IndexWatch 2015 The Losers 2015 in UK 100 domains with the highest loss in Google visibility SISTRIX
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We have very high Page Quality rating standards for YMYL pages because low quality YMYL pages could potentially negatively impact users’ happiness, health, or wealth.- Google Quality Rater Guidelines Here, we could conclude that Patient.co.uk came too close to the sun. They were the top-dog, with no other website having their authority and there was no conceivable reason why they should have changed the domain name. Instead they should have kept increasing the quality of their content even more.
IndexWatch 2015 – The Losers 2015 in UK 100 domains with the highest loss in Google visibility
Johannes Beus (Author) 02.02.2016Two weeks ago we showed you the domains which managed to gain the most Visibility during 2015 on Google.co.uk. As promised, today we will look at those who were not so fortunate between January 5, 2015 and January 4, 2016 on Google.co.uk. For this list, we once again looked at all domains which had at least 5 points of Visibility at the start of 2015. We start with a short example of how a loss of Visibility can impact a website’s bottom line. In 2014 it was reported that, after the launch of their new website, the online sales of Marks & Spencer fell by 8.1 percent in the 13 weeks leading up to June 28. They lost 11 points Visibility (-19%): Visibility for Marks & Spencer after a relaunch in June 2014Today, only 100 domains in the UK have a Visibility of at least 62,25 points, while most domains have a Visibility of less than one point. So when a domain loses more than 100 points, like Patient.co.uk did – which we will look at shortly – we can agree that something big must have gone wrong. Looking back at last year, it is notable that Google, which was the cause for most Visibility losses in 2014 due to their many Updates (like Panda 4.0, Payday Loan 2.0, Page Layout #3), was mostly quiet. 2015 was the year where website owners managed to be mostly at fault, all by themselves. We see big mistakes being made during website redesigns and domain name changes. Hm.com, for example, managed to reduce the amount of Top-10 keywords from 829, before their redesign, to 181 keywords. But H&M is not alone: ESPN, Windowsphone.com, Pioneer.eu, Footlocker, Euroncap.com, Sony.com, Ryanair.com, Ibis.com and even the University of Liverpool (liv.ac.uk) are part of this illustrious club. Next, we have numerous domains in a slowly decaying state, such as my Myspace.com, Ehow.co.uk, Lyricsmania.com, Metacafe.com, Answers.com, About.com, Askmen.com, Last fm and Twitter.com, where the user interest in the product or page is inexorably fading and the sites seem unable to put a stop to this trend. Let’s jump in with those domains that lost the most of their visibility, as a percentage of what they started 2015 with.Top-5
1 Thefind com
Visibility for Thefind.com on Google.co.ukWhen we look at the rocky landscape of Thefind.com it becomes clear that the domain managed to rush headlong into numerous Google Updates, over the years. Such an erratic Visibility is a sign that the page did not show the necessary quality signals where Google’s algorithms are concerned, nor did it manage to live up to the users’ expectations. The abrupt end for Thefind.com in 2015 came by the hand of Facebook, who bought the company in a bid to incorporate the search into Facebook’s advertising engine.2 Tes co uk
Visibility for Tes.co.uk on Google.co.ukTes.co.uk decided to not only change their domain name from Tes.co.uk to Tes.com but to also freshen up their design noticeably (old design thanks to the Wayback Machine). Before the changes, Tes.co.uk had 34.800 keywords in the Top-100 on Google.co.uk – with 1.870 keywords in the Top-10 search results – and today Tes.com has 13.850 keywords in the Top-100, with 733 in the Top-10 – a loss of about 60% in the Top-10 alone. Visibility on Google.co.uk of Tes.co.uk vs. Tes.com3 Adviceguide org uk
Visibility for Adviceguide.org.uk on Google.co.ukIt seems as though this domain became another victim of Google’s Phantom Update, but this is not the case. Adviceguide.org.uk decided to rebrand and redesign at the same time to Citizensadvice.org.uk. It is simply a coincidence that they chose to go through with the domain move in the same week that Google rolled out a noticeable algorithm update. All in all, the change did not seem problematic: Visibility for Adviceguide.org.uk vs. Citizensadvice.org.uk on Google.co.uk4 Bankfashion co uk
Visibility for Bankfashion.co.uk on Google.co.ukThe domain Bankfashion.co.uk was wrapped up into ark.co.uk. The team behind the move decided that redirecting every page to the home page, http://www.ark.co.uk/, was the way to go. Google noticed some of the move and decided that all these redirects to the home page constitute soft-404 errors. What happens if you do not redirect all your pages to their exact counterpart on the new domain, if possible, can be seen here: Visibility for Bankfashion.co.uk vs. Ark.co.uk on Google.co.uk5 Patient co uk
Visibility for Patient.co.uk on Google.co.ukPatient.co.uk started 2015 with 141 points of Visibility on Google.co.uk and decided to change domain names to Patient.info in early June. The move itself was noticed by Google rather quickly but sadly, many of the Top-10 results that Patient.co.uk had, did not get passed over to Patient.info. Visibility for Patient.co.uk vs. Patient.info on Google.co.ukWhile Patient.co.uk had close to 42.000 Top-100 keywords, with about 15.000 of them in the Top-10 – a whopping 35% of keywords – during the week before the move, Patient.info only manages to get about 28.000 Top-100 rankings. Out of those, they have about 5.500 keywords in the Top-10, which is nearly 20% – still not bad, but by far less than what they had before. So what happened? Did they forget their redirects? No, most pages seem to be redirected 1:1 to the corresponding page on the new domain or to a close relative. It is very much possible that this is a case where Google’s increased quality signals come into play, which are mentioned in Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines: Some types of pages could potentially impact the future happiness, health, or wealth of users. We call such pages “Your Money or Your Life” pages, or YMYL.[…]
We have very high Page Quality rating standards for YMYL pages because low quality YMYL pages could potentially negatively impact users’ happiness, health, or wealth.- Google Quality Rater Guidelines Here, we could conclude that Patient.co.uk came too close to the sun. They were the top-dog, with no other website having their authority and there was no conceivable reason why they should have changed the domain name. Instead they should have kept increasing the quality of their content even more.