If you noticed a spike or drop in your rankings last week, it could be due to an unofficial algorithm update that occurred on May 16. After a seemingly quiet and uneventful week, this would be the third unconfirmed update of the month. The harsh effects of the update were still being felt by the SEO community into the new week, with one commenter saying last Thursday that his “traffic is down by at least 50% across all websites” and that he didn’t “know what to do.” However, the update did not cause problems for everyone.
One site owner reported “huge gains” in keywords for two of his five sites, with one increasing by 20% every day the previous week.
According to Semrush’s SERP volatility index, May 16 received a 7.7/10. (High range). It isn’t as bad as the fluctuation level we saw on April 28 (9.2/10), but it was enough to cause a stir in the SERPs. A 7.7 rating indicates “Position changes for numerous sites!” Google search results are changing. It could be a sign of an upcoming algorithm change. Check to see if your site has been impacted.” Meanwhile, the Rank Ranger volatility index showed a risk level of 65, the highest since the Mother’s Day Weekend algorithm update on May 9. Mozcast’s May 16 report indicated 95 degrees of ranking “turbulence,” trailing the May 9 SERP shake-up.
According to Barry Schwartz of the Search Engine Roundtable, “we are due, very due, a core update from Google” with the last coming in November 2021. So we should expect more of these minor, unconfirmed updates until Google releases the next core update. More SEO Information You Can Use
Yelp Has a New “Request a Call” Feature: With its new “Request a Call” feature, Yelp makes it easier for clients to connect with local service businesses. Users can use this feature by clicking on the “Request a Call” button on your Yelp business page, selecting their preferred service from your offerings, entering their phone number, and specifying their preferred call time. You will receive an email alert asking you to call back a customer at the specified time. You can either accept or request a different time. Before accepting the call time, you can confirm it, reschedule it for a more convenient time, or ask the customer for any additional information you require. The new feature, now available to businesses that have opted in, is part of Yelp’s ongoing effort to connect users with the services they require while also assisting businesses in converting qualified leads into clients.
Vimeo Adds Structured Data to All Public Videos to Improve SEO: Vimeo has added structured data to its public videos to give video creators more opportunities to rank on Google Search. Vimeo videos can be promoted in relevant search results by adding chapters and timestamps to video-structured data. To take advantage of this update, make sure your videos are set to public; Vimeo will handle the rest. The video hosting platform ensures that your video can be indexed and has optimized metadata and chapters that are visible to Google Search for key moments. Although this is handled automatically, Vimeo recommends incorporating the most relevant keywords and selecting the best titles for your videos to increase their search visibility.