Update: Google says there has not been another one.

As usual, webmasters are speculating about the latest big name Google algorithm change as some have experienced sudden traffic issues. This has happened quite frequently since last year’s Panda update was launched. Sometimes it was Panda, and other times it wasn’t.

Now, there is talk in the WebmasterWorld forum that there may have been another Penguin update. We’ve reached out to Google for confirmation one way or another, and will update accordingly.

In one forum thread, member Tedster writes, “A number of members who were hit by Penguin are now reporting some movement in various threads. Can anyone else see evidence of a Penguin refresh?”

Some are seeing lower traffic, but assuming it’s because of the coming holiday weekend. However, user Anteck writes, “Getting loads of zombie traffic, suddenly the majority of visitors arnt converting. Googles up to something. All Australian sites. No holidays here.”

There is also some speculation that the Knowledge Graph came into play. Member Rasputin writes:

I would say that our ‘penguin’ sites recovered a few % around the 19th May while non-penguin sites fell a similar amount at the same time (no changes made – they are mostly old, small sites), but the variation after a few days is small enough that it could possibly just be seasonal variation.

It is also possible that the introduction of Knowledge Graph is distorting the figures for our (travel) sites that fell a small amount around the same time (or the sunny weather in the UK could have got people away from their computers…)

Google, by the way, appears to consider Knowledge Graph one of its crowning achievements. CEO Larry Page was sure talking it up this past week.

Either way, it’s put a little less emphasis on Google+ profiles for some search results, though it’s still thrusting them in the spotlight for others (like Mark Zuckerberg’s).

It’s hard to believe, but here we are close to the end of May already. Before too long, we should be seeing a new giant list of Google algorithm updates for the past month.

Image: The Batman Season 4 Episode 2 (Warner Bros.)