That Google algorithm update from last Wednesday seems to still be going on. Yesterday I posted a theory that was probably not fully accurate, hence a "theory." In short, I said maybe the tools that were going nuts had to do with the featured snippets test. It seems that this theory might not be accurate.
For one, the tools keep going insane and also I am seeing real life cases of sites getting hit across the board and not just on search result pages that may have shown featured snippets. In fact, some tool providers have confirmed with me that they checked into the featured snippet theory and said their tracking did not pick up on the test. RankRanger told us they have "analyzed this data, and this began on May 12th. It did not have a major impact on the rankings." While the folks at SEM Rush told me "according to Sensor data, part of this volatility might be explained by the drop of featured snippets result from the SERP, which seems to be spreading." So it seems like in some or most cases the theory of featured snippets URLs being removed from the core results in not valid.
Like I said, the tools are still going insane. Mozcast, SER Metrics, Algoroo, Advanced Web Rankings, Accuranker, Rank Ranger and SEM Rush all still show signs of huge changes even over the past couple days. So a week of crazy algorithm and ranking shifts in Google.
Here are the charts:
Mozcast:
SERP Metrics:
Accuranker:
RankRanger:
SEM Rush:
Advanced Web Rankings:
Algoroo:
We also have tons of people claiming their sites got hit hard. Now, let me be clear, the amount of complaints are no where near the levels of Panda, Penguin or Fred changes - no where near the level of complaints. But these sites that were hit, were indeed hit hard.
Glenn Gabe thinks this is one of those core ranking updates:
The more I dig into the 5/17 update the more it looks like a core ranking update focused on quality. Seeing many connections to prev updates pic.twitter.com/wwJPq2JmfI
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 20, 2017
Nathan Amery agreed with Glenn:
@glenngabe Exact same pattern here... pic.twitter.com/hZqnImRFD4
— Nathan Amery (@namery) May 22, 2017
Here is another chart from Glenn:
Here's another site that surged during the 2/7 quality update, only to get hit by the 5/17 update. Again, looks like another quality update. pic.twitter.com/zk40f1fCE2
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 20, 2017
We did quote many folks in previous posts showing how they think this may have been Panda or Fred reversals. Who knows. Panda runs by itself, so does Penguin. Fred, we know very little about.
Reseller in the WebmasterWorld forums said:
I think the current Algorithm Update of May 17 - May 18 is still in progress. Accordingly we see posts of affected sites still coming.I think we are dealing with a Panda related Algorithm Update.
Here is a chart from Stefan Wölfel from the comments here:
RankRanger wrote a more detailed analysis of their data and said they have "determined that Google has hit some major sites within the retail and consumer goods industry that has shaken the rankings a bit."
SEM Rush sent me some additional charts showing some ranking changes for undisclosed sites:
Google's John Mueller just mocks what people are saying about it, which is typical:
@MasoudFatemi @rustybrick Sunspots.
— John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ (@JohnMu) May 23, 2017
And here is a response from Gary Illyes of Google:
@ReevaCutting @dan_shure @Google @Marie_Haynes @randfish @dr_pete We're launching things specifically to annoy you (I also have a PR answer but that's not funny)
— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) May 23, 2017
I asked Gary for the more PR version and he shared:
@rustybrick @ReevaCutting @dan_shure @Google @Marie_Haynes @randfish @dr_pete We make hundreds of changes each year in order to deliver the best results for our users, and fluctuations in traffic are expected
— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) May 23, 2017
What do you think is going on here?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
