I see signals, both in terms of SEO chatter and some of the Google Search tracking tools, of more volatility in the Google Search results. The volatility is algorithm update levels and can either be a new Google search ranking algorithm update or it can be the tail-end of the ongoing December 2022 helpful content update and December 2022 link spam update.
As you know, the December 2022 helpful content update started on December 5, 2022, and should have been done three weeks ago, but we are now on week number five. And the December 2022 link spam update started on December 14, 2022, and should have been done almost two weeks ago, but now we are heading into week number four.
But yes, we have a week or two more to go as of last Friday – so it might make sense to see some rumblings and fluctuations at the tail-end of these updates. I hope these updates finish on different dates and not the same dates.
Earlier last week, Danny Sullivan implied that the fluctuations we saw on January 3rd to 5th were related to these updates. He said on Mastodon then, “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.”
The two updates were delayed in its finish date because they ran into the holidays. Google said there was a security issue with completing them on the holidays. Also, we did see some big turbulence days before Christmas, and then things calmed down a lot. The truth is, the Google volatility is much calmer still than the previous couple of weeks. We also saw some fluctuations on December 26th.
SEO Chatter
Here is some of the SEO chatter from WebmasterWorld and BlackHatWorld over the past day or so… Note, some have been saying things are settling but some are seeing some wild swings (like any update, I guess).
Google Tracking Tools
It is early but here is what some of the tools are showing, I will make sure to update these charts later on in the day as the tools update again:
Now reporting big swings:
Do you see any volatility yet? Do you think this is the ending of these two updates?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and BlackHatWorld.
