Google algo update today

yugejackpots said:
I think I did as well -_-, was so close to hitting page 1 on a massive keyword.

One of my sites in Europe dropped -10, another dropped completely off the keyword but remains ranking #3 on brand.

That's why I'm assuming they switched the algorithm to be keyword by keyword instead of site-wide penalties.

I don't see how this could be anything other than Penguin, unless it's a payday algo update (which is separate from Penguin).
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do you mind to say how many times you have mentioned your keyword on your landing page? also, as compared to your main competitors, is it less or more than what they have on their landing page?

thanks in advance
 
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Sept 1, 2016 (ongoing)
A system error began dropping all Search Analytics data after Aug 31. We hope to fix the problem soon and add back the missing data.

saw this in the wmt. could this have something to do with the changes?
 
fb3003 said:
do you mind to say how many times you have mentioned your keyword on your landing page? also, as compared to your main competitors, is it less or more than what they have on their landing page?

thanks in advance
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I don't do keyword stuffing, I used the keyword a lot less than the guys that survived the update.
 
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6211453#search_analytics

Just seen this
 
For me this update definitely looks Rankbrain related and NOT link related at all.

Several sites in totally different niches and languages/target countries (UK, ES, FR, DE) with exactly the same offpage strategy, some skyrocketing, some dropping, not in total, just huge keyword specific moves. Sometimes even huge jumps and drops for the same site.

Nothing sitewide, it's much more granular, which automatically excludes Penguin or Panda from the list of candidates.
 
This update reminds me of the last Penguin refresh. Something widespread but fairly mild.

Some people are reporting Penguin sites recovered across various forums, whether or not that's true who knows.

I guess nobody will know though until the official word from G.
 
starki said:
For me this update definitely looks
Rankbrain related and NOT link related at all.

Several sites in totally different niches and languages/target countries (UK, ES, FR, DE) with exactly the same offpage strategy, some skyrocketing, some dropping, not in total, just huge keyword specific moves. Sometimes even huge jumps and drops for the same site.

Nothing sitewide, it's much more granular, which automatically excludes Penguin or Panda from the list of candidates.
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Not really, they may have made Penguin keyword-based instead of site-wide, this helps with negative SEO, because now Google can just say "at least your company still ranks on the brand name while you work to remove the negative SEO". I've also heard of 10+ Penguin recoveries in Germany and UK. I saw an example of a site that was hit by Penguin 1.0, jump +70 spots overnight. If that's not Penguin... well, I don't know what to tell you.

EDIT: I think you may be on to something with RankBrain, however, I also don't see any way this isn't a link-based algorithm. How Google is weighing links is impossible to tell, so when you say "the same off-page strategy," well, not really, because the domains/locations/anchors will be different.
 
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I have to pour over more data, but I'm seeing a lot of green arrows on my end. I don't like to speculate, but this looks more like a shift in how Google weighs their ranking signals. It could be something as simple as giving more weight to particular types of links or the way that certain on page aspects are weighed. Google just shaking shit up. Nothing more than Google trying to keep us on our toes.
 
yugejackpots said:
Not really, they may have made Penguin keyword-based instead of site-wide, this helps with negative SEO, because now Google can just say "at least your company still ranks on the brand name while you work to remove the negative SEO". I've also heard of 10+ Penguin recoveries in Germany and UK. I saw an example of a site that was hit by Penguin 1.0, jump +70 spots overnight. If that's not Penguin... well, I don't know what to tell you.

EDIT: I think you may be on to something with RankBrain, however, I also don't see any way this isn't a link-based algorithm. How Google is weighing links is impossible to tell, so when you say "the same off-page strategy," well, not really, because the domains/locations/anchors will be different.
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As I previously wrote, there has been a massive increase in 404/410 errors for pages on a client site (in French). The links to those URLs are all from low quality sites (such as directories or article directories) with exact match anchor text for the keyword trying to be ranked. Those pages must have been recrawled just before the update, and they haven't been crawled for a long time because I haven't seen them in WMT for years.

Despite a huge clean-up effort and much quality link building since the last Penguin update, traffic to the site is normal. That makes me conclude that this isn't Penguin (i.e. over-optimised anchor text), but rather a big crawl of sites that have been marked as low quality in the past, followed by an update to the sites to which they link.
 
yugejackpots said:
From all my analysis and research I would say it's likely Penguin but hasn't rolled out in the USA yet. The only significant changes (so far) have been in Germany, UK, and a few other European countries.

I can also confirm that the algorithm is keyword-by-keyword, opposed to site-wide, which leads me to believe this is Google's way of "accepting negative SEO" as a permanent part of SEO.

I have seen many examples of sites that completely dropped on root keywords but still rank on brand. This couldn't happen on previous versions of Penguin, as the penalty was always site-wide (including brand).
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I'm not thinking that it is penguin related simply because John Mueller said that it is not in this morning's Google Webmaster Hangout that Barry reported on this morning. It must be a tweak to the core algo and general quality. The local chatter definitely added to the confusion. Most of the loss in rank I experienced was for local based queries that don't necessarily produce local packs.
 
My site dropped from #1 to unranked completely. What's weird is that it only dropped for my target keyword. "targetkeyword 2016" is still ranking at the #2 position, along with "targetkeyword guide". If I do "site:myurl.com" all my pages are there. Just so strange that I dropped out like that. My content is excellent. No manual actions. No warnings.
 
HenryHavoc said:
My site dropped from #1 to unranked completely. What's weird is that it only dropped for my target keyword. "targetkeyword 2016" is still ranking at the #2 position, along with "targetkeyword guide". If I do "site:myurl.com" all my pages are there. Just so strange that I dropped out like that. My content is excellent. No manual actions. No warnings.
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Have u just used the target kw in while link building or did u use the other 2 versions too? How does ur anchor text ration look like?
 
ridersark said:
Have u just used the target kw in while link building or did u use the other 2 versions too? How does ur anchor text ration look like?
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Funny you say that. I bought some PBNs and purchased a different pack to diversify. Looks like 80% of my links are exact match. Can't even believe it. I'm furious right now. Can I get the ranking back by diversifying? Or is that a waste of time?
 
HenryHavoc said:
My site dropped from #1 to unranked completely. What's weird is that it only dropped for my target keyword. "targetkeyword 2016" is still ranking at the #2 position, along with "targetkeyword guide". If I do "site:myurl.com" all my pages are there. Just so strange that I dropped out like that. My content is excellent. No manual actions. No warnings.
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Yea it seems to be some sort of keyword-by-keyword penalty, where one keyword can be penalized without affecting the other keywords / brands.

Same thing happened on some of my sites.
 
yugejackpots said:
I monitor a bunch of European SERPS and this was a big one. Doesn't appear to be Penguin, but who knows, it had a huge impact on some spammy niches.

Most sites dropped -7, while others dropped all the way to page 9-10.

It seems mild in the USA so far, but could be rolling out there as we speak.

Post your rank changes.

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-core-web-search-algorithm-update-22636.html
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I am not ready for this shit! SEO in danger!!!!
 
Unreliable Witness said:
As I previously wrote, there has been a massive increase in 404/410 errors for pages on a client site (in French). The links to those URLs are all from low quality sites (such as directories or article directories) with exact match anchor text for the keyword trying to be ranked. Those pages must have been recrawled just before the update, and they haven't been crawled for a long time because I haven't seen them in WMT for years.

Despite a huge clean-up effort and much quality link building since the last Penguin update, traffic to the site is normal. That makes me conclude that this isn't Penguin (i.e. over-optimised anchor text), but rather a big crawl of sites that have been marked as low quality in the past, followed by an update to the sites to which they link.
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Which gives PBNs even more weight then, or if you can get relevant domains with good links. High quality, aged sites and aged backlinks with new content added daily/weekly = rank. That's what I'm seeing. I do think that weak/low quality links have either been disregarded or wiped off the index, which makes SER and other tools fairly useless right now.

HenryHavoc said:
My site dropped from #1 to unranked completely. What's weird is that it only dropped for my target keyword. "targetkeyword 2016" is still ranking at the #2 position, along with "targetkeyword guide". If I do "site:myurl.com" all my pages are there. Just so strange that I dropped out like that. My content is excellent. No manual actions. No warnings.
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Get them removed if you were at #1. Why risk top spot with some unknown PBN posts? Build your own and trust no one.
 
HenryHavoc said:
Funny you say that. I bought some PBNs and purchased a different pack to diversify. Looks like 80% of my links are exact match. Can't even believe it. I'm furious right now. Can I get the ranking back by diversifying? Or is that a waste of time?
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I was following your thread where u mentioned those 2 packages that u bought. I suspected excessive use of your main kw and it really seems to be that. I was actually planning to get that pbn package or something similar from other seller in here, but then building my pbn looks like the most cost-effective and safe way. I say safe because you get to control the anchors, links.

Try speaking to the seller and get the anchors sorted out. If they don't , then build a new site buddy. U got it right once!

Edit: Y diversify? U already have the firepower that pushed u to the top. Play around with the anchors and see how it responds.
 
one of my micro niche site has jumped from 3rd to 1st position, main keyword as anchor text is 2%(ahref)
 
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