As you know, we had a pretty big Google update that Google confirmed as a core update on March 12th. Around March 20th, 21st and 22nd, I saw the forum chatter spike back up a bit and the tools light up - but it wasn't as huge as that last update and we were busy with the rel=prev/next thing.
Now that both the chatter and the rel=prev/next thing have somewhat chilled, I figured I'd document this unconfirmed March 20th through 22nd update. I suspect it is related to the March 12th roll out that can take weeks to fully roll out according to Google:
This year, we shared about two broad core algorithm updates we had: in April and August. We also had a further update we can confirm, one that began the week of Sept. 24. With any broad core update, the full rollout time might be over the course of a week or longer….
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 11, 2018
That being said, I suspect these fluctuations may be related to the March 2019 core update finalizing its roll out but who knows, it can be related to something completely different.
Here is some of the chatter from WebmasterWorld around these dates:
My traffic seems to be down to a trickle today after a huge recovery last week. Whatever they did today has reversed some of the gains. I think it's better to not get too excited anymore :/
We were not hit by any significant penalty in the past, and we got a decent boost with the initial update.Something changed yesterday, and we are now below the pre-update level.
My homepage is showing some signs of life today. It’s sometimes popping up on page 2. No traffic increase. Desperately praying for a turnaround at this stage.
They are definitely tweaking something today. Feels like the core update.
Then, March 12, boom, I was almost back to where I was last year. Traffic climbed until March 18, then started dropping again and I've lost most of my gains. I'm not sure what's going on.
Here are what the tools show:
Have you noticed changes from the March 12th to the March 20, 21, 22 timeframe?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
