for a while and its turned back on for a bit? And i mean a little bit…

They have to be stopped now... Google is going to destroy millions of small businesses online just to satiate their greed.

I agree, from what ive been reading about adwords and how the different exchanges, networks etc actually work and their role in the whole process, I'm amazed they are actually still getting away with it. Im convinced they know the writing is on the wall, hence their blatant milking of their golden goose for all its worth while they still can.

[ichthyous]

Anyone else noticing converting traffic being non-existent for hours on end, then all off a sudden its like a flipped switch for a while and its turned back on for a bit? And i mean a little bit…

Hours? Try days. I sell high priced items though so I don't get a big volume of inquiries. Still...lately it's been awful, and this entire year has been pitifully bad for actual sales compared to same period of 2021. Recession is here, and certainly made much worse by google.

[javelin]

@RedBar you can use the basic Semrush sensor to see the bar graph. Arts and Entertainment for example near the top of the list has been pegging very high for near a week.

Those that were not in this range suddenly made a massive jump today. Auto and Vehicles for example went from 5.3 to 8.9. All categories today are near that range with a total average of 9.0

When you consider those that stay near high territory like media and arts then compare those which typically have more stability and all peg this high overnight... somethings up.

[javelin]

@RedBar check out the category Pets and Animals which was at 4.2 yesterday and today is 8.6. It is the single biggest jump overnight that category has seen in a while.

Reference went from 4.9 to 8.4 and spent three days in the normal range before this.
Travel went from 3.8 to 8.4 which is the biggest single day jump for a while in what is normally fairly stable.

When these more stable categories get lifted like this, with this kind of movement, usually something bigger is doing it. What it is right now who knows for sure.

[JesterMagic]

Huge drop today. Something new going on today...

I am seeing a traffic drop today as well. Not good.

It's really sad to see the state of search and informational websites today.

Google is hell bent on squeezing every last drop out of search with the result pages becoming a confusing mess of widgets and ads.

So much SPAM in the results.

Articles are just plastered in ads.

Many articles are spun posts done by AI.

A lot of this stuff has been going on for years which has slowly pushed out the small publishers resulting in large publishers pushing all niches on their websites with low quality content.

Just look at this forum. Lots of people who where doing well at some point just gave up and have disappeared. It's hard to compete now when Google has the game rigged completely in their favor.

[RedBar]

@javelin ... Thanks for that ... I have to admit that I do not, and never have, used any of the independent analysis tools (nor even any G stuff either) since, rightly or wrongly, I've always considered their "data" to be questionable and at best educated guesswork primarily focussed / biased on the US market ... No facts from me about this, just a feeling!

As a local observation from a small but successful UK market town where I live. This weekend another two national chain coffee shops have opened, one in an ex-shoe shop the other in an ex-estate agents which has moved to bigger premises We have very few empty shops and two which were empty are BOTH re-opening shortly as barbers. We still have quality butchers, greengrocers etc however for anyone who has lived here for decades it is evident that most of the traditional shops of 40/50/60 years ago will steadily disappear.

Why do I mention this? The same will / is happening to smaller online businesses if they have no / little unique selling point. Trying to compete head-to-head with an aggressive and well-funded gorilla is constantly going to be a near impossible task in the long-term and especially so if nationally / globally products and stocks are at extremely low levels.

[SteveWrz]

Is anyone seeing any growth ANYWHERE right now? It seems like nothing I'm doing is working on any of my sites. Updating content, adding new content, building backlinks, site speed optimization, are all completely useless to me right now.

It honestly seems like Google is trying to kill off small publishers like me.