• Search Engine Land
  • Sections
    • SEO
    • SEM
    • Local
    • Retail
    • Google
    • Bing
    • Social
    • Resources
    • More
    • Home
  • Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Resources
  • Live
  • More
  • Events
  • SUBSCRIBE

Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Resources
  • More
  • Newsletters
  • Home
SEO

Unconfirmed Google Search ranking update feels big

The SEO industry is very busy watching the Google search results fluctuate and change rapidly since this weekend.

Barry Schwartz on February 11, 2020 at 10:08 am
  • More

Google seems to have pushed out some ranking algorithm change over the weekend that has resulted in a large shift in the rankings of many web sites. To be clear, Google has not yet commented on the speculation around this update or confirmed that an update even occurred.

Always changing. Yes, Google’s search results are always changing and new pages come into the index, new signals are being refreshed and Google makes thousands of changes per year. We know that, but it is not that often that we see such a big spike in both the SEO community chatter and the rank checking tools.

Rank checking tools. Here are some screenshots from the popular rank checking tools. The tool providers have said they do not count user interface changes or the featured snippet deduplication change with their rank changes. So while some suspect the featured snippet deduplication or a user interface change is the result for these tools showing the rank fluctuations, it does not appear this is accurate.

Here is what the tools are showing in terms of how the URLs these track for specific Google queries have changed day-by-day.

Mozcast shows spikes in ranking fluctuations in recent days.
SEMRush also shows “very high” recent volatility in rankings.
Advanced Web Rankings showed a very big spike on February 10.
SERPMetrics “top100” sites showed significant movement in recent days.
Accuranker shows large changes across across the top 100 results per keyword.
RankRanger shows big changes over the past few days SERP fluctuations for 10,000+ domains and keywords it tracks.
Cognitive SEO shows changes based on the over 170,000 keywords the tool tracks.
Algoroo shows big changes as well based its sample query data.

So as you can see, most of these tracking tools are “off the charts.” This doesn’t mean your site was impacted in a positive or negative way. But a good number of sites were impacted, according to these tools.

SEO industry chatter. I cover a lot of the chatter in the SEO community on my personal blog. I summarized a lot of that chatter over there. Let me share some recent posts on Twitter with specific charts of how individual sites were impacted:

And just to be clear what you're seeing there, hourly trending shows the site dropping heavily at very specific times, only to return completely after about 22-24 hours. Rankings dropped heavily, only to return. Again, looks like Google was testing something. Crazy. :) https://t.co/HZgcopeOpX

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 11, 2020
Things are still in flux as of this morning according to Glenn Gabe

Google is at it again. Been paying attention to this for the whole week. Crypto site are getting hit again.

This might be just temporary with the latest Algo changes. But these are HUGE fucking swings.

Look at these numbers pic.twitter.com/tygUDu1myV

— Ameer Rosic (@AmeerRosic) February 9, 2020

As of now, the site has dropped 58% since 2/7. But again, the hourly graphs shows what's going on. Rankings drop, rankings return, then drop, etc. Such an interesting case… https://t.co/T9zZ7Y8Baz

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 10, 2020

Hey Marie FWIW, we saw a huge spike in one (head) keyword on Saturday for one client. Shouldn't have had any other factors affecting this. pic.twitter.com/BaskJYNK2A

— Lee L Kennedy (@LeeLKennedy) February 10, 2020

Still in flux. It seems this update is still going on as of this morning. Sites impacted on Saturday are still seeing changes as of this morning. Like I said above, you may not notice any change for your specific sites at this point in time. So for now, just check your analytics and narrow down to your organic Google traffic. If you see big changes, for now, wait it out and keep an eye on it as this update settles.

Why we care. While with most Google updates, especially core updates, there “is no fix” according to Google, the company has given general advice on how to improve your site. The advice is good for making your web site better, so it doesn’t hurt to take a step back, read it, and continue to make your site better every day.

With this unconfirmed update, right now, let’s wait and see how things roll out and if Google comments. Stay tuned.



About The Author

Barry Schwartz
Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

Related Topics

Channel: SEOGoogle: Algorithm UpdatesGoogle: SEOGoogle: Web Search

We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

Lorem ipsum doler this is promo text about SMX events.

April 13, 2021: SMX Create

May 18-19, 2021: SMX London

June 8-9, 2021: SMX Paris

June 15-16, 2021: SMX Advanced

June 21-22, 2021: SMX Advanced Europe

August 17, 2021: SMX Convert

November 9-10, 2021: SMX Next

December 14, 2021: SMX Code

Available On-Demand: SMX

Available On-Demand: SMX Report

×


Learn More About Our SMX Events

Discover actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges. Our next conference will be held:

Next Event: Sept. 14-15, 2021

Available On-Demand: March 2021

Available On-Demand: October 2020

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

White Papers

  • Nielsen Annual Marketing Report: Era of Adaptation
  • Global Social Media Advertising Trends Among Retailers in 2021
  • 2020 Hispanic Market Report
  • Delivering Audio Success: Industry Trends in Streaming Audio & Podcast Performance
  • Ten Tips for Acquisition Email Success
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • Drive Customer Engagement with the Power of Personalization
  • 7 Use Cases That Prove Why You Should Implement DAM
  • Accelerate Your SEO & Content Marketing Program with 4 Key Milestones
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Local Marketing Solutions for Multi-Location Businesses
  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

Attend SMX For Only $149

h
Receive daily search news and analysis.

Channels

  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social

Our Events

  • SMX
  • MarTech

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2021 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Your privacy means the world to us. We share your personal information only when you give us explicit permission to do so, and confirm we have your permission each time. Learn more by viewing our privacy policy.Ok