Who is Fred and why has he decided to suddenly creep into my website?
Fred is the name of an unconfirmed Google update that has not been announced but has been felt throughout the SEO world. Why does the update have a name if it is unconfirmed and why is it not named after another member of the animal kingdom?
Well, Google representative Gary Illyes has commented on his Twitter that “from now on every update, unless otherwise stated, shall be called Fred” and though Fred is not official, is it is no secret the Google is continually updating its algorithm.
There have been rumours that this update will be targeting link quality, but because no official statement has been made, we can only speculate. This speculation was spurred by volatility amongst site tracking tools, the tell-tale sign of a change in algorithms.
Another theory regarding Fred is that most of the sites that are being targeted by him are considered to be low value content sites that are heavy on ad placement. The primary intention of such sites is to purely generate income whilst not providing useful or valuable content to the reader.
Whether Fred is here to stay or is just passing through, the name has certainly stuck, hopefully Google catches on to this and we get an update called Susan.