Tag: google algo changes

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.

dec2022-google-update-seomotionz-1
dec2022-google-update-seomotionz-2

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.