There is substantial evidence that an unannounced Google Update is underway. This update has been affecting sites across a wide range of niches. Most of the feedback is negative although there are winners mixed in, including winners in the spam community.
Impact Felt Across Many Industries
Forensic SEO expert Alan Bleiweiss (@AlanBleiweiss) noted in a tweet how this update affected a plurality of industries. He tweeted:
“I monitor 47 sites
- Mental Health Knowledge base & Directory – up 20%
- Travel booking – up 14%
- Travel booking – up 25%
- Recipes – up 12%
- B to C eCom – up 20%
- Tech news – down 20%
- Skin care affiliate – down 48%
- Alternative health – not impacted
- Other Recipe sites – not impacted”
Note: The double listing for travel sites is not a typo. It’s a reference to two travel sites.
Recipe Bloggers Report Update Effects
Google does not target specific niches. The recipe blogger niche is a highly organized community. Because of that when something big happens the community’s voice will be amplified.
Thus it was that the recipe blogger community noticed this update. As of earlier today there was a growing list of 47 recipe blogs that had reported losses from this update.
Casey Markee of MediaWyse (@MediaWyse) who specializes in food blog SEO said this about those 47 sites that were suffering from Google’s November 2019 update:
“All of them, big sites, small sites, medium sites, all are showing like 30%+ drops. I know it’s tough on bloggers to see drops and thing “OMG I need to make some dramatic changes.”But that’s like throwing darts at a board, blindfolded, in the dark, while underwater. Definitely need to WAIT for more data and until this “update” (or whatever it is) has fully rolled-out.”
I agree, it’s best to wait to hear what Google says about this update. I took a quick look at two of the recipe sites that were lost traffic and both of them had heavy use of keyword terms.
Travel Bloggers
One person tweeted:
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