Google Algorithm Updates - 2023 Ongoing Discussion

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Marelli said:
It doesn’t matter what type of content. If the site has 100 ‘news’ articles and 50 SEO articles, all good. The same is with eComm sites.
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This is something I'm really interested in. Based on the sites that you researched, how can you best distinguish between 'news' articles and SEO articles?

Also, did the sites that you looked at have industry news sections, company news sections (press releases), a combination, or something else entirely?
 
CCarter said:
The amount of effort you guys will go through to not explore different traffic sources is astounding. I published traffic leaks over 10 years ago on Wickedfire, not even BuSo. Why refuse the future where users are telling you the content they want? (Video). At some point... I mean jesus - the writing is on the wall.
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I had to log in just to reply to this comment lol
Screenshot of your work is from a January 2018 file
The traffic leaks is from December of 2010
Google is Broken is from July of 2010
It appears that I can not upload images to this site.
 
r00st3rsauc3 said:
It appears that I can not upload images to this site.
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To upload images:
  1. Create an account on Imgur (or some other photo sharing platform)
  2. Save your image on your device
  3. Upload the image to your Imgur account and set it to private
  4. Click on the image and copy the link of the image (this'll include the image format at the end of your link)
  5. Within the BuSo post editor click on the image icon at the top and insert your copied link.
If done right, your image should start to appear fine.
 
I just came across this analysis of the SERPs following the most recent updates. Says he looked at 10,000 search results for product reviews. Maybe some folks here will also find it interesting.

Summary: BIG brands are killing it and forums are gaining traction (but not as much as people think).

Here are five of his takeaways that I found interesting:

1. Forbes appeared in more search results than we've ever recorded and picked up 29% more first-place rankings.

2. Amazon more than doubled its first-place rankings, from 95 in January to 195 in October.

3. Condé Nast's Wired was present in 14.6% more search results than in July and 27% more than in January.

4. There were more new domains ranking than we've ever seen. 2,947 domains from October's analysis (out of 8,866) didn't rank at all in July

5. The top 100 domains in our analysis – ranked by how many search results they appeared in – took 7,304 first-place rankings. That’s 1.1% of the sites, with 73% of the first-place rankings.

6. Just 4 of the top 100 domains overall can be defined as independent content sites. The rest are eCommerce sites, owned by public companies or owned by large media brands (such as Future, pictured).

7. Forums are more present than I've ever seen (I tweeted about this recently) but are far from taking over. One automotive forum now ranks 96th which wasn't even in the top 500 domains overall before.

You can read the rest here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1719346402495480257
 
So they brought back forums a bit and gave the big boys they can shake down some extra bones.
Interesting TLDR.
Now go run the brand searches on the new sites they're ranking.
Bet you $ they have real followings looking them up just like "keyword reddit"

Google sells ads on your brand tail. If you're not generating keywords they can bill for why should they throw you bones.
 
Smith said:
I just came across this analysis of the SERPs following the most recent updates. Says he looked at 10,000 search results for product reviews. Maybe some folks here will also find it interesting.

Summary: BIG brands are killing it and forums are gaining traction (but not as much as people think).

Here are five of his takeaways that I found interesting:

1. Forbes appeared in more search results than we've ever recorded and picked up 29% more first-place rankings.

2. Amazon more than doubled its first-place rankings, from 95 in January to 195 in October.

3. Condé Nast's Wired was present in 14.6% more search results than in July and 27% more than in January.

4. There were more new domains ranking than we've ever seen. 2,947 domains from October's analysis (out of 8,866) didn't rank at all in July

5. The top 100 domains in our analysis – ranked by how many search results they appeared in – took 7,304 first-place rankings. That’s 1.1% of the sites, with 73% of the first-place rankings.

6. Just 4 of the top 100 domains overall can be defined as independent content sites. The rest are eCommerce sites, owned by public companies or owned by large media brands (such as Future, pictured).

7. Forums are more present than I've ever seen (I tweeted about this recently) but are far from taking over. One automotive forum now ranks 96th which wasn't even in the top 500 domains overall before.

You can read the rest here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1719346402495480257
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Every time I see Glen put out a report I get excited. Then I start to read it and realize everything he's saying has already been talked about to death. All of this was discussed to death within days of the HCU.
 
Boy said:
All of this was discussed to death within days of the HCU.
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All the gurus do the same thing. They read BuSo threads and other forums to see what others are doing, then they go make posts stating the same thing, however they are smart by going off of our theories and "testing" them against what they "see".

People in the trenches tell them what's going on within these discussions then they go and find "evidence" and conclude to their audience that's going on. Makes them seem like they are in the trenches themselves.

They are just gathering evidence from here and reporting back their version.

They ALL do it. They ALL have accounts here. We've been mentioning their names for years - you guys don't think they've got Google Alerts?

I ain't even mad, I'd love for them to credit their sources but it's a part of the games.

They don't have any secret weapons or behind the scenes software. Their audience is just the SEO audience and they need content.

An example is SERoundTable - notice how all their Google algorithm updates are sourced from BlackhatWorld and other forum chatter, that's their first clue that something is going on. It's the same game, Just SERoundTable source their sources.

The game is the game.
 
Boy said:
All of this was discussed to death within days of the HCU
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Yes, I agree. All of this was discussed during the days of the HCU.

BUT these topics were all discussed in broad strokes and presented as "I'm seeing XYZ in the SERPs". It wasn't wrapped in data and didn't include specific outcomes for specific sites...

Example: "Reddit taking over the SERPs"

Yea, everyone said it. Gurus and newbs. Everyone.

But I didn't hear a single guru or newb say that "Reddit is appearing in 66.9% of the top 10 results for 10,000 affiliate searches".

That figure is a hell of a lot more useful to me when assessing the search landscape than "Hey guys, I'm seeing Reddit in more of my searches".

And what I find even more useful/interesting is that out of those 10,000 searches, Reddit only picked up 17 number one positions. Compare that to NYT and Forbes at 955 and 355.

In other words, while everyone is screaming that Reddit is dominating the SERPs, this study (as I read it) is telling me that theory might only be half-baked.

Sure, Reddit got an invite to the party. But, it's watching NYT and Forbes go home with the cheerleaders.

If I just ran with the Reddit theory maybe I would decide to focus a huge part of my energy on traffic leaks via Reddit, or build a forum on my site, or something else... but data paints a more accurate picture that helps me make more informed decisions.

Disclaimer: I don't know if this guy actually analyzed 10,000 search results, I'm not checking his work. And frankly, I don't believe anything anyone says in the world of SEO. But, signals are everywhere and this post caught my attention.
 
bernard said:
Was there an update?
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0Cs0eH5.png


https://status.search.google.com/incidents/fCUAy6TvbDMkkLAGcwkj

Bugged Oct 5th to Nov 1
 
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Smith said:
Did you make any changes/updates since the end of the October HCU?
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I had some issues with Core Web Vitals on PC that got validated recently, went from bad to good for all of the url's basically.

A few days ago, I made updates to the footer for EEAT purposes, like putting my name there as editor and linking to my LinkedIn and the previous owner Facebook (expired domain).

Otherwise I've done nothing.

chubes said:
0Cs0eH5.png


https://status.search.google.com/incidents/fCUAy6TvbDMkkLAGcwkj

Bugged Oct 5th to Nov 1
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Hmm...

My ranktracker says I have better rankings as does the serps when I check it manually.
 
Darth said:
It's on

https://twitter.com/x/status/1720156564508594524
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What in THE FLYING FUCK!!? lol. I'm getting sick of this shit, thank god most of our shit has been fine thru this garbage. I was working on a post with my thoughts on changes i have spotted after all these recent updates, i guess ill wait a fucking minute before i do anything.

Hang on to your asses fellas, welcome to the new norm.
 
Yea, what a clusterfuck... if Google keeps this shit up people are just going to type their search queries into the Reddit search bar directly.

For what it's worth, I've been digging into a handful of finance sites that I track. SEMRush data is showing them down between 35% and 65% since the rollout of the September updates. It looks like this is continuing into November with many of them down between 0.5% and 3.5% already.

On the other hand, I track a few sites that have diversified topical coverage (~33% finance and ~66% related topics). Most of these "diversified" sites have actually improved in traffic and rankings over the same period.

Totally anecdotal but it's what I'm seeing right now...
 
I was down 40% with HCU and currently look to be up something like 60% with this update.

Crazy swings and ideally shouldn't happen I think.
 
That's a hell of a rollercoaster. I'm still on the downside and don't expect to see a 60% swing in the other direction anytime soon haha. And yea, agreed it shouldn't happen but hopefully you're able to hold onto those gains!
 
The only thing you can do is keep plowing thru with building authority, on page or off page, thats what we and our guys are doing. If you keep stopping and starting and stopping ect for every update that scares your panties off, you lose ground vs the competition. Welcome to the Jungle. As every major update(s) i have gone thru, those that keep rolling are the ones that come out on top after the dust settles. Keep plowing through.
 
Darth said:
You're seeing that upside just with real-time data?
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I'm just comparing to yesterday.

Should be stable in that wednesday and thursday are not usually different and both are after payday.
 
They are probably going to "fix it" after Black Friday and the holiday season, when there is less money on the table.
 
I also see signs of a boost on my 3-month website. A lot of volatility at the end of October and a huge boost in the past 2 days. Google is literally going crazy.
 
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