This weekend there was another unconfirmed Google search ranking update, maybe starting around February 26th through the 27th and maybe the 28th. There was significant chatter in the SEO forums and some of the tools showed a spike around the 27th of February.
Based on what I am seeing, most but not all tools have picked up on this update. And there is significant SEO community chatter to support the claims of a Google update.
Here is some of the chatter from over the past weekend from WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World:
Seems like Google is pushing some BS update again. As usual, the older, bigger site is demoted and my newer, more spammy/parasitic sites are not affected. Seems to be pattern since December "update". Typical Google I would say.
The Google train wreck continues...the slight recovery last week was a mirage it appears. Today traffic from every English speaking country is way down compared to the average for a Saturday...USA -38%, UK - 24%, Canada -26%, Australia -100%. This is a total nightmare that seems to have no end in sight.
There seemed to have been some kind of update the last 1-2 days. Another -20% demotion.
Huge volatility of our results today. One moment we're #5 on page 1, an hour later we're at #50.
I am seeing signs of an update today here in the UK. Right now the criteria seems to be, at least in my UK vertical, the domain name (deprecated for so long!) and number of backlinks, the majority of which are obviously bought or injected into CMS sites. All this is trumped by pages from high spenders on the ads with the thinnest of content on a page that mentions at least one of the words in the search term. Original providers of goods and services are buried under comparison sites that are, in effect, merely affiliates who add zero value to searchers but merely add another layer of commission costs to the ultimate buyer.
Definitely some volatility - although not nearly as dramatic as some of the previous days, most notable on mobile. Oh for just one week of stability.
The major impact in Europe (for me) seems to concern Discover. -80% in three weeks, step by step to 0, but no sign of improvement for seven days
Another update :( ?
As you can see, over a 24-hour period or so over the weekend, there was significant chatter in the SEO forums. Some SEOs saying they saw huge declines in rankings and traffic. This morning the chatter has calmed down a bit but we will see how folks react when they check in on their analytics over the next day or so.
The tools are also showing spikes in volatility with the Google search results over the past weekend.
The other tools we normally track are somewhat calm like Accuranker and Mozcast.
Did you see significant ranking changes over the weekend?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.
