Google November Update 2019 - Disaster! Anyone else Suffering?
Hi Guys,
Google Sucks!
Around November 8th Google did an unannounced change to their Core Algorythm.
They have since sort of conformed this with a few Vauge tweets and a few comments in online webhangouts, but have not confirmed anything properly of annouced it as a major update. The tools in place to monitor these sort of things have not picked any big changes in Serp volitility and the internet sems to be normal.
However there has been a HUGE outcry from small to medium webmeasters of traffic being all but wiped out. 40-70% decreases not uncommon. Conversly, Blackhat Spammers seem to be having a field day with their crappy sites filled with dodgy back links soarig to the top of the serps.
This update seem to be on par with the mythical Penguin Update and the Medic update earlier in the year.
Reading Webmaster forum comments pages is heartbreaking as google seems to have decimated website owners like us all acroos the web. And worse the results that have replaced them in the Serps are dreadful!
Particularly badly effected are Travel Blogs and Recipie sites for some reason...
My Travel Blog
My Site has too been badly effected.
Traffic in August and September has been amazing, everything going swimmingly. It began to tail off slightly through october, but being a travel sit and me being out of the country and not doing much to the site seemed to make sense. The November 9th Armageddon.
From 700+ sessions a day down to 380-400, The Quality and worth of these session also seriously reduced with Serp Positions for all my top pages slashed from 1-3 to 5-9 or even worse disapearing completely. Worse still the pages I have been userped by are worse than my page by orders of magnitude, some resultes notjhing more than a forum post and some not even relevant to the search at all (a differnewt product)
Googles responses is little more than your cotent was probably not as good then or it would be rank better just focus on makeing better content!
I find this deeply frustrating.
The truth is, what do all this terrible articles have that I don't and the other webmasters don't have who have been hit?
Backlinks
Here at Wealthy Affiliate we are told to not worry about backlinks, Google has REPEATEDLY agreed with this, Just focus on Great content, the Algorythem will take care of the rest.
Than Bam - Google screws half the internet by favouring sites filled with meaningless spun backlinks.
Anyone Else?
Anyone else been effected by this update?
Has your trafic crashed inthe last few days/weeks?
Have you noticed a serious reduction in Googles search results quality?
Unfortunately I don't have any answers, other than get a real job, ATM
I will as ever continue to do what I always do and push out great content that is helpful, useful and engaging, but as google won't show it anyone, not sure this will help!
Recent Comments
27
Hi there,
You're not alone!! This Nov 2019 update TOTALLY affected my reviews-style site too, unfortunately. There's something comforting knowing that it wasn't something I did wrong (I've always benefited from other Google updates too), or something that brought a Google slap/penalty, but that it was out of my control. Not that this knowledge helps get the traffic back up.
(I was looking for others who had the same problem... see my Q here for more responses) Sudden huge drop in rankings, 2 year old site. why? My stats are similar to yours. Average traffic pre Nov 8th was about 500-700 visits per day, these last few days I'm around 250-350. I went from 38 good solid keywords in positions 1-3 to just 14 as of today... really, really sucks pre-Black Friday and the Christmas season.
Hopefully Kyle is right that it'll bounce back... hopefully soon! It's so discouraging after putting so. much. work into our sites!
Marlaine
Hi marlaine,
Tbh I find it all the more frustrating that its not something we have done wrong. We played by the rules did exactly what google asked and it turned round and f###### us !
If i had done something wrong I could fix it!
How are you finding your SERP results? What is the quality of the sites and results that have replaced you ? The worst of this for me is I am seeing a real decline in the results, spam sites, poor quality reviews, forum results and even irrelevant or duplicate results all hopped ahead of me! Its not good for anyone, other than the spam sites?
Sorry this has hit you right before black friday and Christmas. That must suck in your niche. It almost seems deliberate but as i have said the trashy results wont make for a good user experience!
As a travel site black friday isnt as big as some niches but it must really sting as the huge bump in sales you were expecting is gone!
As an update, I am not seeing any kind of rebound, a slow reduction in traffic as more rankings fall off.
So hard to focus on great quality content when things are going so badly
Still, cant let the bastards grind you down...
Yeah, I'm seeing the same as you... I don't think I'm being biased when I say my posts on the whole are higher quality than those that are in the current higher ranking spots.
I'm not seeing much of an increase back yet either. There still seems to be a fair bit of fluctuation. Large drops and large leaps throughout the day (where it used to be small increases and decreases), but still on the whole, it's going down and down. The google dance hasn't slowed down yet... and I'm not sure what to think about it.
I do agree that it's very hard to focus on keeping going the same way. I've been busier this week updating older posts instead, and just picking away at my latest new one.
Update me here if you start seeing some increases again?? I'll do likewise. Hopefully it's soon!
Yeah, still a general downward trend, where it ends nobody knows.
Like you I am getting huge surges, traffic pouring through, than bam, all gone for an hour or so.
Something very odd going on a GoogleHQ!
I get the impression when the Google dance ends I will be very happy or distraught, depending on which side of the dance google decides on.
I will keep everyone updated
Thank you Stephen for sharing and asking the question. Very helpful. My site is not doing well but it's because of my lack of writing.
I'm curious to hear how your rankings improve in the next while, please keep us in the loop.
Monica
I have seen a dip in traffic since November, but this is not out of the ordinary for my site. For many years, traffic dips during the fall/winter, then rises in spring/summer. This is just for one website.
Another website I have has seen significant gains (but usually does) during the winter.
I would not look at this as a permanent issue. If spammers really are ranking better, then Google will fix it.
It's hard to stomach, but sometimes it's easy to overestimate the value of our own content because we worked on it. It may be that better content is outranking you now, and it's time to seriously look at what your own content is lacking.
It really sucks when you see your hard work erased. It's happened to me many times before, so I feel ya'. Long term though, it's just a blip.
Keep writing. Keep improving.
If you really do believe that backlinks are the only reason for the change in rank, invest more time into outreach. Outreach: How To Get Others In Your Niche Linking To You And Tweeting About You To Their Fans Rather than 5 articles a week, write two, then make some connections. Focus on working WITH other people in your niche, rather than against them.
Or diversify your traffic. Do more Pinterest or Twitter.
Or get into PPC. It's pricey, but reliable once you get it down.
There are many options on how to deal with fluctuations in Google's algorithm and your website ranking.
Have you seen if you actually lost rank? Keep in mind, it could be a overall traffic loss for everyone, not just you. If your rankings haven't changed, then there's probably no issue for your website.
Have you investigated who replaced you? Is it a bunch of sites, or just one site? See if you can pin down what they're doing. SEMRush is great for investigating competitors to see if they are gaining/losing rankings at the same pace as you. Researching Your Competition
Hi Nathaniell, Seriously appreciate the input.
Yes, I have checked the rankings and there is a BIG drop. Articles in Pos 1-3 dropped to 5-9 and some vanished completely!
I am a Travel Blogger and I totally expect a seasonal drop-off. Mid-August I was hitting 1000 sessions a day by mid-October it was 700ish, but as you said rankings had changed very little, until Nov 8th onwards.
I get what you say about being honest and realistic about my work and I am not the type to be precious or overestimating my "talents" quite the opposite, I am probably over critical. There are surely some instances where I have been leapfrogged by better articles and Kudos to them...
But in some of my key rankings, the competition articles are really poor and cynically written, clearly, they have not seen the products and the content is spun. Forum posts have risen above me and a few articles are not even relevant at all, Review Articles for a different product for example!
I have spent far too much time analyzing the competition since. It tends to be 3 or 4 sites alternating in the upper positions and really all I can see is their much larger collection of backlinks and being older more established sites.
Outreach is certainly something I need to look at, I tend not to be the most outgoing of types and find this side of things hard but it is clear to me some sort of network building is needed.
I am well aware I need to Diversify into the Social world but I have never really had any success and just find it a lot of effort for little gain the traffic is always such poor quality. A am putting a lot of effort into YouTube as that can really benefit my site, but that is still early days and really expensive to get content for a travel blog.
I really do appreciate you taking the time and I will definitely look at your suggestions, most of them are at worse future-proofing against future losses!
Cheers
No problem Stephen. I definitely feel ya', and it sounds like you've done a lot of research already into your rankings, competition, and possible reasons for the drop.
Keep us in the loop with your rankings and traffic!
There is bing and other search engines and other browsers... many are fed up with g-dictatorship and leaving them
Yep, but BILLIONS aren't
If you want to play this game you have to play to Google's rules.
It's just the method behind the madness of this one that is perplexing, it REALLY hasn't made the search results better!
At least with Penguin and Medic, there was some logic behind it, this is just insanity!
Yes... insane is the word...
Will not last, believe me
In the mean time we can try to understand
And adapt...
I take it you mean Google will not last, or at least their dominance.
Word of warning Google's downfall has been prophesied for a long time, and it's still getting bigger.
We should be mindful that want we "want" to happen or what we think "should" happen is often very different from what does happen...
haha, yeah well I definitely hope you are right there!
But again, Just because I "hope" won't make it so.
my focus now has to just be more, better, content.
Thanks
Steve
Kyle gave us all a great advice
Hang on...
The google servers are rewinding and their quantum server needs to learn
;-)
See more comments
The worst thing you can do is knee jerk react when an update like this takes place. Google often times "over shoots" with an update, and you will see fluctuations where you are immediately hurt by an update, and then over time your website starts to move further up in the rankings than it ever has been.
We saw this happen with the June update, and yes, lots of people were both positively and negatively impacted by Google Core in November...but I think you are going to find that your rankings will come back.
I would recommend that you keep an eye on some of the key ones using SiteRank and also keep the foot on the pedal. Don't let this stop you from creating content and continuing to build out your website.
Thanks for the input, Kyle,
That is exactly what the intelligent part of my brain has been saying. But as you can imagine when half your traffic evaporates overnight the emotional part of the brain comes to the froe and starts having a meltdown!
I am continuing to push out content, the only way to fight it is to keep going as you say. But it has slowed me a little as naturally, I have spent time working out how ti "FIX" it.
I know I can't but you just can't help fixating on things a little!
But other than that there have been no Knee Jerk Reactions. I Disavowed a few spammy backlinks, pumped out some new content, tweaked a few bits here and there and requested a load of comments to increase any interaction markers google uses, but that is it for now. Just onwards with more and more content.
I already Track my Key Keywords in Jaxxy and they really have tanked the last few days :(
Kyle, it sort of reminds me of knee-jerk reactions in the stock market--if we sell, we lose, nut if we stay the course, we come out better on the other end. It seems that the same applies in our internet businesses!
Jeff
People said that about Bear Sterns when their stock started getting volatile!
Those that stayed the course didn't do too well!
There is always a flip side, a reason people react the way they do.
But I do agree in this instance a knee-jerk is the wrong response.
Point taken, but I've learned that you only lose if you cash out, UNLESS of course, you're closer to retirement, then is the time to play things close to the vest!
Jeff