In the past 24 to 48 hours I have been noticing an uptick in SEO and webmaster chatter around a possible Google search algorithm and ranking update. It is not clear if it is related to specific algorithm changes or maybe changes to how things rank due to user interface changes but there are webmasters asking what is going on.
The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has a nice amount of early chatter. I am seeing comments on my own site on the past day or so with complaints and other social media mentions.
This might be something Google reverted or is rolling out slowly, it is not clear. Of course, with any of these, without Google confirming it, we have no way to say for sure if Google did do an update. Google will just give us their typical line that they make updates all the time or say "Fred."
Here are some of the mentions from the forum threads:
We had a horrific morning at 50% down, but it's back to normal for the last hour
Whatever they did but today we have a drop of 50% right now with bounce at 99%.
I'm more than 50%, closer to 75%!
Seeing two sets of results. One obviously one better than the other.bad set: traffic about 5% no user action, no transactions, bounce 100% good result: normal traffic, user action, bounce at 30%, normal sales
I'm seeing a few drop in visitors on my site. Might be it has something to do with this update or else.
Virtually all the automated Google tracking tools show normal "weather" behavior and no real signs of a major update yet. Maybe they will pick up on it tomorrow or maybe like I said, it was just Google testing here and there.
I am not seeing mass complaints in the normal Google forums with specific webmasters complaining yet. I am just seeing this analysis from SEOs and Webmasters in the more Google focused forums.
Are you seeing ranking changes and traffic changes?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
