"Google May 2020 Core Update" affecting your xF Forum?

Intel Xeon
E5 2630v4
10 x 2.20 GHz
256 GB REG ECC
any combination of SSD/HDDs available
1 Gbit/s port
UNLIMITED Traffic
I think it removes this as dedicated ..

But the prices were affordable
 
Alfa1 said:
I really wonder what this change is about.
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Google's core updates are not generally "about" any single factor any more. They are about reacting to changes Google sees in the pattern of searches, about reducing spam sites in the top results, and generally about improving search for searchers.
 
GWT Stats from March 17, traffic was down since May7.
gaw.webp


XenForo Stats from March 17, Guest traffic was down since May 7 same as Users active.
1590041775982.webp
 
Just stumbled across this thread. I hadn't checked my stats in a while, and sadly, my tech forum has lost 30% of its visitors, practically overnight. Webmaster Console suggests they cut Total impressions by 45% from 5th of May onwards. They hate us communities nowadays. :(
 
Jon12345 said:
Just stumbled across this thread. I hadn't checked my stats in a while, and sadly, my tech forum has lost 30% of its visitors, practically overnight. Webmaster Console suggests they cut Total impressions by 45% from 5th of May onwards. They hate us communities nowadays. :(
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uncle google and others from communities may hate it. And I will love.
 
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When I saw it like this, the news content sites that I understood became first class. Even if your content is better quality, they appear first. (Company Sites) Who gave Google big money.
 
this classification will always be everywhere. But you will see. Communities will always be.... Google shakes us, but can't break it.
 
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I'll be blunt: This is all rather pathetic and ultimately it's just whining about the fact that Google isn't going to highlight your forum as the best answer to search queries. It's not hard to understand the frustration... but going on and on about it is pointless.

I would also add that while the rollout of this update has completed it doesn't mean that there won't be smaller updates over the n ext few weeks and another core update next month that will fine tune what site owners are seeing right now. That is historically what has happened with every major Google algorithm update. So part of coping with all this means being patient and monitoring to see whether at least some of your traffic comes back.

But there are also several things you can and should be doing apart from being patient.

It's fine to say that you'll boycott Google or that you don't care what Google thinks or does but the reality is that the latest stats (from April 2020) indicate that Google has 91.89% of the search market.

gs.statcounter.com

Search Engine Market Share Worldwide | Statcounter Global Stats

This graph shows the market share of search engines worldwide based on over 5 billion monthly page views.
gs.statcounter.com gs.statcounter.com

Do you really think you can survive by splitting up the remaining 8%? Doesn't seem very likely to me.

You're not going to beat Google. Searchers love Google even if website owners hate Google. The conclusion is pretty clear: you have to learn to think like Google and think like searchers who use Google (all 92% of them).

What you should be doing is going through your Google Search Console and Google Analytics data and looking at what search queries are being used to find your forum.

Next, you need to find out what people are actually searching for whether or not they find your site in Google's search results. Do some "keyword analysis" to identify what your site/forum should be trying to highlight. Check out your competitors to identify what search queries they rank well for and why they're doing bette at that than you.

Here's a Google search as a starting point for that: https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf...hUKEwiF3_72qsXpAhXOXM0KHU90BSIQ4dUDCAg&uact=5

And one of many articles with specific suggestions: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/what-people-search-for/
 
An other thing you can do is attempt to improve your content. It's user generated so it's not that easy, but when someone searches for information, often they don't want a load of off topic guff, people bickering etc.

You can do quite a lot of forum curating to help SEO.
  • Encourage on-topic posting (discourage or move off topic posts from within important threads)
  • Merge threads that are about basically the same things (similar threads addon is good)
  • Encourage people not to start a new thread about the same topic as an existing one.
  • Get rid of trolls.
  • Encourage meaningful thread titles that include words that are right on topic.
  • Have easy navigation so that people who find your forum are encouraged to stay there (engaged) and look around.
  • Search for old threads that only have one post. I just delete them because usually it's a question that nobody answered, so it's useless to Google.
  • Not just threads, post some useful well written articles on pages or resources., structure them like proper articles with headings and subheadings, articulate writing, good original clear images, internal and external linking.
  • Look at the competition and work out why they do better in Google.
  • Think about search questions.

It's true I don't think there's any great xenforo SEO addon (equivalent of Yoast) , I'm waiting for that but meanwhile just do your best at having great content.
 
The content in the communities is very high quality. I don't like the content of news sites. In addition to quality content in communities, people also exchange quality information. I didn't say I hate Google.
 
Mr Lucky said:
An other thing you can do is attempt to improve your content. It's user generated so it's not that easy, but when someone searches for information, often they don't want a load of off topic guff, people bickering etc.

You can do quite a lot of forum curating to help SEO.
  • Encourage on-topic posting (discourage or move off topic posts from within important threads)
  • Merge threads that are about basically the same things (similar threads addon is good)
  • Encourage people not to start a new thread about the same topic as an existing one.
  • Get rid of trolls.
  • Encourage meaningful thread titles that include words that are right on topic.
  • Have easy navigation so that people who find your forum are encouraged to stay there (engaged) and look around.
  • Search for old threads that only have one post. I just delete them because usually it's a question that nobody answered, so it's useless to Google.
  • Not just threads, post some useful well written articles on pages or resources., structure them like proper articles with headings and subheadings, articulate writing, good original clear images, internal and external linking.
  • Look at the competition and work out why they do better in Google.
  • Think about search questions.

It's true I don't think there's any great xenforo SEO addon (equivalent of Yoast) , I'm waiting for that but meanwhile just do your best at having great content.
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I want to make your recommendations
 
bebekforum said:
but there is great injustice.
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Injustice for who? Obviously you perceive that it's unfair to you and your forum.

But is it an injustice for people using Google to search for information? Doubtful.

As just one example, a lot of people currently are seeking good information on COVID-19. And a lot of the information out there on the net, including from public figures and politicians, is inaccurate, flawed, and downright dangerous.

Google is specifically deindexing this misinformation and boosting the indexing of information from valid authority sites and/or information supported by scientific research studies. I have no doubt that sites publishing conspiracy theories about COVID-19 or anecdotal stories about cures or pushing their own personal products as cures are feeling hard done by these days, so they would certainly call it injustice to them. But I think most people would agree that where lives are at stake filtering out the misinformation for searchers is a laudable and important goal.

While I'm on that subject, anything mentioning COVID-19 (or its synonyms like corona virus or Wu corona virus) has become a real red flag that gets extra scrutiny these days from Google (and Bing, and social media). Many forum members understandably want to talk about COVID-19
but it's absolutely imperative that you scan and monitor any threads on your forum and prune or bury any threads (i.e., send them to private forums not accessible to guests and spiders) which go off on unsupported rants and conspiracy theories - unless you want to see your traffic really tank. It's also something that can cost you advertising revenue if your AdSense account is suspended.
 
Same issue here, steep dropoff on the 4th. We run a niche forum and in all honesty, no bias, our result provides the best information yet is now coming in 6th or 7th result. The ones on top are wordpress ripoffs or ads for products.

Bad move for google, their search is becoming nothing but ads. I hope other search engines step up to include more community-generated results.
 
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Over the last year or so I’ve started to notice many more reddit threads in the top results to my search queries, especially computer related tech ones, with good answers that I’m happy with and don’t bounce out of.
The thing with reddit threads is that they’re all on one page, usually with the best reply threads voted up the page, so it’s easy to scan all the top level answers with ease, up the dwell time and lower the bounce rate.

Maybe there’s something to be said for those tools that highlight the best content from threads and chosen answers to filter the answers through the fluff, so users don’t have to navigate classic forum threads that are dozens of pages long, post by post.
 
FYI I use this add-on which is partially what you describe :
xenforo.com

[Liam W.] Thread Solutions

Description : This add-on allows your users to mark a thread as 'solved' by choosing a post as a solution. These posts are given markup, to make them more obvious, and a link at the top of the thread allows the user to be taken directly to the...
xenforo.com xenforo.com
But it would be better having this built-in in XenForo. ;)
 
I know my forum is the most busy political and general forum here in New Zealand.
Yet Google put it on page 7.
They put forums that closed 8 years ago higher than mine!
Every other search engine has me at or near the top of page 1 (with no work)
Because I mentoned Politics on my Xenforo sub heading.
(now they have removed that byeline)

I am not interested in playing Googles games.
One day, they will not be the world's top search engine!
 
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Mr Lucky said:
An other thing you can do is attempt to improve your content. It's user generated so it's not that easy, but when someone searches for information, often they don't want a load of off topic guff, people bickering etc.

You can do quite a lot of forum curating to help SEO.
  • Encourage on-topic posting (discourage or move off topic posts from within important threads)
  • Merge threads that are about basically the same things (similar threads addon is good)
  • Encourage people not to start a new thread about the same topic as an existing one.
  • Get rid of trolls.
  • Encourage meaningful thread titles that include words that are right on topic.
  • Have easy navigation so that people who find your forum are encouraged to stay there (engaged) and look around.
  • Search for old threads that only have one post. I just delete them because usually it's a question that nobody answered, so it's useless to Google.
  • Not just threads, post some useful well written articles on pages or resources., structure them like proper articles with headings and subheadings, articulate writing, good original clear images, internal and external linking.
  • Look at the competition and work out why they do better in Google.
  • Think about search questions.

It's true I don't think there's any great xenforo SEO addon (equivalent of Yoast) , I'm waiting for that but meanwhile just do your best at having great content.
Click to expand...

If that is true, then my forum has no chance
I can say no to every one of those items fro my forum (except the trolls one)
 
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