Earlier this month we reported about a Google algorithm update that happened Halloween night through November 1st and seems to be continuing on all week long. It is a creepy update that seems to be gaining momentum as the days go on. In fact, it seems stronger today, with more chatter and signals than when we covered it early this month. Of course, what we saw on November 1st might and likely is different than what we are seeing now - but who knows?
The ongoing threads at WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World have picked up their chatter. Here are some quotes from those threads:
Sth. is brewing today.SERPs differ substantially by the hour.
Potential drop on Monday but yesterday's elections certainly won't have helped our numbers.Also analytics real time is not working properly!
We seem to have just taken a big hit around 3pm EST today. Things absolutely feel off (another) cliff.This is ludicrous.
Another update - most keywords are stabilized but some have still large volatility. Very often I see some random page of mine rank instead of the main money page. Then it returns to normal. Like if the two pages would compete against each other (keyword canibalization) but it doesnt make any sense, because the pages are about a different topic.
I am also seeing a lot of complaints in the main Google Webmaster Help forums from random site owners. And yes, lots of complaints on Twitter as well.
Here are the automated tracking tools showing signs of changes as well:
I am not sure what this algorithm update is targeting, if anything, just yet. But there definitely seems to be fluctuations and changes in the Google search results over the past week or so.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.
