Google Announced November 2021 Algorithm Update

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In this season of giving, Google is serving up yet another update that’s set to change the search landscape after a historically volatile year. This time it’s with a Core Update announced on November 17th.

Called the November 2021 Core Update, this one started rolling out on the 17th and is expected to take a couple weeks to be complete. These broad core updates typically impact the search landscape more than the regular day-to-day updates. But in a year seeing dynamic volatility in the search landscape, it’s hard to know what to expect.

Google’s two public commenters Danny Sullivan and John Mueller addressed the anxiety of the search community at yet another update this year.

Google Tweets about November 2021 update

Additionally, Danny Sullivan did acknowledge the concern about the holiday shopping season and the time of year that tends to come with increased web traffic for many sites. But Google also released a core update in December 2020 that also impacted search rankings dramatically. Really kicking off the trend we’ve seen all year. He acknowledged again that MOST people should see changes to their overall SERP positioning.

Danny sullivan november 2021 update tweets

In the initial announcement, Google also linked to their webmasters guide to these Google core updates. It doesn’t give much information that most SEO’s don’t already know. Google reminds you to place emphasis on good content that is relevant and high quality. It also talks about improving a website’s expertise and overall user experience. Just important reminders that these are the most important things for SEO’s to keep in mind as you work on websites. This focus on quality and relevant content is not going to change anytime in the near future for Google.

Semrush did a study that showed 2021 has a 68% increase in desktop search result volatility, and a whopping 84% more volatile on mobile. That’s due to several Core algorithm updates. But it’s also due to a whole host of spam updates and unconfirmed updates that have literally changed the search landscape on a weekly basis.

semrush mobile volatility Semrush desktop volatility

As this update continues to roll out, we’ll post any new observations we notice on our social media accounts and here on our blog.

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Kristine Pratt

Kristine is the Director of Marketing at Boostability. She brings a decade's worth of communications strategy work to the company. Kristine has a Masters Degree in Leadership and Communications from Gonzaga University and graduated from BYU with her undergrad in Broadcast Journalism. She's worked in television news, public relations, communications strategy, and marketing for over 10 years. In addition to being a part of the marketing team, Kristine enjoys traveling, sports, and all things nerdy.