Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update

Over the past couple of days, I have been seeing signs of a possible Google search ranking algorithm update. It may have started on May 1st, with the chatter within the SEO community growing throughout yesterday, May 2nd. I don't think this is the residue from the April 2023 reviews update that officially completed on April 25 - but who really knows?

Some are reporting drops in Google organic traffic by as much as two-thirds of their normal traffic. Those types of drops are massive and can happen when a site gets hit by a massive algorithm update, and it can happen if the site has a huge technical issue or some sort of manual serious action.

SEO Chatter

I saw some of the early chatter in the comments area on this site and also on WebmasterWorld regarding sites seeing big traffic and ranking changes within Google Search. Here are some examples of the SEO chatter over the past day or so:

HUUUUGE traffic drop for me today. About 2/3 of my normal traffic seem to be lost. Rankings look unchanged at first glance, which is getting weirder than weird now.

Something definitely happening today.
Traffic and conversions have plummeted.

Yeap, for me it has been happening since yesterday.
Yesterday, conversion was awful and whatever conversions I am getting are from very old, outdated pages of mine. It just don't make sense anymore.
Today, even worse while rankings are all the same.
I feel it is pointless to pay and rely on SERP checkers if Google is always doing this random crap.

Smells like some minor update run. Crawler activity back after 36 hours on low levels. Or they are playing with bard, who knows? :)

Any new update rolling out? Seeing drop in traffic from yesterday.

In the morning I saw a big fluctuation with 1 of my website it was removed from 1st page and out of 100 since yesterday night till today afternoon, now its again on same position may be we can see new update rolling out this week.

Is Google playing around again? I've had a massive increase in visitors since yesterday.

Traffic down here start of May is interesting. Only from Google, Bing, and DDG increasing, my niche is popular on those search engines compared to others.

Yep, we slowed down a lot yesterday, but today is really bad.
Serp checkers isn't worth doing anymore. We achieved 1st place in SERPs for a lot of keywords in the last 18 months ........ traffic and conversions didn't improve much

After 17 hours of my Googleday I see zero improvements in traffic whatsoever, at a guess I may reach 50% of my "old" average ... I write "old" since want do I do now, expect my "new" average to be the norm at 40% of 2021 ?

It seems to be very slowly improving since Sunday night. The 90% drops are now 66% drops...other landing pages seem to regain traffic one day, only to drop again the next. Inquiries are minimal, of poor quality and for lower-priced items. Of course, a 500+ point drop in the stock market and a potential US banking crisis can put a damper on things.

An update is going on currently...

Google Tracking Tools

Some of the tracking tools have started to pick up the volatility within the Google Search results. The first to spot it, I believe, was Rank Ranger and the others I will update when I land. But here is what I see with the charts so far:

RankRanger: