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March 11th Google Search Ranking Update Weirdness

Published

2 years ago

March 17, 2022

For the past few days I have been debating if I should cover what may have been a Google search ranking update that ticked off on Friday March 11th. There was super unusual update like chatter in the WebmasterWorld forums but the automated tracking tools showed nothing – nada.

So I waited and waited and it seems like whatever happened on March 11th that went through the weekend, may have reverted itself on Monday, March 14th. Like I said, I was on the verge of reporting a possible unconfirmed Google update but held back.

Now, what I am asking, is if you saw some really weird Google update like patterns for the sites you track on Friday, March 11th and then it flip back on Monday, March 14th?

SEO Chatter

Let me first start by sharing the chatter I saw over the past few days, starting off on Friday, March 11th. Again, keep in mind, this chatter looks just like what you’d expect to see from the SEO forums during a Google update. But it didn’t last and something seemed to revert over time.

Absolutely massive 30% drop in search and 41% drop in direct traffic by 5:30pm today. USA -43%, UK -53%, even India is down -36% and that is never down. Anyone else seeing this?
The massive traffic drop continues….down 60% for both USA and UK at 11:30am. Search is down 51%. My ranking is heading higher across the board for the last week
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Drop since Thursday.

My global site’s traffic was well down on Friday at 71%, Saturday was average and Sunday well above average resulting in the first 13 days at 100% !.!.! Today has started well with a notable increase in Eastern European traffic and realworld enquiries have started again.
UK-focussed sites are generally on average with the busiest one actually at 106.5% at the moment and, interestingly, it is also trading much higher than usual for this time of year. This is a traditional B&M business not an online trader.

15% downturn at the weekend; looks like it started on 10th/11th (UK informational site with lots of UGC as well as editorial)

So I then followed up the other day to ask about the status and most said it was a weird blip on Friday?

For me yes, Monday was 100.3% which is higher than a regular Monday but obviously within my weekday average.
I’m not seeing much movement within my established / evergreen website SERPs however new pages and especially so new sites seem to be almost impossible to gain any traction whatsoever and this has been on-going for far too long.
They’re not sandboxed simply kept behind to force ad sales IMHO.

Yes it lasted almost 2 days but now back to normal. Search traffic is much higher and direct is lower now…something definitely happened.

On my side, only today I see a big drop. The last weekend was of good gains. But today it all came crashing down.

Anyway, you can probably see why I held off on covering this.

Google Tracking Tools

So with this weird chatter, as I shared above, combined with the tools showing unusually lower volatility than ever before – like really low levels of movement – it just seemed weird and unusual. Can low volatility be a sign of an update? Probably not.

Here are some of the charts I track, notice the 11th forward, how calm everything is trending.

Semrush:

RankRanger:

Cognitive SEO:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Mozcast:

Accuranker:

So what do you think happened?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Related Topics:11th Google March Ranking Search update Weirdness

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Daily Search Forum Recap: April 29, 2024

Published

1 day ago

April 30, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google’s March 2024 core update completed on April 19th, Google just didn’t confirm it until a week later. Google said its spam reporting tool will add site reputation abuse after May 5. Google responded to concerns over the Chrome IP masking and how it will impact advertisers. Google Knowlwdge Panels has translated sections. Apple Business Connect gains actions with links. Google AI is writing some knowledge panels. I am offline today, all these stories were pre-written and scheduled, including this newsletter.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google March 2024 Core Update Finished April 19th (A Week Ago)

The Google March 2024 core update finished a week ago and Google did not tell us until today. It finished officially on April 19, 2024, and took 45 days to roll out after starting on March 5, 2024. Google also said this helped reduce low-quality and unoriginal content in search results by 45%, which is up from their estimate of 40%.

Google Spam Reporting Tool To Gain Site Reputation Abuse

Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, said that the search company will add the upcoming site reputation abuse policy to the spam reporting tool when the policy begins to be enforced. So sometime after May 5, 2024, the report spam form will gain a new option to report site reputation abuse.

Google Responds To Concerns Over Chrome IP Masking

A week ago, Anu Adegbola wrote a fabulous piece on some new privacy changes that may be coming to Google Chrome in the future named Chrome IP masking and how that may impact advertisers. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, responded to those concerns, saying, “Chrome has not made any recent updates to its IP protection proposal.”

Google Knowledge Panel With Auto-Translated Texts

Google is auto-translating some of the content within the Google Knowledge Panels and blocks. So if you are in a location where you don’t only speak English, Google may show you your local language as an additional block of text in the knowledge panel.

Apple Business Connect Actions: Add Links To Apple Maps Local Listing

Apple Business Connect now lets you add links to your local listings that show up in Apple Maps. This is under the “actions” section that enables customers to order food, buy tickets, schedule an appointment, and more.

Google AI Writing Some Search Knowledge Panels

Google has for a long time used AI to write some knowledge panels. But now Google is labeling some of these AI written knowledge panels with “Al overviews are experimental” as a disclaimer. This may show up for both SGE and non-SGE results, I believe.

Google Maps Pigeon People

I am not sure where this first started but in Japan there is this group of people who dress up as pigeons when the Google Maps street view cameras drive by.

Programming Note: Offline For Last Days Of Passover

This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the last days of the Passover holiday. The last days of Passover are on Monday and Tuesday, April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.

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Offline For Last Days Of Passover 5784

Published

2 days ago

April 29, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the last days of the Passover holiday. The last days of Passover are on Monday and Tuesday, April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live.

I will be completely offline, so any social media posts, tweets, anything coming from this site or my social channels are all scheduled beforehand.

I won’t be able to reply to comments, remove spam or break any stories on those days. I will catch up when I get back online.

Feel free to check out the archives or catch up with the weekly videos or just browse the search pics. Oh, and if you have nothing to do, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

For more on this holiday, check out Wikipedia.

For all those celebrating the holiday – have a good one and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 26, 2024

Published

3 days ago

April 28, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google Publisher Center removes the ability to add publications manually. Google is testing placing the snippet date next to the URL. Google now shows IP ranges for user-triggered fetchers. Google Ads has a new warning for low keyword quality. Google and Microsoft impress with earnings reports. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap. Also, I am offline Monday and Tuesday for the last days of Passover.