It has been one rocky month with both Google organic search ranking updates and local search ranking updates. This weekend there is chatter and signals of yet another Google search ranking algorithm update this weekend.
The chatter started Friday and has continued through the weekend and even the tools are showing fluctuations. So far it doesn't seem massive right now, but we will continue to watch the chatter today and see what people wake up to from over the weekend. Google is constantly doing updates, as it said in its most recent admission and prior admissions:
Some have asked if we had an update to Google Search last week. We did, actually several updates, just as we have several updates in any given week on a regular basis. In this thread, a reminder of when and why we give specific guidance about particular updates....
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 12, 2019
But again, we try to report on both confirmed and unconfirmed Google updates here.
Here is some of the new chatter in the ongoing WebmasterWorld:
Anyway, I saw a huge spike in direct traffic today with 90%+ bounce rate. So, I dug in analytics and found that the traffic's 'Network Domain' is google.com
Has anyone seen any info on the logic of the Nov. 12 update? It seems to have hit some sectors more than others.
Once again traffic is back to drip while SERPs remain virtually unchanged. I now firmly believe that certain low quality, low EAT but high ad density sites are hard coded into certain niches. These sites and their placement in multiple spots on page one have the desired diversionary effect.
It's been a roller coaster ride for us since Nov 11 . Yesterday was good but bleeding bad today! I guess the algo is still juggling sites.
Is anyone seeing increased activity from zombie like traffic or traffic which are generated from bots? My main site is flooded with them since yesterday.
Pretty sure that there's another big update happening. One of my sites that benefited from the update around the time of BERT has totally lost rankings and it's sitewide. I was about to start working on it again as I had abandoned it. Guess not anymore.The major swings in rankings like this because of Google is simply ridiculous. It seems like the algorithm is back to ignoring keywords again lol.
Definitely feels like they are turning the knobs again. We jumped another 5% yesterday. Hourly numbers were consistently up from last week, which was a big increase from the past 8 Saturdays. Almost everything is in the tail.
Here are some recent tweets asking me about this:
@rustybrick - Hey Barry. Seeing any chatter around a potential Nov 14 update to the 7th? Wondering if it’s just residual tragic loss WoW or something new or updated.
— Rob May (@robinlmay) November 17, 2019
Looks like another Google algo 'tweek' over the weekend. Seeing about 15-20% variation in typical weekend traffic to a few websites. #SEO @rustybrick
— Manoj Aravindakshan (@manojaravind) November 17, 2019
Party Time?? #GoogleUpdate @Marie_Haynes @rustybrick @glenngabe pic.twitter.com/Qzrgj7LbXo
— Rahul (@Rahul31417580) November 18, 2019
Regarding chatter about volatility this weekend, I checked a bunch of sites that were impacted on 11/7. Most of them have remained down or up since then. No change. But some did show volatility on or around 11/14. See screenshots below. So there may be something to it @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/roEQfYoL9m
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 18, 2019
Here are the tracking tools showing some fluctuations:
Have you seen changes in your rankings and or Google organic traffic in the past few days?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
