A Quick Note About Google’s Core & Spam Updates

(Sorry, "Quick" For Me, LOL,… Once More, no funnies, no images, no beautifying, just straight out chat, perhaps a little intermediate\advanced)

Hey Everyone,

I will write in more detail about these updates during the week, but I wanted to really quickly cover a few points.

Firstly, No-One, and honestly I mean, NO-ONE knows EXACTLY what Google wants in terms of “helpful content” and “quality content”.

Well actually, that’s not true, because if you were ranking well and getting lots of traffic to your articles pre the AUGUST 2022 Helpful Content Update (HCU), Google was basically telling you “these are quality and helpful” articles, the same can be said if you got “hit” for the first time in September 2023, everything that was ranking and producing traffic BEFORE that IS “heloful” and “quality”.

The problem being, HCU in 2022 & 2023 was a SITEWIDE “penalty”.

In other words, because you had some “unhelpful” content on your site, your site as a whole suffered, hence all the 70-90% traffic drops.

So, at the moment you could be writing the best articles possible and NOT getting anywhere, as your site HAD a “sitewide penalty”.

This is NOW CHANGING IN 2024 and your sites will be looked at on a page-by-page basis.

In other words, there is a strong possibility that the articles that were doing well before the HCU’s of 2022 and 2023 “may” (I said “may”) get a boost.

Secondly, NO-ONE and I mean NO-ONE has recovered from the HCU 2023 update, and Google has even changed the wording in the HCU guidelines in 2024 due to something that Google’s Danny Sullivan said.

(Actually, again that’s not strictly true, and I did comment on a post yesterday about a “BlackHat” HCU recovery that WORKS, but I know for a fact that it will only work for 6-18 months until Google “catches up with you”, but basically it is something to do if you have 1000s of articles on a “hit website” that is basically dead. Anyway, let me rephrase what I’ve said above, which will also give you a clue to the “Blackhat” method of recovery… No-one has recovered from 2023 HCU by using the SAME DOMAIN←– remember what I said above about Google thinking your “good ranking articles” pre-HCU were quality and helpful? That’s all I’m saying on that subject, LOL!)

I can’t remember Danny’s exact wording, but it was something along the lines of “Recovery from HCU could take from a few weeks up to a few months”.

The fact that no sites have “recovered” in the last 6 months the wording has now been changed to something along the lines of “There is no set timescale to recover from HCU”.

Furthermore, the fact that Google has released a blog post to discuss what will be covered in the spam update is a FIRST… they never normally do this.

Is this Google reacting to the backlash by being more open?

Is this Google trying to be more “helpful”?

Who Knows.

Next, I honestly do not think Reddit is going anywhere.

If they were, then Google would’ve paid a hell of a lot more than $60million for “access” to Reddit.

Plus, I will actually show you in my next blog post what people are doing on Reddit in terms of Parasite SEO, and IT WORKS, but again it’s Grey/Black Hat.

Basically, Reddit SEO is all about UPVOTES.

Guess what, you can buy them for $10 for 100 upvotes, and people are taking advantage of this, BUT, you have to be clever about it.

I won’t reveal too much, but I will take you through a few Reddit threads and show you the “evidence” that they are using these underhand techniques.

Google obviously wants Reddit moderators to get on top of this, but how do you “control” 500,000,000 people?

Next, I beg you, and I have asked this before, but with the influx of newcomers, and everyone focusing intently on “little wins” it continues.

STOP CHECKING YOUR TRAFFIC STATS EVERY DAY.

I’m telling you now, it will affect your mental health.

In fact, I’m going to come out and say it, I am APPALLED by something I have seen recently.

Unfortunately, a member has spoken about a potential increase since the updates.

I can actually see just by looking at their graph, and the figures they have quoted, that they have been “hit”.

And yet, they have been congratulated by someone who is considered an “expert” on the platform.

Is that what we do now?

We just congratulate people, tell them they’re doing really well, when it is OBVIOUS they have made an error?

If so, I want no further part of a platform that acts in this way.

Quick Clue, STOP looking at AVERAGE POSITION in the Graph section of Google Search Console, it DOES NOT provide the data you think it does.

Here’s what I mean.

A website gets “hit”, therefore impressions decline and QUERIES (the number of keywords you are ranking for DECLINES).

Therefore, your average position IMPROVES because YOU ARE RANKING FOR FEWER KEYWORDS.

Unfortunately, this has been “congratulated” this week, and as I say, by someone who is considered an “expert” on the platform.

Sorry, this is happening TOO MUCH here.

If you really have to check your stats is GSC.

Do it one day at a time and you’ll see exactly what I am talking about.

So, do a ONE DAY search for 4th March, and then for 5th March, 6th March, 7th March, and 8th March ALL INDIVIDUALLY for EACH DAY.

Am I right?

Your impressions, total number of queries, and total number of clicks is DECREASING each day, but your “average position” above the graph is IMPROVING.

This simply means you are ranking for FEWER KEYWORDS.

SORRY, you’ve been “hit”.

The Good (ish) News

Okay, so “Sitewide” is potentially no longer going to be a thing, so that means your “good” articles could return.

Google is issuing Manual Penalties and “Soft” Penalties and these can be found in Google Search Console under SECURITY & MANUAL ACTIONS, and then MANUAL ACTIONS.

If you’ve got nothing and a green tick, You’re Good!!!

I said earlier that “no-one knows”, so what I’m about to say is merely an educated guess.

There are 1000s of sites being deindexed and slapped with a manual penalty (you should see the wording, it’s really, really, really harsh, I could’ve written it, Hahahahaha!!!)

The same with “soft” penalties.

So, here’s my thinking.

The SERPs are an absolute mess, no doubt about it, they have been for about 18 months, but they’ve been RIDICULOUS for the last 6 months.

Google is going to have a massive clearout.

So, my thinking is, pretty much everyone is going to get “hit” this week and next, up until about the 19th March 2024.

The SPAM update only lasts for two weeks, the CORE update for up to a month.

This will be Google clearing house and just getting rid of the “obvious” crap (that they haven’t made a business deal with, LOL).

Then the CORE update will look at the SERPs again, “we’ve got rid of all the crap, by penalizing everyone INITIALLY, now let’s look at what is actually decent, and change the overall rankings”.

This is why I URGE you NOT to look at traffic stats every day, you’ll go MAD.

I guarantee there will be a LOT of fluctuations over the next few weeks.

Next, The mass produced spam content, I don’t think this is solely AI-mass produced content, but also focuses on programmatic SEO (look it up if you don't know what it means).

So, sites that have 1000s of pages with exactly the same layout that have been created solely for SEO PURPOSES ←– what has Google said about this in the current guidelines?

As an example, a travel site with pages for Best Hotels in XXXX and they cover all 50 US states.

If you visit each separate page they look EXACTY the same, with the same layout, the same wording, etc. it’s just obviously the state and the hotels are different.

But, these pages have been created en-masse to “manipulate” rankings.

Sure, those who are producing 15,000 AI articles a month, expect to get slapped.

Finally, using AI content and “making it your own”.

You do realise this involves more than just changing things to put the wording in the first person, “I” and “you” ←— this DOES NOT constitute “putting your own spin on AI”.

Furthermore, please, pelase, pelase, please, I beg you, I’ve been saying it for YEARS now, you find a keyword, GO AND CHECK PAGE ONE OF GOOGLE BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING - you DON’T KNOW whether it’s a good keyword yet.

I’m sorry, most of you know I “sneak about” in the background, and I look at your sites, I’m not overly impressed.

Poor keyword selection, and when you go to page one of Google, there’s 10 authority sites ranking.

You’re not going to outrank them, SORRY.

(and the same “I’m Ranking” blog posts where people are NOT ranking for an actual keyword, but they are simply checking their entire title, and seeing it as “number one”<---- this is NOT ranking, you should be ranking for actual keywords, not the entire title)

EXAMPLE - Pickled Partha’s Perfect Potioning to Make Money From Home

The keyword I should be checking is MAKE MONEY FROM HOME

If I check “Pickled Partha’s Perfect Potioning to Make Money From Home” in Jaaxy Rank Checker or even Google, OF COURSE I’m “ranking” number one, NO-ONE ELSE in the world has that title.

Plus, no-one, not one single person out of the 8 Billion + people on earth is going to search for

“Pickled Partha’s Perfect Potioning to Make Money From Home”

ARE THEY?????????

Not much point in ranking for “keywords” that no-one is EVER going to find.

Back to “keyword research”.

Sure, things may change over the coming months, but you really need to get a handle on keyword research.

It is so much more than “a keyword tool told me it was a good keyword” or “AI suggested these topics”.

I honestly think if you’ve come into this business AFTER November 2022 you may be better off learning things manually first, and then you’ll know what you’re looking for.

Solely relying on AI and software tools, hmmmm… well, we can already see the results.

Okay, this all sounds a bit “doom and gloom”, but I don’t actually think it’s going to be that horrific.

My main point is, we’ve got a month of these two updates (well 3 really, as “Reviews” Update now forms part of the Core Update), and then the Parasite SEO in May… Here’s a prediction to look out for in May, Forbes, Linkedin Pulse, and Reddit ALL SURVIVE, OutlookIndia gets smashed to pieces.

Basically, things are going to be all over the place for about the next 8 weeks.

So, in order to protect your mental health (see I do care about you really), STOP LOOKING AT STATS, and continue working, DO NOT STOP.

Obviously, try to improve processes like keyword research and writing, carry on with promoting your content on various platforms, and try to build up some momentum on a few External channels, e.g. YouTube, Medium Pinterest, Linkedin, TikTok, Instagram, etc.

I just think we’re in for a rough ride for the next 8 weeks, BUT, I do think that there is light at the end of the tunnel for those of you who are doing things RIGHT.

Furthermore, for those who were doing REALLY WELL before getting smashed in the HCUs of 2022 and 2023, don’t lose hope yet… those articles were deemed “quality” and “helpful” once… good chance they will be again (Remember 2022 and 2023 “Sitewide” HCU penalty, 2024 = page-by-page).

I will blog again over the next week or two, but for now, look after yourselves, don’t lose hope, it’s gonna get worse before it gets better, but I feel there are some “good things” coming too.

Thank You For Reading

Partha