SEARCHENGINES

Glenn Gabe On Fixing Sites Hit By Google Core Updates, Links & Disavow

Published

11 months ago

May 22, 2023

In part one with Glenn Gabe, we talk about Bing chat and Google Bard and also the use of AI-generated content, in part two we dig more into E-E-A-T and how AI tools may replace us all. In the previous video with Glenn Gabe we spoke about Google core updates, and here we talk about what you can do to recover and how you fix sites impacted by these Google broad core updates? We also spoke about links and disavow.

You need to look at content, user experience, ads, affiliates, and more. Glenn said the biggest issue is thin content, which is not short content, but content that is not helpful. Thin content at scale is a huge problem. The recommendation is to delete content or vastly update that content. Glenn said the person who is writing that content now needs to write better, higher-quality content.

Glenn said when it comes to old content, just don’t delete it. If the content is high quality, leave that content. But if the content is not relevant or good anymore then you can remove it. Don’t just look at how it ranks or how much traffic it gets, it should be a manual process.

User experience is an issue, aggressive ads, aggressive affiliate stuff, and more user experience are big issues with these core updates, and you need to improve that user experience. He also said the deception aspect is a big deal because if you anger users, that can be really bad.

Another issue is that there can be technical issues that may end up causing content issues. So while technical issues usually are not a core update issue, but if it generates low cruft content issues, that can lead to an issue in the long run. The same with “no results” found issues with pages. Technical issues are one of the easier areas for people to fix.

Also, with broad core updates, there can be relevancy updates, and there is nothing you can do about that. One day your site ranked well for a query, but your page is no longer relevant for that query.

External links usually are not a broad core update issue. Usually, your external links don’t factor into these broad-core updates. Links are essential, but you don’t need a ton of links to rank well, nor do links hurt you so much these days. It is not all about the links, but yes, links are very important, but it is not the end all, Glenn said.

In the old days, you could fix any SEO problem by throwing links at the issue. Now, it doesn’t work that way anymore. In fact, Google has been downplaying links for some time now.

We then spoke about the disavow tool, and Google has gone on record about not using it, and Glenn agrees, do not use it. Google has buried the tool in Search Console for a reason, Glenn added. He thinks Google can nuke the tool and maybe even this year, especially with SpamBrain improving and these link spam updates, at least he hopes.

We then tangent back into AI, content generation, AI search, and AI art. We rounded out about if Bing can take market share from Google over the coming months/years.

You can learn more about Glenn Gabe on Twitter at @glenngabe, on Mastodon, on LinkedIn and check out GSQI.

You can subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here so you don’t miss the next vlog where I interviews. I do have a nice lineup of interviews scheduled with SEOs and SEMS, many of which you don’t want to miss – and I promise to continue to make these vlogs better over time. If you want to be interviewed, please fill out this form with your details.

Forum discussion at YouTube.

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SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 30, 2024

Published

5 hours ago

May 1, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Microsoft Advertising has officially added Copilot to help advertisers using AI. Tuta complained to regulators over its ranking drop with the Google core update. We saw the same person rank in Google Search with multiple entities. Google renames product sites to product websites. Google Search App has a neat screenshot feature. I am offline today, all these stories were pre-written and scheduled, including this newsletter.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Copilot Now In Microsoft Advertising Platform

Microsoft announced the general availability of Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform. This means you can now use Copilot (Microsoft’s AI) natural language conversational chat, asset recommendations, and image asset creation in the Microsoft Advertising platform.

The Same Person With Multiple Entities In Google Search

Last week, Shameem Adhikarath shared an example of an individual that shows up twice as two different entities in Google Search. It is like maybe Google was fed two distinct entities for the same person and now Google is showing both of them, with the same name and same query.

Tuta Complains To EU Regulators Over Google March 2024 Core Update Ranking Drop

Tuta Mail, a popular encrypted email service, complained to European Union tech regulators that Google dropped its rankings for all sorts of keyword phrases with the Google March 2024 core update. Tuta is upset they no longer rank for [encrypted email] after this update.

Google Search App “Send A Link To This Page” When You Take A Screenshot

One of my pet peeves is when people send me screenshots of pages they want me to read and do not include the URL to that page. Well, the Google Search app is trying to solve that issue by telling the person who took a screenshot to “Send a link to this page” by clicking a big blue “Share” button.

Google Renames Product Sites To Product Websites

Google has renamed the Product Sites search filter to Product Websites. These only really show up in the European regions and starting last week, Google renamed “Sites” to “Websites.”

Slimmer Google Dog Tag

We have seen numerous dog tags for Dooglers, Google dogs, before. But this one looks slimmer than the old dog tags. I found this new photo of a Doogler and you can see the small Google collar tag.

Programming Note: Offline For Last Days Of Passover

This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the last days of the Passover holiday. The last days of Passover are on Monday and Tuesday, April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 29, 2024

Published

1 day ago

April 30, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google’s March 2024 core update completed on April 19th, Google just didn’t confirm it until a week later. Google said its spam reporting tool will add site reputation abuse after May 5. Google responded to concerns over the Chrome IP masking and how it will impact advertisers. Google Knowlwdge Panels has translated sections. Apple Business Connect gains actions with links. Google AI is writing some knowledge panels. I am offline today, all these stories were pre-written and scheduled, including this newsletter.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google March 2024 Core Update Finished April 19th (A Week Ago)

The Google March 2024 core update finished a week ago and Google did not tell us until today. It finished officially on April 19, 2024, and took 45 days to roll out after starting on March 5, 2024. Google also said this helped reduce low-quality and unoriginal content in search results by 45%, which is up from their estimate of 40%.

Google Spam Reporting Tool To Gain Site Reputation Abuse

Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, said that the search company will add the upcoming site reputation abuse policy to the spam reporting tool when the policy begins to be enforced. So sometime after May 5, 2024, the report spam form will gain a new option to report site reputation abuse.

Google Responds To Concerns Over Chrome IP Masking

A week ago, Anu Adegbola wrote a fabulous piece on some new privacy changes that may be coming to Google Chrome in the future named Chrome IP masking and how that may impact advertisers. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, responded to those concerns, saying, “Chrome has not made any recent updates to its IP protection proposal.”

Google Knowledge Panel With Auto-Translated Texts

Google is auto-translating some of the content within the Google Knowledge Panels and blocks. So if you are in a location where you don’t only speak English, Google may show you your local language as an additional block of text in the knowledge panel.

Apple Business Connect Actions: Add Links To Apple Maps Local Listing

Apple Business Connect now lets you add links to your local listings that show up in Apple Maps. This is under the “actions” section that enables customers to order food, buy tickets, schedule an appointment, and more.

Google AI Writing Some Search Knowledge Panels

Google has for a long time used AI to write some knowledge panels. But now Google is labeling some of these AI written knowledge panels with “Al overviews are experimental” as a disclaimer. This may show up for both SGE and non-SGE results, I believe.

Google Maps Pigeon People

I am not sure where this first started but in Japan there is this group of people who dress up as pigeons when the Google Maps street view cameras drive by.

Programming Note: Offline For Last Days Of Passover

This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the last days of the Passover holiday. The last days of Passover are on Monday and Tuesday, April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.

SEARCHENGINES

Offline For Last Days Of Passover 5784

Published

2 days ago

April 29, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the last days of the Passover holiday. The last days of Passover are on Monday and Tuesday, April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live.

I will be completely offline, so any social media posts, tweets, anything coming from this site or my social channels are all scheduled beforehand.

I won’t be able to reply to comments, remove spam or break any stories on those days. I will catch up when I get back online.

Feel free to check out the archives or catch up with the weekly videos or just browse the search pics. Oh, and if you have nothing to do, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

For more on this holiday, check out Wikipedia.

For all those celebrating the holiday – have a good one and I’ll be back on Wednesday.