There has been a lot of discussion out there on the SEO forums regarding Google’s changes in June 2009.

Reports of Google PageRank updates, backlink algorithm changes and the continued effect of brand keyword reshuffling noticed by the wider SEO community, particularly within Google UK.

The last item, Google’s brand reshuffle, or what has been called ‘Vince’, was initially seen in US markets in Feb and March. It was widely reported and the Outrider Australia team posted our comments on the initial Vince update back in March.

At the start of June, the UK has undergone similar changes to the US in regard to Google ‘Vince’ with the results pages consistently showing major brands taking place of long standing optimised sites. There is an interesting post about the recent Google UK brand shuffle on SEO Unique.

Usually a Google PageRank update occurs every three months. This time, at around the 24th of June there were reports that another PageRank update occurred. Considering the previous Page Rank update was in May 2009, it seems very early for a PageRank update, with some reports of a glitch on Google’s behalf.

While a PageRank update doesn’t mean a lot on it’s own, it could be related to recent discussions on Google’s backlink algorithm. The backlink algorithm change is being reported over at the Webmasterworld forum. With 90+ comments there certainly are a lot of webmasters noticing the changes!

Google Webmaster Tools also underwent several changes, as follows:

- Reduced Link Count
- 301 redirected URLs do not appear in the link list

Read more about the changes to Google Webmaster Tools in June at SEO Roundtable:
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/020336.html

The Outrider SEO team continues to monitor the search engines status and will update the blog with any information as it comes to hand.