Google Phantom Update Last Week?

Last week I reported that Google said there was no Panda refresh last week. This was based on several emails I received from webmasters asking if there was a Panda update.

The forums were pretty quiet but my inbox was not. Either way, Google said it wasn't a Panda update and they moved on.

Glenn Gabe thinks this was a Phantom Tremor. What is Phantom? It is what Glenn named the Jun 16th Google update that Google originally denied and then laterconfirmed as a core search update.

Glenn says his data suggests there was a tweak to that algorithm in core search, which is why Google didn't confirm it and which is why not many people noticed.

Here are some charts from his client data:

I can tell you again, the forums were very quiet around this update but my inbox was not, neither was Glenn's inbox. So he actually did an amazing job documenting the July 14th Google tremors and suspects it is related to what happened on June 14th.

I am not sure, nor can I get this confirmed by Google. But the data is interesting.

Forum discussion at Google+.

Google Toolbar PageRank Lives On With The First Update In Over 10 Months

Google has updated the Toolbar PageRank values this morning, despite Google’s Matt Cutts implying the update would not happen again within 2013.

The SEO community, discussion forums and social media outlets are lighting up with the news that Google has actually updated the Toolbar PageRank values. Why?

(1) The SEO industry always lights up when the most visible indicator and easiest to see metric of Google linkage data changes.

(2) Because no one expected a Toolbar PageRank update this year.

The last Toolbar PageRank update was over 10 months ago and I predicted, wrongly, thatToolbar PageRank was dead. I was wrong, Google updated it today, 10+ months later and well before anyone thought there would be an update.

Google has implied over the years that toolbar PageRank would go away and has slowly dropped support for the feature in several browsers over the years. Although, Google did tell usToolbar PageRank wouldn’t fully go away, at least not on older browsers that support it.

For more on the importance, or lack-there-of, Toolbar PageRank see our guide on PageRank.

Here is the latest video from Matt Cutts on Google PageRank:

Update: Matt Cutts confirmed the update on Twitter saying the “team was fixing a different backend service and did a PR update along the way.”

Content published on :http://searchengineland.com/google-toolbar-pagerank-lives-on-with-the-first-update-in-over-10-months-179238