Google Denies A Major Update On December 17th

Yesterday, most of the Google search results tracking tools showed major changes in rankings within Google’s search results; but, during my analysis of webmaster communication within the discussion forums and social space, I saw very little discussion around changes in rankings at Google. Then, Google’s Matt Cutts implied there was no update on Twitter saying Google tries to minimize doing major updates right before the holidays.

Here is Matt Cutts tweet in response to being blamed for doing a major Penguin update yesterday:

@Bessian Actually, we try to minimize major updates right before the holidays.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) December 18, 2013

The tracking tools disagree and show signs of major changes in the search results. I personally believe that something tripped up the tools, like user interface changes or something, but not ranking changes. Here are screen shots of the tools, including MozCast, SERPs.com, SERP Metrics and Algoroo, statistics for December 17th:

And from what I see in the webmaster discussion areas, very few are complaining about traffic or ranking shifts around December 17th.

Finally, Matt Cutts and Google has said time after time, they try not to do major updates during or before the holiday season.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.