Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Volatility July 5th & July 7th

Over the past few days there has been some chatter within the SEO community about more Google search ranking algorithmic fluctuations and volatility. This comes after over a week of relative calmness in the Google search results.

The chatter picked up in the WebmasterWorld and in the comments section from my last Google update story on June 28th have spiked over the last few days – with some chatter picking up on July 5th and then in a bigger way on July 7th, today.

Plus, some of the tools are starting to show a big swing upwards in the Google search volatility in the past 24-hours.

SEO Chatter

Here is some of the chatter:

Interesting, 06.00 this morning and the switch was flipped on, 18.00 this evening, two hours ago, the switch was flipped off ! Bear in mind this is mid-day / afternoon US time, the roller coaster continues even on a holday.

Many years ago I seem to recollect a major update and the entire Plex went skiing and everything went horribly wrong, these days it seems to be the standard M.O.

Huge drop today…

Every holiday and during big events they tend to roll out more anti-web features in the SERP pages, hoping they can hind behind the holiday/news headlines.

This drop is just partly related to July 4th, but mostly direct consequence of anti-web changes in the SERP pages.

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A sudden, precipitous drop in USA traffic overnight…starting down 76% this morning. Traffic to my home page was -33% yesterday, and -44% so far today. I am stable in ranking and gained a few new terms, but the traffic literally vanished

Traffic and SERPs seem so turbulent. Search doesn’t stand still now. What I find as strange as anything is that our personal movements don’t mirror those of everyone else’s anymore. Some days the sensors are quiet, but we’re seeing loads of movement.

It’s just gone 16.00 on my Googleday and things look normal! PVs, uniques, sources … Let’s see how long this lasts?

And much more…

Google Tracking Tools

Here are what some of the tracking tools are showing as of this morning.

SERPmetrics:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Accuranker:

Semrush – as a reminder, they adjusted their sensors but you can still see the spike:

Mozcast:

RankRanger:

We will see if Mozcast and RankRanger show more change later on today…

Have you noticed any large changes in the past day or so?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.