blog home Search Engine Optimization MozCast Google Algorithm Review – February 2018

What IS MozCast?” you might be asking yourself. Well, it’s a handy metric put together by our friends over at Moz. Every 24 hours, a set of hand-picked keywords are tracked and notated to determine how volatile Google search results are from one day to the next. Moz then assigns a “temperature” to reflect how much fluctuation is taking place within Google search results.

How “hot” was it in February 2018, according to MozCast?

Perhaps Google’s algorithm took a cue from the real world’s weather, and chilled out the month of February. Things seem to finally be cooling off a little…for now. The average for the month was 87.85°, which is by no means “cool” in terms of temperature, but it was a noticeable difference from January’s RankBrain heat wave of 93.89°. There were only five days above 90°, and the only drastic spike was seen on February 20th at 113° (which is a definite signal of a possible update). However, even though the heat died down slightly, the climate was still an indication of changes.

There were a total of 22 days of rain, and five stormy days (February 5th does not have a climate report, due to a Moz server error). Obviously, this is still a pretty heated average, meaning Google’s RankBrain was busy this month, even if not by last month’s standards. Only time will tell if this trend will lead to bigger changes down the road (another heat wave), or if will drop down to averages in the seventies and a calmer RankBrain. No matter what next month brings, MozCast is still showing Google’s RankBrain will be carrying the torch for algorithm change.

Other Google algorithm rank trackers: AccuRanker and Algoroo

AccuRanker is a site that uses a range of emotions to depict Google’s algorithm changes with a self-explanatory scale of “chilled” to “furious” (anything under a 10 is considered relaxed, while anything above signals agitation). The AccuRanker tiger obviously wasn’t “feeling the love” this February, since once again, it was “grumpy” to “furious” all month long! The largest leap the tiger made was on February 10th, with a “furious” 21.35 recorded on the scale. The last time a high of this magnitude was spotted was in December 2017, indicating AccuRanker caught a big change on that date! AccuRanker also gestured at some changes with two other noticeable spikes seen on the 22nd at 18.36, and on the 28th at 18.27 towards the end of the month. Google’s RankBrain doesn’t have the “tiger by the tail” as much as January, as far as agitation or “furious” days, but the highs do indicate that keywords weren’t necessarily being romanced this month.

The Algoroo rank tracker uses a numeric scale to indicate fluctuations. Algoroo designates anything over a 2.50 to be a “high roo” (or yellow), showing high volatility for Google’s search results. This February, Algoroo showed less jumping around than January. The Roo was wooed into a calmer state, only showing one day in the yellow during the entire month, bouncing up to a 2.53 rating on the 21st. The only other high numbers seen aside from that were a 2.43 on the 8th, a 2.36 on the 22nd, and a 2.37 on the 24th, which are considered on the high side, but never crossed the threshold of the yellow zone. Algoroo obviously saw fewer changes in February for RankBrain than in the previous month. January had a total of 20 days in the yellow, which was regarded as highly volatile. As far as this rank tracker is concerned, it seems like things may be calmer in the outback moving forward…for now!

Conclusion: February and beyond

Overall, February was a bit more docile than January, as far as possible changes and updates. However, Google’s RankBrain wasn’t being meek or trying to “court” us during the month of romance by any stretch of the imagination. The MozCast temperature may have dropped a bit comparatively, and Algoroo saw 19 less days in the yellow, but AccuRanker remained in the “grumpy” to “furious” range throughout the entire month. The most glaring common thread found was on the 20th and 21st, when all three reported record high activity (for MozCast, the 20th was their second biggest spike). Evidently something had to have gone though, or changed drastically on (or near) the 20th.

One thing is certain: February proved to be less of a keyword heartbreaker than January!

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