If you’ve seen your Google Search ranking drop recently, you’re not alone. Despite the European Union breathing down their neck after issuing a $2.7 billion anti-trust fine, Google may have released an algorithm update. This move is classic Google, as they closely guard their corporate secrets and often issue updates unannounced. SEO industry leaders speculate this update occurred around June 25th.
An unofficial statement from Google’s John Mueller responded to a user on Twitter who asked him directly about the possible update affecting their rankings. The Webmaster Trends Analyst tweeted back “Yep! We make updates all the time.”
Despite this, Google has not officially confirmed nor denied.
Here is some of the evidence presented by analysts using SERP monitors this week
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The SEO community has lit up over twitter, with countless users experiencing fluctuating rankings in SERP’s. Unfortunately, most of the chatter cites pages appearing lower in rank. Analysts deduce that Google is opting to prioritize older, quality content.
What we’re seeing in the past few days is similar to Google’s Penguin update, which declared war on spammers who bought links in order to boost rankings. SEO professionals should be aware of this update, as any black hat (or even gray hat for that matter) practices are being taken on by the search engine.
If you’re looking to use SEO to improve your online presence, this is a perfect example of why you should consult someone with extensive experience in the field. If Google sees your SEO as “spammy", you can say goodbye to your page one rankings on the SERPS.
