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

July at our Pasadena office was scorching hot—and Google’s shifting algorithmic updates were on the hot side as well. The MozCast, a selection of 1,000 tracking keywords put together by our friends over at Moz, noted “storms” mixed with “rain.”

If you don’t know, every day on Twitter, the Mozcast notes the fluctuations in how well its chosen keywords performed, and decides on a “temperature” for the changes of the day. The closer the temperature is to 70°, the less likely it is that Google is tweaking its algorithm at the moment—and your rankings should theoretically stay consistent.

Every month, we wrap up Moz’s temperature readings and bring you other Google-trackers’ information as well, to give you a more comprehensive look at what may be going on in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

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

The average temperature in July was 90.41°, almost 3 degrees higher than June’s 87.53°. Hey, what can we say? It is summer in the Northern Hemisphere. July saw a few more stormy days than June, but the real point of interest is that the heat index jumped sharply at the end of the month. Could this mean that Google’s up to something come August? Looks that way.

July 1 – 86° rainy
July 2 – 88° rainy
July 3 – 89° rainy
July 4 – 88° rainy
July 5 – 86° rainy
July 6 – 86° rainy
July 7 – 86° rainy
July 8 – 84° rainy
July 9 – 92° stormy
July 10 – 85° rainy
July 11 – 87° rainy
July 12 – 88° rainy
July 13 – 88° rainy
July 14 – 85° rainy
July 15 – 86° rainy
July 16 – 88° rainy
July 17 – 87° rainy
July 18 – 92° stormy
July 19 – 94° stormy
July 20 – 92° stormy
July 21 – 114° stormy
July 22 – 92° stormy
July 23 – 88° rainy
July 24 – 98° stormy
July 25 – 90° stormy
July 26 – 92° stormy
July 27 – 90° rainy
July 28 – 93° stormy
July 29 – 88° rainy
July 30 – 92° stormy
July 31 – 109° stormy

Average temperature: 90.41°
Storm index: 12 days
Storm index change from June: +3 days

There was a flurry of fiery passion around July 21st, which we are told is “National Tug-of-War Tournament Day,” and “National Strawberry Rhubarb Wine Day.” We don’t know if Google engineers partook in either of these events, but it would explain the fluctuation—or perhaps the activity that took place was Google introducing a new way to look for events near you on mobile search. The latter may be more likely, but the former is more fun to picture!

The temp at the end of July climbed higher, so we expect big changes come August.

How “grumpy” was Google in June 2018, according to AccuRanker?

The AccuRanker Grump calmed down considerably in July! The “Grump,” whose resemblance to Tony the Tiger is purely coincidental, measures 30,000 randomly selected keywords, split evenly between desktop and mobile searches. They take the top 100 rankings and use those rankings’ change to determine how “furious” the Grump is—which means Google’s ruffling his fur with all those algorithmic changes!

The Grump, though he never relaxed completely in July to his “chilled” condition, was 12 days less “furious” in July than he was in June! He didn’t seem to panic at the end of July like Moz did, so perhaps the algorithmic updates Moz detected are more subtle…or have to do with different keywords. Let’s hope “personal injury attorney in Montana” isn’t one of them.

Days of fury: 3
Change of fury since June: -12

How “high” did Google SERPs bounce around July 2018, according to Algoroo?

Although Algoroo almost detected “high roo” on July 22, the fluctuations didn’t make the bounce to yellow-“oh-no”-mode. Like AccuRanker, Algoroo tracks the top 100 keywords (out of 17,000) as they move in the SERPs. Algoroo also didn’t detect any troubling upward trends in Google finagling as the month drew to a close. But if there’s anything we’ve learned from watching Google, sometimes the calm comes just before the storm….

Days of high roo: 0
High roo change index since June: 0

Conclusion: stepping into a hot and stormy August?

Going into August, only Moz seemed to predict a summer storm of Google activity. Both Algoroo and AccuRanker agreed: there was not much to show leading in. However, with the benefit of a bit of hindsight, we think that the spike on MozCast’s radar may have been Google My Business websites being upgraded to https—an important security update that we covered in an earlier blog. But, it’s very likely that there are more upgrades, tweaks, and polishes on the way, so expect “dog days” in August.

Regardless of what’s happening behind the scenes at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, you can always focus on good white-hat SEO for your website: high-quality, authoritative content; accurate links and onsite meta descriptions; easy-to-navigate design; and—nowadays the most important factor in conversion—lots of great reviews from satisfied clients!

If you every have questions about attorney online marketing for your firm, please give us a call at (323) 254-1510.

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