Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

jitbit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 120 posts

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#51

Post by ben336 »

jonahx wrote: post #20
danso wrote: post #16

Interesting...you think of all the A/B metrics that Google tests, this would be among one of the most obvious standouts. The percentage of users who click on lower-ranked results is reportedly a big factor in the decision of how results are laid out and paginated (e.g. if the 12th result in Google SERP had a relatively similar amount of "usefulness" as the 10th, it's likely that Google would have the search pages sho…

+1. You have to think many sites besides the OP's experience a similar effect. This, combined with Google's collective UX wisdom and the not-at-all unintuitive nature of the result, makes it pretty shocking that they have not put a stop to this. Maybe they are getting some value from the uptick in people maintaining G+ accounts, so it's being swept under the rug?

You're assuming this is generally true. All we know is that it seems to be true for this one guys site/picture. Google has access to ALL of the data for this feature. They're in a much better position to make an informed decision on its value.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#52

Post by TomGullen »

> most people are clicking #2

Maybe a little nit picky but that's a bit of an assumption especially in the context of the article.

I guess it shows the importance of having more diverse results, you want other results appearing that strongly link to you positively (our official twitter/fb/software reviews for example)

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#53

Post by mkhaytman »

agrona wrote: post #45
crazygringo wrote: post #38

Not surprised at all. Any time I ever see a social photo next to a search result, I automatically assume it's a social media post or page and won't even bother to look at it, if I'm looking for anything else. Why on earth would anyone want a face associated with a program, website, or anything that's not a social media account? But, very good to know the statistical result.

>Why on earth would anyone want a face associated with a program, website, or anything that's not a social media account? A coworker runs one of those aggregate-amazon-affiliate-link sites (think http://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/ ) for camping and outdoorsy things. He saw a noticeable increase in traffic by associating his wife's picture in his search results. He's of the opinion that a pretty face helps sell things.

I've watched that website launch and develop with some interest. Without disclosing any particulars, does the site do well for him? I imagined he was raking in the dough, but if he's still your co-worker I guess that's not the case?

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#54

Post by npsimons »

That sucks; sorry to hear it happened to you. But I can tell you why I will usually scan search results (or C-s) for Wikipedia over other results: Wikipedia won't jerk me around. What I mean by that is that (currently) Wikipedia doesn't require JS, flash or any other BS; WP pages load quickly, and are often informative, not some wink-wink-nudge-nudge advertising that may or may not tell you about the product without requiring an email address. Oh, and WP doesn't (currently) have advertising.

That being said, I've been noticing that results returned in Google, even for technical posts (eg, Emacs howtos) have more and more been including headshots from the writer. It's the same posts I would have trusted before, it just seems weird to actually have a face to go along with the post.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#55

Post by Matt_Cutts »

Authorship had nothing to do with this site's drop. The site has been affected by our Penguin webspam algorithm and that accounts for the drop. See http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/penguin-2-0-rolled-out-today/ for details of the recent Penguin launch, or http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/04/another-s... for more information about Penguin in general.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#56

Post by Matt_Cutts »

jonahx wrote: post #20
danso wrote: post #16

Interesting...you think of all the A/B metrics that Google tests, this would be among one of the most obvious standouts. The percentage of users who click on lower-ranked results is reportedly a big factor in the decision of how results are laid out and paginated (e.g. if the 12th result in Google SERP had a relatively similar amount of "usefulness" as the 10th, it's likely that Google would have the search pages sho…

+1. You have to think many sites besides the OP's experience a similar effect. This, combined with Google's collective UX wisdom and the not-at-all unintuitive nature of the result, makes it pretty shocking that they have not put a stop to this. Maybe they are getting some value from the uptick in people maintaining G+ accounts, so it's being swept under the rug?

You're making at least a couple incorrect assumptions. Google launched authorship before Google+, for example.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#57

Post by Matt_Cutts »

specialp wrote: post #49

Google is basically twisting everyone's arms to join G+. Here is the Google progression of things: 1. Hey we support all open protocols all you need to do is use our FREE service that is superior to all others. 2. OK now you need to unify your profile with Google+ 3. Either kill the product entirely or drop the open standard support because the open standard does not support some awesome feature they made. 4.You are…

You may want to defend this (incorrect) blog post with that world view, but Google launched authorship markup before Google+: http://www.seoinc.com/seo-blog/google-launches-authorship-ma...

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#58

Post by [deleted] »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #55

Authorship had nothing to do with this site's drop. The site has been affected by our Penguin webspam algorithm and that accounts for the drop. See http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/penguin-2-0-rolled-out-today/ for details of the recent Penguin launch, or http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/04/another-s... for more information about Penguin in general.

[deleted]

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#59

Post by mattmanser »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #55

Authorship had nothing to do with this site's drop. The site has been affected by our Penguin webspam algorithm and that accounts for the drop. See http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/penguin-2-0-rolled-out-today/ for details of the recent Penguin launch, or http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/04/another-s... for more information about Penguin in general.

Still #1 when I search and that's not even what he's talking about.

He's claiming that having a G+ picture inserted next to search results is resulting in a much lower CTR than they previously had.

Which I think is plausible as it detracts from the search experience, I often skip those results as the text isn't lined up so I can't scan it properly. Wish you could turn them off, it's really off putting. I also wonder what the CTRs of pretty people are like compared to munters. I still don't get why Google added it.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#60

Post by adrr »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #55

Authorship had nothing to do with this site's drop. The site has been affected by our Penguin webspam algorithm and that accounts for the drop. See http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/penguin-2-0-rolled-out-today/ for details of the recent Penguin launch, or http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/04/another-s... for more information about Penguin in general.

His position on the SERPs didn't change, he's still #1 for the keywords that were driving the traffic.
Post reply on HN