Google stated that the two , the as well the may not be completed simultaneously. It could take another week.
December 5th was the start of helpful content, and Dec. 14th saw link spam updates.
Both updates had to be completed in two weeks. However, it hasn’t happened.
Google has released a new statement. Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan stated on Twitter that the two updates would be completed “likely in two weeks”, maybe one week. However, he also said that “not a guaranteed” that things might change and that “not a sure thing.”
Why is there a delay? Because of holidays, the rollout has been delayed. Sullivan in Mastodon that both updates were continuing to rollout. These types of updates should normally be finished by now. However, rollouts may slow down or stop during holiday periods.
We care. Both updates were still being released at the time of this article. When both updates are being released simultaneously, it is difficult to say if one ranking change is due to the other. It is possible to see individual websites and determine if they were hit with a link algorithm or a helpful content algorithm. This is especially true if you examine the content and links for the sites.
Although we have some impact of certain updates, it is difficult to accurately measure due to their long-term rollout.
You will have to conduct your due diligence by looking at each site affected by the update individually. These updates may have caused ranking volatility, but they did move.
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