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Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Kicking Off Or Is It The Helpful Content & Link Spam Updates?

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Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Kicking Off Or Is It The Helpful Content & Link Spam Updates?

I see signals, both in terms of SEO chatter and some of the Google Search tracking tools, of more volatility in the Google Search results. The volatility is algorithm update levels and can either be a new Google search ranking algorithm update or it can be the tail-end of the ongoing December 2022 helpful content update and December 2022 link spam update.

As you know, the December 2022 helpful content update started on December 5, 2022, and should have been done three weeks ago, but we are now on week number five. And the December 2022 link spam update started on December 14, 2022, and should have been done almost two weeks ago, but now we are heading into week number four.

But yes, we have a week or two more to go as of last Friday – so it might make sense to see some rumblings and fluctuations at the tail-end of these updates. I hope these updates finish on different dates and not the same dates.

Earlier last week, Danny Sullivan implied that the fluctuations we saw on January 3rd to 5th were related to these updates. He said on Mastodon then, “Both the updates are continuing to rollout. Normally these types of updates would have concluded by now, but rollouts can slow or pause when we get into the holiday periods.”

The two updates were delayed in its finish date because they ran into the holidays. Google said there was a security issue with completing them on the holidays. Also, we did see some big turbulence days before Christmas, and then things calmed down a lot. The truth is, the Google volatility is much calmer still than the previous couple of weeks. We also saw some fluctuations on December 26th.

SEO Chatter

Here is some of the SEO chatter from WebmasterWorld and BlackHatWorld over the past day or so… Note, some have been saying things are settling but some are seeing some wild swings (like any update, I guess).

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Seeing black and white changes in search volume – happened 2 days ago

Anyone else seeing a drop in USA traffic today? Every other country is zooming, but USA is down 25%+ at 4:30pm

I’m seeing major position changes for high-volume, commercial queries in G serps, including some VERY high authority websites in this space. We’re generally side by side with these sites so it’s significant to see them disappearing from serp’s. Old positions were 1-3, new positions are 85-90 for the same queries. SEMR is showing a 15-25% drop in several of the sites within this niche and I think the only reason it’s not higher, is that the queries are not updated in their database yet.

After weeks of turbulence, the SERPs in my vertical seem to be settling.

If previous years are anything to go by then my traffic should start to return to my global site from today onwards, Monday it was at 71%.

Last night I received a notification about ranking change for a query and went to investigate. I found a SERP that was completely different than the day before. All of the scrapers and AI garbage and low quality sites were gone and replaced by the sort of sites you would expect to show up on page one. The sites that actually produce and sell a widget rather than the sites that write 2,000 word articles about the widget.

The further drastic drop in traffic, “IT how-to” niche. Neither updating, nor new content helps, it’s just destroying my 10 year old website. After a year-by-year growth, Google suddenly identified my website as a bad one, and started killing it, and nothing helps. I don’t know for what reason should we produce new content these days…

Google Tracking Tools

It is early but here is what some of the tools are showing, I will make sure to update these charts later on in the day as the tools update again:

Semrush:

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Advanced Web Rankings:

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Accuranker:

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Algoroo:

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SERPwoo:

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Cognitive SEO:

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SERPmetrics:

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RankRanger:

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Mozcast:

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SERPstat:

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Do you see any volatility yet? Do you think this is the ending of these two updates?

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Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and BlackHatWorld.

Source: www.seroundtable.com

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Mikhail Parakhin Confirms He Is No Longer Working On Copilot At Microsoft

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Mikhail Parakhin Microsoft

Mikhail Parakhin, the former head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising at Microsoft, confirmed he is no longer working on the Copilot project. He stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising weeks ago after Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of AI at Microsoft.

We knew Mikhail Parakhin was planning to work on something new but now Mikhail Parakhin confirmed that he is no longer working on Copilot.

He said on X, “Not working on Copilot anymore, onto new things.”

I did follow up and asked if “onto new things” means new things within Microsoft or new things at a new company but I did not hear back on that. His LinkedIn profile still shows he is at Microsoft.

Here are those posts:

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I am super interested in what Mikhail is working on now and I suspect he will tell us soon.

I deeply miss his transparent and frequent posts about what Microsoft is working on with Copilot and Bing Search…

Forum discussion at X.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: May 10, 2024

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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 says site reputation abuse is not about links, it is about content. Google Local Service Ads ranking removed proximity as a ranking signal. Google Shopping may soon tell searchers how many shoppers purchased at your e-commerce site. Google Local panels now can show the owner of the business. Mikhail Parakhin from Microsoft confirmed he is no longer working on Copilot. Plus, I posted the weekly SEO video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:


  • Google: Site Reputation Abuse Isn’t About Linking


    Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, made it crystal clear that the site reputation abuse policy has zero to do with linking. This means that who you link to and/or who links to you has no impact on this new policy that Google began enforcing with manual actions earlier this week.

  • Google May Show How Many Shoppers Purchased On Your E-Commerce Site


    Google has sent some Google Merchant Center e-commerce site managers notifications that a new annotation may begin to show up in the search results next to their site’s listing that shows how many searchers purchased on your site. It may read, “1K shopped here recently.”

  • Google: Proximity Not A Relevancy Factor For Local Service Ads


    Google has updated its Local Services Ads help document on ad rankings to remove the line around “proximity to potential customers’ locations” is a ranking factor for those ads. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, said the document was updated but there was no recent or “sudden change to ranking considerations” to LSA rankings or positions.

  • Google Local Panel With Owner Attribute


    Google can show the owner of the business in the local panels in the Google search results. I suspect this is not new but I don’t believe I’ve seen this before, where Google will add an “owner” attribute to the local panel.

  • Mikhail Parakhin No Longer Working On Copilot At Microsoft


    Mikhail Parakhin, the former head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising at Microsoft, confirmed he is no longer working on the Copilot project. He stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising weeks ago after Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of AI at Microsoft.


  • Google Ads Cyclone Money Machine


    I found this photo funny. It is one of those cyclone money machines that money flies around in, and a person inside is supposed to try to grab as much money as possible. Well, there is a Google Ads logo on this one. Oh, the irony of this photo…

  • Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Ranking Volatility, Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement, Pichai On Search Quality, HCU Recovery & More


    Google may have had two search ranking algorithm updates, one around May 9th and one around May 3rd. Google began its site reputation abuse policy enforcement this week with manual actions, and it is not about linking. Google said sites may recover from the helpful content update. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, responded…

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

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Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

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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Google Search Ranking Volatility, Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement, Pichai On Search Quality, HCU Recovery & More

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Google Search Ranking Volatility, Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement, Pichai On Search Quality, HCU Recovery & More


For the original iTunes version, click here.

Google may have had two search ranking algorithm updates, one around May 9th and one around May 3rd. Google began its site reputation abuse policy enforcement this week with manual actions, and it is not about linking. Google said sites may recover from the helpful content update. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, responded to search quality issues in an interview. Google is now hiding the number of search results under the tools menu. Google will remove the disavow link tool at some point. Gemini stopped linking to sources. Google renamed AI Answers back to AI Overview. Google is testing a new Notes button in Search. Google SGE said you should drink urine to pass a kidney stone. Google has product review summary labels. Google may show searchers how many people purchased on your e-commerce site. Google Ads new Performance Max for marketplaces. Rumors of 25% of Google Ads accounts being audited are false. Bing is testing clearer distinctions between free and paid search results. Google LSAs ranking help document removed that proximity is used for ranking. Google Local Business Profiles is testing a new review listing. Google Search is testing showing only local results for near me queries. Google Analytics gained Google Ads conversion performance beta reporting. Statcounter said Google didn’t lose market share, it was a bug in the reporting. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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