Algorithm update?
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I read on SEOLand that there may have been an algorithm update on Feb. 1st. I got our rankings report back today and was shocked to see 103 of our 530 tracked keyword phrases went down over the last week, especially on pages that we recently updated (like a month ago max). The pages we updated went up in ranking the last two weeks in a row, but went down this week, considerably (like #14 to #34).
We also submitted a sitemap update last Friday to Search Console.
Checked on Search Console and noticed we also had a dip in CTR around the same time period.
I know the rumored changes were targeting PBN, but could other changes be in play as well? I know we have (against my advice) a few syndicating blogging partnerships who we share content with from time to time, but nothing like a PBN.
Wondering if anyone else saw a considerable dip in their rankings?
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Quick update: We've lost even more rankings since I got back from vacation. We've seen 200+ tracked words drop in two weeks, some from top pages to not ranked.
Primary areas of concern I have are our SSL is not set up and our site is not automatically mobile responsive. We have a "mini" mobile site which I don't think is an ideal SEO or user experience. I've also found out our PR staff has been allowing other sites to use our content (scrape it). Sometimes, those duplicate content pages link to us, sometimes they don't.
I've tried to get our developers to fix these over the last few months, but the company is so large it takes a lot of time to turn that boat around.
Any ideas what changes were made during the algorithm update?
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Interestingly enough, so have we. Granted, we could have started ranking for words we aren't tracking currently, but many of our bigger ticket (10K+ phrases) have fallen.
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I'm not too sure about our rankings but we have been seeing a considerable increase in traffic from 31/1 onward.
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I've seen a lot of rankings flux (up and down) over the last week. You can also see that reflected in the Mozcast. MozCast is a weather report showing turbulence in the Google algorithm over past 30 days. The hotter and stormier the weather, the more Google's rankings changed. It's been 90 degrees or hotter all week.
I wouldn't react. Just wait for the dust to settle.
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