While I was offline, it seems we had two bouts of Google Search ranking volatility, one starting around Wednesday, October 23rd and 24th, and then again in the past 24 hours, starting on October 26th and 27th. I mean, this is a lot of the same as my previous Google Search ranking algorithm update coverage.

Again, I am seeing new intense chatter from the SEO community about big ranking changes in the past 24 hours and also from when I went offline on the 23rd and 24th of October.

As a reminder, we covered October 19th and 20th volatility and then on October 15th, October 10th and then before that on October 2nd which lasted a couple of days. The Google August 2024 core update started on August 15th and officially completed on September 3rd. But it was still super volatile the day after it completed and also weeks after it completed and it has not cooled.

We saw big signals on and around September 6th, September 10th or so and maybe around September 14th. We also saw movement around September 18th, last weekend and Septmeber 25th and September 28th or so.

Here is what I am seeing now.

SEO Chatter

Here is some of the chatter in the past 24 hours from both WebmasterWorld and over here:

Google shut down organic traffic completely today in Brazil. The Semrush sensor is normal(8,9), but the traffic is stopped.

Wow, traffic just died today. It’s like my traffic went on a weekend break too.

The worst thing is close to Christmas, it’s as if my website doesn’t even exist.

Why my category pages with little to no data getting indexed and appearing on first page while pages with content are no where to be found? This new update has totally messed up SERPs. Anyone else observing this behavior?

My “informational” site seems to be holding steady rank and traffic wise but seeing competitors drop from page one to 3 then back again to original position a few hours later, its like total flux and nothing I have ever seen, constant movement for months now, hour by hour…. What are they doing?

There is more but here is some of the chatter from Wednesday and Thursday:

Really low traffic today, according to GA.

Update today? Huge drop over here!

Does anyone understand the current chaos? Despite a good ranking, my traffic has dropped drastically since Friday and every day it gets less. The same applies to a number of other website owners I’ve spoken to in the last few days. Especially considering that Google traffic has increased dramatically since August. In the shop the same: until Friday, sales were good, now it’s just zombie traffic again.

Huge swings today again, yesterday it looked like they did a roll back to around March…. now the past few hours it looks like a roll back of a rollback. I think this is the new norm and another money grab by G to have organics in a constant state of flux to prevent any company/site having any sort of stability if not using ads?!

Drop today confirmed since yesterday.

Sheeesh. @rustybrick I’m seeing HUGE movement in last 24 hours, both gains and losses (naturally).

— Taylor Kurtz (@RealTaylorKurtz) October 24, 2024

Yep, lots of volatility. For example, here’s a site heavily impacted by the September helpful content update (HCUX) that surged with the August core update, then dropped when a number of other HCUX sites dropped back down AFTER the August core update completed, but now surged… https://t.co/kBavOmX586 pic.twitter.com/f6O8S7YtuO

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 27, 2024

Google Tracking Tools

The tracking tools seem at their normal high levels, with nothing really jumping out as massive. So, it is a bit unusual not to see the spike in chatter along with the spike with the tools. Here is what they show:

Mozcast:

Wincher:

Cognitive SEO:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Accuranker:

Semrush:

Data For SEO:

Mangools:

Algoroo:

SimilarWeb:

Sistrix:

SERPstat:

SERPmetrics (not updated in a week or so):

So what are you all seeing?

I am covering this with a rare Sunday story as I catch up on other stories throughout the week.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

This week, we had more Google search ranking volatility to report on – surprise, surprise. Google is deprecating its Sitelinks Search Box next month. Google may have penalized Fortune Recommends over site reputation abuse. Google is showing generative AI throughout the search results. Google has this People’s Insights box that shows online forums for unprofessional medical advice. Bing Search is adding AI-enhanced summaries to its search results. There are several bugs with the Bing Webmaster Tools API and documentation. Google Ads performance max won’t take priority over search campaigns when in the same account. Also, Google Ads has sharable ad previews, asset experiments for Performance Max with product feeds and test adding assets and using Final URL expansion. Google search ads now uses travel feeds for hotel ads. Google has a watch video icon for video ads in search. Google to pause ads from showing after the electoral polls close on November 5th. Google Local Service Ads is testing request competitive quotes. Google Merchant Center is testing audience insights. Google Ads API version 18 is out. Nick Fox is the new head of Google Search, he is replacing the super controversial Prabhakar Raghavan. There is a new SEO board game coming out for the holidays. And I am offline today, when this was published, for a holiday, this was pre-written, pre-recorded and scheduled to go live today.s That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

SPONSOR: This week’s video recap is sponsored by Duda, the Professional Website Builder You Can Call Your Own.

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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 said it does not use ARIA for SEO or ranking purposes. Google said AI is not going away, so don’t be left behind. Google Discover seems to be getting new icons. Google Search has these top recipe guides. Google is testing other people search box. Plus, I have my video scheduled to be posted today. And again, I am offline today, this was pre-written and scheduled.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Does Google Search Use ARIA? Likely Not.
  
  
  Google Search likely does not use ARIA Accessible Rich Internet Applications, for ranking or even indexing purposes, according to both John Mueller and Martin Splitt at Google.
• 
  Google: AI Is Not Going Away, So Don’t Be Left Behind
  
  
  Google’s John Mueller posted his thoughts on AI, which were two fold. (1) AI is not going away, so he doesn’t recommend you take a stance against AI and (2) he isn’t a fan of all the hype around AI, because it is making many feel insecure about their future.
• 
  Video: Google Ranking Movement, Sitelinks Search Box Going Away, Gen-AI In Bing & Google, Ad News & More
  
  
  This week, we had more Google search ranking volatility to report on – surprise, surprise. Google is deprecating its Sitelinks Search Box next month. Google may have penalized Fortune Recommends over site reputation abuse. Google is showing generative AI throughout the search results…
• 
  Google Discover Design Update & New Icons
  
  
  Google Discover is rolling out some small design updates to its interfaces. It has these new colored icons that communicate the action and Google is also showing other articles shown in a carousel.
• 
  Google Search Top Recipe Guides List
  
  
  Google is showing a section named “top recipe guides” that can be expanded or collapsed in Google Search. It shows a “Lists of options from the web” in this expanded section.
• 
  Google Other People Search Box
  
  
  Google is testing another variation of the people also ask box, this one is titled “other people search.” I am not sure if there is any functional or technical difference between this box and the other variations outside of the title.
• 
  NYC Google Salad Bar Top View
  
  
  Here is a top down view of a salad bar at the Google offices in New York City. You can see the Google chef making up a custom salad for a Googler.
• 
  Programming Note: Offline For Simchat Torah On Thursday & Friday
  
  
  This is a programming note that Thursday and Friday are Simchat Torah and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Thursday and Friday, October 24th and October 25th.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Feedback:

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Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Simchat Torah.