Google Updates and SERP Changes May 2016

Considering that this month's thread was started with a couple of posts not directly related to Google updates and SERP changes, at least as I see it, I'll take some liberties.  The most extreme case is where we spend a lot more money on PPC and our SEO CTR for keyword goes from 35% CTR to 20% CTR. It's almost like dropping from position 1 for a term to position 2.

I've always seen this recurring thread as a place where people vent frustrations, propose theories and generally complain about the state of the internet. It serves a purpose because people do need to express frustrations, and sometimes work through the issues that may be causing them problems. 

Sigh. It's the world of today. For those that have been around a while, I did some who is on jimworld today. Not because I had a big development plan, but just because.

Google continues to add more and more answer boxes to the top of its search results, in some cases even trying to use them for complex issues that can't be reduced to a simple "answer".

When your CPC goes from 10 cents to $2-$3 due to "black box" algorithm (and, of course, "competition"), no matter how you try or who you hire you can't possibly make that work. Unless , of course, you are in a niche with 5000% profit margins.

For Google, it's all about the money. The higher CPC, loss of ads in the right column and zombie clicks are all designed by Google to drives clicks, regardless of quality, into high paying ads. It's possible that the zombies on both free and paid search are designed to provide Google legal cover should litigation be brought against them by a company or class - allowing Google to defend themselves against our financial losses in Adwords due to zombie traffic (severely mismatched, untargeted or whatever anyone wants to call it) on an algorithm that applies the same targeting across their entire search network. Meaning the poor targeting does not focus on paid ads alone, which makes it even more difficult for anyone to prove Google is billing Adwords advertisers via junk traffic. 

Despite how Google is using zombie traffic for their financial gain, it's clear that it is here to stay. Even after bowing out of Adwords due to ridiculously poor traffic most days of the week, which cost me a lot of money, the zombie pattern still continues in the free search for eight months straight. Out of all the crap visitors, Google sends my way, assuming the majority of them are even real, I am still able to get some conversions. It's not anything spectacular, but since I am not spending any money with Google anymore I'll take it. Otherwise, I'll spend my money at other marketplaces like Amazon where I am not getting screwed.

I would say that running CPA on Adwords fixes a part of the problem. It will force G to send you traffic that converts, otherwise they get no $$'s. Running Adwords without CPA is asking for problems / bots / traffic that doesn't convert because then you only ask for clicks and nothing more? In addition, you should exclude converting places / city's in Adwords and also exclude the weaker keywords that don't convert in last 30 days or so. 

Doing this provides you with a great opportunity to compare Adwords when it runs on an acceptable level with your Organic traffic to see differences .... For example, look close on the demographics reports in Analytics, age differences, where people originate etc. Also cleaning this out helps to get the right traffic on your website, raises user experiences and also raises overall satisfaction of the people left on your website ... This makes the circle round again because it will improve your ranking?

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