Possible Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On September 16th & 17th

We may have had another Google search ranking algorithm update this past Thursday and Friday – over Yom Kippur day and Friday. The chatter was somewhat limited but there is chatter and the tools mostly show signs of a small update on the 16th and 17th of September.

I doubt it was anything related to the Jewish holiday. It may have been some tweak Google made, not related to the title changes that Google confirmed this past Friday, on the 17th.

SEO Google Update Chatter

Here is some of the chatter from the SEO industry that I found on WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World. Again, it is not insane levels of chatter from the SEO industry but there is chatter, more than a typical couple day period.

Looks like something happened yesterday in our niche. I dropped for a number of keywords and replaced by unknowns.

Traffic was zooming higher from Sept 4th until today…even on days that started off with a big drop ended up normal or higher. Today is the first big drop since the 3rd. USA down 30% at 5pm, Canada and Australia also way down. I’m hoping that this is priming the pump for another move higher, but who knows. I have not seen significant recovery yet for most of my high-volume terms, and overall my traffic is 25% lower for the last three months than for the same three month period of 2019…so it would take a lot of gains to make up for that.

My SERPs were all over the place this morning, we had dropped from 1st to 5th and were showing two results again. Now we are back on top. Seems like it was just a quick shuffle?

Oh here we go…back to hugely manipulated USA traffic again. My SERPs are bouncing slightly but my USA traffic is down 57% at 11:30am. Search and direct traffic both down. UK traffic is strong, but Australia traffic has vanished since the 13th, and Canada also way down.

SERPS are still dancing around.

I just noticed a new change as well for listings this morning. If a listing has other listings for the same search, these other listings are indented and listed right below the main listing. Each of these listings take up the same space and look the same (except for being indented under the main listing). I saw one of these type of listings this morning on page 2 of a search that had 1 main listing and 3 sub listings under it. It took up half the organic results for the page. This is crazy

After 18 consecutive days of daily drops, today I see a significant improvement. Did anyone notice any movement today?

Hello everyone, one of the page in my website use to be in first page on particular keyword. Today when I checked in Google, that particular page has been taken down. I mean not in penalty way. Is it because of a Google update or any other issues. Kindly help me out regarding this.

This chatter is from the 15th through the 18th of September or so.

Google Update Tracking Tools

Here is what the tracking tool providers are seeing, like I said, most noticed fluctuations and volatility during this date range. RankRanger was the only tool provider not to show changes after the 16th or so – although it did pick up on changes on the 15th.

Mozcast:

Semrush:

Accuranker:

SERPmetrics:

Algoroo:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Cognitive SEO:

RankRanger:

So did you notice ranking changes around the 16th and 17th of September?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.