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Over the past day or so, I have been seeing and watching a small increase in the number of threads discussing either global changes to the Google index or people complaining (at a higher rate) that their site is no longer ranking as well in Google.
Yes, Google is constantly changing, so this may just be that people are around more to notice? But the shift in the forum patterns that I watch on this specific topic is trending towards a possible Google update that is larger than a normal Google daily flux.
We have threads on the topic at DigitalPoint Forums (actually a few there, as always), an ongoing WebmasterWorld thread with new activity and dozens of threads at Google Webmaster Help.
Again, this may be nothing or it may be early signs of an update coming. There have also been complaints both in the Google Webmaster Help forums and at WebmasterWorld of connectivity issues with Google.
The last time we reported on an update was in August where Matt Cutts of Google told us there was nothing going on.
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums, WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.
Comments:
Kevin Spence
10/21/2009 01:09 pm
I have noticed multiple sites shifting a few places both up and down the last couple days as well. If it isn't an update, it's pretty coincidental.
mark
10/21/2009 01:49 pm
I'm not following on what you mean about the forum stuff, can you go into more depth about that?
Barry Schwartz
10/21/2009 01:51 pm
I track the search forums, that is what we do on this blog. ALL the news we report here comes from the forums (see forum link at the top). I watch the discussions and if I see a spike in people discussing changes at Google, I let you know. That is why you read this site. :)
Rob
10/21/2009 02:21 pm
I think the major change is within the universal search results. My belief is that they are trying to become more contextualised. Videos results have been dropped down in the results to position 11 from 4 for many terms. Images are still predominant unless the search keyword states "video", then videos are highly prominent. Happy to send examples Barry if you require evidence- have a handful.
Greg
10/21/2009 02:38 pm
Has there been much in the way of discussion about Google Product Search? I'm seeing some changes there, e.g. shopping links appearing above all organic listings again..
Barry Schwartz
10/21/2009 02:41 pm
Rob, I trust you. Greg, some changes - yes, we covered them in early posts here.
Vineet Singh
10/22/2009 05:33 am
Is Google Caffeine Update has to do something with this up and down of websites on Google SERP? OR Google Caffeine Update was Google trick to regain the focus of webmasters from Bing and Yahoo updates?
colin mcdermott
10/22/2009 12:20 pm
Something's afoot, my marquee keyphrase which has been No. 1 for a while ... is still No. 1 but I noted yesterday that it has now gained Classic Sitelinks for the 1st time... which is pleasing.
Mark
10/22/2009 01:10 pm
This happens all too often and always causes a stir.. I woudn't worry about it too much and just continue on with your day. It also might be worth checking out your rankings in Google caffiene.
Michael Moshkovich
10/22/2009 09:59 pm
I am loving the latest update. All my rankings went up :)
No Name
10/26/2009 07:19 pm
I also see significant changes on the SERPS.
SpencerJ
10/29/2009 10:52 am
Can definitely see major swings in 2, 3 and 4 keyword combinations. The update doesn't seem to be targeting the more popular keywords just yet, but most traffic comes from small, personal search strings and these have been destroyed recently.
Ad
11/16/2009 11:18 am
It's kind of strange. More and more people notified change in result or PR and Google say nothing changed ...