While I was offline, it seems the chatter within the SEO industry spiked around the topic of search ranking volatility. It is harder to confirm the volatility, now with the tools recalibrating, but it does seem something started around Tuesday, October 7th, into the 8th.
We are due a core update and I suspect Google will announce one in the coming weeks but what we are seeing with this volatility would not be related to a core update.
I don't think this is related to the confirmed Google Search serving bug but who knows...
That being said, there is a nice amount of chatter on WebmasterWorld and on this site - here is some of that chatter:
SEO Chatter
Whatever they did last week, it is a step back to useless traffic. We had 4 good days without bots and good Google traffic. Now it is bots and useless traffic. Especially in the night, from noon till 1am, bots are 100% traffic.This is gonna be the worst ever year in history for free traffic.
Yes I see something better since 4 days, BUT, huge traffic from China …. I can’t block as my suppliers are there.
Today is shuffle day, again
Yeap. Shuffle and traffic is so bad...
Traffic seems dead.
Since Google's serving issue "resolved itself," traffic is worse than ever with Google sending traffic from Egypt, France, Lithuania, Thailand and other countries we don't sell in. Seems like geo can be added to the list of Google's failures.
Something just started at 12am. No Google traffic anymore, but hundreds of bots.
Core update kicking off? Seeing big movements!
These Google search results are the worst. I have never seen them this bad.
50% drop since yesterday.
Traffic is dead. Index problem, Discovery traffic is terrible. No new articles, showing old.
Yeah, wtf is with that AWFUL traffic last two days? I have some solid positions but there's no traffic - and even with the AI answers that appear like on the 4th or 5th position in the results.
Tracking Tools
Like I said, many of the tools are still adjusting but here is what they are showing now. Keep in mind, some are showing movement...
Wiredboard's Aggregator of Tools - this report shows the aggregate of the tools above and plots them on one chart:
So what are you all seeing?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
