There may be a really big, maybe even massive, Google search ranking algorithm update going on right now. Starting on Friday/Saturday the chatter within the SEO community as well as the signals from the automated rank checking tools began to explode. Based on what I am seeing right now, I decided to post on the weekend as opposed to holding the story for Monday morning, like I would normally do.
I've been tracking the fluctuations, chatter and signals around this unconfirmed Google update since Saturday at around 7pm ET. The chatter on social media and the forums did not really begin to spike until later but throughout the next 24-hours the SEO community has taken notice. I believe as Monday rolls around, the chatter will be off the charts.
Here is some of the chatter so far as of Sunday night from both WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World:
Can confirm another update today 7th February. Guess it will hit the shelves by Monday.
I'm seeing a positive uptick in traffic (between 10 and 15%) today. Still too early to know whether it will stick.
Also here. But for me it started yesterday.
I didn't know what to think, and what to say. Yesterday website traffic go down 88 % and today is the same problem. What I must to say to my boss? :D
Yep I'm seeing big drops in several niches, holy ****!
I am seeing absolutely massive shifts in ranking today in our space. WAY more than I saw in the week or so following the announced January core update. For us personally it appears to be a mixed bag. Way up in some locations, way down in others.
Can confirm this update , down by another 10% . I am pretty sure the sites will continue the same trend as in the jan core update.
Update happening right now. Sunday morning, heavy traffic on my two sites with the same content.
I had 6 clients drop rankings pretty hard this morning. Backlink profiles are completely different, websites are optimized - can't really make sense of it yet. Hoping maybe it's just a blip in the force.
There are also numerous complaints from site owners in the Google Webmaster Help forums:
The problem was that my traffic search from google from average 4k or 5k daily decrease suddenly in to 600 or 700 user per day and it is getting worse after 24 days after indexing by google webmaster.
Here are some posts on Twitter from SEOs:
The site owner reached out to me after seeing very strange drops in Google organic traffic, which then returned, only to drop again. 20K users per day dropped to just 9K. Also notice the drop on 1/28. Maybe testing?? I'm digging in further now. Just a heads-up. @dr_pete https://t.co/G9G3TNFyfM
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 9, 2020
Check for pages that dropped to zero and bounced back. I'm working through a similar situation where topline traffic fell by 70% as a result of specific pages that all but disappeared. pic.twitter.com/jOVE0Utf0A
— John W. DeFeo (@johndefeo) February 9, 2020
Google is at it again. Been paying attention to this for the whole week. Crypto site are getting hit again.
— Ameer Rosic (@AmeerRosic) February 9, 2020
This might be just temporary with the latest Algo changes. But these are HUGE fucking swings.
Look at these numbers pic.twitter.com/tygUDu1myV
I’m noticing some dropping In rankings on certain sites this weekend. Has anyone else experienced any unusual fluctuations? @rustybrick
— Alex Mungo (@gomungoseo) February 8, 2020
Here are screen shots from the rank checking tools:
Bit more from those saying the tracker tools are getting confused by HTML changes:
Quick update on this. I contacted @semrush and the Sensor data should *not* be affected by the recent featured snippet changes. They are looking into the spike, but said the volatility should be accurate... This matches what @dr_pete said about Mozcast data. Just a heads-up. https://t.co/MWisOkBueG
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 8, 2020
So this was very big and I suspect many of you will check things on Monday and see these changes yourself. Let us know in the comments.
Again, no comment from Google on this as of yet.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.
More updates:
As of now, the site has dropped 58% since 2/7. But again, the hourly graphs shows what's going on. Rankings drop, rankings return, then drop, etc. Such an interesting case... https://t.co/T9zZ7Y8Baz
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 10, 2020
Update Feb 11th: The tracking tools are still running very hot and this update does not seem to be done yet. Some sites are bouncing up and down as well, here is a tweet from Glenn:
And just to be clear what you're seeing there, hourly trending shows the site dropping heavily at very specific times, only to return completely after about 22-24 hours. Rankings dropped heavily, only to return. Again, looks like Google was testing something. Crazy. :) https://t.co/HZgcopeOpX
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 11, 2020
Not sure what's going on, but fourth day of high temps on MozCast, according to early data. Three days at 110°F. So far, this appears to be real volatility.
— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) February 11, 2020
We're expecting slightly higher flux in general after the Featured Snippet change, but that was well before this 4-day stretch and we're seeing very high temps even on SERPs without FSs.
— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) February 11, 2020
Update February 13th: Google has some what responded, saying "We do updates all the time."
