Google Algorithm Update Around August 8th 2014

Google Algorithm Update Around August 8th 2014
I am seeing significant signs of a real Google update both in terms of summer/weekend forum chatter at WebmasterWorld, via the automated tracking tools and via emails sent to me with screen shots.

The update seems to have around August 9th or 8th and has continued through the weekend.

Here are some quotes from the Webmaster World thread:

I concur with the above observations. Seeing a huge drop in traffic volume and conversions, but spidering is going ballistic!

I join samwest, with big drops, hours with -95% traffic with followed
spurts of traffic. Overall traffic is at about 60%. Bounce is near 100%.
And yes we changed a little bit the navigation but this is about 8 weeks
ago. I know of two others seeing the same. It feels like a new panda.

Here are screen shots from the various automated tools at MozCast, SERPS.com, SERP Metrics and Algoroo:









Alex, a reader, also emailed me screen shots, limiting his analytic to show Google Organic referrals only. He showed how his site was nailed back with the January 9th update and recovered on August 8th:

Drop:



Lift:



And his webmaster tool:



Alex also feels this is a major Panda refresh.
I will try to get Google to comment on the update and will keep you posted.

The interesting part, the forums are not lighting up as much as I would expect. But again, it is a weekend and summer weekend update.

Update: Google won't comment on this update.

by Barry Schwartz

Read More

SEO: Harder To Know If Human Error Caused Ranking Issues Vs Algorithms

SEO: Harder To Know If Human Error Caused Ranking Issues Vs Algorithms

When it comes to ranking issues in Google, there are two main reasons why your rankings can drop. The first is you made a technical mistake on your own site, such as blocking Google from crawling you. The second is Google decided through algorithms or manual actions that your site shouldn't rank as well anymore.

A WebmasterWorld thread has SEOs debating if it is harder to know if your site was hurt by an algorithm, ie Google vs your own human error.

We have so many algorithms running, possibly well over 2 changes per day, in the search results. Because of that, does it make it impossible for one to know if it is a human issue vs an algorithm? There can be SEO
technical mistakes on the site, but even with those, is that the reason your site tanked?

The senior member in WebmasterWorld said:

Is it time for us to quit simply discounting any statement about a change
made yesterday possibly having an effect on rankings today, or not?

The truth is, probably not. You need to look at a case by case basis. Of course, when I track algorithm changes and Google updates, I look for patterns. If there are a ton of complaints, then you can
assume (not a safe word) that Google did release some sort of update that hit you and others. But you cannot always make that assumption because a technical issue may hit you the same day.

Anyway, this is what you hire SEO firms for. To analyze these things and make suggestions and corrections to things you can control (i.e. your technical site) and things you do not necessarily control.

by Barry Schwartz

Read More

My Site Is Boring. How Do I Get Links?

My Site Is Boring. How Do I Get Links?
The topic of getting links to boring web sites or web sites that
compete with dozens or hundreds of other web sites is not new. If you sell widgets and there are hundreds of other sites that sell the same widgets, then how do you drive up interest to get people to link to your site?

A WebmasterWorld thread has one person even asking if doing link bait type of stories
will change the topicality of his site and result in his rankings to go down.

So if he creates an article about his topic but it is about "avoiding" his topic, is that going to hurt him? This is what he wrote:

Site about widgets. Widgets are boring. Very few people link to sites about widgets. Created page on site, example.com/how-to-avoid-crimes-involving-widgets

Good link bait this page, lots of people link to it, page gets more links than the home page and all other pages combined.

Is this going to change how the search engines see the site, topically
speaking. Will this site go from being classified as a site about
widgets to a site about "how to avoid crimes involving widgets" because
of this link bait?

In my opinion, no - this is a good idea. As long as the article is about his widgets, even if it is anti his widgets, it is still the same topic.

I get these phone calls and emails all the time... The site owner complains that no
one will link to them because they are selling boring stuff.

I try my best to explain that you need to get out of your box and thing bigger.

I give examples of how my boring web development company (scary link but I vouch, it is a good guy) has drum up a ton of real links through crazy ideas on mobile apps. Heck, we even build some jewish software, a really boring religion, for Jewish iPhone apps, Jewish Android apps and even Jewish Google Glass software and believe it or not, it drives tons of traffic and links.

This helps us with a few things:

(1) Showcase our talents

(2) Help a community we are passionate about

(3) Get buzz about our company, which drives links as well.

Look how much attention JewGlass received and trust me, we are working up new concepts all the time.

So if my boring web development company can use a boring religion to make
buzz and get links, I bet your company can do the same.

Come up with a wild software idea, be it an app, glass software, web site tool, a nice piece of content, or something else. Do it, take the risk and let's see if it pays off.

So yes, boring sites have a tough time getting links. For a boring site to get links, you need to create some
life on the site.

by Barry Schwartz

Read More

Google Panda 4.0 Now Rolling Out; A New Panda Algorithm

Google Panda 4.0 Now Rolling Out; A New Panda Algorithm





Last night was pretty wild, with Google confirming an update over the weekend targeting spammy queries and also Google's Matt Cutts posting on Twitter that Panda 4.0 was released.

This is a new Panda algorithm, not a refresh that we've seen almost monthly but enough for Google to name this 4.0, which means a new algorithm update to it.

Google's Matt Cutts told us at Search Engine Land that this Panda 4.0 update impacts ~7.5% of English queries to a degree that a regular user might notice.

Also when I spoke to Matt Cutts, he made it sound like this update may appear gentler for some sites but it does lay the groundwork to future changes in the direction of a softer and gentler Panda algorithm.

This began rolling out yesterday and is unrelated to the Google Spam Algorithm 2.0 released over the weekend and unrelated to anything Penguin.

So no, I was not crazy expecting something big that happened over the weekend and throughout the month and this week. Even though Google said nothing is going on, we've been seeing signs of major changes and ranking shifts all throughout the month. I suspect those were tests for both this Google Spam Algorithm version 2.0 and the Panda 4.0 release.

Google stopped confirming Panda updates last year and then started doing rolling updates but that doesn't mean they haven't done work on fine tuning the algo. They softened it recently and there have been refreshes monthly, some larger than others but it is hard to know if it was Panda or something else.

Over the next few days, we are going to need to look at our analytics and isolate if we were impacted by one of these algorithms. I'll ask you to fill out a poll in the near future and share those results.

by Barry Schwartz

Read More

Google Preparing Large Update? Shifts On May 2nd & 7th

Google Preparing Large Update? Shifts On May 2nd & 7th
I mentioned there was some chatter about a Google update on May 2nd but now we are seeing even more chatter and signs of flux in the Google search results on May 7th.

These signs of shifts in rankings, spikes in crawl rates, often, but not
always, are early warning signs of a major Google update happening in the near future.

Here are flux/volatility charts from MozCast, SERPS.com, SearchMetrics and Algoroo:









All show similar patterns for the most part.

The chatter in the forums, including the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread follow these patterns also.

I did ask Matt Cutts if there was an update, but no response yet:

I would not be surprised if Google launches something big soon on the algorithm side. It seems they are testing something big.

by Barry Schwartz

Read More

Google's Matt Cutts: Anticipate The Query To Better Control Titles In Google

Google's Matt Cutts: Anticipate The Query To Better Control Titles In Google
Google's Matt Cutts posted a video explaining why and when Google may use something other than your title tag for the search results title snippet.

MattCutts suggested that it is best for your to try to anticipate what theuser will search for when crafting your title tags. When you do that and then when it matches the query, then Google will likely show your title tag.

Google uses three criteria when determining if they should use your title tag:

(1) Something that is "relatively" short
(2) Have a good description of the page and "ideally": the site that the page is on.
(3) And that it is relevant to the query.

If you fail on these criteria, then Google may use (1) content on your page, (2) anchor text
links pointing to the page and/or (3) may also use the Open Directory Project.

Other title tag related stories:

• Google Not Listening To Your Title Tag? You're Not Alone
• When Google Rewrites Your Title Tags
• Google: We Show Better Titles Than Your Title Tags
• How Google Picks Your Title In Search Results
• Google Appending Brand In Front Of Search Results Title
• Google Title Tags Measured By Width Not Character?
• A Shorter Google Title Tag After Redesign? Maybe.
• Title Tags Influence Over Outbound Links
• No Title Tag? Google May Use Text From Next "Large Font"
• Google Ignoring Your Page Titles?

by Barry Schwartz

Read More

Schema.org Actions: What Is It?

Schema.org Actions: What Is It?
On Friday, I reported at Search Engine Land that Schema.org launched Actions, a new markup that describes actions that have taken place in the past [past actions] or could take place in the future [potential actions].

Note, Schema.org is the centralized organization backed by Google, Bing,
Yahoo and other search engines, for standardizing markup that mostly
search engines use to better understand text and content on a web page
and is often used in rich snippets.

That being said, I was curious how Google and Bing might use them, but both companies wouldn't tell
me. Google wouldn't tell me anything, but Bing did give me some details. Bing emailed me answers to my questions:

(Q) Can you explain this a bit better in terms of use cases?

(A) The Action vocabulary is intended to be used primarily for describing
actions that have taken place in the past [past actions] or could take
place in the future [potential actions]. Let’s assume Barry shared an
MSN article on Facebook yesterday. This is an example of a past action.
Facebook might use schema.org to describe the action by indicating that
Jason is the subject (agent) of the action, the action verb is sharing,
and the object of the action is an MSN article. Now let’s say MSN wanted
to expose the ability for applications to programmatically share an
article on their website. This would be an example of a potential
action. MSN might use schema.org to describe the potential action by
indicating the action verb is ‘sharing’ and that you can perform this
action by calling a specific URL.

(Q) How may Bing use this in the search results and is it being used now?

(A) Bing currently uses a draft version of the Actions vocabulary to power the recently released App Linking service. You can learn more about that via the Bing Dev Center and
associated MSDN documentation. In addition to App Linking, there are a
number of ways in which we might use the vocabulary to power new
experiences in Bing and other Microsoft products. Unfortunately there
are no definitive plans we can share at this time.

Note that Bing uses other schema.org vocabularies to power its rich web result captions
as well. More information on that product is available in the Bing
Webmaster Tools.

(Q) What are the goals here for webmasters?

(A) The primary goal of schema.org has always been to provide webmasters
with a common vocabulary for use in describing their data. The new
Actions vocabulary, especially the terms associated with potential
actions, extends this goal to include describing services as well. By
providing these descriptions, search engines like Bing and other
applications that consume them can leverage the associated information
to expose the data and services in a relevant and useful way.

Here are the various definitions allowed in Actions:

• actionStatus: Indicates the current disposition of the Action.
• agent: The direct performer or driver of the action (animate or inanimate). e.g. *John* wrote a book.
• endTime: When the Action was performed: end time. This is for actions that span a period of time. e.g. John wrote a book from January to *December*.
• instrument: The object that helped the agent perform the action. e.g. John wrote a book with *a pen*.
• location: The location of the event, organization or action.
• object: The object upon the action is carried out, whose state is kept intact or changed. Also known as the semantic roles patient, affected or undergoer (which change their state) or theme (which doesn't). e.g. John read *a book*.
• participant: Other co-agents that participated in the action indirectly. e.g. John wrote a book with *Steve*.
• result: The result produced in the action. e.g. John wrote *a book*.
• startTime: When the Action was performed: start time. This is for actions that span a period of time. e.g. John wrote a book from *January* to December.
• target: Indicates a target EntryPoint for an Action.

by Barry Schwartz

Read More

75% Of SEOs Want Yahoo To Return To Search

75% Of SEOs Want Yahoo To Return To Search
A couple months ago new rumors surfaced around Yahoo making a return to search.

With those rumors, we asked you guys if you think Yahoo should indeed make those efforts or give up now? With over 200 responses on our poll I
wanted to tell you that the majority would like to see Yahoo return to
search 75% of you said yes, Yahoo should get back into search. Only 18% said no, they should not and 7% don't care either way.

I suspect the 75% said yes so that there would be more diversity and
competition in the search space. Or maybe they hate Microsoft?

Here is the pie chart with more purple in it:



by Barry Schwartz

Read More