December 2022 Google’s Link Spam Update

We quickly found that many are complaining about Google is not being fair. Many complained that they haven’t bought any links & are not part of any link exchange schemes.

There was a lot of fluctuation in the SERP’s lately. Specially since December 13. Many even suspected whether or not there is an update going on. Like this one in our forum.

Either another update is incoming or this present one is a mess.

Huge amount of bot activity on many sites.

Traffic is also a bit up but for a thin margin.

Later, Google Search Liason confirmed that there is indeed an update. As soon as we started reading some comments and reactions. We quickly found that many are complaining about Google is not being fair. Many complained that they haven’t bought any links & are not part of any link exchange schemes. Since,this update unlike the previous Google update will use an AI (Spam Brain).

Here are some replies from Webmaster World.

Is that the 2398th or 2399th time Google has told us spam links will no longer work?

My take: If all the links on your pages, internal and external, are either navigational, directly supporting the topic of the page(a resource to learn more etc.) or a citation, you’re fine. I think they’ve said this 500 times, too.

What I really wanted to say: Spam Brain is such a perfect name. It tries to sound smart… but there’s still spam in there. It’s like saying “Spanish Blue Eyes”, is the blue Spanish, or are the blue eyes Spanish? Thanks for the Brain made of spam?

Translated: Google has a thing that’s doing a thing, and they won’t give us the instruction manual or tell us specifically how it works. Deja-vu.

A dedicated AI on link spam is likely to be more efficient than previous attempts.

What’ll be interesting to see is how deep or shallow the parameters are set. We should watch this space for casualties which will give us an indication.

Traffic is all over the place…skyrocketing the first half of the day, then dropping off a cliff suddenly. My home page and major landing pages all taking major hits in traffic, -80% some days, then reverting back to normal, then dropping again…on and off for almost two weeks already. Yesterday UK traffic suddenly turned off entirely and was -45% by day’s end…today USA traffic was down by 72% this morn. Meanwhile, visits to individual content pages are still fairly strong.

Visits to individual pages (“one hit wonders”) are almost always lower quality searches and traffic…they rarely result in sales / conversions. Home page and landing page traffic result from more important high volume searches, and that is what is clearly being siphoned off with these latest moves by Google

Some of the replies in BHW.

It’s just a rehash of what big G has been saying for at least a decade, but with the addition of ‘AI’ to scare people into thinking they’re suddenly all-knowing.

you know what I mean – – it’s not about making an emotional argument for/against Google, the SERPs are proof of Google’s competency. Rationally, after perusing search results across niches, does anyone here honestly feel that Google is doing a great job when it comes to relevance?

I’m not even hating on Google, perhaps if they just owned up and said “hey, we try to implement some stuff, but it’s 50-50, sometimes it works, sometimes we tank sites unintentionally.

Some of the replies in our forum.

Here in UK, the Wednesday started a bit usual. Nothing much to observe. Although I was seeing a decent amount of traffic which has higher bounce rate.

But after a couple hours later. Things tend to unfold. Traffic tanked or fell of a cliff. Then again hours later at night, to some point traffic did came back. And overall traffic was the same for whole day.

Also I would like to mention that didn’t Google recently said that they no longer consider link as main thing to evaluate any page ?! Now they are producing this link related update. What a load of bull cr*p.

The thing is G is trying desperately to take attention of the public from the real issue with these updates. The actual reason behind these updates is that. G don’t want us to talk about the Search Results which are filled with ads. And very low on actual organic results.

Indeed I am only seeing Chinese products now in the results specifically to say ads.

Many are also complaining that their pages are bombarded with Chinese traffic. This is also harming the overall conversion of any page.

For indexing issues it is advised that you submit your pages to different social channels and content sharing sites (social bookmarking sites, directory submission sites, blog submission sites). They shall help you.

December 2022 Google’s Helpful Content Update

We looked into the public reactions in public forums and social media. It looks like Google this time has managed to get a mixed reaction.

As soon as Google Search Liaison twitted about the update reactions from all across the world started coming in. Although people were talking about some unknown update since the last few days.

We looked into the public reactions in public forums and social media. It looks like Google this time has managed to get a mixed reaction. There are a number of people those who are so not happy about this. Their rankings have fallen off a cliff. But there is also a handful of people who are saying that their rankings have improved since the update started rolling out.

The majority of the sites which have taken a hit badly are small sites specially blogs or smaller affiliate sites. But there are some big sites as well. Have a look at these tweets.

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Here are some replies from Webmaster World.

My guess is this update will have the opposite effect of its name, being hurtful to pages with unique content, products, services, etc. But I’m sure it does help shape the reality of webmasters when they use names like “helpful” or cute & cuddly creatures like a Panda and so on. It’s been years since Google released an update that actually helped us, but judging by Google’s profits the updates sure helped them.

I am seeing a huge hit today…my USA traffic is down 54% this morning. Ex-USA seems to be steady. Previously I have seen al EN language traffic very rocky, surging one day, dropping the next…but USA has been affected the most. I have lost a considerable number of top 10 ranking terms today alone, both mobile and desktop.

It is not helpfull Content update, it is: HELP google get FULL Control update

Some of the replies from our own forum’s google update discussion.

Organic traffic has dropped of a cliff.

We are just holding onto direct and referral traffic.

Back then gaming niche was fine.

But now it’s not. Weekend traffic has fallen to 50%. And even week day traffic is down by a lot.

Some of the replies in Black Hat World.

Interesting, my site that got hit on September 13th (I’ve lost track of which update was named what, have to go by dates) seems to be doing a bit better today. I did some improvements to it, not as much as I wanted to, still some thin content on there but I’ve lost motivation for now. Let’s see what happens in the coming days. Anything is a bonus, I’ve kinda written it off.

I was wondering why my one of my non-English PAA sites, who’s had a nice growth over the last month, suddenly took a nose-dive yesterday…I didn’t know there had been an update, but that explains it. And here I was sitting and preparing to hit 50k sessions next week so I could apply for Mediavine

We have noticed that many are also facing an indexing issue in Google. Our suggestion is that submit your pages to social channels and different content sharing sites (social bookmarking sites, directory submission sites, blog submission sites) as well. They may speed up the process of indexing.

Another Google Search & Ranking Update on August 15?!

Another Google Ranking & Search update on August 15?! Or, it was just another glitch? Last week I reported that there were sightings on a possible update. And webmasters around the world too observed the fluctuations in Google SERP’s. But later it was informed from Google that it was merely a glitch from their end.

Now, again on this weekend many keyword rankings were going upside down. Some webmasters were reporting off the chart sales and revenue. While some were saying that they are back to zombie like traffic.

Many were also saying that it is probably a roll back to the May’s Core update. Although I personally doubted it very much. But we’re unable to ignore the signs that it was completely unlike. Some were also saying a roll back to the June’s.

Anyway, all the tools and sensors were also going crazy over this.

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Now, after going crazy on August 15 and August 16. Some were reporting that since the later hours of August 16, SERP’s have cooled off and going back to normal.

Webmasters are now doubtful on what it was that actually happened. It surely looked like a roll back experiment which was a eventually stopped.

Here are some posts from the WebmastersWorld Forum.

It looks like they rolled out an update or broke something on 15th and rolled it back later. This triggered the senors on both days.

Yesterday the 6 hour window of incredible conversions was not associated with any serp change…just the usual low traffic that suddenly started converting like mad….it was “anti-zombie” traffic. Lol

Now I am having high traffic on two of my sites in the same niche. Zero conversion. It looks like the zombies are back…

Despite a 300% increase in conversions yesterday (Saturday), we had far less conversions then the prior Saturday. On the other hand, our Amazon sales skyrocketed. I had to open the shop yesterday so we could pack/ship all the orders. I’m heading in to work today to do some administrative work to free me up for Monday since sales from Amazon are still on fire.

Some of the replies from Black Hat World.

Google just did an update on or around a hour ago. Looks like they reverted the changes made very early in the morning.

Everything is reverted back. I assume they are checking on some new algo and this version was quite fine tuned. This time, I didn’t see any stupid links ranking in top 10. All quality websites were ranked in top 10.

The rankings are being reverted back to what they were a day before yesterday.

Replies from our own forum.

In internet and telecom niche. Its been blazing good. Noticeable increase in conversions. Usually a site which receives around 2k visits on Sunday’s are still struggling to get to the limit. But ad revenue and sales are off the charts. While usually its 2-5 sales on holidays and weekends. Its now 25 or even 30.

Adwords is also working fine. ROI is really good. I haven’t seen something like this for a long time.

Big Search Update is going on – August 2020

Since the last 48 hours more or less most webmasters around the world has come to this conclusion that an update indeed is going on and it is a big one.

For the last couple of days there has been a lot of debates regarding an update. Some said about a bug in Google’s end, others were discussing about any experiment in the SERP’s taking place.

Nobody knew for sure. But since the last 48 hours more or less most webmasters around the world has come to this conclusion that an update indeed is going on and it is a big one.

Here are some of the replies given in the WebmastersWorld forum.

Yes a significant drop in traffic since Monday (ecommerce FR, Brand website)

My websites as well as many of my clients dropped so much that I though many of them are about to disappear completely from the SERP. This is the First time I’m experiencing such huge drops. Google is definitely ruining our lives for good with their crappy updates

This morning, zero traffic. From lunch until now a very heavy traffic. Best pageview in such a short time since the creation of my website. Suddenly everything disappeared… Today G is crazy…

Here are some replies from the Black Hat World forum.

Yeah but this does not seem like a regular weekly or monthly ones. Seems like big core update again if i am not wrong

Yes, definitely. Just saw one of my authority sites lost lots of rankings. Something big is coming or going on.

HUGE update for my sites, a lot of Pinterst pins ranking above my homepage. Pages that were sitting in the top 3 for years now in the 60s+

Some of the replies from our own forum.

Google is performing some kind of experiment. It’s not an update. Because if rankings fell or disappear, they came back after a few hours.

Earth shattering movements in many niches. I don’t think now that it is an experiment or a bug. Some keyword’s across many niches just popped at the top from nowhere and some has gone to nothing.

For those who are facing issues indexing new article through GSC and automatically. It’s my personal opinion that get your page exposed somehow. Maybe its via social media channels or through social bookmarking sites. The method doesn’t matter here.

Another Google’s June 2020 Algorithm Update?!

Many evergreen pages in every niche are missing from the SERP’s. They are not getting outranked but disappearing all of a sudden from the search results.

“Is there another update going on?” We are hearing this a lot since the last weekend. And frankly can’t blame the site owners. As, we too are seeing some serious changes in the SERP’s.

Many evergreen pages in every niche are missing from the SERP’s. They are not getting outranked but disappearing all of a sudden from the search results.

In GSC, its visible that pages are disappearing, but can’t follow any pattern there. Tensions are rising as many fearing their pages can also disappear without any notice or trace.

We also talked some of the site owner’s who are facing this problem. They notified us that they haven’t got any manual action penalty or such sort which can indicate where the problem is.

Apparently, this thing global right now. As, many in the online communities are talking about it. Here are some comments from the WebmasterWorld.

Apparently G’s doesn’t like our site. I’ve lost 10s of high profile keywords to be found nowhere in serps. So nothing new it seems after the May update.

Seeing big changes on the UGC side, or simply outbound links side of it. Could this be related to Google announcing last fall that they are going to be treating no_follow links differently?

Here are some comments of the discussion going on our forum. Following the Google SERP & Algorithm Changes. Many are also questioning about bugs.

GSC just vanished few urls of ours. Is it a bug or something else?

I hope its a bug. Because are reporting this. A sudden de-indexing is a real challenge for any webmaster. A sudden de-indexing is a real challenge for any webmaster.

Meanwhile SEMrush Sensor’s are also showing signs of an update.

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Many are also having issues indexing new article through GSC and automatically. It’s my personal opinion that get your page exposed somehow. Maybe its via social media channels or through social bookmarking sites. The method doesn’t matter here.

Google May 2020 Core Update is wreaking havoc!!

The reason I choose this headline is because it’s indeed doing so.

Every year this time of the year Google releases a Core update. This year they informed via twitter.

Some replies from the BlackHatWorld.

My main moneysite just tanked from page 1 to page 7. I was wondering why for last few hours in my bed, checking everything. No any manual actions or security issues. Then got up, started my PC, went here and saw this thread. Now I know why. F**king update

Man, I lost 50% of my traffic so far. Literally lost all of my featured snippets. This is not good.

Some of the replies from WebmasterWorld.

I’m seeing further step in killing my website by Google. Sometimes it rolls back, but as I see from my experience I got another one decrease move with my website from this update.

I stopped adding content 2 months ago, there is just no reason to do so. I’ve worked my backside off to show my expertise (20 years), to back that up, I have an authority fact-checking my content, I have an author bio, which links to a more detailed author page, my site speed is 85-90, it’s not spammy, never-ever engaged in link building, yet another hit. It is brand, brand, brand. Thin content, but global companies. They keep saying ‘create original content that adds value’, and you do that, but still get outranked by 200 word posts by insurance companies. What is the point?

Reply in our own forum.

Another large update is going on. I don’t know whether it is totally rolled out yet or not. One site I knew just got flushed. From several well ranking and even 1st position ranking keywords to nothing. Many kw’s have just disappeared from the face of the SERP’s. Or fallen to the position 20 or even worse position.

SEMrush is also showing high temperature.

Google Algorithm Update at the end of April 2020 ??

The last month has been really roller a coaster for the webmasters around the world.

Many saw traffic falling to the new limits and many complained about their Adsesnse eCPM rates to fall to the lowest point in years.

The fluctuations in the SERP’s can be seen in the SEMrush sensor as shown above. The graph is up and down.

This month its not the same story. Many are reporting that traffic is rising & many are saying that after great rise they are experiencing a steep fall. In the meantime, webmasters are talking about an another algorithm update from Google.

Here is a link to the discussion going on in this forum.

In other forums, these type of discussions are on the rise too. Here is a comment from WebmasterWorld.

Past two weeks were the best I’ve seen in 6 years…but since yesterday my GA and Matomo data concur that a clamp is back in place…which aligns perfectly with Googles stated effort to up their game in Q2, since they badly missed their Q1 target of >20% revenue increase.

Here is a link to the discussion.

With the Covid19 virus, advertisers are fearing on investing in ads. Especially the small and medium ones. Because these days everything is dominated by the larger companies.

But its not like that the small ones doesn’t have any chance to fight back. But still, its very hard.

Whether or not another update is going on, SERP’s are still fluctuating insanely. And my guess is it’s going to behave like this for the time being.