Google Glitch 2020
August 13, 2020
![Google Glitch 2020](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/glitch-in-the-matrix-google-2020.jpg)
August 13, 2020
Google Glitch August 10, 2020
So a lot of buzz in the SEO Community about a Roll-out that penalized websites last August 10, 2020. This affects me because I provide white label SEO services and some clients were worried about this.
![SEMRUSH DATA](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/SEMRUSH-DATA-1-1024x596.png)
People claim that they lost rankings instantly as if this was a Panda or Penguin update.
![Google Webmasters tweet](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Google-Webmasters-tweet-576x1024.png)
Google’s Webmaster team did not specify as to how much of the web was affected but judging from the Best SEOs’ reactions I would guess a lot. Some popular brands, industries such as lawyers, dentists, doctors etc were affected. We know that much.
![How many websites were affected by the Google Glitch](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/How-many-were-affected-576x1024.png)
Even recipes are showing weird search results across the globe.
![Recipes are not returning the right results](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/recipes-are-confusing-576x1024.png)
Was it all negative? No, some brands and websites actually gained positions from the Glitch. I saw a competitor who had a dormant website get +14 positions for several keywords and this got clients worried.
![google glitch august 10 2020](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/google-glitch-1024x492.png)
So what is the first thing that you should do if you think your website incurred a penalty?
I would almost always go to Search Console and look for Manual action. I would check analytics to see if we lost traffic then later look at external resources like SEMRush, Majestic, AHREFs etc.
![rankings tanked during google glitch august 2020](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/rankings-tanked-during-google-glitch-august-2020-1-1024x532.png)
First thing I found was loss in terms of traffic. During August 10, 2020 8:00am we had zero visitors and this data was from Analytics. Google Search Console showed that we lost several positions and I kinda worried for a bit so I tried to find signs of penalties.
Things I checked to verify that this is not a Penalty but just a Glitch:
![last 7 days google glitch](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/last-7-days-1024x513.png)
- Duplicate Content
- Keyword Density
- Internal Linking
- Backlink Profile
- Anchor text distribution
None of them showed anything that would get us penalized.
![GA real time 7 days glitch](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GA-real-time-7-days-glitch-1024x475.png)
I then checked the competitors’ websites and created a Short Competitor Analysis for both On and OFF Page SEO.
![GA 7 days normal](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GA-7-days-normal-1024x493.png)
Nothing. Found some key on and off page factors that I can add to my client but nothing really stood out except for the other competitor which has zero blog posts, thin content, very few backlinks and a lot of CTAs on his homepage. It was actually this competitor who gained several positions.
![Google confirmed it was a bug](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Google-confirmed-it-was-a-bug-576x1024.png)
I quickly hopped on Rusty Brick’s Blog and found that he already asked John Mu about this.
![rusty brick on Google Glitch](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/rusty-brick-writes-a-post.png)
![Glenn Gabe's response on Google Glitch](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Glenn-Gabes-response-576x1024.png)
A day later and it was all fixed. Google Analytics showed traffic data August 10, 2020. Google Search Console showed complete data as if the glitch never happened.
![GA 7 days normal](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GA-7-days-normal-1024x493.png)
I checked third party tools and the only tool that is still showing position loss was SEMRush. Sorry guys you need to fix that ASAP!
![Traffic drop during Google Glitch 2020](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Traffic-drop-during-Google-Glitch-2020-1-1024x571.png)
I checked our website to see if we got affected and it seems we did for that day but today all rankings are back to normal.
![swatspam rankings](http://swatspam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/swatspam-rankings-1024x510.png)
I’m glad everything is back to normal. The lesson here to make your websites penalty proof to avoid having problems in the future.
For detailed information visit:
www.seroundtable.com
www.searchenginejournal.com
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