Google Algorithm Updates - 2021 Ongoing Discussion

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Well, that's good to know, I wanted to see if I could call an SEO update based on just 2 keyword anomalies in my rankings.

I have a daily morning ritual of checking 10 sites or so for rankings. I believe I've gotten pretty good at spotting what is fluctuation in the algo and what is algo change.
 
Pretty significant rearrangement of front pages. I lost some number 1s to inner blog pages of big sites.
 
Update: 9/24/21

I haven't been posting all these little updates that have been flying out, but a decently significant one landed over the weekend:

Advanced Web Ranking:
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CognitiveSEO:
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Semrush:
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Serpmetrics:
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I took some damage to one site over the past couple weeks that was nearly entirely reversed over the weekend.

I knew there was a big update that targeted the same stuff as the previous ones and there'd be a reversal of some amount because I got a very weird spike of traffic that ended up being lucrative (thanks, Google chaos!). Same old patterns, is my point.

It was good timing with the holidays coming. Last thing I need is to be negatively affected in Q4 when the advertising budgets are oh so good.
 
Fairly certain I got hit. I have escaped unscathed for more than a year though, so it's OK I guess. Just part of the game. Keep building.
 
No love for the SERPWoo tracker I see ( j/k, ha ), which tracks all keywords ( not subsets like other algo trackers ) and can break down desktop vs mobile vs local and non-local:

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Q3 has been pretty bad for my site. Got hit with 30% drops after the June core update, then dipped a lot more on the Sept. 24 update (and bottomed out on Oct 2, but by Oct 3 was back up to Sept 24 levels).

Re-read this whole thread and a bunch of content related to this years updates. Don't know if I've come away with any really actionable insight.

As for the product review update, I think Google's own advice (posted in this thread by Ryu) pretty much covers it. I think reviews that focus in on an actual product review/comparison rather than a product "overview" fare pretty well. Don't sell too hard in your reviews is also probably good advice - keep it more informational and comparative than commercial or pushy.

I was really hit starting with the core update though, and I'm not really sure what the issues were. CWVs are pretty good, content is great and leans heavier towards TOFU.

I know with page experience there's a lot of talk about intrusive interstitials, so I'm wondering if exit intent popups or popups in general are an issue (gonna be real, even *I* get annoyed by my exit intent popups).

I'd love to hear anyone's insight into what this last 4 months of updates has been all about.

Basically, I'm thinking I'll bite the bullet and go through a re-design where every single page loads up under 2 seconds on 3G mobile connections (if possible) and make sure every page's LCP is in the green, get rid of the popups (sucks, they convert decently) and go through the kitchen sink and volume content/avalanche strategies in prep for major link building in 2022.

If I regain the rankings I'll throw the popups and any display ads I had back in the mix

Sucks when you build a site with legit quality in mind and still get fucked.

Gotta do what you gotta do, but I'd be very interested in what anyone thinks the algo is thinking nowadays.

Edit: Oh and I think it's about time I get serious on non #SEP traffic like Carter's been preaching for years.
 
I would never dream of running pops on any site that is dependent on search traffic.

for the same reason I never enable interstitial ads even though I hear it could add +5-10% to the RPM which would be a LOT.
 
MrMedia said:
I would never dream of running pops on any site that is dependent on search traffic.
Click to expand...

Good to know. I only use exit-intent's thinking that's a good compromise btw user experience and commerciality, but I'm going to remove them for the time being.
 
MrMedia said:
I would never dream of running pops on any site that is dependent on search traffic.

for the same reason I never enable interstitial ads even though I hear it could add +5-10% to the RPM which would be a LOT.
Click to expand...
What's wrong with interstitials if they don't effect page experience? Just don't want to piss off users?
 
zelch said:
Even exit pops?
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Do they really only fire on exit? Or do they fire when your mouse leaves the browser, or you change tabs, or you pause your music, etc.

If it was me and I HAD to have them, I’d only have them fire on 2nd page view in the same session. You’ll have a higher quality list that way too.
 
Darth said:
Anyone up or down from the spam update?
Click to expand...
These kind of updates don't target SEO or quality or anything like that. They tend to focus on stuff like doorway pages, cloaking for googlebot, malware injections, and all that kind of crap.
 
My main site seems fine for now. All my other smaller site (say half a doz) feel down maybe 30% - definitely affected in some way. Early days, let's see.
 
Mostly green arrows here, but not big changes.

Some keyword hit record highs though.
 
Saw a lot of positive SERP movements this morning. Although it is early, I may be seeing a higher click rate due to some snippet changes. Hit #1 on a keyword and the snippet has a "Also covered on this page" option at the bottom of the snippet which links to two of my H2 subheadings. Interesting feature.
 
Not seeing any movement in any of my sites or competitors' sites. All evergreen niches.
 
Saw a -25%-30% decrease in traffic in google analytics today and last night, all my site is quality, cant tell which keywords are dropped even though im using ahrefsz ahrefs says 39 positions increased and 19 positions decreased. Im a noob at tracking the rankings of keywords
 
I saw increases on my main website for a couple of positions BUT one of the articles I ordered backlinks for dropped from #11 to #43 lmao (they haven't been delivered yet). I'm not putting any stock into the movements that have happened- things always seem to re-adjust themselves 2-3 weeks after an update (for my websites at least).
 
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