Impact is an automatic estimate of how much a story is likely to
affect one website, weighing who published it, whether Google has
confirmed a ranking change, how many outlets ran it, and whether
the wording implies work on your site. It reads headlines, not
your analytics — treat it as triage, not a verdict.
It has been a while since I reported on a Google Search ranking update. I blame the tools, but in all seriousness, I am seeing a spike in volatility and, now probably more importantly, a spike in…