What happened on September 17 on Google?
-
According to mozcast:
and to my own stats, Google had a pretty strong algorithm update on September 17. Personally I have experienced a drop of about 10% of traffic coming from Google on most of my main e-commerce site virtualsheetmusic.com.
Anyone know more about that update? Any ideas about what changed?
Thank you in advance for any thoughts!
Best,
Fab.
-
Thank you jStrong, I have just posted something on that thread too. I am glad to know I am not alone! I hope we can figure out what happened and possibly tackle the problem.
Thanks!
-
Had something similar happen to a client of ours. On Sept 17 they lost about 85-90% of their organic traffic among all search engines. I mentioned this in a post I added yesterday.
http://moz.com/community/q/loss-of-85-90-of-organic-traffic-within-the-last-2-weeks
Still trying to figure out exactly what happened, but am also curious to see if anyone else ran into similar issues.
-
Thank you guys for your replies and information.
Peter: I understand what you mean and I do understand why it is not possible for MozCast to know which verticals are affected by a particular Google update. What you wrote makes perfectly sense.
Highland: you may be right about the Google Hummingbird, but I see that update was released about 1 month ago whereas I begun having a drop in traffic since September 17th (13 days ago). But we can't exclude it either since looks like my long tail keywords have been mostly affected (see below)...
It is worth noting the following events around the date the drop begun:
1. On September 15 our hosting provider had a major power outage which put our site offline for about 5 hours. I don't think Google cares too much for this since 5 hours it is not a huge down time and never happened for at least the past 3 years, but this happened just 2 days before the drop begun.
2. On September 17 (the day the traffic drop begun), we updated our website page rendering engine to improve our page speed of about 20% (this should be a good thing right?)
Also, I have analyzed the traffic coming to our website from Google and looks like that the most affected section has been our product pages which makes me think that long tail keywords have been mostly affected.
Any more clues?
Thank you again, I really appreciate your insights and thoughts on all this. And, please, if anyone has experienced a similar drop in traffic since September 17, please post it here!
-
It's a bit tricky. MozCast (and other trackers like it, to the best of my knowledge) basically look at how rankings change over time. For MozCast, we track two fixed sets (1K and 10K) of keywords every 24 hours, and then measure how the URLs in the top 10 shift. This is tricky for many reasons:
(1) There are a ton of ways to measure this "flux", all of them valid in different ways.
(2) Baseline flux is very high. I estimate that as many as 80% of queries change daily, to some degree. Google is much more dynamic and real-time than most SEOs think.
(3) "Baseline" flux varies wildly across keywords, based on factors like QDF. I wrote a post about just how extreme this can be (http://moz.com/blog/a-week-in-the-life-of-3-keywords).
Ultimately, we try to gauge to an average, and then look for extreme variations, but the noise-to-signal is extremely high. The reality is that SERPs are change all of the time, not just based on the algorithm, but on changes to sites. Google also makes more than 500 changes per year, so even "algorithm update" is a tough term to define. We're looking for the big ones.
It's important to note, too, that all of the current flux tools are focused solely on organic results and movement of those results (as are most SEOs). We're not looking at how verticals come and go, Knowledge Graph entities, etc. We're actually working on some tools to track these entities more closely. "Hummingbird" is, IMO, going to power these entities and expand them, possibly for months to come.
-
It's possible all these shifts are due to Google Hummingbird, which one person at Google called "the largest rewrite since 2001." This is the month-long rollout they've been talking about.
Still, Hummingbird is more about usability than SEO signals. The biggest shift is in "conversational search" (i.e. "How often has Rand Fishkin shaved his beard off?"). Google is now focused on returning more relevant results to those kinds fo searches. That would explain why temps never spiked. It doesn't seems to have affected generic search terms as much, if at all.
-
Thank you guys for your replies and insights. It is my understanding that MozCast draws its graph based on the number of sites affected by a Google update... is that correct? If so, I deduce that people (or the algorithm) beyond MozCast knows which sites and/or how many sites have been affected by a particular update. If that's the case, and I don't see any different scenario, I assume that we can potentially understand if those affected sites have something in common (are mostly e-commerce websites? News? etc...). That would help us to understand the nature of any update, most of all the major ones since we would have more data to crunch.
Am I wrong with my brainstorming here? I am eager to know your thoughts an this.
Thank you again.
-
Yeah, Robert's right - with 500+ updates, the task of figuring out which spikes really mean something is very difficult. The pattern of 9/17 on MozCast looks more like a traditional update, with a relatively quiet period around a one-day spike, but I don't have a lot more detail on that particular day.
The update Adam mentioned ("Hummingbird") apparently happened "about a month ago", but seems to be tied to semantic search, Knowledge Graph, etc. Google's statements are pretty vague. It's more likely that is related to the 8/20-21 spike spotted by multiple tools and webmasters than the 9/17 spike.
Sorry I can't give you more information. I've seen very little chatter or reports about 9/17, other than what we saw in the tracking data.
-
Earlier today, Google announced an algorithm change that should affect about 90% of search queries. They said this has rolled out over the past month. When more details come out and some people do some more testing, this may have something to do with it.
-
SER had a post a couple of days ago asking just that. I can't say my traffic suffered a lot (in fact, one site seems to have had a small bump in organic traffic) but given than it only got to 86 (100+ seems to indicate major shifts) I'd say it was likely a localized set that got hit. Probably a Panda shift (just a guess, tho).
-
Fabrizo,
I am intrigued whenever I see this question because it seems we notice only when we feel an effect. We handle multiple sites as an agency and I don't see any real "9/17" change across the board and no change that is noticeable for even a single site (I looked at five that I know are more likely to move).
With the mozcast, that is another area I find intriguing in that I respect those at Moz and their understanding of statistics and scientific method; I also scratch my head from time to time as to whether or not the given movement has any overall effect on "most" sites.
When you read the "About Mozcast," and they point out the numbers of algorithmic changes in a year, it is apparent that most won't have an appreciable effect on a given site. Unfortunately, for most of us change to any site we own or manage can have dire consequences so we have to always be vigilant.
I wish I could give you a better answer, good luck,
Robert
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What happens when we delete all the outgoing links from a forum at once?
Hi all, We have our forum and is filled with spammy content and external nofollow links. I am just wondering if we can make all these links as plain text from hyperlinks (if we can); it's technically deleting all the external links. Will this impact negatively or positively anyhow as per Google? Please share your ideas. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Does Google push down for not ranking top for branded keywords?
Hi all, Usually websites rank for their branded keywords. Some times third party websites takeover the websites for branded keywords. If there are more number of such queries where website is not ranking (top) for branded keywords, Google push down website in overall rankings? Any correlation? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Google Update August 2016
Hi Has anyone noticed anything strange with their rankings? I've had a few drops out of the blue at the start of August. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
Is Moz Domain Authority still relvant when it comes to Google ranking?
My understanding of Moz DA is that it is predominantly based on external links. Since Penguin I am noticing more and more websites ranking high in Google with a "low" number of links and certainly a low DA but quality and relevancy of content and also of offering. I understand that there was always more to ranking than DA but is it anymore even relevant to how a site will rank in Google?
Algorithm Updates | | halloranc0 -
Can anyone help me to understand why specific key words are no longer searchable on Google
I’m not sure where to start so please bear with me. I apologize now for the length of this question.Like so many others that I have read about over the past few weeks I lost my presence on Google search results beginning on April 24th. My website iswww.getyourphotosoncanvas.com .I have spent the past few weeks trying to figure out what the problem is and have read and participated in many forums and have read and re-read Google Webmasters Help and anything else I could to try and resolve this problem. I have submitted my website for reconsideration by Google twice and have gotten the following message: Reconsideration request forhttp://www.getyourphotosoncanvas.com/ : No manual spam actions foundMay 23, 2012Dear site owner or webmaster ofhttp://www.getyourphotosoncanvas.com/ , We received a request from a site owner to reconsider http://www.getyourphotosoncanvas.com/ for compliance with Google's Webmaster Guidelines. We reviewed your site and found no manual actions by the webspam team that might affect your site's ranking in Google. There's no need to file a reconsideration request for your site, because any ranking issues you may be experiencing are not related to a manual action taken by the webspam team. Of course, there may be other issues with your site that affect your site's ranking. Google's computers determine the order of our search results using a series of formulas known as algorithms. We make hundreds of changes to our search algorithms each year, and we employ more than 200 different signals when ranking pages. As our algorithms change and as the web (including your site) changes, some fluctuation in ranking can happen as we make updates to present the best results to our users. If you've experienced a change in ranking which you suspect may be more than a simple algorithm change, there are other things you may want to investigate as possible causes, such as a major change to your site's content, content management system, or server architecture. For example, a site may not rank well if your server stops serving pages to Googlebot, or if you've changed the URLs for a large portion of your site's pages. This article has a list of other potential reasons your site may not be doing well in search.I read this carefully and have tried to address all aspects of the message. I am not a SEO or website expert and have been learning along the way.First, we did not just loose ranking on Google, we went away from the top 100 on all key phrases searched including specific page titles that all rank #1 on Yahoo and Bing. Example: "Free Digital Proofs Photos on Canvas". This search returns our Like Us on Facebook page #5 and our webpage Free Digital Proofs is not listed in the top 100?Like Get Your Photos on Canvas on Facebookwww.getyourphotosoncanvas.com/like-us-on-facebook/UPLOAD YOUR PHOTOS TODAY! WE PROVIDE FREE DIGITAL PROOFING OF YOUR PHOTO CANVAS BEFORE WE PRINT! Customer Favorite Example... Basically get back what they think you want and not necessarily what you had in mind.The description text above is taken from the sidebar that is on all pages of our website and not from the title and description meta tags._Page Title: Like Get Your Photos on Canvas on FacebookPage Description:_Like Us on Facebook and keep in touch with Special Offers and information about Get Your Photos on Canvas!This page also shows up for other title page searches? It’s like Google is all confused?Sorry this is long, if you are still with me; Thank You for hanging in there!I have followed all of Google’s Rules, I’m not perfect but not bad either:I have not participated in link buying or building schemes, I have not used hidden text or Keyword stuffing, I use rel=canonical tags, I use noindex, nofollow on pages such as privacy policy, terms of use, and order confirmation pages, and blog comments.I have not considered a server problem with Gooblebot but maybe? The server seems to work fine for Yahoo, Bing, Ask and SEOmoz.I did change a significant number of page urls in January when we rebuilt the website and changed to a new WP format and Bluehost. That didn’t seem to effect Yahoo, Bing or even Google before April 24<sup>th?</sup>Using the tools at SEOmoz the website has no Errors, had a few warnings, fixed and in all looks OK.The On Page grade for "Free Digital Proofs Photos on Canvas" is "A" Here is an interesting test:Search: Gallery Wrap vs Museum Wrap (we show up as number #2 on Google)Search: Gallery Wrap vs Museum Wrap Canvas (we are not in top 100 on Google)Search: Gallery Wrap vs Museum Wrap Photos (we are not in top 100 on Google)Gallery Wrap vs Museum Wrap Photos on Canvas www.getyourphotosoncanvas.com/gallery-wraps-vs-museum-wraps/****Gallery Wrap vs Museum Wrap, two options for your Photo on Canvas Prints. Find out the difference between Photo Canvas Gallery Wrap vs Museum Wrap.**I have considered the possibility that Google may see us as keyword stuffing. Our url has photos and canvas, our website title is "Get Your Photos on Canvas" and in our content we talk about "Canvas" allot, how can you not? We have used Picture and Photographs in content to reduce the number of uses of Photos. The content was not written for stuffing it is well written and reads well. I can’t think of substitutes for "Canvas" it is what it is.
Algorithm Updates | | rdominey
My Question is simple, Can anyone HELP?
What else can I do to try and find and fix the problem**0 -
Did Google Just Punish Organic For Showing Up In Local?
Google pushed the local search results in a prominent spot on a ton of search results. That means (for me) that all first page rankings (including a lot of 1st place rankings) have completely disappeared. Subfolders still rank and homepage still ranks where local search is not included. This is weird. Is this a glitch or is there something we can do about this?
Algorithm Updates | | Discountvc0 -
How much does Google take Social into account in serps
I have been reading and trying to learn more about how google takes social media into account when ranking sites, but I cant seam to find a definitive answer to this, does it make a big difference or does it not really matter?
Algorithm Updates | | MiracleCreative0 -
Google Cached Pages
I made some on-site changes to a site last week, in particular their page titles. This was all done on the same day at the same time. Now, one of those pages, got re-indexed on August 8th and has my updated changes, which also helped with my ranking. The other page I made changes to still shows a cached version from July 27th, which is before I made the changes. Why wouldn't google have an updated page from August 8th for both pages, not just one?
Algorithm Updates | | MichaelWeisbaum0