Wild Google Organic Ranking Swings With Google Algorithm Updates

With all these different Google search ranking algorithm updates over the past several weeks, it has been a very busy time for SEOs. While most sites probably don’t see huge swings. Glenn Gabe documented a site that didn’t just see one big ranking change but several!

Glenn Gabe posted on Twitter and wrote “If you want a great example of machine learning models having a hard time figuring out a site, look no further. This site drops & surges around major updates, including several Product Reviews Updates. And just dropped AGAIN with the Sep PRU late tremor. Stay tuned. More to come.”

Here is the example site’s Search Console graph with those insane swings:

Glenn added “I just started digging in, but clearly Google is having a hard time understanding what the site does, if it should be classified as a product reviews site (it probably should…), & if it should rank at all. Like others impacted, the site dropped off a cliff for some queries…”

I just started digging in, but clearly Google is having a hard time understanding what the site does, if it should be classified as a product reviews site (it probably should…), & if it should rank at all. Like others impacted, the site dropped off a cliff for some queries… pic.twitter.com/c9SFmZay8k

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 30, 2022

It is rare to see such movement from one site in such a period of time but when you do, it makes you go wow.

It is kind of also mindboggling that Google would have algorithms that kind of fight with each other. It reminds me of when sites are on the edge of Google’s quality threshold but in this case, it is different algorithms judging things differently.

Have you seen this before, with such extreme fluctuations?

Forum discussion at Twitter.