SEARCHENGINES

Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Possibly Coming Soon

Published

3 months ago

February 17, 2022

Over the past couple of weeks, the Google search rankings have been pretty stable and calm. It actually has been unusually calm that some SEOs are getting nervous. I recently saw some super early signs of an update brewing. Is this the calm before the storm?

We did see some limited signals of an update both around February 6th and February 1st / 2nd but those two were unusual ones. Then before that on January 22nd, January 19th and 20th, January 14th, 15th and 17th, then before that on January 11th and then it was quiet until some tremors in late December. So for the past few weeks or so, if you exclude February 1st and 2nd and the weirdness from February 6th or so, it has been very quiet.

Now I am seeing some super light chatter and some of the tools spike up a bit.

SEO Chatter

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread had some chatter pick up a few days ago, around February 14th (which was Valentines Day) and then continue through today. But the chatter is not massive, it is not signaling a massive ongoing Google update.

Then yesterday, there was a bit of a blip in the chatter – so a spike on February 167th.

Maybe they are signs of an update to come or maybe not? Here is a summary of that chatter:

Traffic sharply lower. Traffic probably redirected to YouTube and large media priority sites. God bless them, they need that traffic more than me anyway (obviously)!

I’m starting to wonder if G has dropped an update within the past couple of hours. Traffic has fallen off a cliff.

I’m also seeing some traffic changes. We had some decent gains starting the Sunday before last, but dropping back slightly since yesterday. The Semrush sensor was up slightly along with our personal score.

Google Tracking Tools

Many of the tools pick up on a change in the Google rankings yesterday, February 16th or so. Here are screenshots from those tools:

Semrush:

RankRanger:

Accuranker:

Advanced Web Rankings:

SERPmetrics:

Cognitive SEO:

Mozcast:

So maybe we are starting to see things rumble or tremble a bit before the storm? I am not sure but it has been unusually calm.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

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Related Topics:Algorithm Coming Google Possibly Ranking Search update

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SEARCHENGINES

Google Ads Testing Replacing Ad Label With Sponsored Label

Published

2 hours ago

May 20, 2022

Entireweb News Bot

Google Ads Testing Replacing Ad Label With Sponsored Label

Google Ads is testing replacing the “ads” label with a “sponsored” label again. And just so you know, Google in 2010 replaced the “sponsored” label with an “ad” label until this day. Yea, sometimes we do see “sponsored” labels in Google Search but not for the normal search ads – those have been labeled “ads” for the UK and US regions for a long time now.

I personally cannot replicate this but Bastiir posted some screenshots of this on Twitter:

Test: Sponsored label in Google Search:

Normal: Ads label in Google Search:

Here is another full size screenshot you can click on to see the “sponsored” label:

Here are more tests:

Here’s an interesting test. Google is currently showing new ad label variations on mobile, now with the words ‘advertisement’ and ‘sponsored’. This is matched with another URL + favicon test from March – lots going on here. More info: https://t.co/j6IUtkSa1z pic.twitter.com/FLSnZcmzWc
— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) May 17, 2022

I personally like the “sponsored” label, makes it feel more luxury. 🙂

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Update: Google has now confirmed this as a test and sent Search Engine Land this statement:

This is part of a series of experiments to help users more easily identify the brand or advertiser associated with the Search ads they may see for a given query. We are always testing news ways to improve the experience for users on the search results page, but we don’t have anything specific to announce right now.

Source: www.seroundtable.com