SEARCHENGINES

Google Search Ranking Fluctuations Continue Through Weekend

Published

1 year ago

March 6, 2023

Since the Google February 2023 product reviews update on February 21st, we’ve been seeing some pretty big swings in the search results – a lot of volatility, more than the norm. And that continued through the past weekend.

As a reminder, we reported on very big fluctuations on March 1st, spikes on February 25th and now again this weekend.

It just seems weird that we are seeing so much volatility from this single update. There is a lot of folks who said they got hit initially, saw a recovery during one of these tremors, then again. So it may be that Google is tweaking this update, or another unconfirmed update was also rolled out at the same time. It is hard to know for sure but there is a lot of volatility over the past couple weeks. I suspect this confirmed product reviews update will be done soon.

Google Tracking Tools

Here is what these tools are showing for the weekend – a lot of them were pretty heated over the weekend:

Semrush:

RankRanger:

Cognitive SEO:

Advanced Web Rankings:

SEO Chatter

Here is some of the SEO chatter from over the weekend from WebmasterWorld and here:

I had same results for last updates, big traffic Increase then conversion down. Since last “update” lost around 25% traffic but converted more and having more leads for sales.

Seems like I’ve recovered from the 24th Feb drop. I lost 30% of traffic on the Google update day and then it slowly came back, and today I’m 100% back to where I was before.

Seeing the same as Dalnoon – I am recovering. It’s hard to say some exact numbers, but something is happening just right now.

Rankings and traffic (especially rankings) continue to go down every day for all of my sites, none of which have anything to do with reviews. The review update thing didn’t make much change to this trajectory, maybe it accelerated it a bit.

Results in the UK are completely irrelevant over the last few days. Yesterday/today I’m seeing ‘top stories’ for ‘…. services’ searches. Imagine looking for a mechanic or another professional service and seeing ‘top stories’ taking most of your screen, it’s almost like a bad comedy. Whatever they’re doing they are so lost this time it’s laughable.

There is massive shuffling since yesterday night. I think that is the last stage of the update and things settle down in a few days.

I saw the biggest drop in ranking in months yesterday…it looks like a big shakeup. I dropped like a stone from #1 to #3 while the former top two regained their spots. It seems that Google is favoring huge sites again. I checked today and it seems that I am still where I was, albeit in 2nd spot…so looks like it might have been temporary.

Ranking and comparison websites in the apparel sector definitely saw a bump. EU Markets here. Maybe the only exception being Germany and France where there is so much over optimisation that there is wiggle room. Eastern Europe saw some shifts 100% .

Today’s traffic is equal to zero, for my niche as compared to the previous analysis Monday I used to have heavy traffic and many leads but today it is nothing.

Have you noticed much over the weekend?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

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SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 19, 2024

Published

40 mins ago

April 20, 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.

Google is testing more ad formats for its search ads. BingBot is testing new compression methods. Google said it is unlikely your rankings would drop just because you have two or more sites. Google says the indexing API might work for unsupported formats. Google said hyphenated domains are not bad by themselves. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Core Update Flux, AdSense Ad Intent, California Link Tax & More

The Google March 2024 core update is still rolling out, almost 6 weeks now, and we saw two shifts of ranking volatility, both mid-week and the weekend before. Google’s Danny Sullivan went on the defensive on search quality and forum listings…

Google Tests More Google Ad Card Formats

Google is testing another ad format, another card like format, for its search ads. We previously saw the vertical and tall ad cards, then the carousel horizontal card format and now here are just plain horizontal ad cards.

Google: It’s Unlikely Your Rankings Dropped Because You Have Two Websites

Google was asked if having two websites and Google finding out about them would cause the websites to drop in rankings. John Mueller from Google said that is “not likely,” adding that many people have several websites and that is fine.

Google: Indexing API May Work For Unsupported Content But…

Gary Illyes from Google said in the recent Google SEO office hours the Google Indexing API may work for unsupported content formats, but that you shouldn’t be “surprised if suddenly it stopped working for unsupported verticals overnight.”

Google: Are Hyphenated Domains Are Bad For Google Ranking?

The topic of using hyphens in domain names is one of the oldest SEO topics we have in this space. Heck, in 2004, SEOs said there was a specific Google ranking algorithm that filtered out domains with hyphens in them (Google did not by the way).

Bingbot To Test Zstd Compression After Fully Gaining Full Brotli Compression

Fabrice Canel from Microsoft announced that BingBot now fully supports Brotli compression and will soon be testing zstd Zstandard compression, a lossless data compression, for its crawler.

Google Cloud Socks

Google loves to print socks for its various swag and here are two variations of socks from the Google Cloud team. I like the white socks because they look more retro but here are nicer versions as well.

Other Great Search Threads:

From a practical POV, you can specify your prices using structured data on the page, with a merchant center feed (which many ecommerce systems can make for you) or manually in merchant center., John Mueller on X

I passed this on. I don’t think there’s anything special going on here, but the feedback on this being confusing is good to pass on., John Mueller on X

If you have older reports that are still helpful, you’ll just need to click the View “button” and access ones you want to remain active., AdsLiaison on X

The way I see this is more that there are things which can be recognized & ignored, but a site might still be appropriate to show (I don’t know this site/query). Folks get bad SEO advice, and if that can be neutralized granularly without broader effects, , John Mueller on X

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.

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 18, 2024

Published

1 day ago

April 19, 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.

Google Ads notified advertisers that some ad customizers will stop working soon. Google discontinued the limited use video carousel markup. Google Maps has new directions and travel features, plus a bunch of new EV features. Google Notes on Search might not end in May 2024 despite what people suggest. Google Business Profiles asked businesses to register their defibrillators, their AEDs.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Notes On Search Won’t Necessarily Go Away In May

There have been some people noticing that the Google Notes On Search labs experiment has an end date of May 2024 and thus they are expecting Notes on Search to be turned off by then. Just because it has that end date listed, it does not mean the labs experiment will end on that date.

Google Maps Releases New Directions, Travel & EV Features

Google has announced a number of new travel features with Google Maps and Travel around driving alternatives, trains and buses, travel impact mode and then some new EV driving direction features. Google says these features are to give you more “sustainable choices.”

Google Ads Reminds Advertisers Some Ad Customizers Will Go Away May 31st

On August 31, 2021, Google notified advertisers it would drop support for expanded text ads for responsive search ads. Google is now reminding advertisers that Ad customizers for text ads, expanded text ads and Dynamic Search Ads will stop serving after May 31, 2024.

Google Drops Video Carousel Markup

Google has discontinued its support for video carousel markup and has thus removed it from its video structured data help documentation. Initially, Google tested video carousel on a limited number of sites and is now saying that it “ultimately found that it wasn’t useful for the ecosystem at scale.”

Google Business Profiles Register Your Defibrillator (AED)

Google sent out emails a couple of days ago to businesses asking them to register their Automated External Defibrillator (AED) with Google Business Profiles. Google said, “you could save lives” if you do it.

Google NYC Earthquake Reaction Video

A couple of weeks ago we had an earthquake in the New York region and I finally found a video from the Google NYC office of the reaction of some Googlers while the earthquake happened. These Googlers were recording a video and felt it but were unsure if that was a real earthquake.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 17, 2024

Published

2 days ago

April 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.

The Google March core update still is causing volatility and it is deepening. Google may make changes to the crawl stats report in Search Console. Google Search Console now shows unused ownership tokens. Google Maps will drop the review drafts. Google Add added generative AI for image generate for Demand Gen campaigns. Google Search is testing more sitelinks designs.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Deepening Google Core Ranking Volatility Hits Yesterday & Today

I know we just reported on more volatility this Monday, possibly related to the Google March 2024 core update, but we are seeing even more volatility over the past 24 hours related to this update. This volatility shows deepening movement for those who were hit, which is incredibly sad in many cases.

Google Search Console Adds Unused Ownership Tokens

Google Search Console has a new security feature under user and permission management to help you manage your unused ownership tokens. Basically, it helps you manage who has permissions to your Search Console profiles and who should not, maybe some legacy verifications.

Google: Should We Explain The Crawl Stats Report in Search Console

Martin Splitt from Google posted a one-line question asking, “Should we do something to explain the crawl stats report in GSC?” This was posted on Mastodon, which has a small audience, but the responses were pretty good.

New Google Ads AI Generated Image Tool For Demand Gen Campaigns

Google Ads announced that Demand Gen campaigns are getting generative AI tools to create image assets. This is rolling out to advertisers around the world in English with more languages to come later this year, Google said.

Google Tests Horizontal Lines For Sitelinks & People Also Ask

Google Search is testing horizontal lines under the sitelinks and the people also ask elements in the search results. This is a long horizontal line that goes across the while search result snippet.

Google Maps No Longer Will Support Draft Reviews

Google Maps will soon stop supporting drafting reviews for local business listings and Google Business Profiles. Google said that starting July 16, 2024, review drafts will no longer be supported.

Doogler In Google Play Area

Some of you love photos of dogs, so here is another one of a Doogler, a Google dog, in a play area, at the Google office. This was shared by the Life at Google Twitter account.