Do you evaluate the change to your traffic when a Google update is announced?

[MichaelCorfman]

There have been many discussions over the years about changes in Google's algorithms and the impact those changes have had on traffic to member's sites. The most recent discussion was about the "Penguin" or "webspam" update in the thread "Google algorithm change overnight."

In that thread many members talk about some pretty significant changes in their rankings and in the traffic to their sites. So, for this week's poll, I thought it would be interesting to ask how carefully webmasters here examine the impact of Google algorithm changes on their rankings and traffic.

When you learn there has been an update, do you carefully monitor whether it has had an effect on your site? Do you monitor the traffic to your site completely independently of whether you know there has been a Google update? And do you take any specific actions based on what you see?

Share your thoughts with us in a post about how traffic levels on your site influence what you do, especially when there are changes based on search engine referrals.

Michael

[thebookiesoffers]

I always study traffic anyway, but this latest update has needed extra special attention to see what is going on.

I believe that you should always monitor conversions, traffic, impressions etc. by doing this you can see what you're doing right and wrong

[slotplayer]

I've been looking at my traffic for the period from Jan 1 to April 30th for the last 3 years.
I had a massive increase in visitors in 2011 over 2010 more than triple, closer to a quadruple increase.
I even had my site off-line for a month last June when QT went out but got all the traffic back.

However, for the same period in 2012 I 've had big decrease in visitors, about 52% less than 2011 but still about 48% more than 2010. A quick look at a month by month comparison reveals something happened around November 2011 to cause the decrease.

As far as this last Google update goes I've seen some pages move up and some move down but overall the traffic is still the same. At least the revenue generating pages are still ranking well in the serps.

[thepogg]

I check my traffic stats frequently every day. I do pay attention when google updates or when i change something major on the site, but my monitoring isn't specific to these situations. That said, i do run only one site, so prehaps i have more time to invest in this than others.

[ocreditor]

Check it so regularly, it almost does not depend on the sun rising, not to mention changes done to Google's algorithm...

[BHL]

I have been experimenting so much with the site's structure and design these past months, it's impossible for me to pin point any effects these recent changes might have had on it.

[addaminsane]

I typically check the traffic results and serp positions in a kind of lax way after the typical reported panda update.

However, with the recent particular "penguin" update i feel there have been a few metrics initiated by google that have changed the way i should optimize in a big way.

Therefore i find the most recent penguin update more fascinating and am more exited and eager to be a bigger part of webmaster community as well as closely monitor how sites progress from this point on.

[baldidiot]

I have an analytics app on my phone - 'nuff said

[xecutable]

While I do keep an eye on my traffic, Google's changes are so random and illogical that it's impossible to conclude anything. Yes hundreds of theories about drops, increases, but who really knows the real reason.

Pretty much, without seeing the next day registration stats, looking at the traffic and the internal clicks and the location of the clicks, I can predict whether there's gonna be something or not.

What I noticed is that quality > quantity, as the traffic since Panda 3.3 went down by perhaps 2/3, but its quality went up like twice, therefore more registrations deposits etc. However I don't know if it's from the update, or the specific books tv campaigns, the time of the year etc.

[Chris.ubinary]

Hey guys,
Chris here from EP

Just chiming in here, many of the affiliates I work with seem to have been hit hard by the latest google changes

Some have even gone as far as lost 90% of their traffic and are working on recovery more than the acquisition side.

For those that are still struggling with the latest change - please check out these, including one link from GPWA itself -

\http:// searchengineland.com/google-panda-update-112805\
http:// www.seobook.com/panda
http:// http://www.gpwa.org/forum/top-12-sea...da-197681.html

[casinoplanet]

While I do keep an eye on my traffic, Google's changes are so random and illogical that it's impossible to conclude anything. Yes hundreds of theories about drops, increases, but who really knows the real reason.

Fully agree.
Although I've had some major keywords on page #1, suprisingly the number of organic search stayed about the same when those keywords went down the drain. Therefore I more and more consider not to spend that much time and money anymore on SEO, just for the free traffic it may generate.

Many thousands of websites in our industry are competing for identical keywords, but there are only 10 slots available on page #1 and over 95% of the people don't even bother to take a look at page #2 and up. Sometimes I even ask myself if that aspect of SEO isn't a highly overrated. Imho there are only a handful of webmasters who can make a living fully based on organic search results from their product keywords.

So I rather rely on my social media channels and CPC campaigns, keeping a close eye on site data with GA and trying to build websites the visitors like. I think, especially today with social media involved, the best way to get free traffic is by word of mouth. A substantial number of my visitors find the sites by searching for the domainname.