Between July 11 and July 18, the search industry observed significant volatility in Google search result rankings. This was identified by various tracking tools monitoring Google ranking changes, as well as the SEO community which documents changes seen with their clients.
We reached out to Google multiple times for a comment, but as of writing, Google has not responded. In a recent webmaster video hangout, John Mueller of Google mentioned he was unaware of specific details about these fluctuations.
The fluctuations in Google’s rankings. I closely monitor Google’s ranking changes from a community perspective. On my personal blog, I documented changes around July 11, July 16, and notably, July 18. The SEO community noted a spike in discussions on social media and forums.
The tools corroborate. Tracking tools, including those from SEMRush, Moz, Algoroo, RankRanger, and others, show patterns corroborating the SEO community’s observations of traffic and ranking changes for their clients. Below are charts from these tools showcasing the volatility in Google’s search rankings over the past 30 days:
Mozcast:
SERPMetrics:
Algoroo:
AdvancedWebRankings:
Accuranker:
RankRanger:
Cognitive SEO:
SEMRush:
Google’s non-statement. As mentioned, Google has not responded to our requests for a statement. John Mueller said during a video hangout that there were no specific updates to announce but acknowledged that updates are ongoing.
Digging deeper with data providers. Some data providers offered additional insights into the unconfirmed updates. The consensus was that this was an unusual update with hard-to-find patterns.
RankRanger: Mordy Oberstein noted that several sites experienced ranking reversals during the initial roll-out and that the update did not seem to go as planned for Google.
SEMRush: Olga Andrienko and her team referred to the changes on July 18 as a “general update” with no clear niche specifically impacted.
SearchMetrics: Marcus Tober confirmed changes but stated that the update did not have the same impact level as previous core updates, seeing no consistent pattern among affected sites.
Some in the SEO industry have named this update the Maverick update.
Why we should care. Though chasing algorithm updates is not recommended, it’s beneficial to know when Google updates may affect your site’s ranking. Understanding this can reassure you that it might not be an issue on your end and that you’re not alone.
What to do now? Continue improving your website by enhancing content, user experience, and overall performance as previously advised by Google.
