October 2022 Google Search Observations

[Mentat]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5072624.htm [webmasterworld.com] by engine - 4:47 pm on Oct 14, 2022 (utc +1)

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Another day, another downgrade.
When you enter the teeth of "the Google", you are crunched to nothing.
Another drop.
I can see the bottom now!

I have the impression that now the "Product review" category got much larger in a sense and this is causing problems.

To that end, Google adds:

If you see a change and wonder if it’s related to the core update or the product reviews update:

- If you produce product reviews, then it’s probably related to that.
- If not, then it might be related to the core update.


Earlier this month, Google revealed that the ranking signal introduced with the helpful content update will likely get stronger as other types of updates roll out.

That means this iteration of the product review update has the potential to cause a greater impact than previous versions.
It’s also possible that product review pages not affected by previous updates will feel the effects of this one.

So... what ranking signal? It cannot be something simple.
We are all too old for that.

[RubicCubed]

With the spam update finished yesterday, I wonder what this new round of flux I'm seeing now is?

[tangor]

where did you hear this? I see many new tech websites ranking

Welcome to webmasterworld!

I heard it here ... and it was more than a few years ago ... long enough I don't remember exactly which thread. It was in regards to fake tech, low tech, spammy tech, and at the same time addressed many pharmaceuticals, health, and supplements.

Over the years things might have changed a bit, but for the most part we don't have the same flood of tech and pharmaceutical sites that littered the web in the early 2000s.

[westcoast]

What I find so amazing is how we keep falling in Google, while we continue to rise on every other search engine.

For one of our main terms where we clearly have top global content for the topic, we are #2-3 on every single search engine except Google... where we are #72. I mean, what?

And that's just the start. We rightfully hold top 5 positions on every other search engine for hundreds of other terms, but in most cases we are being dropped off onto pages 5+ on Google.

It doesn't make sense that this is intentional. Google has lost so much money by decimating our (and therefore their) adsense income that they have no incentive to drop us.

At some point can't we just admit that Google is actually broken? That the algorithms have just gotten so complex and intertwined and inscrutable that some sites are just falling down unintended algorithmic holes / blindspots?

[RedBar]

I have a scraper / copyist from Katy, Texas all over my global site today copying every page and image, my metrics will be distorted for a Sunday!

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

@Redbar, don't allow chrome using visitors to load an abnormal number of pages?

It's only chrome users generating the metrics reports for Google, according to the search team in various youtube videos.

[RedBar]

@Sgt_Kickaxe, they've continued copying today. It's obvoiously an amateur since it's all being done manually and not with a website copier programme.

[Nutterum]

@steveWrz - linking to penalized review sites can transfer negative link-juice. I suggest a backlink audit and disavow list.

[stef4]

1)whats ur opinion having some clicks per month by socks, mobile proxie/ rpd or vpn? is it dangerous? or it depends on how much traffic does someone have?

2)does google punishes plagiarism? i have some articles in my site slightly changed (other people articles)

[anubitez]

I highly doubt it's a disavowed issue; Google is pretty smart in this area.

Plus, so many other sites that were not hit have more toxic backlinks than sites that were hit in certain cases. I mean, it could be a factor, I personally updated mine but wasn't much to add honestly, but my legit competition, which I would not call more like people with the same passion as me, have 10x more toxic backlinks according to various paid tools.

It could be a factor, I honestly believe the google spamfartbrain that google uses collections several factors in making its decision, could be one of the many things, but not the main issue if this makes sense.

plagiarism is an interesting point. They do care but then why do they let full word-for-word stealing rank? even manual copycats that steal articles from sites that have been posted and existence for Googlebot to crawl for a year + seem to do well in some cases, it would unusual to hit and penalize re-spun content, since sometimes you word a product it may be similar to what others have said even writing it legit in some circumstances, let alone the AI tools when they do not bother sorting out the full copying first if this makes sense.

All in all, who knows what is going on at Google HQ.

[christianz]

After 40 days of torturous nonstop decline my oldest site suddenly showed some recovery today. It may be temporary technical phenomena and it may continue to slide for another month or forever. But the magnitude and instantaneous nature of this uptick is really stunning (for the size of the site). It erased 2 weeks of declines instantly.

[RedBar]

Insofar as G UK is concerned I'm seeing a lot of relevant BUT extremely thin pages ranking well for my widgets very similar to what I have been seeing for months in the US SERPs.

When I write thin I mean one, sometimes two, poor images plus very little product description or information, some have a couple of lines, some half-a-dozen, for a visitor researching the products after one site has been reviewed nearly all the others are as useless.

[OldFaces]

@christianz. Yeah, whatever Google released around 10/14 or 10/13 was seemingly reverted yesterday 10/29.

[Nutterum]

New updates from the big brands front. The clustering of brand-heavy urls is disgusting. Top 50 fashion brands show up to 20 results with their brand , fb or insta page. I can understand top 5 possitions as it was before the update, but top 20 - damn!

[RedBar]

My global site is finishing off October with its highest traffic of the year since August 2021. Traditionally traffic usually reduces through November and December however I'm not making any prediction!

[Martin Ice Web]

@redbar, good for you.
We had a decline on friday and a very very big hit on sunday. And today is worse.

[RedBar]

@MIW ... And I've done nothing to the site whatsoever since converting the original site to html5 in about 2013/14'ish.

Some images have been improved upon and minor text tweaks here and there, my traffic rises and falls have been when G has done something usually for its benefit or to promote AdWords. Without doubt, for me, the biggest tweak was to localisation and especially so in the USA for the more popular keywords / products, that traffic loss was about 40% and without a fundamental slgo change I very much doubt this traffic will ever return.

I must state that G is quite right to focus on local since that specific market in my trade is far bigger than the bulk B2B market however for any serious US B2B purchaser who is not a proficient SE searcher they need to delve far further than they should need to.