After a week of tracking the webmaster and SEO community and the data around Google’s rankings, Barry Schwartz has found something interesting. From what he could see, Google has made more than the typical daily ranking tweaks. Not only have webmasters and SEOs felt a disturbance in the Force, but even automated rank checking tools have all set off strong signals of a larger Google change. These signals are similar to when Google releases a new or updated ranking algorithm.
We’ve been told that Google Panda 4.2 is a slow update that could take months to rollout, and we are seeing it happening right now. The changes that has everybody talking could simply be from this rollout. It’s also possible that the October 14th changes that were spotted in Google are related to the slow Panda rollout, but the ranking changes that were seen on the 20th and 21st of October could be something totally different.
There seems to be two different update cycles from Google in the past week or so, and they are:
It’s believed by Barry Schwartz that the October 14th and 15th changes were simply the ongoing Panda rollout.
The October 20th and 21st changes, may very well not have anything to do with the current Panda update. It could even be mix between Panda and some other adjustments that Google have been making.
If you want to be kept up on this situation, you can certainly be kept up-to-date through Search Engine Land.