Weekend Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update – November 18th

Here we go again, I am reporting about yet another Google search ranking algorithm update over another weekend. That makes it several weekends in a row and I do plan on investigating to see if weekend updates are a real thing or in my imagination.

That being said, I am seeing new chatter in the SEO forums from over the weekend on ranking, visibility and traffic changes via Google Search. Plus, most of the tools are showing spikes and volatility from Google Search over the weekend. Maybe it is the World Cup? Maybe?

Google Update SEO Chatter

Here is what I see from WebmasterWorld:

My global site has had an extraordinary 24 hours commencing UK time 12 noon Thursday until 12 noon today, Friday.

This was akin to traffic in January to March 2021, consistent multiple global page views amounting to 232.7%

Any bets for how long this will last?

A huge drop in direct traffic starting yesterday at 10am sharp and lasting the entire rest of the day. This morning my search traffic is down 62% and direct is down 43%. USA, UK, CA, AU, DE and AE traffic all affected heavily. Anyone else seeing a big drop starting yesterday?

It lasted ~24 hours and then around 11am yesterday traffic suddenly reverted back to a more normal pattern…

Very odd traffic today…USA traffic is down a whopping -45% at 3pm and still declining, while pretty much every other place is strongly up.

Interestingly my global site’s first weekday of November average was completely normal, my weekends are usually 50-75% but this weekend it was 76.3% and 81.7%. My most popular widget pages are still the same with only minor movements +/-1 positions.

Google Tracking Tools

Here are what the tracking tools are showing over the past few days:

Semrush:

RankRanger:

Accuranker:

Cognitive SEO:

SERPmetrics:

Mozcast:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Algoroo:

Even the trackers that were adjusted to show less spikes in their data are showing spikes on the weekends.

Are you noticing any big ranking swings from the weekend? Let us know.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.