Google Titles In Snippets Gone Awry

Aug 25, 2016 • 8:11 am | (3) by Barry Schwartz | Filed Under Google Search Engine Optimization

 

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Over the past few weeks, I've been hearing rumblings across the community about the Google search results not working as expected. Specifically how the titles are showing wrong, invalid or weird information. In fact, I think John Mueller was asked at the 24:35 mark into the hangout from Tuesday on Google+.
So just this morning, I spotted a webmaster who shared a specific example. A search for [LJL] returns a snippet in the first position that shows 0 as the title, where the title tag actually says "League of Legends Japan League."
Here is a picture:

Here is the question that came up in the hangout:

Google has been tampering a lot with our homepage titles for exact match queries (sitename + country) . It is a multisite wordpress installation with localised versions en, uk and BR - what should we be looking at?

John responded that he needed to see specific examples but it can be an issue of Google folding two pages together. But truth is, I've heard more rumblings about this in forums and on Twitter.
Here is the video embed:
Have the title tags been normal for you in Google?
Forum discussion at Twitter.

Source: - https://www.seroundtable.com/google-titles-in-snippets-gone-bad-22592.html

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Is Google Testing The Penguin 4.0 Algorithm?

Apr 6, 2016 • 8:27 am | (220) by Barry Schwartz | Filed Under Google PageRank & Algorithm Updates

 

I think we are on the verge of seeing Penguin 4.0 launch soon at Google - I think we are just about there. I know, I know, it's been a while. I have seen some chatter in the industry, on and off chatter, over the past 12 hours or so, that people are noticing some drastic changes with the Google search rankings on and off. 

It can be nothing, it can be a blip, it can be a different algorithm or it can be people making stuff up - but it also can be Google testing Penguin 4.0 to a limited set of searchers.
The folks at WebmasterWorld over the past 12 hours or so have been asking about it:

JS Harris, a senior Webmaster World member said:

I have a small list of 10 distinct keywords for my site that I check when I wonder if a major update has occurred. The bottom few results on page one generally come and go but the top spots stay immortal. They stay there, that is, until there is a major update.

I'm only ever mildly surprised when I see a would be contender for immortality disappear but it's usually because they've become frustrated with 'almost ranked' status(below the fold) and made major changes, which didn't help.

9/10 of the immortals have changed, in my opinion this has been a major update(affecting roughly 1% of queries, no doubt). Penguin perhaps?

Another person said:

Yesterday, I was ranked #2 for another brands keyword. Today, I am ranked in both position 7 & 8 for 2 separate articles... basically on my website I have a "vendors" page which has all their products listed, and then links to information specific to their products (more in depth). I did not take into account the confusion it would cause to Google, I would suspect it fairly easy to distinguish in this day and age... 

 

Martin Ice Web, another senior member also noticed traffic and algorithm changes in rankings.

I have some recent comments on my Google webmaster report with webmasters saying "yes something is rolling on. One of my website got hit really badly." Another said "I think there is an update happening too. Seen some serious movement on a few keywords, some good, some bad."

It would not surprise me if this is Google testing Penguin in the wild. If so, and all is good, we may see a Penguin 4.0 release this weekend or next? Wishful thinking?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Reference Link:- https://www.seroundtable.com/google-testing-the-new-penguin-algorithm-21892.html

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Google Panda 4.1 Now Rolling Out; Aims To Help Smaller Web Sites

One of my fears was that Google would announce a big algorithm update while I was offline for Rosh Hashanah and they did just that - although the update was not Google Penguin, it was Google Panda related.

This one, Pierre Far has the privilege of announcing on his Google+ page. He wrote:

Source: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-4-1-hits-19219.html

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Google Panda Goes Into Hiding: No More Official Confirmations

Google Panda Hiding

On Friday I reported at Search Engine Land that Google will no longer give us confirmations or more details on future Panda updates.

Why? Google no longer plans to push out manual Panda refreshes, all future ones should be part of Google's rolling updates. So Google told us at Search Engine Land:

I don't expect us to tweet about or confirm current or future Panda updates because they'll be incorporated into our indexing process and thus be more gradual.

Honestly, I prefer it that way. There is so much stress for me to get Google to respond and give confirmations on these updates. I feel it on both ends. You guys, the SEOs and Webmasters want the confirmation. Google is not always eager to give them to me.

So now, with Panda, I won't have to worry about it anymore.

For Webmasters not knowing is never good but if it is part of Google's rolling updates, if you believe that, then there is nothing they can do to really help you there.

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Matt Cutts: 301 Redirects Dilute PageRank Equally To Normal Links

Just under three years ago, we reported that 301 redirects don’t pass full PageRank and that you should try to link through a normal link versus using 301 redirects.

The truth is, a 301 redirect and a link pass the same amount of PageRank. There is no more dilution of PageRank with a 301 redirect when compared to using a normal link.

Matt Cutts squashed this myth that I believe many SEOs thought to be true, today in a video:


He said: The amount of PageRank that dissipates through a 301 is currently identical to the amount of PageRank that dissipates through a link. So the myth that you should not use 301 redirects because it will dissipate more PageRank than using a normal link is not valid.

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Google Panda Update Version #24, 1.2% Of Search Queries Impacted

Google has announced a new Panda refresh, making this version number 24.

This refresh has a noticeable impact 1.2% of English based queries according to Google.

The previous confirmed update was #23 and it impacted 1.3% of English queries on December 21, 2012. Prior to that was a refresh on November 21st that impacted 0.8% of queries. It seems like Google is now rolling out these updates every 4 weeks or so.

Last week there were significant reports of a Google update, which Google denied.

Here are all the releases so far for Panda:

Panda Update 1, Feb. 24, 2011 (11.8% of queries; announced; English in US only)
Panda Update 2, April 11, 2011 (2% of queries; announced; rolled out in English internationally)
Panda Update 3, May 10, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
Panda Update 4, June 16, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
Panda Update 5, July 23, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
Panda Update 6, Aug. 12, 2011 (6-9% of queries in many non-English languages; announced)
Panda Update 7, Sept. 28, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
Panda Update 8, Oct. 19, 2011 (about 2% of queries; belatedly confirmed)
Panda Update 9, Nov. 18, 2011: (less than 1% of queries; announced)
Panda Update 10, Jan. 18, 2012 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
Panda Update 11, Feb. 27, 2012 (no change given; announced)
Panda Update 12, March 23, 2012 (about 1.6% of queries impacted; announced)
Panda Update 13, April 19, 2012 (no change given; belatedly revealed)
Panda Update 14, April 27, 2012: (no change given; confirmed; first update within days of another)
Panda Update 15, June 9, 2012: (1% of queries; belatedly announced)
Panda Update 16, June 25, 2012: (about 1% of queries; announced)
Panda Update 17, July 24, 2012:(about 1% of queries; announced)
Panda Update 18, Aug. 20, 2012: (about 1% of queries; belatedly announced)
Panda Update 19, Sept. 18, 2012: (less than 0.7% of queries; announced)
Panda Update 20 , Sep. 27, 2012 (2.4% English queries, impacted, belatedly announced
Panda Update 21, Nov. 5, 2012 (1.1% of English-language queries in US; 0.4% worldwide; confirmed, not announced)
Panda Update 22, Nov. 21, 2012 (0.8% of English queries were affected; confirmed, not announced)
Panda Update 23, Dec. 21, 2012 (1.3% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)
Panda Update 24, Jan. 22, 2013 (1.2% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)

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Confirmed: A Panda Refresh, Version #23

Update: Google has confirmed that this is a Panda refresh. This would make it version 23 and it impacted about 1.3% of English based queries.

I should note, I am shocked they pushed out a refresh before the holiday seasons. Last year they promised they would not do a Panda update before the holidays. What a difference a year makes.

A week ago, we reported on some very strong signs of a Google Update last Thursday. Google told us there was no update, not Panda and not anything. Webmasters feel Google is either lying or are clueless

That being said, there are now new reports in the same WebmasterWorld thread of an update hitting a few hours ago in the Google search results.

In the WebmasterWorld thread, here are some of the posts: Looked like something got rolled back to me. My positions have all reverted to where they were last week.
There has been some shuffling overnight (in which my main key term page has gone from page 2 to page 4).

Now it is really early and the reporting tools have yet to report as of this morning, including MozCast, SERPmetrics and SERPS.com. Although, since this seems to have been updating early this morning, the tools may not show anything until tomorrow.

Google has confirmed a Panda refresh impacting 1.3% of queries!

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New Panda data refresh rolling out: ~1.3% of English queries noticeably affected. Background: http://t.co/BoJyWRW2

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