Google September Algo Update - SERP Ranking Fluctuations

Google's definitely up to something that's causing rather erratic traffic and keyword ranking position shifts that kicked in just prior to Labor Day weekend. As you can see by the StatCounter traffic chart on the left, something significant happened in September that's visibly affecting daily website traffic and it's very visually apparent.

I'm seeing the same general trend across a dozens of sites. On the left half of the chart you see a 'relatively' smooth undulation of site visitor traffic up until August 30th. I say relatively because frankly day to day variances are pretty normal and midweek, work week traffic is typically different from weekend hits. But note the right half of the chart: On Labor Day weekend the traffic DOUBLED over it's average for a day, slumped for two, spiked again. Rinse, lather and repeat.

Too soon to say if it's significant or trending long-term, but note the SEE-SAW SPIKES are trending downward after each iteration. (Ah, Google - notorious for it's pattern of 'Feeling-Up' web sites with successive crawls - and slowly choking the life out of its victims as they succumb to repeated, progressive algo pressure...)

It should be noted that these are aggregate traffic graphs from ALL sources (which tend to be DWARFED by Google traffic anyways) - and even with some low threshold of baseline Bing/Yahoo 3rd-Party and Social Media referral traffic, Google's particular gyrations are STILL highly visible and sharp.