There is enough evidence that an unannounced Google update is happening. The update has affected some sites in a different range of niches. You will see some negative feedback, but the winners are mixed in, like the winners in the spam group.
Recipe bloggers report
Google prefers to target something other than specific niches online, where the recipe blogger niche is an organized community. Since then, the community’s voice has been louder when something is happening. It was the recipe blogger community that noticed the update. Now, it has a growing list of 47 recipe blogs that reported some losses from the update. All the sites, whether big or small, show 30% drops, and it is hard for bloggers to see them. It is like throwing darts at the board blindfolded, but you must wait for more data until the update is rolled out. It is better to wait for what Google will say about the update. You can check the recipe sites that lost traffic; both had to use some keyword terms.
Facebook hat observations
There is a private SEO signal lab Facebook group member who has the same experience. An example is when a Facebook member states that the seven-year-old site has been at the top for years and suddenly dropped to pages two and three. The interest, or maybe not, that the member reported was using the content analysis software to check the SERPs to know what words rank for queries. But no matter whether that is the clue, another person reported never having suffered from other Google updates and is now having a hard time with the update. There is another member from Facebook that has a 20% change in traffic but less change in keyword positions. It results from an increase in People also Ask, Carousels, Featured snippets, and other Google features that push organic results. But, according to Moz’s Mozcast, the most significant change in the Top Stories beginning on November 5th, 2019, peaked on November 7th, when the evidence of an update started to surge. It can cause some traffic declines, which makes it hard to say that these are the days of the update and that the information is still flowing. More people report ranking losses compared to the increase in the SEO Signals Labs groups. And with Twitter, there are some reporting losses compared to winners.
Black hat reaction
The black hat members are talking about the dramatic changes to their rankings, as some reporting losses are as high as 40%. Some report improvements from Google’s November update, where they have seen two people on the Amazon affiliate forum that their traffic has a big nose dive.
Gray hat experience
Some members of the gray hat are self-described as having positive Proper SEO Facebook groups. It is a group focused on private blog network links. The group admin shows that all the keywords are on a steep, but one member says the graph looks like a hockey stick. But another member asked why there was a weekly improvement in sales on the order of 30%, with Friday tracking at a 70% improvement. Some members noted that there have been more significant gains in Google Local changes. However, the overall result is that gray hats respond to positive results compared to negative ones.
No-hat observation
Some members started to notice some changes on Wednesday, November 6th. One member noted on Thursday that they have not seen any conversions in 24 hours, and another said they see some SERPs filled with sneaky and malware redirects from the domains. Google needs help telling between legitimate and spam sites, which is severe. The observation seems to declare a good report in gray and black communities.
Fishing Hat’s reaction to update
Some people asked whether they are a white-hat SEO, but they responded that it is a more fishing hat type of SEO. You must focus on what Google is doing, and from there, they will build an understanding of how they will respond. In years of working in search marketing, they have seen search marketing trends and theories that come and go and return. For instance, Google rumored that they target affiliate sites, but they were not Google-targeted affiliate sites. It is more about affiliate sites that use promotional strategies that stopped working because of how Google-ranked sites changed. Through the years, ranking denies they have more about changes in how Google understands search queries and decides what is connected.
Don’t target individual niches
Google seldom targets an industry, whereas before, some SEOs promoted the idea that Google was targeting medical sites. They are wrong, and now they are stuck with the Medic Update to remind the SEO industry that Google will not target specific industries.
Most past updates have focused on relevance by better understanding user queries, web page knowledge, and link signals. It is a safe bet, but you don’t know at some point.