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Google Search Ranking Volatility Over The Memorial Day Weekend

Published

4 months ago

May 28, 2024

While I highly doubt Google pushed an algorithmic change over Memorial Day, there was a significant spike in chatter in the SEO community and the third-party Google Search tracking tools are showing volatility. Yes, traffic can be weird and lower on Memorial Day – I get that – but there seems to be more movement than normal.

So, was there a Google Search ranking update over Memorial Day weekend? Let me share what I am seeing but before I do.

Just a reminder that we saw Google ranking volatility around May 22nd, May 16th, May 9th, May 3rd and April 25th. Before that the March 2024 core update started on March 5th and ended on April 19th, 45 days later. It has been a busy month.

SEO Chatter

I began seeing chatter at WebmasterWorld on Sunday, May 26th and the chatter continued on through yesterday. Here is some of what was said in the forums:

Wow, I am seeing a 70% drop in traffic to my site’s homepage this weekend. Now a drop is normal on holiday weekends, but certainly not 70%….what’s up with that?

Very poor weekend for my global site at 60% yesterday and so far today after 20 hours at 40%. I expect tomorrow to be equally low.

UK hotel site ended up yesterday after a very slow start and has been extremely busy today as hoped for with food and live music.

What a strange weekend. Saturday traffic from Google collapsed, Sunday a strong increase, today so far 1 hour a lot of traffic, one hour as good as nothing, this has been going on since 6 am. I give up trying to understand that.

For me too, a little bit down again at the weekend. It goes down, down and down. Nobody knows why or why. I’m slowly but surely coming to terms with the fact that this topic no longer has a future. 🙁

Oh wow, there is life after Google. My traffic overnight is +140%. Bringing me back to, almost, where I was. I think a few new articles went viral but Google, was -20%. So none of this increased traffic was sent from them. Nice! After months and weeks of solid decline I now see an increase. Now to try and maintain it.

Traffic back to normal for me today which surprised me a little.

It is a holiday weekend in the UK therefore I went out for a few beers last night and it really did shock me. Several pubs were already closed and the normally really busy pubs were all absolutely dead … Were all the supposed 20 million car journeys happening last night?

I also saw some chatter on this site:

I thought Google would leave it alone on memorial day but seems there is now shuffling in my niche anyway. It was actually awfully quiet for a few days with pretty much no changes in the rankings. But it’s starting again. It’s just sick. I don’t get why the rankings shuffle so much day to day. I have read the theories here and they seem correct. Could be A/B testing. Who even knows.

Someone is feeling a difference during this weekend?

Glenn Gabe also spotted changes, he wrote, “Well, add 5/26 to the list. I’m seeing some confirmed surges in rankings across sites I have access to. And these are sites also impacted by the March core update.”

So, we’ve seen some crazy volatility after the March core update rolled out. E.g. The 5/3 movement was huge and we saw a number of sites completely recover from the March core update. But then there was a ton of volatility on 5/6, 5/8, 5/11, and 5/22. Well, add 5/26 to the list.… pic.twitter.com/CRlTH9Ap7Z

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 27, 2024

And more:

hi @rustybrick, Any noise about google update. Results are fluctuation a lot here in India

— Dinesh Singh (@kumarsinghdk) May 27, 2024

Google Tracking Tools

As you can see, most of these tools have been super heated and showing a lot of Google ranking volatility over the past week.

Semrush:

SimilarWeb:

Advanced Web Rankings:

What did you all see this weekend?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: September 19, 2024

Published

20 hours ago

September 20, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

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 Search ranking volatility continues, with another big swing yesterday, September 18th. Google is mass suspending Google Business Profiles in some industries and segments. Google again said stop worrying too much about Core Web Vitals. Google is showing videos in the top insights products section. A new Google AI Overview study shows links mostly go to informational intent pages.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Search Ranking Volatility Continue With Big Movement Again 9/18

To be honest, the Google Search ranking volatility has not cooled at all since the pre-launch of the Google August 2024 core update. But something happened yesterday which caused a bit more of a swing of things in the rankings at Google Search.

Google Suspending Many Google Business Profiles

I am seeing a flood of complaints in the Google Business Profiles forums where businesses are complaining that their Google Business Profiles were suspended. Supposedly, Google is mass disabling Business Profiles in specific sets of industries or niches.

Google: Core Web Vitals Aren’t As Important As Some People Might Think

Google again has downplayed the importance of Core Web Vitals as a Google Search ranking signal. Google’s Martin Splitt said in a video yesterday, “also core web vitals aren’t as important as some people might think.” He added, “they are they are not irrelevant though but do not over focus on these things.”

Google Product Results Top Insights With YouTube Videos

Google is now showing videos, I guess from YouTube but I suspect it can support other video sites, within the top insights section of the product detail results. Previously, Google would just show review content but now Google added video content to this section.

Study: 96% Of Google AI Overviews Links Go To Informational Intent Pages

Did you know that 96% of the links Google displays and shows in the AI Overviews link to content that has informational intent? A new study from seoClarity says this is the case, after analyzing over 1 million keywords in its data set.

Google’s Doogler Day

Did you know Google has a special day for the Google Dogs, Dooglers. It is called Doogler Day and here is a photo of Doogler Day 2024.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

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.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: September 18, 2024

Published

2 days ago

September 19, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

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.

Google Search will soon show if an image is AI-generated, edited with photo editing software or taken by a camera. Google Search Console has a bug showing product snippet search appearances in the search performance report again. Google Ads announced negative keywords for PMax, new insights, expanding more AI features and more. Google Local Service Ads validation logic for bids email. Bing is testing scrollable search result snippets.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Ads Gains Negative Keywords, Insights, Reporting To PMax & Much More

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Google Search To Label Images As AI Generated, Edited Or Taken With Camera

Google Search will soon label images as AI-generated, edited with photo editing software or if it was taken with a camera in the image search results. This label will be added to the about this image feature, according to The Verge who spoke to Laurie Richardson, vice president of trust and safety at Google.

Google Search Console Product Snippets Report Surge Again, Likely A Bug

It looks like we are seeing another surge in the Google Search Console Search Performance report when you filter by the product snippets search appearance filter. We had this happen in May of this year, it was a bug that Google fixed, and now we are seeing it happen again.

Bing Search Result Snippets That Are Scrollable

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Google LSAs Changes In Validation Logic For Bid Modifications

Some advertisers received an email from Google this week with the subject line, “Changes in validation logic for bid modifications.” This email was sent to Google Local Service Ads advertisers who potentially used the API for that service.

Dancers At The Google App Summit

Here is a video of dancers, they seem hired and not Googlers, dancing at a Google event named the App Summit. I found this on Instagram and found it a bit weird but what do I know.

Other Great Search Threads:

Add-ons is intended to be the place to access more advanced features such as custom reports, loyalty programs, and rules & supplemental data sources., AdsLiaison on X

Bluish background when selecting items in the “People Also Search For” section, Deepak Yadav on X

Google did some fall cleaning for its Google Search Console data anomalies page, Barry Schwartz on X

In the UK suspected review abuse can lead to a 30 day review ban, Mike Blumenthal on X

It’s additive. To be clear, advertiser’s data is already protected by robust security measures. But confidential matching employs newer privacy enhancing technologies – confidential computing and TEEs – and pro, AdsLiaison on X

My latest research says no, service areas are still not a ranking factor., Darren Shaw on LinkedIn

Tobias from @audisto did a bunch of JS rendering analysis across multiple search engines. Google Mobile uses a different pixel density, can do 10mm pixels high, and 1648 pixels in width., Mic King on X

We’ve added a new “reasoning” focus (beta) on Perplexity for Pro users. It will use the new OpenAI o1-mini. There is no search integration yet. The model is slow, and usage is limited because of rate limits. It is good for puzzles,, Aravind Srinivas on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

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SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 17, 2024

Published

3 days ago

September 18, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

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.

There are complaints about the Google Indexing API not working but I suspect it is working as Google planned. Google is testing sticky headers for ads and search results. Google is testing swipeable dots for carousels. Google Local Service Ads tests viewed X hours/minutes ago. Google is testing an expanded version of discussions and forums.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

The Google Indexing API Not Working For Some Or Indexing Issues…

There are complaints in the Black Hat SEO World forums that the Google Indexing API is not working. Some are saying Google is returning a call saying all is good but when it comes to indexing the content, it is not happening.

Google Tests Sticky Headers For Ads & Results

Google is testing that new large ad and organic label headers design but this time having the header stick to the top as you scroll.

Google Search Tests Swipeable Dots For Carousels

Google is testing a new interface in the search results to help searchers know they can swipe over a carousel to see more options. Google is placing swipeable dots at the bottom of some search boxes.

Google Tests Expanded & More Discussions and Forums Results

If you didn’t have enough Reddit and forum results in your Google Search results page, well, now Google is testing showing even more in the Discussions and Forums box. Generally, Google shows a short snippet of maybe three results, now Google is letting you expand them to see even more.

Google Local Service Ads Shows You Viewed X Minutes/Hours Ago

Google is testing showing the last time you viewed an ad, a Google Local Service Ad, by adding a label with those details. In this case, Google is showing “You viewed 15 minutes ago” next to this ad.

Yahoo Buildings Sign

Here is a super exciting photo of the sign outside of the Yahoo! campus. It has arrows to which Yahoo building number is in which direction. I can’t remember the last time I was at a Yahoo office…