Surprisingly, we've seen more fluctuations and updates in Google search rankings than usual over the weekend. This reminds me of the weekend ranking bug that Google had late last year and early this year. However, it could just be that the ranking system is just balancing positions for users searching on the weekend.
Or maybe we're all just crazy, which is just as likely.
We can see a spike in chats starting on July 4th, meaning a spike in chats on the Friday before and over the weekend, similar to some of the past unconfirmed updates I've covered, this one appears to have started on July 5th, 2024.
There has been a surge in SEO talk across various forums, with some, but not all, tools taking advantage of the instability in Google searches over the past few days.
What I'm seeing is the following:
Google Rank Tracking Change Tool
Here's what the tools are showing: Keep an eye on the area around the date July 5th for many of these tools.
Advanced Web Ranking:
Cognitive SEO:
Algorithm:
SERP Metrics:
Mozcast:
SERP Stats:
Semrush:
Similar websites:
Acculancar:
Mangool:
Wincher:
Many tools will be heating up around the 4th, 5th and 6th of July.
SEO Chatter
Now, it's normal for many sites to see a drop in traffic during the 4th of July holiday and the weekend that follows, so keep that in mind, but most SEOs know that today is the 4th of July and can compare it to previous 4th of July holiday weekends.
Below are some of the conversations we had at WebmasterWorld, as well as comments from a few blog posts on the topic.
This week I've noticed a massive drop in traffic of about 60% to some of my most important category pages. Upon further investigation I'm seeing this happening on pages where Google has added one giant AI snippit result at the top followed by a giant image block, People Also Ask and Things to Know blocks, and sponsored ads. They're ranking 1-3 but their traffic is completely down.
In one case, an article I wrote was ranked #1 and was getting so much traffic that it even overtook my homepage on some days. Then, on the last day, suddenly, traffic dropped by 81%. This is because my article is not only at the top of the search results, but is being used in an AI snippit. Links to my site are there, but apparently no one is clicking on them, even though they are prominently displayed at the top. Are other people experiencing this when their articles are being used in an AI snippit?
Yesterday it dropped by 50% and today my site has almost no visitors. It feels like it got kicked out of the index. I can't explain it.
I also noticed yesterday (5th July) that the traffic dropped off especially towards the evening (Germany). Today it's pretty bad so far too.
I agree. Google traffic dropped significantly yesterday. Now it's starting to increase again.
Yesterday, pageviews increased 23 percent and UVs increased 16 percent. Homepage was normal (no unusual spikes).
But we can't thank Google for this increase: yesterday's Google traffic was just 29 percent of total UVs, compared to 35 percent over the past 30 days.
On Thursday it was 50% and on Friday it was 75%, which is a totally normal drop for me, which I can explain away as being due to a long US holiday weekend.
Something is clearly happening this weekend. The holiday slump is not over.
Search results after the 4th of July were mostly garbage.
Has anyone experienced the same drop in traffic as I did on the 4th of July? I experienced a drop in traffic of 100 per day.
It seems like something happened in the past few hours just after the Fourth of July.
A massive shuffle of keywords and drops.
Yes, same here. Traffic was bad a few days ago and back again. I'm in the UK so it shouldn't affect my US holidays (but we have a new Prime Minister 🙂
And there were many more like it. But I saw comments about both negative and positive changes in rankings. It can be hard to rule out holiday traffic drops, since they can be normal, compared to ranking changes related to improved or decreased traffic.
I'm curious if this Google weekend rankings bug is happening again or if this is just a normal pattern.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.