For those of us who have had several days off this past weekend (not including last week), It’s possible that there was a Google update mid to late last week.
We saw a number of search fluctuations and comments on the forums alluding to something like this happening.
We observed Semrush with a sensor score (sensor is their Google algorithm update tracking tool) of around 6.0. Most sensor scores 5.0 and above can be considered an update worth reporting on.
We also observed a number of comments in the WebmasterWorld forums about a possible update, with many members experiencing traffic and ranking fluctuations, beginning around June 17th:
I am still seeing substantial movements in my widget SERPs, substantial equates to several pages for me.
Some pages, all of them big money keywords, are still MIA or so low they’ll never see traffic BUT I have also seen some good money keywords returning to the first two pages in the past 48 hours however they have not driven any traffic whatsoever. Not only have I seen my pages returning I am also seeing other non-US business ones.
My new traffic levels are averaging even lower than expected and are now at 50% of just over a year ago.
Much of this I put down to G ads and type of device usage. Mobile users invariably view one page and gone and sometimes it amazes me they ever get to me even when on the first page with the huge volume of ads.
Fortunately my global site still has 50% desktop usage and this is because many trade industry users are desk-based and need lots more information and images than Joe Public does, in general these are my multiple page viewers.
Some pages, all of them big money keywords, are still MIA or so low they’ll never see traffic BUT I have also seen some good money keywords returning to the first two pages in the past 48 hours however they have not driven any traffic whatsoever. Not only have I seen my pages returning I am also seeing other non-US business ones.
My new traffic levels are averaging even lower than expected and are now at 50% of just over a year ago.
Much of this I put down to G ads and type of device usage. Mobile users invariably view one page and gone and sometimes it amazes me they ever get to me even when on the first page with the huge volume of ads.
Fortunately my global site still has 50% desktop usage and this is because many trade industry users are desk-based and need lots more information and images than Joe Public does, in general these are my multiple page viewers.
So is anyone seeing anything other than high authority sites in Discover/News? Everything lower than DA50 seems locked out for the last week or so.
Before I get into my traffic has anyone noticed semrush sensor has been adjusted? Is that a correction and if so from where to what? In other words has the old volatility become the new normal and now very high is the old extreme volatility? Weird… anyway
Ive been watching Google close and it appears a major shift with the update. My site has gone to the lower end of its baseline averages. After more than a week of watching data roll by this update did some big moving. I suspect a lot more people got hit than the sampling we see here on the forum.
Ive been watching Google close and it appears a major shift with the update. My site has gone to the lower end of its baseline averages. After more than a week of watching data roll by this update did some big moving. I suspect a lot more people got hit than the sampling we see here on the forum.
My Traffic has been completely obliterated, Since the update has finished I receive 5 to 15 total daily views smh
Whats going on? What is the algorithm core update about, they wont even tell us
Whats going on? What is the algorithm core update about, they wont even tell us
I’m seeing the same thing…traffic has shifted to the lower end now, but it’s heavily skewed by a bigger drop in USA traffic. My USA traffic has developed a very distinct rotation pattern since the 25th.
I can’t say that this is only the recent update…the economy has slowed down a lot, people are not online as much, schools are out, and in my case I used to get a ton of traffic from Google images, but now only very high ranking (mostly media) sites are ranking well in GI. Also, I used to get a ton of traffic from Pinterest posts that ranked highly in google…that has also declined considerably since late 2021. Not great for visually heavy sites
I can’t say that this is only the recent update…the economy has slowed down a lot, people are not online as much, schools are out, and in my case I used to get a ton of traffic from Google images, but now only very high ranking (mostly media) sites are ranking well in GI. Also, I used to get a ton of traffic from Pinterest posts that ranked highly in google…that has also declined considerably since late 2021. Not great for visually heavy sites
Right now the only thing that seems to be getting it at Google are informational articles. They are taking up more and more of the page on mobile serps and crowding out site listings…at least for the searches I am performing
Very low traffic on my global site, sub-Xmas Day level! The longer this continues the more I am tending towards global business confidenc, but our UK hotel / pub site is performing normally.
As a small aside note I have two websites closing shortly since their owners are retiring and no one wants to take-over their businesses which are both very profitable … However widget experience is required for both of them.
As a small aside note I have two websites closing shortly since their owners are retiring and no one wants to take-over their businesses which are both very profitable … However widget experience is required for both of them.
Has anyone found out what the recent Core Update is actually about? its very strange. This is the lowest traffic I have ever received daily, yesterday I only had 15 total visits today im at 20 visits. this is so frustrating.
Okay so I just put up 5 different news articles, I spent several hours writing them to the point. I attended the local event here in my city its a major city. Not one visit from google news, and now I have a grand total of 30 visits to my website 🙁
This core update screwed me bad, my site is 10 years old too.
I guess its over for me, why even bother trying
This core update screwed me bad, my site is 10 years old too.
I guess its over for me, why even bother trying
Since the May update, we have seen a steady and painful decline in our direct and search traffic. We are down close to 80% from our May levels. It just seems as if Google has distrusted the entire website. We have seen such instances in the past but it was a rapid decline and then a bounce back, but this time its just a steady decline and that is very worrying.
yeah its strange, I run a blog and post on a niche that is in google news, Ive look at different niche blogs as well and type in title search in google news and strange stuff is happening, it will show a single website multiple times with articles that have nothing to do with the long tail keywords or question, Like Ill type what is the make of a Mustang car? and it will show one website multiple times with different articles which have nothing to do with the topic, and then some old articles and this is Google NEWS search
Also Tops stories only has major million dollar corps, has anyone found out the details of this core update yet? this has to be the most secretive update ever and very confusing. I saw some SEO chatter online on social and they said not to try anything drastic or panic but a lot of people rely on traffic to make money either on adsense or advertising or affiliates and they are taking a huge blow now.
I was told this update was already finished, I checked my traffic again this morning and I only have 7 visits for the past several hours, I don’t link build, I just blog, I don’t do anything other than blog about and write about my niche so im not doing any sneaky crap just following the rules of google saying content is king
one last thing is I notice websites with massive amounts of backlinks and no author bios no contact info ranking in top stories or high in search and some of their articles just have 3 sentences and filled with advertisements and a embedded tweet, this is super thin content and shouldnt that be an ad penalty with 9 ads on page with little content? But they are out ranking me. I only have Adsense on nothing else.
Also Tops stories only has major million dollar corps, has anyone found out the details of this core update yet? this has to be the most secretive update ever and very confusing. I saw some SEO chatter online on social and they said not to try anything drastic or panic but a lot of people rely on traffic to make money either on adsense or advertising or affiliates and they are taking a huge blow now.
I was told this update was already finished, I checked my traffic again this morning and I only have 7 visits for the past several hours, I don’t link build, I just blog, I don’t do anything other than blog about and write about my niche so im not doing any sneaky crap just following the rules of google saying content is king
one last thing is I notice websites with massive amounts of backlinks and no author bios no contact info ranking in top stories or high in search and some of their articles just have 3 sentences and filled with advertisements and a embedded tweet, this is super thin content and shouldnt that be an ad penalty with 9 ads on page with little content? But they are out ranking me. I only have Adsense on nothing else.
> is there any indication as to what may have caused the impact?
Site Dwell Time.
You know how merchants are saying that Amazon figures out what products sell, and then clones them under their own brand?
Lets talk Google:
Google has continually taken ‘share’ from their own serps. More and more links to Google properties and services. They increased pretty much every link on the page that leads to a Google property over the last 10 years – Especially since the Black and White updates – Panda/Penguin. We started calling them Clickless SERPs because answers from websites are served up by Google without a need to visit the site.
Google clearly understands that what we are now calling “dwell time” is a critical metric for increasing success of a site. When Forrester Research put out there “On Site Time” research report 1998 or 1999 (looking for a copy – it was paywalled), it was clear that Dwell Time was a major metric to site success. After that report, everyone went on massive bursts to increase user “on site time”. Big sites started adding games and such. We were not immune
to this push and we were the first forum in 1999 to feature private messaging in a effort to keep users on site longer (psst: it was hugely successful… – still here).
It doesn’t matter if a user ends up buying anything or performing some action that ends up in a site making money – simply being on site with the domain name in the URL is a major metric. Dwell Time.
(Pure Conjecture time): I’ve believed for years that the black & white updates were about what Google knew about Dwell Time. All the sites I knew that took huge hits, had high engagements and moderate authority. All the major forums and private social sites took major hits (150k a day down to 15k a day here…and later more). Only those that had domain authority (now calling it EAT), such as Reddit and StackOverflow kept their traffic. Just like Amazon leveraging it’s data on products to launch it’s own brands, Google leveraged analytics to take “dwell time” away from sites and keep it for its own.
What have the results been?
Site Dwell Time.
You know how merchants are saying that Amazon figures out what products sell, and then clones them under their own brand?
Lets talk Google:
Google has continually taken ‘share’ from their own serps. More and more links to Google properties and services. They increased pretty much every link on the page that leads to a Google property over the last 10 years – Especially since the Black and White updates – Panda/Penguin. We started calling them Clickless SERPs because answers from websites are served up by Google without a need to visit the site.
Google clearly understands that what we are now calling “dwell time” is a critical metric for increasing success of a site. When Forrester Research put out there “On Site Time” research report 1998 or 1999 (looking for a copy – it was paywalled), it was clear that Dwell Time was a major metric to site success. After that report, everyone went on massive bursts to increase user “on site time”. Big sites started adding games and such. We were not immune
to this push and we were the first forum in 1999 to feature private messaging in a effort to keep users on site longer (psst: it was hugely successful… – still here).
It doesn’t matter if a user ends up buying anything or performing some action that ends up in a site making money – simply being on site with the domain name in the URL is a major metric. Dwell Time.
(Pure Conjecture time): I’ve believed for years that the black & white updates were about what Google knew about Dwell Time. All the sites I knew that took huge hits, had high engagements and moderate authority. All the major forums and private social sites took major hits (150k a day down to 15k a day here…and later more). Only those that had domain authority (now calling it EAT), such as Reddit and StackOverflow kept their traffic. Just like Amazon leveraging it’s data on products to launch it’s own brands, Google leveraged analytics to take “dwell time” away from sites and keep it for its own.
What have the results been?
- [macrotrends.net…]
- Good articles on Dwell Time:
- [blog.hubspot.com…]
- [searchenginejournal.com…]
- [engineering.linkedin.com…]
