There has been a ton of chatter within the SEO community over the past couple of days related to extreme ranking volatility within the Google Search results. The Google tracking tools have also picked up the volatility over the past day or so. There is no way Google pushed out a confirmed update this week but hey, Google’s search results live a life of their own.
It is just weird to see such heated changes in the Google search results on a week where you know for almost certain that Google did not release any algorithmic changes. But it also seems like the weekends have been very heated for Google Search ranking changes.
We saw something similar with the pre-Christmas Google ranking volatility and now we are seeing it with the pre-New Years eve timing.
I hinted to seeing early signs of this update in my Friday video but as I said, I wanted to wait for more signals before covering it.
There is some chatter about possible reversals from the last Google update.
It is so heated, I figured I’d cover it on a Saturday night and not wait for normal “business hours.”
Let’s first look at what the automated Google Search tracking tools are showing:
So as you can see, the tools are showing some extreme ranking volatility.
Here is some of the chatter that really began a few days ago but I suspect it took some time for most SEOs to notice during the slow period between Christmas and New Years.
I spotted chatter on this on social media, WebmasterWorld/a> and the comments area on this site.
Here are some of those comments:
Google Algo Update 🚨
There is a VERY HIGH likelihood that there is an algorithm update rolling out, with tremors since just before Christmas and the past 24 hours seeing SERIOUS movement according to my ongoing SVT.
Are you seeing movement on your sites?
— Charles Floate 📈 (@Charles_SEO) December 28, 2023
Serious fluctuations in my main niche at the moment. Previous HCU deranked pages coming up, others dropping down, and just a whole lot of fluctuating.
I think with all the volatility, and Googlers gone for the holidays, it’s clear they are running a planned slow rolling algo update or the machine learning/AI is fully in control. What is it trying to achieve? My guess is revenue is the first priority since Google’s ad growth has been weak compared to Bing for two quarters in a row. But even a return to common sense serps will not undo the damage Google has inflicted on their brand.
Google search is fully broken ! Shuffling positions like every second.
US traffic is up by 50%.
I am seeing positive signs. I think they’re flipping the switch.
I am seeing some healing today. Small but real.
The perpetual loss of top ranking terms continues…2-3 per day. Traffic to my home page was down 72% yesterday. I’m wondering if blocking Google extended bot is part of the issue? It wouldn’t be beyond reason to expect punitive measures from Google for denying it access…
A few articles have dropped out of the SERPs again, it’s been a month and a half since I last saw this.
Also seeing insane volatility in my KWs, persistent since mid-December and not slowing down in any way.
Today, a new Google dance.
Algoroo is on fire for the last two days and it perfectly aligns with our traffic pattern. A nice gain followed by a huge drop lol!
Googlers should take some day off during the new year and stop tinkering their algos.
I see the same.. Before 25 nov 14,2 at G search console. Then down to 18-20 and 50% lost traffic. Last days up again. Not so much traffic as before despite going up again. For a year ago it was 18-20,
Are you noticing anything big over the past few days?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
