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So remember that last Google core update, the last Google algorithm update, the May 2020 Google core update that touched down on May 4th? Well, it is possible that that update has "hit" (as Google does not like us to say) this site and the site's overall search rankings for queries is down a bit.
The last Google algorithm update, I think, had a negative impact on how well this site ranks in Google search for some queries.
It is hard to analyze a site like this because it covers news and there are many many spikes in traffic. Some spikes are huge and some spikes are small, and because of that, traffic is rarely ever flat for a site like this. This also includes Google organic traffic, because queries spike around news as well. But overall, I think this site's traffic is not doing as well since the May 4th Google May 2020 core update.
I often look at the Google Analytics home report, for the real time traffic. I am often curious which stories are trending for the day - I often am surprised by what takes and what does not. But it also shows a seven day report compared to the previous seven days and the past several days feel down.
Here is that Google Analytics chart:
Here is a screen shot of Google Analytics showing just organic search traffic from Google over the past thirty days:
Based on what I see, it seems like there was a 30% drop in Google organic traffic to this site.
So I then took a look at SEMrush; Glenn Gabe shared this chart with me:
Mordy from RankRanger shared this chart with me:
So yea, it seems this site took a 30% decline in Google organic search traffic with the May 2020 core update.
Now what?
Well, this was not the first time this site got hit by a Google update. Google's Panda 4.1 hit us back in 2014. This site got hit for selling links back in the day. The Panda hit got me to place a Google Consumer Survey which showed people liked the site - so I didn't make changes and ultimately the site recovered.
What I will do now is sit down and think about what I did wrong (nothing to fix) and then, I don't know what will be next.
Am I upset? No. In fact, I think it is fun to learn from these things. I enjoy sharing these things publicly, like I have numerous times over the site's 16.5 years of existence.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
