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Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update & Volatility Exploding This Weekend
I often post about Google ranking volatility and search ranking algorithm updates but I rarely post about them on a weekend. But I just had to this Sunday morning; the tools are literally all reporting massive and explosive volatility this weekend and the SEO chatter is also very high.
I know we just reported one of these updates a few days ago but it is even more heated, even more explosive, than mid-to-late last week. This weekend, is off the charts for many of these tools.
Google did fix the Google News indexing bug on Thursday/Friday, so I doubt that is related. And Google is still radio silent on any confirmed type of update. The last update Google confirmed was the April 2023 reviews update and the last core update was the March 2023 core update. Google did say on Friday that when they have an update to confirm, they will confirm it – they added that there will be confirmed updates in the future.
Previous Recent Unconfirmed Updates
Just to catch you up, we last reported about an unconfirmed Google update around July 12th/13th, then around July 6th or 8th and then on June 28th and 29th and then again June 23rd then on June 19th we reported about ongoing heated volatility with Google Search. We also reported on an update on June 14th, one around June 14th and ongoing, then June 6th then around May 22/23rd, then around May 17t, then on May 10th and the other around early May.
Google Tracking Tools
Here is what those tracking tools are showing over the past month or so, especially with today’s volatility:
SEO Chatter
There has been a spike in chatter also amongst the SEO community both at WebmasterWorld and the comments here.
Heavy traffic this moring. Has anyone else noticed any changes today.
I was checking GSC and saw that my top referring terms have fallen down the list for quite some time now. All of the semantically related terms which used to refer a huge amount of traffic to my site dropped off a cliff at the same time around April 10th:
The drop was 80-90% and has never recovered. I am still in the top five for these terms, but the traffic just vanished. Was there a major update around this time? I am wondering if this is just the effect of losing the image carousel.
My global sites are where I would expect for a weekend heading towards the 70% mark at my new lower average level whereas our hotel function site is well ahead so far this month at 148% for July.
Our overall Google traffic is slightly up from the same days last week, but just barely.
I do see a lot of volatility for our most popular individual pages. One page might be up 30 or 40 percent one day while another is down by a similar amount. This isn’t typical.
I see looking back on this week that they have undone the last three updates. We are back to a month ago. SERPS shows MadeinChina, IndiaMart, Alibaba and Amazon on all the slots on the front page again. The PDF’s are also back in full bloom.
Sunday so far is looking like my new norm at 50% however do bear in mind that 50% is 50% of what its was only a few months ago therefore by my “old average” I’m at 25%.
Glenn Gabe also posted some specific examples:
And here are some more examples (this time using Semrush versus Sistrix). I’m seeing these changes across tools. I wonder if Google is having trouble with how the next HCU is interacting w/the reviews update? i.e. dueling machine learning algos… Something big is coming… pic.twitter.com/O4us8XbrOu
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 16, 2023
It is the weekend, so chatter is generally lighter but man, these tools are on fire.
What are you all seeing this weekend?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
