Forum Moderators: martinibuster

Message Too Old, No Replies

Latest Google update

How are you holding up?

         

miedmark

8:09 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



With the latest google update (I don't think it has been named yet) - I lost about 50% of traffic (so far). Funny how adsense income only dropped about 15-20%. I wonder how long the recovery process will take. How is everyone else holding up?

Tropical Island

8:16 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Without wanting to be insensitive - What Google update?

There have been normal fluctuations however our area is pretty well normal.

RankPulse is showing just normal movement.

FlipFlops

8:29 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)



Without wanting to be insensitive - What Google update?

I haven't seen anything major yet either. Backlinks on all my sites look consistent for the past week and a half, and no changes in referrals aside from the typical weekday Vs. weekend stuff.

What exactly have you been seeing that leads you to believe there is/has been an update?

miedmark

8:33 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Maybe you want to check out [webmasterworld.com...]

It is ongoing.

Tropical Island

8:56 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



It has been "ongoing" for months.

Iguana

9:10 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I've had site come back into the serps for the first time since it was buried in February - so my traffic is increasing and my earnings are at their highest ever.

europeforvisitors

9:19 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)



I haven't seen much change, either, but isn't this a topic for the Google Search News forum?

jomaxx

9:20 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



It's really not an update. For those who have been penalized or are recovering from penalties, it's understandably huge. But for the rest of us there are few or no changes to be seen.

I've observed Google revising its filters on or about March 21, May 21, July 22, and Sept 21. My guess is that if you'be been hit you'll spend 1 or 2 months in the penalty box before possibly coming out.

ken_b

9:31 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I lost about 50% of traffic (so far). Funny how adsense income only dropped about 15-20%.

Actually that's not surprizing at all. It probably boils down to why folks were visiting your site.

guitaristinus

9:39 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I have lost 63% of traffic to one site since update. Earnings down 51%. Appears the MSN and Yahoo traffic is more likely to click on ads.

FromRocky

9:41 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



...you'll spend 1 or 2 months in the penalty box before possibly coming out.

Up here, you'll spend 2 minutes in the penalty box if it is a minor penalty.

spaceylacie

10:50 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Holding up well. Just had to share this:
Results 1 - 10 of about 119,000,000 for [2 word key phrase].
#1= My site!

ysari

11:25 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)



We lost about 70% of our traffic from Google since Thursday of last week, and our CTR and ECPM tanked as well (the lowest for this year). I reported it in this thread -

[webmasterworld.com...]

One thing though, it surely cured me of the constant checking of my stats. I don't log in anymore, as I know it will be dismal.

Funny, a Google rep emailed me before this update or whatever it is congratulating me on my continued success with Adsense, and that she'd like to talk to me as to how improve further optimization of my site. The phone chat was postponed a couple of times (I can't make it, she can't make it), and she emailed me a new time for first week of October. I emailed back telling her that I don't know how relevant our chat would be as my problem is not optimization, but the fact that I lost most of my traffic from G and along with it my income.

miedmark

11:38 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Actually that's not surprizing at all. It probably boils down to why folks were visiting your site.

Sorry, I dont get it.

miedmark

11:41 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



haven't seen much change, either, but isn't this a topic for the Google Search News forum?

Google Search News talks about everything but Adsense - just trying to see if I'm the only one affected by this update - in Adsense sense.

ann

11:46 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Good going spaceylacey,

My main site slid up from 9 to 8, hip hip wahoody, wtg!

Numer 1 on several other keywords and phrases.

Ann

ken_b

11:50 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I dont get it.

Lets say you have a page about digital cameras.

If folks are searching for info about a camera, and use, "Nikon D70 lens" as a search term because they want to know something about the lens, they may be less likely to click an ad than if they searched for "Nikon D70 review" because they are thinking about buying a D70.

But they might find the page of a review site using either term.

Now if you lose rankings for the "Nikon D70 lens" search, you'll lose some traffic and some clicks but not as many clicks, because they weren't as likely to click in the first place.

miedmark

11:59 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thanks ken_b, this makes sense. And, yes, I have lost a few keywords. I have to figure out how to get back to the top.

tebrino

12:39 am on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I lost 45-50% of my traffic with the latest "update". Similar to miedmark, I lost only 20% of my AdSense earnings. One may think that Google is sending junk traffic.

miedmark

12:43 am on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Tebrino - how's your nails. I've been biting mine since the weekend. I don't get these updates, my site is not a scraper, no duplicate content - no idea why other "less relevant" sites get ahead of me.

tebrino

12:52 am on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Yes, almost a week here too. I almost lost all relevant traffic and I'm currently getting traffic from very unrelated and even bizarre searches. Top positions have occupied scraper sites who were lost in some of the previous updates. However, I see slight improvements in last two days and that gives me hope that this "update" is not over yet.

Garfieldt

12:56 am on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



after being buried on google for well over 12 months, and geting all traffic from my nr 2 position at yahoo, I suddenly becamle position 1 on google.be (belgium) and 5 on google.com for my main keyword. Traffic has doubled over the past few days.
I'm ofcourse very happy :)

guitaristinus

1:22 am on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Is there a relationship between the percent of visitors from Google and Adsense eCPM? I hypothesize that as the percentage decreases eCPM increases.

Evidence for ...

I lost 45-50% of my traffic with the latest "update". Similar to miedmark, I lost only 20% of my AdSense earnings.

I lost about 50% of traffic (so far). Funny how adsense income only dropped about 15-20%.

I have lost 63% of traffic to one site since update. Earnings down 51%.

Evidence against ..

We lost about 70% of our traffic from Google since Thursday of last week, and our CTR and ECPM tanked as well.

If this is just going to be another "update" thread, I'd wish the moderators would close it now.

miedmark

1:36 am on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I hope this does not become another udpate thread.

Stop replying with how much traffic you lost. Please post only in regards to adsense.

miedmark

1:38 am on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Is there a relationship between the percent of visitors from Google and Adsense eCPM? I hypothesize that as the percentage decreases eCPM increases.

Has this been proven? Is this even true. I totally get your point. Google brings you visitors - you get paid less. Your visitors come from other search engines - ecpm increases. Hmmm.

ysari

1:49 am on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)



That's why the title of the thread I linked to in my first post is

"AdSense revenue dropped with Google rankings
Any relation to source of traffic and smart pricing?"

because my earnings fell from $500+ a day to $100+ a day with the drastic cut of Google traffic.

europeforvisitors

1:54 am on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)



because my earnings fell from $500+ a day to $100+ a day with the drastic cut of Google traffic.

My guess: The drop in Google referrals probably left you with a much higher percentage of repeat visitors, and those visitors are less likely to click on your site's ads (since they've probably seen many of the ads on your site before).

ysari

2:17 am on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)



That's what I am thinking, too. I still have a lot of no referrers, so I think my repeat visitors are what's keeping my site afloat. I'm still in the top 10 in my main keyword where previously I was #1 or #2 playing cat and mouse with a national magazine, but I lost rankings in my many other keywords.

I have a multi-topic site focused on a certain type of audience so I didn't have any ups and downs with Adsense. It's a white hat site with no SEO just the basic webmaster's guidelines (I don't even have H1 tags or bother with keyword count) and has not been affected by Florida or Bourbon or the other previous update. The site dominated our niche for years -- until Thursday (site is now up from #11 at its worst to #4 today for its main keyword, but traffic from G still down).

It's just depressing to see Adsense income tanking so much. I really look forward to my phone chat with the Google Adsense rep next week, to see how I can bring back my income to where it was before this update/non-update affected me. I think the site is very well optimized as it is in terms of ad positioning so I dunno what the rep will say.

blade72

9:51 am on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



The same happens to me.

I have some well established websites with a total of some hundred thousands visitors (most of them from Spain and Latin America) per month.

But lately, 60% of my traffic is lost somewhere. I'm earning only 1/3 of my regular income in Adsense.

This is really depressing. But the worst is not to know the reasons to solve it.

europeforvisitors

3:07 pm on Sep 29, 2005 (gmt 0)



It's just depressing to see Adsense income tanking so much.

If it's any consolation, I lost 70-75% of my Google referrals in late March and another 10-15% right before the Bourbon update in late May. Then my Google referrals came roaring back. (Based on postings in the Google Search News forum, it appears that two months is a pretty typical recovery time for a "white hat" site that's had problems with Google Search.)

You might want to make sure that you haven't run afoul of "canonical problems" such as duplicate listings of the www and non-www versions of your pages. This isn't the place to discuss it, but if you search Google on "canonical problems," "www vs. non-www," and similar strings, you should find plenty of Webmaster World threads on such problems and how to solve them with a few lines of code in your site's .htaccess file. (Don't bother with Webmaster World's internal search--www.google.com works much better for WW searches.)

This 32 message thread spans 2 pages: 32