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How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

jitbit.com

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Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#71

Post by k3n »

anoncow wrote: post #65
mattmanser wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Authorship ties Google+ to search. Can I have my photo next to my search result if I don't have a Google account?

Doubt it, G+ is the passport for Google's services going forward I'm afraid...

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#72

Post by k3n »

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.

Sex sells....who knew??

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#73

Post by k3n »

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.

I unconsciously ignore anything that isn't in the standard format that the normal results are presented in, a side-effect of so many "sponsored" links always being shoved to the top.

There's the "crap at the top" that is almost never what I'm looking for, and then there's the real results, which is what I scan for.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#74

Post by Matt_Cutts »

mattmanser wrote: post #59
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…

I'm traveling, so it will be a while before I can check with the team, but the initial message that kicked off his investigation referred to clicks to his site, which I believe can include overall traffic to his site. I'll double-check when I'm back from traveling though.

I was also responding to the overall headline of his site ("How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%") because there are other reasons for the decline in traffic to his site. The headline is definitely overstating things; the article itself concludes "Turns out, it's not that simple. Some pages moved down, but some have improved drastically." And on the graph he shows, the worst CTR decrease is -57% while the best CTR increase is 329%.

So I think the headline of this article ("How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%") remains inaccurate.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#75

Post by Matt_Cutts »

anoncow wrote: post #65
mattmanser wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Authorship ties Google+ to search. Can I have my photo next to my search result if I don't have a Google account?

Authorship markup launched before Google+ was even available to the outside world: http://www.seoinc.com/seo-blog/google-launches-authorship-ma...

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#76

Post by Matt_Cutts »

ignostic wrote: post #70
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.

Ooh this is embarrassing; the article was about click-through rates and not rankings. But maybe now is a good time to tell people how terrible the CTR data in WMT is. Also, are you sure the site was hit by Penguin? This doesn't look like the typical Penguinized site. You would know, but have you checked?

Yes, I did check that the site was affected by Penguin before I posted my comment.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#77

Post by theycallmemorty »

pdx wrote: post #2

I wonder if your Google+ Profile picture was your JitBit Name + Logo, you would have done better. I think it is your face that is the problem. Not because it's ugly, but because it's obviously a face, which is out of context when searching for "macro recorder". We naturally gloss over things that don't sync with what we expect.

I would love to see someone experiment with headshots of different people with varying degrees of attractiveness.

Re: How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%

#78

Post by malekov »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #75
anoncow wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Authorship ties Google+ to search. Can I have my photo next to my search result if I don't have a Google account?

Authorship markup launched before Google+ was even available to the outside world: http://www.seoinc.com/seo-blog/google-launches-authorship-ma...

Can you put your photo on the results without a Google Plus profile?
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