SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Algorithm Update Tremors & Instability All Week
So last Monday, we reported about a Google search ranking algorithm update that touched down on May 16th – the 6 month or so anniversary of the last confirmed Google broad core update. Well, that unconfirmed Google update continued on throughout the rest of the week through today, I updated that story a bit to reflect that.
That story now has over 150 comments with complaints about the ongoing tremors and instability of the search rankings in Google Search. The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread, despite the site going through a migration and having some connectivity issues, also has a lot of chatter throughout the week.
Honestly, whatever was pushed out last Monday, May 16th, certainly felt like a broad core update. But of course, it was not a broad core update – Google would have confirmed if it pushed out a broad core update – right? We are due, very due, a broad core update from Google. The last broad core update we had was on November 17, 2021 – which was 6 months and one week ago. We expect these broad core updates every 3-6 months and today is the 6 month mark.
There is a higher than normal number of complaints from affiliate sites about ranking drops. But again, hard to say if this is just impacting affiliate sites, I highly doubt it.
As a reminder, we had many more core-like unconfirmed updates including that May 16th and ongoing update and the Mother’s Day update, the May 1st update, April 20 and 21st update, April 18th update, April 13th and 14th and another update on March 18th both did not get confirmed by Google. Also one on March 11th and March 4th and so on. The last confirmed update was March 2022 Product Reviews Update and that ended on April 11th.
SEO Chatter
He is the recent (past day or so) chatter I am seeing in the WebmasterWorld forums over the past 24-hours or so:
Last week was solid for me showing gains across my platform. Saturday was the lowest day which is normal. Ive kept an eye on Semrush sensor and over the last week with higher volatility things performed better.
Today the sensor shows a 5.2 and the last day we had a rating this close was on April 27. There have been no announced core updates as of late and we all know there is something that should happen soon. We’ve all been expecting it. I cannot help but feel like we are seeing the calm before the storm.
I have noticed G playing with a lot of alternative keywords over the last few weeks. Things I normally have never rated for now showing a lot of various alternates. It has been pulling from every category I have testing. This is different from running the more tried and true given query and pages I am used to seeing.
Impression volumes have been higher this week as well due to this exploratory push G has put the platform through. Actual traffic has not changed much despite this. I shall wait and see what comes of it all.
Unusually low traffic for me at the moment, more precisely since UK time 20.00 Sunday night until about 09.00 today, current traffic, 13.30 UK time, seems to be back to normal.
Anyone else have12-13 hours of much lower than usual traffic?
I’ve had more like 96,360 hours of much lower than usual traffic.
Yes, USA traffic is -53% today at 12:30pm. Home page is -63%. Total search -13% so of course it’s all coming from lower USA results, with traffic from India, Bangladesh, Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan, all zooming along.
I have had roughly a 20% increase in traffic on Sunday and today will also be about the same. Impression increase as well to match. This though comes after three or so weeks of near identical stats.
Traffic has been hammered since 28th of march! Worst part is google also limited my AdSense ads since March since working on facebook and Youtube traffic, which is 20% of my traffic! You get hit for working social it seems. Not sure why SEOS say social signals, my social facebook/youtube (24k followers facebook, 3k subs on youtube) is awesome but I haven’t seen it help the site SEO ranking wise, ever!
Also, the comments on this site, in the May 16th post, are off the charts – so scan through those.
Google Tracking Tools
The tracking tools, all of them, are showing spikes throughout May 16th through this week. Some tools picked it up more than others and some are showing a bigger lift today. Here are screenshots from those tools:
RankRanger is mostly calm now:
Mozcast – also is calm:
So while this may not be a broad core update – there were some signs of a Google update that felt like a broad core update rollout.
Did you notice a lot of volatility the past week and maybe something up-ticking today?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 25, 2024
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.
The Google March 2024 core update is still rolling out and the SEO chatter is super heated despite the tools calming. Google Ads API version 16.1 is now out. Google’s John Mueller says splitting and merging sites takes longer than normal site moves for Google to process. Google updated its favicon documentation. And a scathing report on how Google executive Prabhakar Raghavan killed Google Search.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google March Core Update Stilling Rolling Out & Heated SEO Chatter Continue
Over the past few days, while I was offline, the SEO chatter around the Google search ranking volatility continued to be super heated. The Google tracking tools seemed to calm down a bit, but the chatter is still very heated. This is all while the Google March 2024 core update is still rolling out 51 days later. -
Report: How Prabhakar Raghavan Killed Google Search
Ed Zitron wrote a piece named The Man Who Killed Google Search. It goes through in detail how Prabhakar Raghavan, Google’s former head of ads – led a coup so that he could run Google Search, and how an email chain from 2019 began a cascade of events that would lead to him running it into the ground, he said. -
Google Favicon Documentation Adds Rel Attribute Value Definitions
Google has updated its favicon documentation for Google Search to add definitions for each supported rel attribute value in the Google Search favicon documentation. -
Google Ads API Version 16.1 Now Available
Google released version 16.1 of the Google Ads API yesterday. The update includes query assets for Demand Gen, more location service details, more support warnings, Target ROAS bid simulation and more. -
Google: Splitting & Merging Sites Takes Longer Than Normal Site Migrations
Want to scare an SEO? Just tell them they need to manage a site migration. Want to make an SEO faint? Tell them they need to manage to split a site into two or more sites while merging content on those sites. John Mueller from Google said it takes Google longer to process site splits and merges than normal site migrations. -
Google Chefs In Dublin
Here is a photo I found on Instagram of a bunch of chefs at the Google office in Dublin. I am not sure if this was for some event or if Googlers were doing some sort of cooking class but it was a photo that caught my eye.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Interested in AI assistants within YouTube? -> The new experimental “Ask AI” feature in YouTube is pretty cool. Just tap the button and ask any question about the video you’re watching. Note, AI can’t control the video player as of n, Glenn Gabe on X
- What skeleton do you have in your closet?, WebmasterWorld
- Googlebot will crawl from one location (often the US), and if you redirect it based on its location, Googlebot would only see (and index) that country version. It’s better to use something like a banner., John Mueller on X
- I don’t know your sites, but even if the content’s the same, they’re essentially different sites (especially with ccTLDs), so it would be normal for a migration to affect them differently (and this seems to be quite a way back in the meantime)., John Mueller on X
- Search engines recrawl URLs at different rates, sometimes it’s multiple times a day, sometimes it’s once every few months. The verified removal tool is fastest, the public removal tool takes a few days because it needs to verify the URL properly., John Mueller on X
- You are now a Google Search Engineer. How do you fix organic search?, Gareth Boyd on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
- PPC for Retail: Biggest Trends, Challenges, & Strategies for Success, WordStream
- Unlocking Success with Performance Max Campaigns, Location3 Media
- Discovering and Diagnosing a Google AdSense Rendering Bug, Merj
- Google delays third-party cookie demise yet again, Digiday
- How to Find and Use Competitor Keywords, Ahrefs
- Q&A: Promoting your app or game with Apple Search Ads, Apple Developer
- Updates to Healthcare and Medicines Policy (May 2024), Google Advertising Policies Help
- Windows 11 Start menu ads are now rolling out to everyone, The Verge
Search Features
Other Search
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.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Won’t Change The 301 Signals For Ranking & SEO
Gary Illyes from Google said on stage at the SERP conference last week that there is no way that Google would change how the 301 redirect signal works for SEO or search rankings. Gary added that it’s a very reliable signal.
Nikola Minkov quoted Gary Illyes as saying, “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal,” when asked if a 301 redirect not working is a myth. Honestly, I am not sure the context of this question, as it is not clear from the post on X, but here it is:
More from @methode:
– 301 redirect not working is a myth. “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal”.#SERPConf2024#SERPConf2024International— Nikola Minkov (@n_minkov) April 19, 2024
We’ve covered 301 redirects here countless times – but I never saw a myth that Google does not use 301 redirects as a signal for canonicalization or for passing signals from an old URL to the redirected URL.
Forum discussion at X.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Again Says Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
I am not sure how many times Google has said that you do not need to disavow spammy links, that you can ignore link spam attacks and that links pointing to pages that 404/410 are links that do not count – but John Mueller from Google said it again.
In a thread on X, John Mueller from Google wrote, “if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped.” “They do nothing,” he added, “If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link.”
John then added, “I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.”
Asking if it would hurt to disavow, after responding with the messages above, John wrote:
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
Earlier this year we had tons of SEOs notice spammy links to 404 error pages, John said ignore them. In 2021, Google said links to 404 pages do not count, Google also said that in 2012 and many other times.
Plus, outside of links to 404 pages, Google has said to ignore spammy links, time and time again – even the toxic links – ignore them. The messaging around this changed in 2016 when Penguin 4.0 was released and Google began devaluing links over demoting them.
Here are those new posts in context:
I’d say add both. Lol
— Jeremy Rivera (@JeremyRiveraSEO) April 11, 2024
Sure. But also, save yourself the work completely :-).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
Re-reading your initial post – if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped. They do nothing. If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link. I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
… but still… is this a dumb idea?
— Rebekah Edwards (@rebekah_creates) April 11, 2024
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
And in general, Google says it ignores spammy links, so you should too (not new) but this post from John Mueller is:
I would just ignore them, Google ignores them too. Sometimes they’re just more visible in tools, but that doesn’t mean they’re a problem.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 18, 2024
And then also on Mastodon wrote about a similar situation, “Google has 2 decades of practice of ignoring spammy links. There’s no need to do anything for those links.”
Forum discussion at X.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
-
SEARCHENGINES7 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 19, 2024
-
WORDPRESS6 days ago
13 Best HubSpot Alternatives for 2024 (Free + Paid)
-
MARKETING6 days ago
Battling for Attention in the 2024 Election Year Media Frenzy
-
WORDPRESS6 days ago
7 Best WooCommerce Points and Rewards Plugins (Free & Paid)
-
MARKETING5 days ago
Advertising in local markets: A playbook for success
-
SEO6 days ago
Google Answers Whether Having Two Sites Affects Rankings
-
SEARCHENGINES5 days ago
Google Core Update Flux, AdSense Ad Intent, California Link Tax & More
-
AFFILIATE MARKETING6 days ago
Grab Microsoft Project Professional 2021 for $20 During This Flash Sale
You must be logged in to post a comment Login