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Google Says Again, Sites Hit By The Old Helpful Content Update Can Recover

Published

3 weeks ago

May 6, 2024

Google’s John Mueller said again this morning that sites hit by the old September helpful content update or even new core updates can recovery. He said on X and on LinkedIn that it is possible to recover but it is not a simple change you can tweak on your website, but rather it takes a lot of effort, over time, to recover.

John said that not only can you recover but you can grow. He said this morning, “Yes, sites can grow again after being affected by the “HCU” (well, core update now).”

Last week we covered how John said it may just take a lot of time to recover from that helpful content update. This is despite Google telling some people it can take weeks (then said several months) to recover.

I know the helpful content update is no more, it is now a core update. But many were expecting some of those hit by the September helpful content update to recover with the March 2024 core update – but that did not happen.

John Mueller from Google said on LinkedIn, “It’s just that some kinds of changes take a long time to build up, and that applies to all kinds of systems & updates in Google & in any other larger computer system.”

He wrote on LinkedIn fully:

I realize this is from the title of Barry’s post, but to be clear, it’s not that “helpful content update” “recoveries” take longer than other updates. It’s just that some kinds of changes take a long time to build up, and that applies to all kinds of systems & updates in Google & in any other larger computer system. Saying that this is specific to the helpful content system, or to core updates would be wrong & misleading.

There is, however, the additional aspect of the “core update” being about how our systems assess content overall, how we consider it to be helpful, reliable, relevant to users’ queries. This does not map back to a single change that you can make on a website, so – in my experience – it’s not something that a website can just tweak overnight and be done with it. It can require deep analysis to understand how to make a website relevant in a modern world, and significant work to implement those changes — assuming that it’s something that aligns with what the website even wants. These are not “recoveries” in the sense that someone fixes a technical issue and they’re back on track – they are essentially changes in a business’s priorities (and, a business might choose not to do that).

He added on LinkedIn:

making a site more helpful (assuming that’s what you’re aiming for) doesn’t mean you have to add more content. There’s a lot that goes into making a helpful site – content is one part, and more content is not necessarily more helpful. Think about how you use the web.

He also posted this morning on X, “Yes, sites can grow again after being affected by the “HCU” (well, core update now). This isn’t permanent. It can take a lot of work, time, and perhaps update cycles, and/but a different – updated – site will be different in search too.” He added, “Permanent changes are not very useful in a dynamic world, so yes. However, “recover” implies going back to just-as-before, and IMO that is always unrealistic, since the world, user-expectations, and the rest of the web continues to change. It’s never “just-as-before”.”

Here are some of the new posts on this topic from John over the weekend:

Permanent changes are not very useful in a dynamic world, so yes. However, “recover” implies going back to just-as-before, and IMO that is always unrealistic, since the world, user-expectations, and the rest of the web continues to change. It’s never “just-as-before”.

— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) May 6, 2024

Yes, sites can grow again after being affected by the “HCU” (well, core update now). This isn’t permanent. It can take a lot of work, time, and perhaps update cycles, and/but a different – updated – site will be different in search too.

— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) May 6, 2024

It’s because not all changes require another update cycle. In practice, I’d assume that stronger effects will require another update. Core updates can include many things.

— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) May 4, 2024

(“thresholds” is a simplification for any numbers that need a lot of work and data to be recalculated, reevaluated, reviewed)

— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) May 4, 2024

So keep working on your site and maybe you will recover in the long run?

Forum discussion at X and LinkedIn.

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Related Topics:Content Google Helpful Hit Recover searchengine Sites update

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Google Ranking Volatility, Ads In Google AI Overviews, Sundar Pichai Interview, Heartfelt Helpful Content & More Ad News

Published

21 hours ago

May 26, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Google Ranking Volatility, Ads In Google AI Overviews, Sundar Pichai Interview, Heartfelt Helpful Content & More Ad News

We had more Google search ranking volatility in the middle of the week after some calming for a few days. Google Ads will soon show within the Google AI Overview, plus we covered a lot more ad news. Sundar Pichai was interviewed, and we broke it down. Bing lets you turn off its AI Copilot answers in the search results, but Google still does not. There are many poor-quality AI Overviews, and now there is a way to find a lot of them. Google said it is working on surfacing more heartfelt, helpful content in Search. Google is testing a special snippet treatment for Reddit. Google Search Console is showing a weird surge in the search performance reports for product snippets. Google and Bing recommend you upgrade to WordPress 6.5 because it supports lastmod dates in sitemaps. Google’s site reputation abuse policy enforcement is still not algorithmic. Google Lens now shows richer and links to sites. Google added more visual knowledge panel source information. Google can now index epub formats. Bing went down this week, taking down ChatGPT search, DuckDuckGo, Copilot, and more services. Bing is testing tags filters in its search results. Apple Maps can permanently close a business if the hours and address are missing or don’t match. GA4 real-time reports now show users in the last 5 minutes. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

SPONSOR: This week’s video recap is sponsored by Duda, the Professional Website Builder You Can Call Your Own.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: May 24, 2024

Published

2 days ago

May 25, 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 site reputation abuse policy is still not algorithmically enforced. Google Search can now index EPUB formats. There is a neat place to follow all the embarrassing Google AI Overview examples. Google Analytics 4 adds real-time metrics in the past 5 minutes. Google Search has new profiles for looking at reviews and notes. And I posted thew weekly SEO video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google: The Site Reputation Abuse Policy Enforcement Not Yet Algorithmic

Google has once again said that its enforcement of the site reputation abuse policy is still only being done through manual actions and not algorithmically. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liasion, said this on X yesterday, “We have not gone live with algorithmic actions on site reputation abuse.”

Directory Of Embarrassing Google AI Overviews

Every day now, I see several screenshots on X of embarrassing and sometimes harmful AI Overviews within the Google Search results interface. I mean, we covered the one that recommends you drink urine, but I can’t cover each and every one I see – there are just too many.

Google Analytics Real-Time Reports Adds Users In Last 5 Minutes

Google has updated the Google Analytics real-time reports to show real-time data in the last five minutes. Previously, Google only showed users in the last 30 minutes but now Google is showing both, 30 minutes and 5 minutes.

Google Search Can Now Index Electronic Publication (EPUB)

Google Search can now index Electronic Publication, the .epub, file type. Google added EPUB as a supported filetype to the file types indexable by Google help documentation.

New Google Search Profiles With Reviews & Notes

Google is rolling out new profile pages that shows you the reviews and notes you left across Google Search. And starting on June 24 your reviews and notes may be public to other Google users.

Google Partner Bike – Full Size Edition

We have seen Google partner bikes, they look like bikes made for smaller children. But Anthony Higman recently posted a photo of a new Google Partner bike he received that looks full-sized.

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Ranking Volatility, Ads In Google AI Overviews, Sundar Pichai Interview, Heartfelt Helpful Content & More Ad News

We had more Google search ranking volatility in the middle of the week after some calming for a few days. Google Ads will soon show within the Google AI Overview, plus we covered a lot more ad news. Sundar Pichai was interviewed…

Other Great Search Threads:

is these cool graphs new shows up for winter/summer (city name) temperature queries, Gagan Ghotra on X

Google AI overview suggests adding glue to get cheese to stick to pizza, and it turns out the source is an 11 year old Reddit comment from user F*cksmith, Peter Yang on X

Google Podcasts Manager is going away – of course, Barry Schwartz on X

I encourage you to apply the #googenough tag your suboptimal Google search results. If you do, it’ll be easy for the @Goog_Enough account to collect and amplify these SERPs and AI Overviews. I do not run that account. I don’t have the t, AJ Kohn on X

To clarify a bit, I don’t work in Support or in a support role. I do try to help where I can but am not in a position to provide it at scale. My role is to share insights on how ads products and, AdsLiaison on X

Today’s #GoogleDoodle is nacho average treat. It’s all about chilaquiles: the crispy, cheesy tortilla snack that’s a fiesta in every bite! Learn more, Google Doodles on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

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Daily Search Forum Recap: May 23, 2024

Published

3 days ago

May 24, 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 Bing was offline for a while today, taking down third-party sites like ChatGPT Search, DuckDuckGo and even its ad products. Google is testing special treatments for Reddit results in search. Google is testing from sources across the web without images. Google is testing replacing related search with people also search for. Google Ads has a referral program, not sure if that is new. Google updated its robots.txt parser code in GitHub.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Tests Special Reddit Search Result Snippet Interface?

Google may be testing a special search result snippet interface for Reddit search results. In this test, Google seems to be showing the number of upvotes and the number of comments on the Reddit thread.

Bing Search Is Down; Takes Down DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, ChatGPT Search & More

Bing Search is currently down and/or having massive latency issues. The Bing home page loads a gray dull background, the Bing search results mostly loads errors pages and if it loads search results, those results are sparse. Plus, Bing’s APIs are down, so Microsoft Copilot and other services are down, including partners like DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, ChatGPT Search are all down.

Google Search: Sources Across The Web Without Images

The from sources across the web Google Search feature is testing showing results without image thumbnails. Google has reportedly been testing the imageless version since January of this year.

Google Tests Replacing Related Searches With People Also Search For?

Google may be testing replacing the “related searches” box with the “people also search for” box. The two are functionally not that different, from what I can tell.

Google Ads Referral / Affiliate Program

Did you know Google Ads has a referral or affiliate program. Where you can refer Google Ads a new advertiser and you will earn $250 in ad credits in Google Ads. I am not sure if this is new, but Anthony Higman thinks it might be new.

Google Robots.txt Parser Updated In GitHub

Google has updated its open source robots.txt parser code on GitHub the other day. Gary Illyes from Google pushed the update yesterday morning to the repository there.

Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Liaison, With PPCers At Google Marketing Live

Here is a photo from Google Marketing Live on Tuesday where you can see Google’s Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin, with a number of well-respected paid search professionals, aka PPCers.