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Did Google Silently Implement a New Algorithm This Week?
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Google is planning a major algorithm update within the next few months. According to the company’s official announcement earlier this year, the new search algorithm will be in place by early 2021. Google’s latest update will utilize the company’s Core Web Vitals, which, according to the experts, are metrics used to quantify crucial elements of the user experience.
While Google is yet to announce a tentative deadline for implementation, one report claims the algorithm could be enforced earlier than predicted. According to the publication, most of Google’s search evaluation tools showed unnatural spikes in search rankings this week, which generally indicates a major update in Google’s policies. However, there has been very little chatter, verging radio silence, in the SEO community that generally follows these updates closely.
What’s the Buzz all About?
Following the report, a few website owners complained about a change in rankings. However, upon closer inspection, nothing out of the blue was observed. The only thing weird with the experience was Google search result snippets disappearing for a while. Would that affect search rankings? Probably not as the tools are smart enough to ignore glitches.
Whatever this week’s scenario might have been, it isn’t Google’s major update scheduled for 2021. The company promised a six-month heads-up following multiple requests from site owners asking for a prior warning before implementing new rules. According to Google’s statement from May 2020, the company released the tools to help site owners familiarise themselves with the upcoming changes. However, there was no need for immediate action at the time.
This isn’t the first instance of Google suffering technical glitches this year. While the issues in August were quickly fixed, it seems a few conservative websites were de-indexed unintentionally back in July. The company soon rectified the error, claiming it was a simple bug and not Google targeting any political ideologies in particular.
