As the Google December 2022 helpful content update and link spam update continue to roll out, I am now seeing more signs of volatility and chatter within the SEO industry in the past 24 hours. It seems like there is another Google algorithm update, or maybe a continuation from the previous ones, taking place on January 3rd and 4th (and the 5th).
I am not sure if the volatility and fluctuations in the Google search results are related to the helpful content update, the link spam update or something completely different but there is renewed volatility and fluctuations over the past 24 hours.
Google Tracking Tools
Let’s start with the tracking tools (note, I updated these charts with new data from January 5th at 5:45am ET):
SEO Chatter
And yes, I am seeing some early chatter from within the SEO community. The chatter is now at WebmasterWorld and in the comments section here, here is some quotes from those sources:
What are you all seeing and do you think this is related to the helpful content update, link spam update or something new?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Update: Danny Sullivan from Google said it is both of these updates – he said on Mastodon, “Both the updates are continuing to rollout. Normally these types of updates would have concluded by now, but rollouts can slow or pause when we get into the holiday periods.”
