Google Search Volatility Friday, January 5th & 6th

As I hinted in my last video recap (make sure to subscribe), I was seeing some early signs of an update on Friday, January 5th and 6th. Well, now there are more signals in where I am more confident to write about those Google Search ranking algorithm volatility.

We are seeing both the automated tracking tools and intense SEO chatter within the SEO community on and around Friday, January 5th and 6th.

The last several updates I reported on were unconfirmed including the pre-New Year’s Eve Google update and the pre-Christmas update. There was also a potential local ranking update on January 4th.

And honestly, it has been heated since, but the tools are now spiking even more.

Google Tracking Tools

Let’s first look at what the automated Google Search tracking tools are showing:

Semrush:

SERPmetrics:

Accuranker:

Cognitive SEO:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Mozcast:

Algoroo:

SimilarWeb:

Wincher:

Mangools:

SEO Chatter

The chatter is pretty heated, we have 500 comments on my last post and the WebmasterWorld thread is pretty heated.

Here are select samples of that chatter:

Yesterday was strong the entire day…today USA traffic vanished from 11am sharp. It is now -30% for the day. Incredible, Google intends to continue to starve us all of USA traffic in 2024 I think.

I am still seeing a huge suppression of USA traffic compared to other regions. While UK, Europe and Australia have bounced back USA is still lagging all day. There is a very obvious on/off pattern to USA traffic now where you can see traffic freeze for hours at a time completely…traffic from the rest of the world will keep rolling in, while USA just stops. Google has total control of the flow of traffic and is loading up USA results with so many ads and other widgets that it just vanishes. Is anyone else seeing this?

My traffic and impressions are online going down.

I miss old weekends. We used to have high traffic on Saturdays and Sundays. Lots of comments to reply to. Now, it’s just a barren land.

Looks like it got hit, but not nearly as badly as most of us here. I lost 70% of traffic. Some have even lost 100%.

Me about 70% too

Something is going on in SERPs. Got 18 realtime today I checked a page back in the top position.

I’m seeing a possible rank update. Lots of SERP result is changed since yesterday

After almost 11 years of hard work, these updates have destroyed my webiste. I cannot write any new content due to the frustration. I think I can run the website for 1-2 months only.

15 years as well and it is really bad. This year its the end of the road for me as well. The Covid nonsense ate up all the savings. There is nothing left now. Its a count down to the end like everyone else.

15 years here, and everyone on SeoRoundTable shares a similar fate, you are in good company. I also think this year is game over for me, at least online.

There is a 30%+ positive recovery from my end guys.

What are you all seeing?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.