Google Search Algorithm Update Starting On August 22

There is new chatter and signals that there may be a Google search algorithm update starting around Wednesday, August 22nd and continuing throughout today. The chatter is not as significant within the SEO community as with the Google Medic Update but many of the tools are showing signs of an Google update too.

It is not clear if this is a tweak or change to the August 1st update we named the Medic update or if this is something brand new and unrelated to core search. Google has not yet commented on it and I am not sure if they would comment. I know they were asked by some SEOs already.

Here is some of the chatter in the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread starting last night through this morning (there as very limited chatter on the 22nd):

Big ole drop today. Could just be because of the niche I'm in but worthy of note.

Next big hit. This took away another 30%, so we are down from google organics traffic by 70%.

Anyone seeing a shake up?

I am working on 4 websites and all four websites direct traffic drop huge anyone let me know, what happen to please.

I'm seeing results change again on the hour.

The rest of the chatter I am seeing are talking about the tools showing changes in Google but not complaining about their own rankings or client rankings. The black hat forums are pretty quiet but that doesn't mean there was not an update. Which is a huge distinction in my opinion.

Here are some of the tools that track these updates:

Mozcast:

SERP Metrics:

Algoroo:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Accuranker:

RankRanger:

SEMRush:

So I guess go check your rankings and analytics and let us know if this is something I should pester Google about for a confirmation?

I should note that Dejan, Algoroo, says this is bigger than the Medic Update based on their metrics. But based on what I am currently seeing, I do not believe so - not yet at least.

Google Update Alert
- Stronger flux than “Medic”
- 3rd most volatile day in 2018
- Most volatile day this year since 10th of March
- Impacts desktop more than mobilehttps://t.co/xoZc3BCxJG pic.twitter.com/Rf2WHV4ox0

— DEJAN (@dejanseo) August 23, 2018

Google's John Mueller actually commented on this earlier this morning, before I wrote this post in this webmaster hangout at 14:20 into the video saying:

I don’t know about any specific update from August 22nd. So that is kinda of tricky, I don’t know what to really say there.

In general, we make updates all the time. So sometimes the small updates that are launched with regard to search and maybe they affect a very small number of sites and maybe one of those sites is your site. So maybe that is something you are seeing there.

But these are essentially normal changes that we see regularly.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Twitter.