Nicknamed the “Maccabees Update” by SEO pioneer Barry Schwartz (some were calling this “Fred”) Google made an update to their core algorithm around the December 12 -13, 2017 time-frame.
This is not one of the official Google Updates that has made it to the Moz List but rather a minor update according to Google spokesman, Danny Sullivan.
According to a Tweet by Sullivan:
“Reports calling this a single ‘update’ or calling it ‘Fred’ don’t reflect what we actually said: there were several minor changes that happened as they routinely do in any particular week.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) December 20, 2017”
So, what was the Maccabees Update? Though it was minor, it was big enough to be noticed by the SEO community.
Some of the theories of this update include that some affiliate type sites were hit and the update was done to counter some shopping sites with aggressive linking techniques. Google simply stated the point was to “improve relevancy.”
So, there you have it. If you have one of these types of sites that was hit, then you may want to rule out thin content and check your linking so you can get back in the Google game.
References
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-hanukkah-update-24928.html
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-confirms-maccabees-algorithm-update/228901/
https://moz.com/blog/an-investigation-into-googles-maccabees-update
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4879278.htm
https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
