Starting around Friday, April 23rd or so, there seems to have been an unconfirmed Google Search ranking algorithm both on the web search results side and the local search results side. There is chatter in the SEO forums, coupled with the automated tracking tools picking up big changes, it does seem like we had some sort of unconfirmed update.
To be clear, the product reviews update finished rolling out Thursday, April 22nd. Could it be related to that? I don’t think so. Plus, there was a lot more chatter with this unconfirmed update than the product reviews update in general – so I don’t think the two are related.
I should say, there was also significant chatter about Google not indexing content recently. Maybe, just maybe, that is why Gary Illyes chimed in about passing quality checks for indexing – maybe this update impacted what Google will index and the quality threshold was changed here? I am just guessing, I do not know.
Here is some of the chatter in the WebmasterWorld forums; note, I did quote below the include the threads and posts about Google’s indexing issues but rather focused on ranking fluctuations – but they may be related:
There is more chatter both on the ranking fluctuations side and indexing side.
Here are screenshots from the tracking tools; most show changes as early as the 22nd or 23rd.
SERPMetrics (look at that dive):
And like I said, it is also on the local side, see BrightLocal
s tool:
I should note it was the 9 year anniversary of the Google Penguin update on Saturday, the 24th – coincidence? 😛
In summary; I doubt this was at all related to the product reviews update, it might be some quality change Google made that may impact indexing and also the local search side as well. Google has not confirmed any of this yet.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
