Google may have released an update to its search ranking algorithm on February 7 and 8, 2024. Several search ranking tracking tools recorded volatilities on both days, and SEOs observed movements in their search traffic. However, the increased traffic is mostly spam and from outside the US.
What Are People Saying?
On X (formerly Twitter), Barry Schwartz shared some analytics data showing the volatility reported by multiple SERP tracking tools.
Google Search ranking algo update volatility charts are heating up – updated my story from this morning with some updated charts https://t.co/Lb9xUW509a specifically @Moz @Similarweb @semrush and algoroo updated pic.twitter.com/pZVJy1rWF5
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 8, 2024
Glenn Gabe also shared some analytics that shows the volatilities and suggested they may have resulted from an unannounced reviews update. He added that similar volatility was observed on January 30, 2024.
Here are a few examples. One is a reviews site dropping pretty heavily over the past week. The other is a fairly powerful health and medical site seeing a distinct drop right around 2/7. When checking queries that dropped, you can clearly see the drops (and some are pretty… pic.twitter.com/cLKBTU2sDG
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 11, 2024
What’s Next – Dealing With This Update
It remains unclear if this volatility resulted from a reviews update. Google released its last reviews update between November 8 and December 7, 2023. At the time, Google mentioned it would no longer inform users of any updates to the reviews system as it would update the system on an ongoing basis henceforth.
Whichever is the case, you should begin monitoring your site with Rank Math Analytics. If you notice any changes in your rankings, you should watch the video below for tips on recovering from a Google Algorithm update.
