🎉 Get Content AI Free for 3 Months!

LIMITED TIME OFFER!

SERP tracking tools have picked up signals of SERP fluctuations starting on August 18, 2021. But a lot has happened on Google search around this time. The spike in SERP fluctuations could be due to the slow rollout of the link spam update or a bug discovered in the Top Stories carousel, or a tweak that Google has made to rewrite titles completely.

While the exact reason is not easy to conclude as Google has not announced any update on their part, the fluctuations are evident as some webmasters have even seen a spike in traffic and CTR.

Link Spam Update

Google announced the rollout of link spam update on July 26, 2021, and was expected to be complete in two weeks of time. We’ve also seen unconfirmed search updates on August 6, 2021, and August 14, 2021, that could be related to the link spam update.

While the update seems to be rolling out slowly compared to what was initially planned, Danny Sullivan responds on Twitter that it might take a week more to be complete.

Google Rewriting Page Titles

Google has made a tweak on August 17th or 18th that has resulted in a complete rewrite of the titles. While it was common to see Google making minor changes to the title, the complete title rewrites have received a lot of criticisms from the SEO community.

In a Twitter discussion that goes around the forced title rewrites by Google, Danny Sullivan acknowledges the criticisms and assures the feedback will help improve their systems. So if you notice your page titles are being rewritten at a large scale, it would be too early to dig into changing them, as Google might improve/reverse the system.

Bug in Top Stories Carousel

A bug was discovered in the Top Stories carousel on August 18, 2021, that is widespread across all regions. The images in the Top Stories carousel did not load and remained blank for most search queries.

As many users, noticed and reported the issue on Twitter, Google has addressed the rendering issue and expects to resolve the issue quickly. After two days, the bug was largely mitigated.

Considering a lot has happened in Google Search, it is no wonder that SERP tracking tools have reported severe fluctuations. If you notice fluctuations on your site’s metrics starting on August 18, 2021, then it could be likely due to one of the above issues. As it turns out to be another unconfirmed update from Google, it is best to wait for things to get settled.

Rank Math Google Updates

Want to see these updates in your WordPress Backend?

Rank Math PRO offers an easy way to monitor Google Updates from the WordPress backed.

Buy PRO