.png){kind=logo}
It’s starting to feel a bit like Groundhog Day, because surprise surprise, Google may have rolled out yet another algorithm update last weekend.
According to Search Engine Round Table, the update appears to be pretty big compared to the last one and would have likely begun rolling out on September 24th and ramped up on the 25th. On Sunday the 26th is when things started to cool off a bit.
Evidence of a potential update was confirmed by both tracking tools and chatter within SEO forums.
One comment posted to Google’s Webmaster Help thread stated that:
“My website, which has long had poor rankings at around 18-20, is now dropping like a stone. I looked a few minutes ago and it was position 46 (I’m searching from the UK). Everyone else will probably see it even lower I’d imagine.”
Here are some additional comments pulled from WebmasterWorld:
“Today I had more normal traffic levels, but all of my Australia and Canada traffic is once again down 60%+. Instead among my top referrers today are Nigeria and Pakistan. Nigerian traffic was so high that I blocked the entire country as in my experience it’s nothing good.”
“Sustained drop this past week. Guessing we’ve been hit somehow or it’s something technical our end? Back to 2 years ago numbers.”
“My non-USA (read: non-converting) traffic is very high while USA traffic is lower every day since the 13th…yesterday down 37% and today down 47% at 2:30pm. My most important landing pages are all being hit on a rotating basis, normal one day, dropping by a huge amount the next. My ranking is up one day, down the next but no major moves. The overall effect is not one single new customer inquiry since last Sunday from anywhere in the world.”
Furthermore, here are some screen grabs of tracking tools that track how volatile the Google search results are that were posted by Search Engine Roundtable. Each tracking tool shows massive spikes on the 24th and 25th of September.
