The State of Search: Volatility to Begin 2022

Our algorithm sensor tools reported significant volatility in the Google search results throughout the month of January. Turbulence across industries peaked from January 18th-20th and again on the 22nd, leading the search community to consider the occurrence of a possible algorithm update. An update has not been confirmed by Google at this time.

Google News and Tips

• Page Experience - Like mobile, Google is launching a page experience update–think Core Web Vitals–in February as part of their desktop ranking systems.
• Featured Snippets - Google is less likely to choose hidden content–behind tabs or accordions–to display in featured snippets than content that’s directly visible on the page.
• Internal Links - The placement of internal links on a page is not important to Google. Include internal links that facilitate user experience where relevant and focus on making your primary content visible and accessible to both users and Google.

What This Means For You

At REQ, we will analyze any major fluctuations in organic traffic and rankings experienced by our client sites and those of competitors over the next few weeks. It’s important to remember that Google is constantly making changes to its algorithm. However, we continue to see Google focus on ranking quality sites and taking measures to improve its understanding of user intent by displaying search results that accurately match that intent. 

We recommend taking a critical look at your site content and determining whether it is the best of its kind and offers users the information they’re looking for when they land on your site. If not, it’s time to make serious changes to your content.