Google On Algorithm & Ranking Updates This Week: We're Always Improving Our Search Results

Starting around Tuesday of this week, we noticed Google algorithm and ranking shifts throughout the SEO industry and search results. There were significant chatter and the algorithm watching tools all, all of them, were responding heavily to the changes.

The truth is, the chatter and ranking shuffles have continued on through today and SEOs and webmasters are still pretty concerned and on their toes around watching these changes. Some have not noticed any change, of course. But others either saw improvements or losses in their rankings (yea, duh). If you have not checked your rankings and Google organic traffic yet for you and/or your clients, do so.

John Mueller of Google gave his typical comment on these changes on Twitter this morning saying "we're always working on improving our search results, so seeing things in other tools is kinda expected."

We're always working on improving our search results, so seeing things in other tools is kinda expected.

— John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ (@JohnMu) September 29, 2017

What specifically was updated is unclear. There is a new thread at WebmasterWorld asking for folks to share their theories, some include:

In the current Google Updates and SERP Changes thread, some people are saying that spam and worthless content have gotten a rankings boost recently.

But I just checked some keywords for seve Google Updates and SERP Changes ral of my sites, and didn't see much change from a week or so ago.

What I did see is a lot of cases of http pages ranking higher than https pages. For the keywords I checked, about 60%-70% of the first page results are http pages.

I do think Google has adjusted more than one knob on their secret formula.

1. Does Google show a date in the SERPs for each of your pages? And, if so, does it show the original post date of the page, or the "last updated" date?

2. Is your site HTTP or HTTPS? (Like aristotle, I'm also seeing something interesting in this regard.)

Honestly, I am not sure what is going on but the tools are also on fire. It is not just the industry chatter.

Mozcast:

Algoroo:

Acurranker:

SERP Metrics:

Advanced Web Rankings:

RankRanger:

SEMRush:

What are some of your theories and ideas? Did you notice real changes?

Forum discussion at Twitter and WebmasterWorld.