SEARCHENGINES
Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update April 13th & 14th

There seems to have been another Google search ranking algorithm update, which is unconfirmed by Google right now, that started Wednesday, April 13th and trailed into Thursday, April 14th. I am seeing both chatter within the SEO forums and some of the tools are showing the volatility as well.
As a reminder, the last confirmed update was the March 2022 Product Reviews Update and that just ended on April 11th. There was another update on March 18th that did not get confirmed. Also one on March 11th and March 4th.
So what are we seeing with this April 13th and April 14th unconfirmed Google update?
SEO Chatter
I am seeing SEO chatter and discussions in the ongoing WebmasterWorld starting in this date range. Some are noticing some really big traffic swings with their sites, specifically related to their organic Google Search traffic. Here is what SEOs are saying:
Big drop yesterday into this morning.
Can’t be coincidental I noticed all that spam in my sector last night.
Yesterday a big increase in traffic across the board…USA, UK, search, direct. Today, right back down again. USA down 60% at 1pm. Search -28%, my home page is -47%. Clearly Google is now implementing a massive, on the fly theft of traffic via shifting overstuffed page layouts.
I am seeing a roughly ‘one day on, two days off’ pattern which leaves much of the week a write-off. This is while my ranking has mysteriously recovered much of what it lost last year…one year after the big declines started. Can’t wait to see what June will bring.
I am not seeing the spam you all are seeing at all. The problem in my niche is that Google has decided that informational “how-to” articles should be the only thing that ranks now for many searches. They have decided the intent and that’s that. Even worse when you factor in that the first organic listing is far, far down the page after all of the other excerpts, boxes, videos, tweets, etc that google is inserting on the page. Any site with commercial intent is being forced to pay.
After yesterday’s one day 49% increase in USA traffic, today a 54% drop in USA traffic by 6:30pm. Anyone care to wager whether USA traffic will suddenly shoot upward this evening? This is the new norm…forget being found in the USA market during daytime hours most days of the week. Soon, every day of the week and at all hours.
Google Tracking Tools
Here is a look at the tools that are showing volatility since April 13th.
So it looks like something shook something up with the Google rankings between April 13th and 14th. Did you notice any changes?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Google Cotton Candy Machine

Here is a cotton candy machine that was at the Google office for a YouTube Live event a few months back. I don’t think this machine lives there, I suspect Google rented it for the event, but I am not sure.
We did see some Googlers eating cotton candy a year ago… Just saying…
This was posted on Instagram.
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
SEOs Trust YMYL Content Less If It Is AI-Generated

Lily Ray ran a Twitter poll asking SEOs if they trust content in the YMYL, your money or your life, category more, less or the same if it was written by AI. The vast majority of responses said they trust AI-generated content less than human-generated content.
Lily asked, “If a site offering Your Money, Your Life information/advice (health, finance, etc) indicates that the content was partially written using AI, does this make you trust the content:”
About 74% of the over 1,000 votes said AI-generated content would be trusted less, 22% said there is no difference – they would trust it the same and 4% said it would be trusted more.
Here is the poll with the “See answers” option:
I know itโs hard not to be biased as an SEO professional, but try anyway. ๐
If a site offering Your Money, Your Life information/advice (health, finance, etc) indicates that the content was partially written using AI, does this make you trust the content:
โ Lily Ray ๐ (@lilyraynyc) January 15, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Ads Now Supports Account-Level Negative Keywords

We knew it was coming, Google Ads now supports negative keywords for brand safety at the account level. Google has just added account-level negative keywords to Google Ads and the PPC community is happy about it.
I spotted this first via Melissa Mackey on Twitter who credits @NilsRooijmanSEA with the find on LinkedIn. Melissa wrote, “Account-level negative keywords are here! This is big.”
The Google help document on negative keywords has a new section that reads, “Account-level negative keywords.”
When you create your account-level list of negative keywords, it will automatically apply to all search and shopping inventory in relevant campaign types. This allows you to create a single, global, account-level list that applies negative keywords across all relevant inventory in your account.
You can create a single, account-level list of negative keywords in your Google Ads account settings. In your โAccount Settings,โ youโll find the โNegative keywordsโ section. When you click on this section, you can begin creating your negative keywords list.
You can create your list by defining which search terms are considered negative for your brand. You can then enter this all at once in the โNegative keywordsโ section of your โAccount Settingsโ in your Google Ads account. You can also specify whether you want to exclude these based on broad, exact, or phrase match. A limit of 1,000 negative keywords can be excluded for each account. Learn more about account-level negative keywords.
Here is a screenshot of this setting, where Nils Rooijmans explained, “Google is rolling out this feature in most of my accounts right now.”
11 months ago, Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison said, Ginny Marvin responded to this saying “There are no current plans for a keyword tab in PMax. There are, however, plans to support negative keywords for brand safety at the account level.”
And now we got them.
Yay!!! pic.twitter.com/9uzIERjaY9
โ dan richardson (@njsdanrich) January 26, 2023
Bit more history:
Ginny mentioned the beta would start 6 months ago fwiw. Longish cycle from planning -> beta -> release https://t.co/eeUnFPjspr
It was spotted on Google’s roadmaps for Q4, seems to have been delayed a touch
โ Mike Ryan (@mikeryanretail) January 27, 2023
And some reaction on this:
The people asked for Performance Max negative keywords. We got account-level instead.
We typically want to exclude keywords from SOME campaigns, not ALL (for branded queries).
โ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ (@MenachemAni) January 27, 2023
Donโt get me wrong, there is definitely utility in account-level negative keywords.
Just not what we were hoping for as it relates to PMX.
โ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ (@MenachemAni) January 27, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter and LinkedIn.
Update: The Google Ads Liaison has now posted about this on Twitter:
1/3 Some have noticed Account level negative keywords are starting to roll out globally. From Account Settings, you can add keywords to exclude traffic from all Search and Shopping campaigns, and the Search and Shopping portion of PMax for brand safety: https://t.co/B0VBApPVCm
โ AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) January 27, 2023
3/3 And a reminder of existing brand suitability controls include inventory types, digital content labels, placement exclusions and negative keywords at the campaign level.
โ AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) January 27, 2023
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