An update to the Google algorithm reported to have begun on March 7th has been confirmed by a Google’s Gary Illyes.

The Google Fred algorithm update has been confirmed by @methode ? https://t.co/vfe0gIyIcK pic.twitter.com/8qK2ERUELw

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 24, 2017

Google has had little to say about the recent update which reportedly has had a large impact on content sites. An analysis of content sites by Barry Schwartz found a “50 percent to 90 percent traffic declines from Google organic search. This was a massive organic ranking drop for these sites.”

“After reviewing well over 70 sites that were hit by this update, 95% of them share two things in common. The sites all seem content driven, either blog formats or other content like sites and they all are pretty heavy on their ad placement. In fact, if I dare say, it looks like many (not all but many) of them were created with the sole purpose of generating AdSense or other ad income without necessarily benefiting the user.”

Why is it called Fred?