Reports of suspected Google algorithm updates have become so commonplace they are easy to overlook, particularly when it comes to the minor tweaks that prompt little more than modest change.
But what has become the norm over recent weeks is news of seemingly major yet unannounced algorithm ranking updates; one of which is rumoured to have taken place October 15, which Google has said nothing about.
This particular update may not have been the biggest we have seen this month, but has nonetheless been felt by many. And by felt, we mean it has caused chaos with the SERP rankings and organic traffic of countless websites.
Some of the worst affected are reporting huge falls in traffic, though the damage for the most part seems to be concerning USA footfall. Things do not seem quite as severe where UK traffic is concerned, though some have reported major declines across the board.
Google is yet to pass comment on this or any of the other rumoured updates that have taken place this month. Either way, the conversation over at Webmaster World on October 15 to 16 would seem to confirm something definitely took place.
Something that did more harm than good for many, as highlighted by one disgruntled webmaster:
“Starting the morning with a massive decline in USA traffic we saw -74% at 10:30am. CA -40%, home page down 40%. UK and AU are normal. Rather than the usual starting off normal and dropping off a cliff at 8-9am sharp, today traffic has been very low across every hour. This is happening so often now that you really can’t call in an “update”…Google just goes from massive decline to the next 2-3X a week now…traffic has been abysmal since September 14th.”
Their sentiments were echoed by those of another SEO, who said that the issues they were facing right now were nothing new.
“Saturday traffic was relatively normal, but today USA and UK traffic are both down more than 40%. My daily home page traffic is perpetually down for weeks, sometimes by as much as 60% on any given day. This was also the case in June, when my home page would just vanish from the SERPs every other day.”
Fingers crossed for at least some stability going forwards, but given Google’s recent track record, respite seems highly unlikely.