An SEO Penguin like update
UPDATE: Video transcript available for ‘An SEO Penguin like update’.
A couple of major things to cover off today. The first is a story that is hot off the press. You may have noticed in your recent Google searches that all the ads that were normally down the right hand side of the page have magically disappeared. If you are an avid user of Google AdWords then guess what? That’s right; things are most likely about to get a whole lot more expensive for you. Another day ending in ‘Y’ and Google increases its revenue.
AdWords Profit Margin
For example, in the screenshot below, you can see my often-used example of ‘skip bin hire’. There are four ads at the top, but none along the side of the page. There are also three at the foot of the page, but I’m not sure anyone clicks on those. I will certainly monitor this situation with AdWords and cover it in future shows. We will have some cost data in the coming weeks but I think prices will only go in one direction.
March of the Penguin
Now when I recorded this week’s video I thought I was seeing a new Penguin in the SERPs. I know, I know, if you had a dollar for every time I mentioned a potential Penguin rollout. I think I’m becoming the builder from Tom Hank’s ‘Money Pit’ movie. Every time Tom’s character would ask how long until the renovations were complete, the builder would smirk and say, “Two weeks, Mr. Fielding. Two weeks.” I think I’m becoming that guy. “How long until the Penguin rollout, Jim?” “Two weeks, people. Two weeks.” Jeez.
Anyway, I felt it in my waters that the signs were right for a potential (notice the disclaimer) Penguin rollout. I was monitoring a couple of searches on Friday afternoon and during that time the results changed for everyone in the office. So I ruled out anything to do with personalisation or some Google test on my browser. By Saturday morning the results changed back again and remained like that for the weekend. But, come the Monday morning, they all reverted to what I had seen on the Friday evening. Spooky huh?
Now the algorithm checkers hadn’t thrown up any indicators, but I compared past search rankings for our skip bin hire companies and found some interesting results. https://stewartmedia.com.au/seo-hysteria-and-google-updates/ The previous number one and two search rankings have slipped to sixth and eighth respectively, with many others following suit. ‘Outdoor furniture’ is suffering similar results. Masters fell from first to eighth, went back to number one on Saturday before dropping back to eighth on Monday morning. Phew!
Many sites across various industries are following similar changes. Many of those sites have, let’s call them dubious backlinks.
Is This Penguin?
If it waddles like a Penguin and quacks like a Penguin…Wait that’s not right. I was convinced that It was some sort of Penguin test, or at least a pre-Penguin rollout as the results haven’t switched back. People are discussing it on the YouTube channel and the swings are being seen across unrelated search results, which is rare. I haven’t seen similar results coming out of the U.S. but I will keep monitoring the situation. Now that I’ve had more time to investigate since recording the video, I think what I was seeing was a local search results update. Google results in our office defaults to Mt Waverley. What we saw was those Mt Waverley results change. If you think you’ve seen something strange (Penguins, not aliens) feel free to drop us a line or leave a comment.
There’s a conversation starting on our Facebook page in relation to the Google AdWords issue I discussed earlier. Please jump in and give us your valued opinions on what you think will happen to Google Adwords pricing following this change. I personally can only hear cash registers ringing in the Google office.
Our Facebook page is facebook.com/melbourneseo
Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.
