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Anyone aware of a Google update?

Discussion in 'SEO Search Engine Optimisation' started by Grant, Sep 12, 2017.

  1. Grant

    Grant Active Member

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    Got a site that's been growing 40-50% monthly since I started it. Nearly doubled in traffic the last 2 days.

    Anyone know of a Google update, or experienced a drop/surge? Would be interested to see what it is.
     

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  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

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  3. JMI

    JMI Active Member

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    Yes. I noticed some of our sites changed in the last month and perhaps I thought they just caught the ripple tail end of the update earlier in the year. The thing happened where your bad sites go up, and decent ones go down a few notches, bit of a trade off, probably a little slap for begin lazy too.

    I noticed one thing big time though.. you use spun content your in deep shit with Google, in fact you're in much deeper than using any dupe content it seems.. people be aware of what, who and where your buying content. Long term should be good for the 'pro' content boys who can prove they writing genuine 100% unique fodder I guess.
     
  4. Systreg

    Systreg Well-Known Member

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    I rarely look for my site in serps and hadn't checked in a long while, but I checked it about 10 days ago and couldn't find it anywhere.

    It usually sits at positions 1 - 3 on page 2 for it's exact search term, so I was a bit puzzled where it had gone, I looked about 12 pages deep in serps, but it was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't there the next day either and then it was back when I checked a couple of days later, now it's position was 7 on page 2.

    Checking again today, it's now showing in position 8 on page 1 and has gone above a well known car hire company in 10th, and the affiliate car hire company I use for my site is 9th, so it'll be interesting to see if it stays in that position or goes back to page 2 again.

    I haven't touched the site at all since making it in 2015, when my Mrs wrote about 190K words of content to put on it, so hopefully that's helping with the current ranking.
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2017
  5. Edwin

    Edwin Well-Known Member

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    Do you really mean 450K words? That's the equivalent of 5 fairly meaty paperback novels! Impressive, if so...
     
  6. Nigel

    Nigel Well-Known Member

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    I was going to say the same - that's about 900-1000 pages - one amazing wife you have there :)
     
  7. Systreg

    Systreg Well-Known Member

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    Sorry, hit an extra digit there, will edit previous post :oops:, should be 50K words, not 450K.

    Actually, it's much more than 50K, I was only thinking about the 50 main countries of Europe, for which she wrote around 1K words for each of those pages, and for the capital of each country there are around 650 words average or so. Then there's 181 UK towns and cities which are around 500 - 600 words, and 31 airport pages averaging about 450 words, so about 190K in all, not too bad but not 450K, must get her to write more :)
     
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  8. Systreg

    Systreg Well-Known Member

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    I think my site would benefit from some SEO doing on it, because it doesn't seem to rank for 2 terms that are very similar to the exact domain name, for which it ranks position 8, in fact, I have no no idea if it ranks for anything as I've never checked properly, is there a way to find all search terms that a site ranks for?

    I ran the site through a free SEO audit tool last night. It was saying there's no H1 H2 tags etc and other stuff I don't have much of a clue about. One thing it did tell me is there's no Google Analytics code on the site.

    I remember having hassle with adding the Google code when I made the site in 2015, I eventually put the code in the footer.php file after getting some advice here: https://www.acorndomains.co.uk/threads/anyone-developing-at-the-moment.132322/page-9#post-517277

    I checked that footer.php file and there's no Google code in it now FFS, no idea how long that's been gone because I don't look at Analytics.

    I remember the theme did an auto update in 2015 and it messed up a lot of the site as it overwrote everything I'd changed in the css and other files, so I had to add a plugin that forces themes not to update, but I must have forgot to add the Analytics code back in after fixing the site. The plugin to stop the theme updating is also missing from the plugins page :confused:

    I do at least have the StatCounter plugin on there that is still working.
     
  9. Adam H

    Adam H Well-Known Member

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    Use a plugin for analytics implementation. There are lots out there, lots which have bells and whistles with a shed load of bloat too. I personally recommend :

    https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/host-analyticsjs-local/

    It's lightweight and hosts the js locally so you get the benefit of not having non-blocking JS because of Analytics code.

    You should also create a child theme and allow theme updates, a child theme never updates and only contains your overrides . So when the main theme updates with security updates and improvements your customisations stay inline.

    Use SEMrush to view some of your ranking phrases, although if there is little to no data you will struggle to get anything solid. Best thing to do is gather a selection of keywords you feel you should be ranking for ( Or would like to be ranking for ) and check them all using a rank checker. If you send me the URL and a bunch of your keywords id be happy to send you a current ranking report back.
     
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  10. Systreg

    Systreg Well-Known Member

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    Thanks Adam,

    I've installed the plugin you suggested, but any clue as to what I need to tick for all the boxes in settings? Also, where it says to add the tracking ID, I assume I'll need to get the full Google code from Analytics and take just the UA and numbers out of the code, like the code on another of my sites is "UA-xxxxxxx-x", is it just that UA and numbers part I need?

    analytics.png

    I'll have to give the child theme a miss, I don't know how to do things like that, but the theme doesn't appear to have updated anyway, it's showing I have version Version 1.6 installed, and says version 3.0.6 is available to download, so even though the plugin to stop themes auto updating is missing, it's not auto updating,l so probably wont need the child theme anyway as I have no intemtion of updating the theme.

    I'll PM you later with the domain name and some keywords, thanks for the offer :)
     
  11. Adam H

    Adam H Well-Known Member

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    Yeah that's it mate, Use the UA code . Id recommend putting the position in the header, being in the footer you always stand a chance of the full page not loading for what ever reason, if the footer isnt loaded then the pageview doesnt get tracked, probably not a huge problem now much of the world has a decent connection but its still a practice id recommend.

    Id leave the other setting default unless you want to Anonymize IP's or track Logged in admins.

    Once you have the UA setup, you should see the Analytics code loaded in the source, give it 24 hours to start reporting.

    No prob's, send me your email address when you send over the keywords and URL and ill send the report to that address.
     
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  12. Systreg

    Systreg Well-Known Member

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    @Adam H, thanks, I saved the UA code and left setting as suggested, but there's no Analytics code showing in the source code on the home page, I assume it should be showing instantly?

    This might be related to the problem I had with adding Analytics code to the site at the beginning, see post here:

    https://www.acorndomains.co.uk/threads/anyone-developing-at-the-moment.132322/page-8#post-517255

    That's why someone advised me to put it in footer.php, because the people who made the theme said they don't allow analytics code in the free version of their theme, and to either hire a programmer or buy the pro version.

    I didn't see the point in buying the pro version to get all the extra bells and whistles because I wouldn't have used any of it, I don't even use the stuff on the free version, so no point paying £28 just to be able to add Analytics was how i looked at it.

    I've just checked my site in archive.org and the Analytics code was still on the site on Jul 20th 2016, but wasn't on there on Sep 24th 2016, and looking at the archived site I see there was an auto them update as the site colour/styling had changed back to the original, so that's when it must have overwritten my files and removed the Analytics code, so about 13 months of stats will be missing :(
     
  13. Adam H

    Adam H Well-Known Member

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    lol, well thats a first. I've never heard of a free theme removing analytics code inserts. But yes it should show in the source instantly. I could take a look at it later if you wanted to make sure, could just be a function that needs removing from the theme to allow the Analytics.
     
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  14. Systreg

    Systreg Well-Known Member

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    @ Adam H, yeah, it's mad that they wouldn't let you use Analytics unless you upgraded to the pro version.

    I've now added the Analytics to header.php and it shows in the source code, I'll keep a regular eye on the site in case it vanishes again.
     
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  15. martin-s United Kingdom

    martin-s Well-Known Member

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    @Systreg rather than keep an eye on it, you could set up an Analytics alert to email you when you get no visitors in any given day. Effectively do the same thing - just without any hassle.
     
  16. Systreg

    Systreg Well-Known Member

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    @martin-s, it's easier for me to check the source code for UA regularly, looked now and it's still present in the pages.