SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Volatility & Chatter On January 3rd & 4th

As the Google December 2022 helpful content update and link spam update continue to roll out, I am now seeing more signs of volatility and chatter within the SEO industry in the past 24 hours. It seems like there is another Google algorithm update, or maybe a continuation from the previous ones, taking place on January 3rd and 4th.
I am not sure if the volatility and fluctuations in the Google search results are related to the helpful content update, the link spam update or something completely different but there is renewed volatility and fluctuations over the past 24 hours.
Google Tracking Tools
Let’s start with the tracking tools:
The rest are not yet picking up on the changes but I suspect later on today they will update and show the volatility.
SEO Chatter
And yes, I am seeing some early chatter from within the SEO community. The chatter is now at WebmasterWorld and in the comments section here, here is some quotes from those sources:
Sharp traffic drop since around 13:00 GMT. USA Semrush sensor rising.
Traffic is still very wobbly, but nothing out of the ordinary, especially in e-shop space. January is always notoriously slow, both traffic and customer-wise. Anyone who thinks it receives zombie traffic or whatever needs to realize that unless their website is niche enough to not be in sync with the general population’s behavior, it is seeing a general seasonality affecting the vast majority of websites. What I can comment, however, is that during the holidays, there was a big shift from long tail to general keyword searches, causing many keywords to appear as they are losing SERP positions, where the reality is that many people’s search results are in their “personal search bubble” and when they stop searching for what you rank good for _to them_ it seems as if positions took a nose dive.
Keywords Ranking Going down from 1st page to 4th page
Massive drop today. Semrush on high range… here we go again 😐
My organic traffic also relatively increased yesterday, however, it was useless traffic, the majority is coming from irrelevant countries.
Same here. Although only up from 50% to now about 65% percent of where it wss just prior to this update that throttled traffic exactly in half.
Hopefully, that trajectory holds for everyone who arbitrarily took a hit with this total BS update, even if very slow.
Am I the only one that saw a big boost in organic traffic yesterday (Jan 2)?
A new fluctuation has started in the past 24 hours, however, waves have become much bigger at the moment.
What are you all seeing and do you think this is related to the helpful content update, link spam update or something new?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Daniel Waisberg Hosts Lizzi Sassman & Martin Splitt At Google Tel Aviv

A couple of months before John Mueller visited Daniel Waisberg at the Google Tel Aviv office, Lizzi Sassman and Martin Splitt of Google did as well. Here are the three smiling on the streets of Tel Aviv.
This was shared a while back on Twitter.
This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Ad Revenues Down 3.6% Year Over Year

Google reported earnings last night and their ad revenue not only slowed but was technically lower year over year. Google’s ad revenue was down about 3.6%, while total revenue was up just around 1%.
Here is the snippet from the earnings report showing that:
Remember, Microsoft reported earnings the week prior and showed slowed growth but still growth. Microsoft Bing Ads grew 10% last quarter.
Here is a look at Google’s earnings numbers for the past 3 years:
You can see that Q4 2021 was higher than Q4 2022!
Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google, said: “Our Q4 consolidated revenues were $76 billion, up 1% year over year, or up 7% in constant currency, and $283 billion for the full year 2022, up 10%, or up 14% in constant currency. We have significant work underway to improve all aspects of our cost structure, in support of our investments in our highest growth priorities to deliver long-term, profitable growth.”
Hence the mass Google layoffs to cut costs and increase profit. Keep in mind, Google’s profit was insane – $18 billion, that is $1 billion in profit per week! Sure, Google’s net income was down 34% year over year, so I get Wall Street.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Microsoft Bing ChatGPT Search Interface Screenshots?

Owen Yin shared some screenshots of what he said he saw on the Microsoft Bing website. It looks like the beta version of the upcoming ChatGPT features that we are all expecting Bing to announce in the coming weeks (maybe even this coming Tuesday).
Owen shared these screenshots on Twitter and then posted more details on Medium.
Here is the home page screenshot that widens and enlarges the search box and says “Ask me anything”:
Here is his screenshot of the results, the answers being returned:
And here is the GIF he made of this:
It would not surprise me if this is being tested in the wild by Microsoft Bing, as all the evidence leads to a big announcement about this type of feature being released sometime in the next week or so.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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