SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Ranking Update Spiking June 23rd
We have been watching what I named the Google Juneteenth Search Ranking Algorithm tremors since the weekend and it is now spiking even more this morning. Seems like some sites hit by the May 2022 core update are seeing some big recoveries, many are not, and sites in general are reporting on big swings in the Google search results.
None of this has been confirmed by Google, but most of these updates are not confirmed by someone at Google – except the big pre-announced ones for the most part.
We are seeing a spike in chatter from within the SEO community starting in a bigger way in the past 24-hours and also seeing the tracking tools show much more volatility over the past 24-hours.
Tracking Tools
Today, lets start with what the tracking tools are showing – and again, it spiked this morning on many of these tool provider’s dashboards.
SERPwoo is high:
SEO Chatter
The chatter is pretty hefty in the ongoing WebmasterWorld and the comments section of the Juneteenth post here. Here are some quotes from both over the past 24-hours:
It’s been happening for smaller sites, but not for significant sites. Perhaps I’ve just come across it and its been going on a while.
This is not a good sign, and I’m hoping it’s just an aberration and will be keeping an eye on this.
Tuesday’s traffic was 105% for me with a substanital increase in USA visitors however as soon as it went towards the end of my day, say 19.00 EST, it almost ground to a halt and just coming up to 11 hours this morning I am on 14% of average, yes 14.
This is utterly bizarre, I can’t call these traffic flows, they are controlled surges, on / off and completely unnatural by my historical standards.
Big drop few hours ago. Obviously there is no recovery any time soon (or ever).
I also noticed for one of my top keyword phrases which is 100% informational / non-commercial, Google showed large mobile Ad, which looked like organic listing with sitelinks. This top-ad was very large, about 40% of phone screen size. Only reasons why I could tell its not real search result was tiny black “Ad” label in corner, and, of course, the glaring irrelevance.
It was like searching “tallest buildings” and getting “PremiumXYZTapeMeasures.com” as first result with sitelinks. No, Google, I am not going to tape measure skyscrapers. Someone needs to tell Google AI that people don’t always want to buy things when they look up facts.
I don’t recall ever seeing any top ads (even regular size) for this phrase.
Extraordinary … I’ve already exceeded my weekday average with less than half my day gone. Multiple visitors looking at multiple pages from multiple global locations … How long will this last, not long I bet ?
First time, after the core update, I am gaining lots of keywords but the strange thing is, I am gaining new types of keywords that never ranked before the core update. I am still unable to gain my lost keywords.
Here are some surges I’ve seen over the past few days. Seems to have started around 6/20 or 6/21, but I’m also seeing some sites with big changes yesterday into today. pic.twitter.com/qavck8Uz4f
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) June 23, 2022
And here are some drops I’m seeing. Some are significant drops in search visibility starting over the past few days (and some over the past day into today).
As I’ve said in many presentations about Google updates, WELCOME TO GOOGLE LAND. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/oZ4s1cAUhV
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) June 23, 2022
It is early on for this June 22nd/23rd spike but I think whatever happened with the Juneteenth update is spiking in a much larger way today?
What are you all noticing?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Google Won’t Change The 301 Signals For Ranking & SEO
Gary Illyes from Google said on stage at the SERP conference last week that there is no way that Google would change how the 301 redirect signal works for SEO or search rankings. Gary added that it’s a very reliable signal.
Nikola Minkov quoted Gary Illyes as saying, “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal,” when asked if a 301 redirect not working is a myth. Honestly, I am not sure the context of this question, as it is not clear from the post on X, but here it is:
More from @methode:
– 301 redirect not working is a myth. “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal”.#SERPConf2024#SERPConf2024International— Nikola Minkov (@n_minkov) April 19, 2024
We’ve covered 301 redirects here countless times – but I never saw a myth that Google does not use 301 redirects as a signal for canonicalization or for passing signals from an old URL to the redirected URL.
Forum discussion at X.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Again Says Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
I am not sure how many times Google has said that you do not need to disavow spammy links, that you can ignore link spam attacks and that links pointing to pages that 404/410 are links that do not count – but John Mueller from Google said it again.
In a thread on X, John Mueller from Google wrote, “if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped.” “They do nothing,” he added, “If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link.”
John then added, “I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.”
Asking if it would hurt to disavow, after responding with the messages above, John wrote:
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
Earlier this year we had tons of SEOs notice spammy links to 404 error pages, John said ignore them. In 2021, Google said links to 404 pages do not count, Google also said that in 2012 and many other times.
Plus, outside of links to 404 pages, Google has said to ignore spammy links, time and time again – even the toxic links – ignore them. The messaging around this changed in 2016 when Penguin 4.0 was released and Google began devaluing links over demoting them.
Here are those new posts in context:
I’d say add both. Lol
— Jeremy Rivera (@JeremyRiveraSEO) April 11, 2024
Sure. But also, save yourself the work completely :-).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
Re-reading your initial post – if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped. They do nothing. If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link. I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
… but still… is this a dumb idea?
— Rebekah Edwards (@rebekah_creates) April 11, 2024
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
And in general, Google says it ignores spammy links, so you should too (not new) but this post from John Mueller is:
I would just ignore them, Google ignores them too. Sometimes they’re just more visible in tools, but that doesn’t mean they’re a problem.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 18, 2024
And then also on Mastodon wrote about a similar situation, “Google has 2 decades of practice of ignoring spammy links. There’s no need to do anything for those links.”
Forum discussion at X.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Needs Very Few Links To Rank Pages; Links Are Less Important
Gary Illyes from Google spoke at the SERP Conf on Friday and he said what he said numerous times before, that Google values links a lot less today than it did in the past. He added that Google Search “needs very few links to rank pages.”
Gary reportedly said, “We need very few links to rank pages… Over the years we’ve made links less important.”
I am quoting Patrick Stox who is quoting what he heard Gary say on stage at the event. Here is Patrick’s post where Gary did a rare reply:
I shouldn’t have said that… I definitely shouldn’t have said that
— Gary 鯨理/경리 Illyes (so official, trust me) (@methode) April 19, 2024
Gary said this a year ago, also in 2022 and other times as well. We previously covered that Google said links would likely become even less important in the future. And even Matt Cutts, the former Googler, said something similar about eight years ago and the truth is, links are weighted a lot less than it was eight years ago and that trend continues. A couple of years ago, Google said links are not the most important Google search ranking factor.
Of course, many SEOs think Google lies about this.
Judith Lewis interviewed Gary Illyes at the SERP Conf this past Friday.
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