Post-August Google Updates High volume keyphrases rankings mess
-
Howdy, fellow mozzers,
Couple of our clients keep losing rankings, slowly but surely, which seem to correlate to August Google updates. No major changes to the websites have been done - neither code, backlink profile nor content. It seem to affect higher search volume keyphrases, while other longer tail keyphrases are climbing up.
The screenshots of the visibility rankings are attached below.
Any ideas/news/thought about the Google update itself or what might be happening? I know that the Medic update was overall quality, yet it seems to be that these websites in particular are going down after Birthday update, not Medic itself. Google and da mighty Internets being quite.. Help!
Links to screenshots (includes higher volume keyphrases only):
https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/sf/MzAyNjg0MV85MDczNDkz
https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/sf/MzAyNjgzN185MDczNDY1
-
Thanks for the response.
Conversions and revenue are down, by significant number. I know that the update is supposed to be about relativity of content to users' intent etc, and it's all good if conversions are on the same level. But they are not, that's why I am raising this question here.
_"Due to that, I'm not really seeing the same correlation which you are seeing" - _sorry, the screenshots were not as representative, here are the ones where you can see what i'm talking about clearly (I included higher volume keyphrases only here, and that's the problem we are having):
https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/sf/MzAyNjgzN185MDczNDY1
https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/sf/MzAyNjg0MV85MDczNDkz
_"Are you sure you're going down - and that others aren't investing more and going up?" - _well, i don't know how much others are investing, but looking at competitive research, I'm not seeing anything extra competition is doing - across all available metrics (content freshness, amount of content, backlinks etc) - we are outperforming.
_"As you said you had done nothing on your site" - _not really, we are always improving, I'm just saying that there weren't any major overhauls or anything drastic.
-
That's unfortunate in one way but positive in another. Often long-tail terms are further down the buying funnel anyway. Are conversions or revenue down? If not I wouldn't really worry about it. The much lower visibility in your attached image seems to start in October, whilst Google's significant core integration apparently 'peaked' on August 2nd.
Due to that, I'm not really seeing the same correlation which you are seeing
Remember that SEO is a competitive environment. Are you sure you're going down - and that others aren't investing more and going up?
Where you say:
"No major changes to the websites have been done - neither code, backlink profile nor content."
Sometimes this in and of itself can lose rankings. If you stagnate, others will notice and try to outdo you.
There are so many things this could be. It's likely that it's a bundle of stuff:
- Google rolled out an update which 'raised' quality standards
- As you said you had done nothing on your site
- Others adapted
- They go up, you go down
It could actually be as simple as that!
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
-
Huge ranking flux that we cannot explain
Hello, SEO experts from around the world. We need your help; we have seen massive ranking flux across our website and others. We cannot explain what is causing this ranking flux. The content marketing is top quality, so we don’t know why we are moving from 25 to 50th on Google and sometimes even beyond that. Can any SEO experts explain why our agency is moving so much within Google’s rankings? We don’t know whether to make changes or possibly wait. Any help would be fantastic; thank you all.
Algorithm Updates | | sarahwalsh0 -
Nofolow links drive to losing ranking
Hello there,
Algorithm Updates | | Goran024
I am an owner of mobilnishop website. We selling mobile phones. As you know , new phones coming every few days and they starting to be old after 1-2 years. So I decided to all pages which present old (discontinued) phones make them "noindex". I this way I meant to to focus google on new pages ( for new phones). After 1 year I find a huge losing trafic and key word position on goole. For example, word :
"mobilni telefoni " from 2 place I move to 11. So what I find out is that I LOST LINK JUICE. Is it possible that google does not see given link of my noindex pages? It look that I made auto goal.
Any opinion? Suggest ?0 -
Strange Google SERP Layout: Anyone?
I haven't been able to repeat this, but I just saw a strange Google SERP layout. The screenshot is attached below. Has anyone else seen something like this? I kind of rubbed my eyes and wondered 'if it was kicking in'. ca2JqaP
Algorithm Updates | | Travis_Bailey0 -
Algorithm update last weekend?
Hi guys, Just a simple one really. Our in house company has seen a significant improvement in rankings and traffic over the weekend period for 4-5 classified niche sites. However, so far there seems to be little out there in the blogosphere. I did find this article by Barry Schwartz, and it seems some on WMW agree: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-update-possible-17065.html. Has anyone else seen signs of an algorithm update around the 14th July? Cheers. (UK)
Algorithm Updates | | Sayers0 -
What are tips for ranking on Google Maps?
I have another thread going where everyone is saying to keep both the Places profile as well as the Google Plus Local profile I have for my company. I have another person telling me that it has a negative effect to have both accounts at the same time so I'm assuming thats why the listing never comes up on places unless you zoom all the way into the map to the address of the storefront. With that being said, can anyone provide some good tips for ranking first page on google maps? Goole Plus Local - https://plus.google.com/114370561649922317296/about?gl=us&hl=en Google Places - https://plus.google.com/103220086647895058915/about?gl=us&hl=en
Algorithm Updates | | jonnyholt1 -
Rank dropped for website
We have seen rankings drop considerably for www.think-ins.co.uk in the last 48 hours, I know Penguin 2.0 has been released but anyone got any ideas on what specifically we might have been penalised for? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | instinctive0 -
Google.uk rankings plummet, .com improves. What to do?
Hey Guys, Seems so much has changed with international SEO I'm not sure what to do with our site. We have a huge site with many country level landing pages that perform very well on google.com searches (IE; keyword + Jamaica) etc. We are not using a .co.uk version of our site and now our rankings have plummeted in the UK. Should we just make a .co.uk with similar (or the exact same content) or is there some newer strategy to follow?
Algorithm Updates | | iAnalyst.com0 -
High ranking but low traffic, what gives?
One of our clients is in the top 3 spots on high volume keywords that get 20-70k hits in the US each month (per adWords keyword tool), but their daily traffic is in the low hundreds. What's going on?
Algorithm Updates | | optimalwebinc0