Again I am seeing signals, both a lot of chatter from the SEO community and tools lighting up around a possible but yet unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update. Yes, there has been a ton of unconfirmed updates in the past couple of weeks and let’s add this one to the list.
Most recently we had unconfirmed Google search updates on January 19th and 20th, January 14th, 15th and 17th, then before that on January 11th and then it was quiet until some tremors in late December. So now I am seeing chatter start up on Friday, January 21st and spike through January 22nd and this morning.
It might be just some sort of update that Google didn’t announce that started a week or two ago and it is still rolling out but it is hard for us to say without a statement from Google.
And like the other unconfirmed updates this month, there is both SEO industry chatter and data from the tracking tools that support this but yes, we do not have a Google confirmation about an update.
SEO Industry Chatter
Like I said above, the chatter started around Friday, January 21st and continued through Saturday January 22nd and today, Sunday January 23rd. Here is what I found at WebmasterWorld throughout this timeframe:
Some are also suggesting that the tracking tools, like Semrush and others need to readjust for the new high levels of volatility.
Google Tracking Tools
Here is what the tracking tools are showing right now:
So most of the tools seem pretty hot…
Are you noticing ranking changes?
Update: Glenn Gabe agrees that it might be a continuation from whatever rolled out earlier, he shared these charts:
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Update: Semrush data had a bit of an issue:
