Surprise, surprise, the intense volatility in Google Search rankings has continued into October. According to data provided by Semrush, this is the longest period of sustained volatility we have recorded, and it continues through October 2nd. I noted this yesterday, and although I’m not sure of today’s situation, I assume the trend persists. The charts below indicate an additional spike in volatility within an already turbulent period.
As a reminder, the Google August 2024 core update began on August 15th and officially concluded on September 3rd. Despite its conclusion, significant volatility persisted, not cooling off in subsequent weeks. We noticed substantial changes around September 6th, 10th, 14th, 18th, the weekend of September 25th, 28th, and again starting October 1st and 2nd.
Google Tracking Tools
Here’s what the tools are showing as of October 2nd. Although the current data for today is unavailable due to me being offline, you can see the spikes in an already volatile period:
- Mozcast
- SERPmetrics
- Semrush
- Advanced Web Rankings
- SimilarWeb
- Accuranker
- Wincher
- Data For SEO
- Cognitive SEO
- Mangools
- Algoroo
- SERPstat
- Sistrix
SEO Chatter
There has been considerable recent chatter, particularly yesterday up to noon. Conversations extend across various forums, including this site and WebmasterWorld.
Comments include:
- Significant changes in the UK today, with domain authority overtaking search term relevance.
- Drop in site traffic after initial growth in the day.
- September was the worst month, and October seems to be following suit.
- Major drop on October 1st, indicating worsening traffic.
- Reports of slow traffic and big drops.
These examples represent a fraction of the conversation, and there’s likely much more.
What are you all observing?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Note: This article was pre-written and scheduled for today; I am currently offline for Rosh Hashanah.
