As you may remember, MetaFilter got nailed by an unconfirmed update on November 17, 2012 that Google denied.
Google has now confirmed that update, 1.5 years later. Not only that, Google's Matt Cutts said on Twitter, in response to my story on Search Engine Land that they are working on updating that unconfirmed update from 1.5 years ago.
Specifically, MetaFilter doesn't have to make any changes to their site, but when Google releases the update in the next few weeks or so, MetaFilter will see an increase in referrals from Google.
Matt Cutts tweeted these tweets:
@mathowie @dannysullivan that effort was on our side & working on the algorithm side, so the timeline on that is weeks to months, not days.
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 12, 2014@dannysullivan responding to this specific tweet: also correct.
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 12, 2014The update from November 17, 2012 seemed to have had a major impact on many forum-like web sites. Google wouldn't talk about it then, but now, they are talking.
I suspect any of you hit on that date, will want to follow to see when the MetaFilter update (naming it that) is released and see if you are also released from that unconfirmed update.
Google's Matt Cutts will not give us more details on that update.
Another side note: When Google does not confirm updates, it clearly doesn't mean there was no update. So I will keep reporting unconfirmed Google updates - just in case years later Google confirms them.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
