Very strange morning for my site. We are seeing normal traffic but a definite boost in high-spending traffic. My transactions are slightly up and revenue for today is about 80% of the total that I get on a normal day, and the afternoons are usually a lot busier. I hope this good traffic stays but I am not counting on it. I will enjoy it while it lasts.

As an aside, I was talking about Eric Schmidt earlier and the reason behind Google doing what they do. I'll bet he couldn't HTML code "hello world" to save his life. Which brings about the problem, no one who is sitting in high positions gets it. They forgot themselves, who they were, where they came from. The web used to be a fun adventure, now it's turned into a robber's den. Time to dump the tables at the temple.

[rant]
No changes seen in Google behavior in a long time, we keep adding new sites and links and profits keeps increasing. Time for some of you to stop listening to the white hat BS stories and do what works to make some coin. At least throw up a few money making sites so you don't go broke waiting for your shiny white site to make money again. Really, so many complainers on here lately and very little true google update content. Stop complaining, stop reading boards, and get to work doing what actually works.
[/rant]

@Kelowna Except for when you run a site that is for a legitimate non-ecommerce brick and mortar business. You can't duplicate websites for geo specific services.

Way to think positive tho!

The web used to be a fun adventure,

Yeah, it stopped being that about 4/5 years ago, even though most of what I do is for my own sites I don't enjoy it much any more with all the garbage copying that goes on and the originator being punished.

I was talking about Eric Schmidt earlier and the reason behind Google doing what they do. I'll bet he couldn't HTML code "hello world" to save his life.

He has people to do that for him. :-)

Overall traffic is flat, all of it. How is this possible?

*edit: Just one site currently.

EditorialGuy, you totally made my point. To say that he has people do that for him is exactly the problem I'm talking about. When one doesn't understand the technology, and for most people it's a black magic box, then they don't understand how to work with it. The problem with a lot of people involved with technology is that they don't understand the big picture. And just because you haven't had that many problems with them doesn't mean that they're not doing things wrong. Also, there are people that have done everything as correctly as you claim to have done and they have been punished and disfavored.

Things have been slow lately and conversions low even though traffic has been static. I am seeing a reduction in blocked resources that has been charged against our site which was never true. In fact there are many things in GWT that are incorrect but because that algorithm has seen it that way, then that must be the truth, right? Wrong. So as a result of this I expect that we will see greater conversions in the near future. Has anyone else seen this issue with supposed blocked resources when there were none?

EditorialGuy, you totally made my point. To say that he has people do that for him is exactly the problem I'm talking about. When one doesn't understand the technology, and for most people it's a black magic box, then they don't understand how to work with it.

You might as well argue that the publisher of The New York Times needs to know how to set up a rotary printing press, and the CEO of Intel needs to be a chip designer.

I suspect that Eric Schmidt is pretty comfortable letting Larry Page and Sergey Brin sweat the technical stuff.:-)

Seriously--if a Website owner isn't doing well in Google Search, it isn't because Eric Schmidt has better things to do than write HTML code.

Do those complaining about the zombie traffic and weird periods of sales / no-sales have the Google analytics running on these sites?

I have analytics and I watch them daily. There is almost no difference in the site metrics when zombies are on or off. I seem to be having an "on" day so far, anyone else confirm?

Going on 10 days without a conversion. I think 9 was my previous all-time longest gap. That includes the site's infancy in 2009.

@masterjoe I had an "on" day yesterday but today back thttps://www.webmasterworld.com/home.htmo a slow crawl.

EditorialGuy, Your ability to shill for big corporate interests never ceases to amaze me.

@ Babadook

EditorialGuy speaks the truth.

Whatever you were able to do in the past, you are not able to do today. If we thought the web moved fast 3-5 years ago, it is moving significantly faster today. Stop living in the past and you will see success much sooner.

Google organic still converts, Google CPC is even better. Hire a professional to manage your CPC's and you will see success.

I dumped Google analytics a long time ago replacing them with better statistical programs. Not only is the information poor, it doesn't give you a complete picture of what's going on in your website. Along with all that, they will know too much about you and how people are finding you. It's better that they don't know too much. In fact, before I dumped them I had a call from one of their adwords people and they casually mentioned how much business we had done down to the dollar. It was then that I knew it was time for them to go. The reason they give it to you for free is so they can glean all the information possible and believe me they don't suffer any loss on this. In fact everyone should stop using Google analytics and I think we would also see things improve. They say they don't use it against us but they do. Apart from that, it's just not very good and not very accurate the same way Webmaster tools isn't very accurate either. It's too bad we can't rate this stuff and have it affect their rankings because they get a one star out of 5 and that's only because they exist. There are better statistical programs to see how your websites doing and they aren't intrusive and overbearing.

Snowman, I'm not saying I don't have conversions, I do and they generally do quite well thank you, and I operate a successful business. I'm talking about the bigger picture of where we're all heading with this. Doesn't it bother any of you that they're trying to control us and shape the web for their own interests? I like an open web, it works better that way, not under the control of some psychotic individuals who all they can think about is how to control people.

My apologies Babadook, I assumed you were like the others that complained about the same stuff everyday.

Doesn't it bother any of you that they're trying to control us and shape the web for their own interests?

Honestly, it really doesn't. If that were my business or yours, you really would want others telling you how to run it? I highly doubt it. The web isn't Google. Google.com is on the web. They are a business. Just like we are. They want to make money, just like we do. I guess I didn't realize there was a point where you made too much money? At that point you weren't allowed to try and make more money from your site? Hmm....

I'm not saying they shouldn't make money, not at all. But there are many noncompetitive practices that they're using. They are not unlike the phone company years ago that was a private business and made money, but the choices were limited. It was the same way with cable companies for a while and when some of that got broken up it improved. Monolithic entities shouldn't be allowed to dominate an entire industry. It always leads to poor service, higher pricing and more control. I'm not saying you don't make a good point, but like the US government that has very little oversight these days and seems to be going for more and more control all the time, it's not to the benefit of the people that actually own the country, the people. It's the same way with the Internet, control is bad, freedom is good. I don't know if you were around for it, but at the beginning it was wide open and it was a beautiful thing. It's none of that anymore.

Doesn't it bother any of you that they're trying to control us and shape the web for their own interests?

Not particularly, given this is a thread about SERP changes in April 2016.

I apologize, you're right, I'll get back on track.

trying to control us and shape the web for their own interests

That's what I do for a living. No shame in it. I have to feed my family, too.

I guess I didn't realize there was a point where you made too much money?

When I can offer employees free food and massages, like Google does, then I may want to take a look at what the other Fortune 500 companies are offering their employees. Good pay and benefits are one thing, but I could name off other excesses that exist in Google. It's these excesses that infuriate some webmasters who feel like they are getting screwed by the Google (aka getting the Alphabutt in some circles). Then there is the aspect of what it is we are compensated for. Many Wall Street bankers have a bad rap because all they do is shuffle money around and make millions for doing it. Google makes billions for scraping and displaying others work. There comes a point where compensation should reflect what it is that is contributed to society. In the case of webmasters these days, I'd say they are the innovators and free market abuses have allowed Google to grossly monetize their work.

The Google zombie manipulation pattern has continued for me this final week of April. I don't expect much to change in this area as it is not quality focused but IMO more a case of Google trying to squeeze participants in certain industries. A few rock solid mentions have driven more referral sales than normal, but I doubt the natural links that were created from these "mentions" will have any impact on a heavily biased and self serving search engine.

It's these excesses that infuriate some webmasters.

No. What infuriates some webmasters is that they are not getting as much free money as they used to anymore.

Google makes billions for scraping and displaying others work

No. They make money by organizing planet earth's information. It's quite a big feat considering that some people can't even, you know, get their e-commerce site to consistently make enough money for their needs and all that's in their power is to complain? Yeah...

webmasters are not getting as much free money as they used to anymore.

I'm a webmaster. Could you advise how I can get $1 a day for free? That would exceed my daily Adsense earnings. If we used to get a lot of free money in the past then it's not a big deal for you to let us know how to get $1 a day now. If the plan works and I can get more money for free than working on my Adsense sites, I'd be grateful.. and thousands of other webmasters will appreciate the advice too.. maybe it will also make ED to un-like your post.. :)

1+ glakes.. not just webmasters musicians are being screwed left right and center by google/youtube tom yorke (radiohead) has spoke out about this.

I hope a tor/wiki not for profit organization creates an unbiased search engine. does anyone know if one is in the making?
could use a system like bitcoin to combine cpu to crawl and index web faster and better than google.

I was thinking of something exactly like that just recently jambam, it would definitely be an incredible project if something like that ever took off. If I knew how to code I would definitely try to gather up people for an open source search engine that would rival Google.

Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of Google's business ethics, moaning about it on here is counter-productive. When SER covered zombie traffic recently, there was a backlash of the type "it's just another conspiracy theory from the idiots at WebmasterWorld". That's very difficult to argue against.

If you believe that there's no hope because Google hates you, then there's no point posting on here about it. If you believe that there is hope, then try posting unemotional details of what you're seeing and we can collectively try to work out what is going on.

When SER covered zombie traffic recently, there was a backlash of the type "it's just another conspiracy theory from the idiots at WebmasterWorld". That's very difficult to argue against.

I'd add that people who want to discuss zombie traffic and conversions at length might want to start threads on those topics. It's hard to find anything about "Google updates and SERP changes" amid the noise.

No. What infuriates some webmasters is that they are not getting as much free money as they used to anymore.

Are you insinuating that webmasters do not have the right to be compensated for the fruits of their labor (creating content) or should Google get the lions share of those earnings so they can stock their free kitchen and pay for massage therapists?

They make money by organizing planet earth's information.

Libraries perform a similar function, yet I don't know any that have free meals at all hours and free massages for all. Maybe the next time they ask for more tax money I'll tell them to go see Google instead.