Is google rolling out a huge update this week?

[tempowebdesign]

I am seeing some huge shifts in SERPS at the moment, for some keywords such as web design.  Nearly every single result on the homepage is a different company than 2 weeks ago.  We are seeing some clients have huge jumps in ranks but also some are dropping.

Seems like we could have a big Panda/Penguin like update rolling out.

[StalkerB]

Something's going on but not determined what yet. I've seem a fair amount of movement in the SERPs for non-US territories (UK, IE, SE, IN, DE, FR, CH, +).

Assuming Google are denying a Pan-guin update of any sort there are a few theories about what it could be.

1. Crawl based link devaluation.
   I'm inclined to think that this has something to do with linking but it would make sense that they include Penguin within the main algo if they can do it as they go. Specifically might have an effect on old links as well as spammy links. Alternatively might be ignoring anchor text on low PR sites. Maybe ignoring some directories specifically.

2. Disavow data.
   Doubt they've had time to sort through the amount of data they've been getting, but they'll have to look at it at some point.

3. User metrics.
   CTR, return to SERPs within same session, refined searches. I'm not leaning towards this one as most of what I've seen slip has been among the (if not 'the') best result.

4. Social signal devaluation
   If Facebook can figure out what likes are fake then Google can probably see which 'authors' are fake. They're definitely pushing for authorship, rolling out something to figure out who's legit could have an impact, but I'm not sure authorship rank is a big enough of a part of the algo currently to affect this kind of change.

5. EMD update.
   Not keen on this as a theory. Not seen anything to back it up and plenty of EMDs still up there.

6. Google are telling lies!
   Somebody's made a change and they're not letting on or haven't told the people communicating the changes.

Ultimately I'm shooting in the dark here. Although I'm seeing a lot of changes not all of my sites have been effected and I'm doing similar promotion for most.

If anybody wants to chime in maybe we can put our heads together. I'm seeing a bit more clustering again with the same domain showing up more often in the results (though not as bad as it was). Anybody else seeing any sort of pattern?

[dawnieando]

Definitely seen that.  Some of the most competitive terms out there being hijacked by new domains practically.  Seeing huge lifts and drops across many verticals on a number of sites I monitor daily.  Changes every few hours when running AWR across a lot of terms yesterday in particular.  Deeper pages seemed to be affected more than home pages.

[tempowebdesign]

Client was a design agency, and it was in the UK.  We changed nothing in the 5 days for the result to come back.  To be honest in that period we were doing research and did not want to rush things.

Only happened to one client.

[highwayfive]

Hi James,

Sorry was that UK or US or other results? Did you change anything in those five days? What niche was it in? Did it happen to any other client sites? Has it happened again since Monday?

Cheers

[highwayfive]

Hi James,

Sorry was that UK or US or other results? Did you change anything in those five days? What niche was it in? Did it happen to any other client sites? Has it happened again since Monday?

Cheers

[gundogs]

US results. Very specific regulatory training keywords. I can understand why some HR sites would be ranked but they should be on page 3+. Only helpful to people working for that specific company or going to that university. Totally unusable results right now and these are ranking I've held consistently since 2009-2010. Other updates have never really affected me.

[askshopper]

Have to agree big change looming seeing sites doing the dance big time.

[tempowebdesign]

A client of ours who has some really decent links, no directories articles etc.  They dropped off for 5 days last week then just bounced right back.  But the 5 days they were off the results for their keyword was horrendous.  Absolute junk that was not useful to the consumer one bit.

It felt like we were back in 1999 having to search back a few pages to get what we wanted.

[highwayfive]

Hi Gundogs I feel your pain - so for exam related searches you site has declined. Is that in the UK SERPS?

[gundogs]

My website which has been in the top three for years just slide to page two and the entire first page has been replaced by spammy sites or university HR pages??? Not good.Hopefully it doesn't last.

[te_c]

Hi!

My client's listing keywords are safe, but results for my domain name has let only the frontpage in good position, and other bad quality SEO pages, in which we have carried out online test (they generate a page with the name of everysite that do a test with them), has appear in the firsts google results.

If it is an update, why so many spam pages are coming up in good positions?

Update: Less than two hours later, the three sections of my site are ranking in the first three positions for my domain name. It changes a lot today.

[tempowebdesign]

Not sure myself but as you said they do seem to be changing a good few times a day.  Some really poor results on page one that are useless for the user in my opinion.

I am pretty certain whatever change is coming in will be something we will be discussing for months to come like Penguin and Panda.

[highwayfive]

Does appear to be some major swings in the UK SERPS. Lots of rankings changing almost by the hour. Seem some EMD pop up in the top ten. Any ideas whats causing it? What metrics are key?

[TomRayner]

Well, those new sites or the spammy sites usually pop up in the top 10 when there's a bit of a refresh going.  Could be a sign.

Unless we're talking about payday loans of course.  That's just a shitstorm of spam.

[tempowebdesign]

Each day I see different results for some big keywords.  I have seen sites that are less than 12 weeks old with terrible spam links ranking for highly competitive keywords.

They get in the top 5 but dont seem to last longer than 8 weeks in that position.

[TomRayner]

I can definitely feel a big update coming.  Either targeting fake social signals or making a real crackdown on disguised paid links.

In one of my other projects, I've seen a lot of volatility in the top 10 for a keyword - with all the major dancers having a huge amount of paid blogroll and homepage links in their link profile.

If Google is cracking down on them, I'd seriously love them.