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Google Search Algorithm Update May 1st With Rumbles All Week Prior

Published

2 years ago

May 2, 2022

For the past week, I have been seeing a different pattern with a possible Google search ranking algorithm update. The forums and SEO discussion around a possible Google update was brewing a good part of last week but the automated tracking tools, most of them, didn’t really pick up signs of a Google update.

So I watched and watched, and waited for the signals I track to align and they really didn’t seem to align. The chatter within the SEO community about a possible Google update started around Tuesday of last week, they were sporadic but SEOs were talking about ranking changes but the tools like I said, really did not show huge volatility.

Then Sunday, May 1st came and the tools and the chatter seemed to significantly increase. Honestly, it is weird to see a lead up like this to an update. I know Google tends to roll out confirmed (and likely unconfirmed) updates over several days to weeks, but this just felt weird.

SEO Chatter

Let me start by sharing some of the comments in terms of chatter from both here and WebmasterWorld starting a week ago through today:

Extremely low number across all sites for me today almost as though my analytical program is broken / not working …

Global site with 6 consecutive days averaging 126.3%, lowest day 110%.

Saturdays and Sundays I usually expect about 66% of my weekday average, yesterday I was 38%, the last date I had a similar number was 25th December 2021 at 37%. Yes, my quietest day of the year.

So far today, after 10.5 hrs, I’m at 28.3% … Something’s happened / changed / been “manipulated”, again.

RedBar indeed lower numbers today. This is an inverse from my typical Sunday. Existing user interaction has increased though. New users are far fewer than it should be.

Non commerce research site had a rank increase. 3x impression rate with added traffic. Increase of keyword base. Near 200 keyword sets at position 10 and above now.

Other sites are the same.

Today we see a new dropt of -50% so far the biggest drop since panda algo launched years ago.
It is creasy because we do have a lot of #1-#3 spots but it seems to mean nothing.
We see our descriptions coming up in a lot of featured snippets ( so it should be a trusted source).
What we are missing is business traffic. So before this quality update we had a lot of business traffic. It seems that all traffic from those source are completely directed to google ads.

I see absolutely stellar gains – search traffic is up 49%(450,000 visitors) over last month on an old site but it’s the newer content doing the heavy lifting. This site has remained unaffected by updates since 2009 so site age alone is not likely a problem.

Initially Monday was not looking good for me yet finished at 103.3%, Tuesday started in a similar vein but ended with 113.7%, today seems to have started well and nearly at 50% already … fingers crossed.

Traffic sources have been normal with the USA down a couple of points.

What I have seen is a bizarre 4 paid for clicks, 2 x USA, 1 x Belgium, 1 x UK.

wow… huge drop today… all right, let’s go again 😐

pretty big this time, yes. One of the biggest drops we have ever seen so far.

Can confirm a big drop this end (entertainment news niche). Lots of spam in the results which always gives me hope that it reverses.

Yesterday the drop was big. Today I can already see that it will be even bigger. Something big coming? 😐

Yesterday somewhat of a drop, today a massive drop in traffic looks like. But my ranking is higher today. Perhaps this is new for some of you, but I’ve been seeing these days where traffic drops off a cliff on a regular basis now. IF this is a way of rotating traffic so that more sites get seen instead of always the same sites on top I could accept that, but I doubt Google is being that generous. It’s more about the experiments with page layout and loading the pages with other Google widgets.

It’s a bug got to be, there is no way that these SPAM and new sites large publisher websites should be outranking everyone. I wish they will fix it.

Volatility is very high for May 1. Massive jump from yesterday. This not being a gradual increase from tweaking different levers means they decided to roll out something bigger.

Today could be a rough ride that continues for a few days. Much slower start to the morning for me but its early and no way to tell how things will shape up.

I also see a big jump today, after a big drop yesterday. These swings are not unusual these days, I am seeing days with very large drops in traffic on a regular basis.

ok so last 2 days it’s fail, organic dropped from 3,6K to 3,2k, it’s like a filter or something on it, ridiculous .. also direct/refferal traffic lower

Yes!!! As I posted yesterday, I’m experiencing very, very weird traffic anomaly.

And the past 24 hours the same thing – very very low traffic and conversions are terrible. One of my website even had 0 traffic for 2-3 hours, despite rankings are the same.

This is getting ridiculous.

Anyone experiencing weird traffic throttling since yesterday?

All across my websites I’m experiencing very, very low traffic. Keyword ranking are all the same, which made me even more confused.

Yesterday’s sales and conversions are its lowest point since this year.

the last 2 days, rankings high, but very low low traffic. Conversions have been non existent!!!

This week have been the worse on record

There does seem to me more of a spike in the SEO chatter later on in the week, even over the weekend but it is always hard to compare weekday levels to weekend levels of chatter.

Google Search Tracking Tools

The Google search tracking tools have been calm for most of the week but they seem to be showing changes towards the past day or so. Here are some screenshots from these tools, I do suspect some will update this morning and show bigger changes.

Advanced Web Rankings:

Cognitive SEO:

Accuranker:

SERPmetrics:

Advanced Web Rankings:

SERPstat:

Knowledge Panel Shifts

With many of these Google updates, there are also folks who pick up on the knowledge panels and there changes. So that does coincide with these reports as well:

Certainly appears something is afoot – see this query for a Hawaiian airport with a KP for a Spanish car rental company 🤷 pic.twitter.com/meQEANSDbt

— Peter Mindenhall (@PeterMindenhall) April 29, 2022

So as you can see, there is a lot of chatter within the SEO industry but the tools were quiet most of the week. However, something bigger caught the ‘eye’ of some of the tracking tools over the past day or so. So something does seem to be up…

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Source: www.seroundtable.com

Related Topics:1st Algorithm Google Prior Rumbles Search update Week

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Daily Search Forum Recap: September 17, 2024

Published

16 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

There are complaints about the Google Indexing API not working but I suspect it is working as Google planned. Google is testing sticky headers for ads and search results. Google is testing swipeable dots for carousels. Google Local Service Ads tests viewed X hours/minutes ago. Google is testing an expanded version of discussions and forums.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

The Google Indexing API Not Working For Some Or Indexing Issues…

There are complaints in the Black Hat SEO World forums that the Google Indexing API is not working. Some are saying Google is returning a call saying all is good but when it comes to indexing the content, it is not happening.

Google Tests Sticky Headers For Ads & Results

Google is testing that new large ad and organic label headers design but this time having the header stick to the top as you scroll.

Google Search Tests Swipeable Dots For Carousels

Google is testing a new interface in the search results to help searchers know they can swipe over a carousel to see more options. Google is placing swipeable dots at the bottom of some search boxes.

Google Tests Expanded & More Discussions and Forums Results

If you didn’t have enough Reddit and forum results in your Google Search results page, well, now Google is testing showing even more in the Discussions and Forums box. Generally, Google shows a short snippet of maybe three results, now Google is letting you expand them to see even more.

Google Local Service Ads Shows You Viewed X Minutes/Hours Ago

Google is testing showing the last time you viewed an ad, a Google Local Service Ad, by adding a label with those details. In this case, Google is showing “You viewed 15 minutes ago” next to this ad.

Yahoo Buildings Sign

Here is a super exciting photo of the sign outside of the Yahoo! campus. It has arrows to which Yahoo building number is in which direction. I can’t remember the last time I was at a Yahoo office…

Other Great Search Threads:

Google Ads issue with offline conversion imports, Barry Schwartz on X

I don’t have additional details or a timeline to provide at this time., AdsLiaison on X

A few months after we covered the South Africa badge, Google covered it just now, Barry Schwartz on X

Google removed the poll about using Gemini for SEO purposes – wow, Barry Schwartz on X

Perplexity is back up. We’ll learn how to handle spikes in usage better., Aravind Srinivas on X

When working with large-scale sites, a question I’m often asked is: “Does our page indexing report look alright to you?” My response to this is generally that it looks fine on the surface, but only further digging into the reasons, Brodie Clark on X

Planting more trees is not a ranking factor., John Mueller on Reddit

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: September 16, 2024

Published

2 days ago

September 17, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Saturday night, Google had a major search bug with its Google Android app. I posted a bunch of resources around the US vs Google monopoly trial. Google updated its crawler documentation in a big way. Google posted new local review restrictions and enforcements. Google is asking how you will use Gemini and AI for SEO. Google is testing a recent posts carousel in Google Search.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Search App Stopped Working Saturday Night

The Google Search App stopped working last night (Saturday night) for a few hours. Google was quick to fix it in the middle of the night but by then, hundreds, if not, thousands of complaints flooded the support forums and social media.

Google Updates Google Crawlers & Fetchers Docs With Affects & Snippets

Google has completely reorganized its crawlers and user-triggered fetchers documentation. It used to be all on one page and now it is in several pages. Most of the changes were just moving content around but Google did add sections for what product each crawler affects, and added a robots.txt snippet for each crawler to demonstrate how to use the user agent tokens.

Google Reviews Restrictions For Business Profile Policy Violations

Google has posted a new document about the way Google may apply restrictions to your Google Business Profiles over review or other policy violations. In the document, Google wrote that it takes “take fake and/or incentivized reviews and ratings on businesses very seriously.”

Google US DOJ Trial Exhibit Files, Documents & Responses

As many of you know, Google is now in court over its monopoly ruling by the Department of Justice before the court rules on the remedy for such a ruling. The ruling may not come for a year or so, and Google will be in court for some time.

Google Search Tests Recent Posts Carousel

Google Search is testing a new recent posts carousel in the desktop and mobile search results. This carousel can show YouTube videos, TikTok videos, Reddit or other “hidden gems” of sorts.

Google Asks On Social If You Will Use Gemini AI For SEO

In one of the more disassociated social posts Google has made in a while, Google’s Small Business account posted a poll asking if you will use Gemini, Google’s AI models, to help with your SEO, to help boost your search rankings.

Sheds Inside The Google

Google likes to put outdoor things, inside its office. Here are outdoor sheds that are inside the Google London office. It seems they are uses as coat rooms, called cloakrooms?

Other Great Search Threads:

I found out today what happens when google deletes a vertical you’re using | NAP, Categories, Dashboard Data, Local Search Forum

The Digital Advertising Alliance has new standards for CTV, using its “Ad Choices” opt-out framework. Ad Choices has been a near-total failure and it’s effectively a fiction. Most consumers don’t understand AdChoices (the DAA, Greg Sterling on X

This is a friendly reminder to make sure automatic asset creation is turned off for Google search ad campagins, Nate Louis on X

This is not new. A social security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) may be required to complete verification. This information will be deleted and will not be stored after comple, AdsLiaison on X

Heads-up: There’s been a lot of chatter about crazy swings in rankings AFTER the August core update. I am now picking up some wild reversals, surges, and drops post-August core update. And a lot of that seems tied to the tremors I re, Glenn Gabe on X

More about forums, hidden gems, and recent adjustments: Here’s another example of a forum that surged with the hidden gems update in the fall of 2023, but has seen adjustments in the spring of 2024 (right after the March core update ende, Glenn Gabe on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

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Google Search App Stopped Working For A Few Hours Last Night

Published

3 days ago

September 16, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

The Google Search App stopped working last night for a few hours. Google was quick to fix it in the middle of the night but by then, hundreds, if not, thousands of complaints flooded the support forums and social media.

This impacted a “large number of users searching on the Google app on Android,” Google confirmed. When they loaded the Google Search App or any of its widgets, a message would pop up that says “Google keeps stopping.”

Here is one of many screenshots I saw in the Google Search Support forums:

The issue started at about midnight last night and lasted for a few hours until it was resolved.

You can see the non stop complaints in the Google Search Support forums about the issue if you scroll down to that time frame. There is also this massive Reddit thread with complaints.

9to5Google was the only other site reporting on this issue, as far as I can tell.

Google wrote:

There’s an ongoing issue with serving in Google Search that’s affecting a large number of users searching on the Google app on Android. We’re working on identifying the root cause. Next update will be within 12 hours.

That was given a timestamp at 2:07 AM ET but I believe the issue started a couple of hours prior.

Google said the issue was fully resolved at 4:11 AM ET.

If you noticed a dip in your Android traffic from Google between that time, this may be why.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and Reddit.

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