In this episode of “SEO From The Front Lines”, I cover the ranking swings and volatility in Google Search post-August core update. There has been a lot of chatter about ranking changes AFTER the Google August 2024 core update rolled out. After digging in, I noticed a ton of volatility across several dates post-core update. And beyond that, I noticed that a number of sites heavily impacted by the August 24th tremor have started to reverse course on some of those dates. For example, sites that surged on August 24th started dropping on September 6th, 2024, September 10th, and now September 14th. And on the flip side, some sites that dropped with the August 24th tremor are now surging. Beyond that, there are some sites that were unaffected by the August core update that are surging or dropping. And for sites heavily impacted by the September helpful content update (HCUX), a number that started surging back with the August 2024 core update are now dropping a bit. It’s not like a full reversal, but definitely reversing course somewhat. In this video, I cover what I’m seeing and why I think this might be happening.
00:00 Crazy ranking swings and volatility AFTER the August 2024 core update completed.
00:49 My initial tweet about the volatility and reversals I was picking up across sites.
01:56 Examples of sites reversing course and dropping on 9/6, 9/10, and 9/14.
02:59 Examples of sites reversing course and surging back post-August core update.
04:38 Barry Schwartz picked up a lot of chatter and volatility on 9/6/24.
05:08 Important dates to review for site owners and SEOs.
05:31 Helpful content sites impacted and dropping after surging with the August core update.
06:36 Examples of visibility trending for HCU(X) sites impacted and dropping.
08:01 PSA about rank tracking your most important queries.
09:22 What’s happening, and the possible decoupling of algorithms from broad core updates.
11:17 Quick summary about the recent volatility post-August core update.

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In Episode 14 of ‘SEO From The Front Lines”, I cover how some publishers are hijacking the browser back button and providing a feed of articles that drives users to more publisher content, including sponsored content and ads. That’s versus allowing them to return to the sites they visited from… Disabling, or hijacking the back button, is a tricky and deceptive tactic, since users might not know they actually stayed on the same site. And that’s especially the case when visitors arrive on the site from Google Discover since the publisher feed looks very similar to the Discover feed.

I also cover some reasons that some publishers are choosing to hijack the back button. For example, driving users to a publisher’s feed after hitting the back button can yield more pageviews, more ad impressions, and more ad revenue. But there’s another possible benefit of doing this… It can lead to more engagement for users that remain on the site, even if that’s not what the user intended to do. And with Google’s Navboost system at play, which tracks 13 months of user interaction signals (and can impact rankings), publishers could be gaming Navboost. And that led me to Google’s spam policies, if Google should issue manual actions for hijacking the back button, or if they should just tackle it algorithmically. I also cover how hijacking the back button was often the tip of the iceberg from an aggressive and deceptive advertising situation (and how some sites employing that tactic have seen big drops during major algorithm updates, including broad core updates).

And I end the video with some advice for publishers that might be currently hijacking the back button. My recommendation is to run a user study to better understand how real, objective users feel about having their back button hijacked, not being able to easily leave a site, etc. By running a user study, publishers can listen to, and watch, frustrated users on their own sites. It might just lead to publishers reevaluating their decision to hijack the back button.

00:00 Hijacking the browser back button and its impact on SEO.

01:32 Reasons publishers are hijacking the back button.

02:59 What the feed of content and ads looks like when the back button is hijacked.

03:57 Google’s stance on publishers hijacking or disabling the back button.

05:42 An introduction to Navboost and Google tracking 13 months of user interaction signals.

07:53 Google’s spam policies.

09:40 A Navboost twist and negative user interactions signals.

11:21 Aggressive advertising and broad core update impact for sites hijacking the back button.

12:47 My case study about The SEO Engagement Trap.

14:11 Publishers have serious decisions to make about ‘back button hijacking’.

14:36 Running a user study to understand user frustration from hijacking.

16:02 Quick recap and read my latest blog post covering hijacking the back button. Read my blog post covering 'back button hijacking' and its impact on SEO: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/hijacking-the-back-button-gaming-navboost/

Google’s Core Algorithm Updates and The Power of User Studies: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/google-core-ranking-updates-user-studies/ Visualizing The SEO Engagement Trap:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/user-frustration-behavior-flow-google-analytics/

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With Google recently expanding support for translated results in the search results, I explain how to export those translated results by country from Google Search Console via the GSC API and Analytics Edge. I also cover how translated results work, what they look like in the search results, how to opt-out from having your content translated, and more.

View the blog post now.

Confused about aggressive and disruptive ads and how that impacts a site with major algorithm updates? Well, the Ad Experience Report in Google Search Console might add to that confusion. Glenn Gabe of GSQi explains how the Ad Experience Report in Google Search Console fails to provide an accurate view of the advertising situation for site owners, and how that provides a false sense of security. Glenn explains how aggressive ads can impact a site during broad core updates and how the Ad Experience Report could help if Google provided stronger data there. You can read the blog post on gsqi.com.

I cover scary and confusing surges and drops in indexing in Google Search Console (GSC) and why that might be totally fine for site owners and SEOs. If the surges are due to urls categorized as "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt", then that can cause the spike and drop you are seeing. And since Google is on record that it can't impact the site quality-wise, it can be totally fine. This is a companion video to my blog post covering the topic: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/scary-surge-drop-indexing-google-search-console/

Now that AI overviews rolled out in the United States in Google Search, I dug into Google Search Console (GSC) to track those overviews (the queries and landing pages ranking there). In this episode, I walk you through several examples of sites ranking lower on page one in the 10-blue links, but also ranking in AI overviews at the top of the SERPs. Based on that, I was hoping I would clearly be able to track those overviews. Nope, it wasn't clear at all.

Glenn presented at SMX Advanced about the latest Google algorithm updates that rolled out in 2023 and 2024, but due to a tech glitch, he had to cut the presentation short by a few slides (due to time). So, he decided to record the end of the presentation and post it here! Glenn covers an interesting March 2024 core update case study, the counterbalancing of systems, the 'site reputation abuse' update, and then covers some key points from the entire presentation.

Google’s August 2024 broad core update finally completed on September 3, 2024 after a 19-day rollout. It was a huge update that impacted many sites across the web. In the final episode of core update notes, I cover HCU(X) sites recovering, the big tremor from 8/24 into 8/25, forums seeing volatility, an update on a site pumping out a ton of AI content, and then how site owners can move forward after the update. That includes understanding the difference between relevancy adjustments, intent shifts, and quality, running delta reports to understand the top queries and landing pages that dropped based on the core update, and then how to take a “kitchen sink” approach to remediation.

00:00 Final "Core Update Notes" for the August 2024 broad core update.

00:40 The August core update completed in 19 days.

01:24 More about September helpful content update sites surging.

03:48 And some September helpful content update sites dropping even more.

05:42 Continued movement for sites seeing impact post-update.

06:21 The August 24th Tremor was big for some sites.

08:13 Was the tremor commerce-focused?

09:12 Another reminder that links will not save you from broad core updates.

10:12 Huge drop: An update on a site pumping out tons of AI content.

11:03 Forums volatility: A correction?

12:17 Reddit still surging, Quora flat.

13:13 Understanding the difference between relevancy adjustments, intent shifts, and quality problems.

14:33 If "Quality" is the issue, then focus on the Usual Suspects.

15:40 "Quality" is more than just content.

16:49 Run a Delta Report (or several).

17:55 Use the "Kitchen Sink" approach to remediation.

19:09 When will the next core update roll out and wrapping up.

Blog posts I reference in the video:

Google’s Broad Core Updates And The Difference Between Relevancy Adjustments, Intent Shifts, And Overall Site Quality Problems

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/google-broad-core-updates-difference-between-relevancy-adjustments-intent-shifts-overall-site-quality/

Google’s Core Algorithm Updates and The Power of User Studies: How Real Feedback From Real People Can Help Site Owners Surface Website Quality Problems (And More)

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/google-core-ranking-updates-user-studies/

Smart Delta Reports – How To Automate Exporting, Filtering, and Comparing Google Search Data Across Timeframes Via The Search Console API and Analytics Edge

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/how-to-automate-delta-report-gsc-api-analytics-edge/

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This is Part 3 of "Core Update Notes" for the August broad core update. I cover an update on September Helpful Content Updates sites (HCUX), tremors I'm seeing during the update, sites violating Google's Site Reputation Abuse spam policy, how YMYL sites can surge even with a fraction of the links of competitors, how Google will eventually catch up with sites heavily publishing AI-generated content without human involvement, how LinkedIn pulse and advice are dropping with the August core update, and more.

00:00 "Core Update" notes for August 30th

00:51 An update on sites impacted by the September helpful content update (HCUX)

02:38 Algorithm update "Tremors" - or changes pushed by Google during the core update

05:00 Site reputation abuse - big drops and some surges

07:07 YMYL site impact - not always about the links...

08:26 Links will not (always) save you from a broad core update.

09:28 Pushing the Limits? Google will eventually catch up.

10:42 Recovery from the June 2024 spam update?

11:37 PSA: Domain name changes and migrations DURING broad core updates.

12:36 LinkedIn Pulse and Advice directories dropping.

14:14 Things to Know SERP feature impact.

16:18 Summary of "Core Update Notes" for August 30th 2024

And make sure to check out the other episodes covering "Core Update Notes" from the August core update:

Core Update Notes from August 19, 2024

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4TK7m2NAhw5Kth25f1f0tb

Core Update Notes From August 23, 2024

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3U5ugx08nT6IuFnPPn0jxR

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Part 2 of "Core Update Notes" for the August Google broad core update. I cover the latest with helpful content update sites surging back from the dead, reviews sites also rising from the ashes, Google confirming that AI overview rankings can be impacted by broad core updates, how SERP features could be impacted during core updates, and the connection between the May 3rd and May 10th unconfirmed updates and the August core update.

00:00 Google August 2024 Core Update Notes - 8/23 Edition00:37 An Update On September Helpful Content Sites (HCUX)

02:18 An example of a full recovery from the HCU(X)?

04:00 The Aug core update connection with the May 3rd and May 10th unconfirmed updates.

05:40 Gif and Meme sites: SERP features impacted versus 10-blue links.

07:20 Confirmed: Core updates can impact AI overview rankings.

08:50 Reviews sites rise from the ashes. Not just HCU(X) sites. Follow me on X: https://x.com/glenngabe Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenngabe/

Episode 10 of 'SEO From The Front Lines" covers what I'm seeing so far with the August 2024 core update. Includes sites heavily impacted by the September Helpful Content Update surging back, if Google is handling site reputation abuse algorithmically, the ranking bug that happened while the core update started rolling out, impact to YMYL sites, and more.

00:00 August 19th "Core Update Notes" - What I'm seeing so far.

00:49 Some September Helpful Content Update (HCUX) Sites Finally Surge

02:25 Screenshots of HCU(X) sites surging back.

05:04 It's relative. Big surges, but many HCU(X) sites were down big-time.

05:55 Is Google handling Site Reputation Abuse algorithmically with the core update?

07:48 Google confirms a ranking bug that's not related to the core update.

09:22 Site pumping out tons of AI-generated content finally drops.

10:50 Some YMYL sites are seeing a lot of movement.

12:12 Recap and stay tuned for more "Core Update Notes". Follow me on X: https://x.com/glenngabe Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenngabe/

With Google's hidden gems update in the fall of 2023, both Reddit and Quora surged like crazy. Although many are focused on the surge of Reddit, with good reason, it's important to understand that many forums surged in the fall of 2023. I have covered this heavily on X over time. So I just rank the visibility numbers for 97 forums I'm tracking across verticals. The percentage change year-over-year was wild. 88% of the forums saw 100% growth or more. And a number saw 1000% growth or more. In this episode I also show several screenshots of forums that surged since the fall of 2023, while also explaining that several have seen drops recently with the volatility we have seen this summer (as we lead up to the next core update). Those sites are still up big-time YOY, but they have seen a downturn recently. Is that a foreshadowing of what's coming for those sites with the next core update? We'll find out soon.

00:00 How Google's Hidden Gems Updated Yielded Explosive Growth Across Many Forums. 00:24 Quora and Reddit Surge in the fall of 2023. 1:03 Google write a blog post about the upcoming hidden gems update. 1:33 The hidden gems update rolls out and Google never announced it. 2:45 Google announced a Reddit partnership. 4:00 Tweets from Glenn and Lily Ray about other forums surging. 5:30 Tracking the visibility changes across 97 forums. 7:10 Showing examples of forums that surged in search visibility. My blog post covering the surges across forums: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/beyond-reddit-and-quora-google-hidden-gems-update-forums-surge/

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While checking Bing Webmaster Tools recently, I noticed a huge change across sites starting on May 29, 2024. The more I dug in, the more volatility I saw. It sure looks like Bing pushed some type of large algorithm change that impacted many sites across the web. The surges and drops I'm seeing are across sites and verticals, so it's not just one niche. I reached out to Bing's Fabrice Canel to see if Bing pushed an update and he explained nothing specific rolled out around that date, but he did say that Bing pushes changes almost daily (and some changes have a bigger impact across sites). In addition, when Bing rolled out a big algorithm update in January of 2023, it was based on applying a new AI model to the Bing search algorithm. And that was based on the partnership with OpenAI. When checking OpenAI releases, I noticed that GPT-4o rolled out just two weeks before the volatility started on May 29th. So, it's possible that had an impact on Bing rankings. I'm trying to find out more about that from Bing now. Regardless, check your Bing stats in Bing Webmaster Tools. You might be surprised what you find.

Here's my tweet about the Bing update: https://twitter.com/glenngabe/status/1819703777592492496

Here's Barry's post about the potential update: https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-search-ranking-algorithm-update-may-29th-37840.html

Confirmed Bing algorithm update in January 2023: https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-algorithm-update-january-18-2023-34784.html

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Learn why an algorithmic approach to enforcing Google's site reputation abuse policy is the way forward. I first cover manual actions Google applied on May 7, 2024 and how sites handled the content violating the site reputation abuse spam policy. Then I explain why blocking via robots.txt isn't a valid approach to blocking that content, as well as how noindexing content can also go haywire. I end the podcast covering how some international sites were unaffected when manual actions were applied, and why that might be the case. Here is my blog post covering the topic: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/google-site-reputation-abuse-spam-policy-algorithmic-approach/ Follow me on X: https://x.com/glenngabe Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenngabe/

Google was testing a change to how it provides links in AI Overviews in the search results. I was in the test last week and captured some video of it in action. The new treatment provides an overlay of search results on top of the AI overview. You can tap a group of favicons to see all of the pages where the AI sourced the answer from. In addition, there were small link icons that would trigger a smaller overlay containing the page(s) where that part of the answer was sourced from. I saw this on mobile, but others saw the new link treatment on desktop as well. I also cover how Google could easily include ads in the SERP overlays.

Episode 18 of 'SEO From The Front Lines", I cover my blog post regarding site-level impact on rankings versus page-level. It's an incredibly important topic that site owners and SEOs need to understand. Based on Pandu Nayak’s comments at a recent creator summit where he said Google only using page-level ranking signals, and NOT site-wide signals, I decided to use the ‘Gabeback Machine’ to prove that statement wrong. Over the years, I have documented many, many examples of Googlers explaining that there are site-wide signals that can have a big impact on rankings across a site. The examples include tweets, videos, patents, and even Google’s own documentation about major algorithm updates. That includes videos, tweets, patents, and even Google's own documentation explaining more about site-wide signals. My blog post also contains information about major algorithm updates like Panda, Penguin, the helpful content update (HCU), and Pirate which all had a site-level classifier (or employed site-wide impact). Then I cover many statements from Google about broad core updates, site-level evaluation, impact to Google surfaces like Discover and News, and more. So join me as I use the ‘Gabeback Machine’ to document Google’s site-level impact to rankings. Yes, it’s real.

Chapters:

00:00 Pandu Nayak's comments about page-level versus site-level ranking signals.

01:42 An introduction to the 'Gabeback Machine'.

02:30 Google's history of crafting major algorithm updates outside of broad core updates.

04:09 Exhibit 1: HCU

05:13 Exhibit 2: Penguin

05:45 Exhibit 3: Medieval Panda

06:45 Exhibit 4: Pirate

07:40 Site-level is at the hostname level (subdomain)

08:28 Exhibit X: Links, Tweets, Videos, and Patents

08:56 Quality is a site-level signal.

09:31 Paul Haahr about site-wide signals.

11:21 FAQ from the March 2024 core update about site-wide signals.

12:10 Lower-quality content can pull down the higher-quality content.

13:30 Rich snippets impacted by overall quality. 13:52 Panda scores impacting rich snippets.

14:14 Google researchers about authority and trust.

15:05 Discover impacted by site-level quality signals.

15:40 Pages can rank higher from the start on sites that Googler trusts.

16:06 Revisiting Pandu's comments about page-level versus site-level signals.

My blog post covering Google's site-wide signals: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/google-site-level-impact-gabeback-machine/

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In episode 17, I cover some huge visibility drops for sites that are violating Google's 'Site reputation abuse' spam policy. For example, some prominent sites are dropping over time including some of the largest publishers on the web. Over time, Google seems to have algorithmically hit large publishers with affiliate sections of their sites, including Forbes, Fortune, CNN Underscored, WSJ Buyside, Marketwatch Guides, and more. It makes you wonder if Google is testing its 'Site reputation abuse' algorithm update, or if other changes are impacting those sections strongly...

00:00 A Nightmare on Affiliate Street - Site Reputation Abuse and Large Publishers Dropping

01:32 Forbes Advisor drops.

03:05 APNews Buyline and Times Stamped dropped as well.

04:30 Fortune Recommends drops on October 11th.

06:15 More sites drop including Marketwatch Guides, WSJ Buyside, and CNN Underscored

07:40 Revisiting manual actions from May 2024 for 'Site reputation abuse"

08:35 Wrapping up, moving forward, and stay tuned for updates about this.

Here's the blog post with all the details: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/a-nightmare-on-affiliate-street/

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I cover two case studies underscoring the importance of catching sneaky mobile SEO problems in Google's mobile-first indexing world. The first case study involves canonical tags that weren't being published on mobile versions of the pages across a site with 100K+ urls. The second case involves thin content becoming even *thinner* since less content was being published on mobile versions of the pages. That was on a stie with 40M urls. I also covers several tools and tips for surfacing those problems. I also cover tools and tips for surfacing mobile SEO problems, including the URL inspection tool in GSC, crawling tools like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, and Lumar, Chrome extensions, and then even site queries using quoted text. With Google switching to mobile-first indexing, it's using Googlebot-Smartphone for indexing purposes. That's why it's important to make sure all of your content, structured data, directives, canonicals, and more are located on the mobile versions of your pages. If not, Google will not pick that up.

00:00 The importance of catching tricky mobile SEO problems.

00:40 Google's switch to mobile-first indexing.

01:38 Case Study 1: Playing hide and seek with canonicals.

03:10 Case Study 2: Thin pages becoming *thinner* on mobile.

05:35 Tools and tips for checking for mobile-first indexing problems.

9:37 Summary: Make sure you don't miss the mobile view.

Blog post: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/mobile-first-indexing-seo-problems-case-study/

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If you earn a powerful link, you should receive that link. Unfortunately, many news and media publishers are nofollowing those links, which tells Google to not pass signals, including PageRank, downstream to the pages that earned those links.

I cover the situation, including examples of that happening, why it’s happening, how Google’s view of nofollow has changed over the years, and even include an example of it happening to me! In addition, I cover important FAQs for news and media publishers that might be nofollowing links now (in order to clear up any confusion about when to link normally versus using nofollow).

A link is a terrible thing to waste, so please link out normally. Site owners will appreciate it, Google will appreciate, and the entire web ecosystem will appreciate it.

Blog post covering the topic:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/news-media-publishers-link-out-ditch-nofollow/

Chapters:

00:00 When links go wrong. Why some news and media publishers are nofollowing links.

02:08 Examples of news and media publishers nofollowing earned links.

03:30 Link Madness Inception: When it happened to me recently!

04:47 But wait, nofollow is just a hint to Google now.

06:00 Help me, help you. FAQs for news and media publishers.

08:57 Just link out normally. It’s the way the web works.

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Google recently rolled out two additional waves of manual actions for site reputation abuse targeting the EU (including Germany in the second wave). As I’ve been analyzing those drops, I noticed that sites are handling content violating the spam policy in several ways (and some are not the correct ways). For example, disallowing via robots.txt and canonicalizing are NOT valid approaches. Instead, noindexing or removing the content completely are the correct methods for dealing with a manual action for site reputation abuse.

In this video, I cover four methods that are being employed now by site owners and why only two are valid. I provide specific examples of sites using each approach and how that worked, or didn’t work, for the site at hand.

Companion blog post covering the topic: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/how-to-block-content-site-reputation-abuse/

Chapters:

00:00 New manual actions for site reputation abuse and how sites are trying to block content

00:49 Disallowing via robots.txt (NOT VALID)

03:39 Canonicalizing site reputation abuse content (NOT VALID)

04:35 Noindexing content (VALID)

05:44 User-agent blocking

06:15 Removing content completely (VALID)

06:50 Summary: Two valid choices for blocking content for site reputation abuse

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GSC data for AI overviews, including clicks and click-through rate, has been nearly impossible to view... UNTIL NOW. But there's a catch. You need a manual action! My latest episode covers my blog post titled The Twiddler That Didn’t Twiddle – How To Track Clicks and Click Through Rate For Google’s AI Overviews (but only if you have a manual action.)

In this video I explain the loophole in Google right now where sites with manual actions can still rank well in AIOs even when they are heavily demoted (or removed) from ranking in the core search results (10-blue links). But I also explain that you better move fast. I don't know how long it take before Google closes that loophole.

This may be one of the few times (or only time) a manual action will benefit a site owner.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction - When the Twiddler Doesn't Twiddle

00:50 Murky and Confusing AIO Performance Data

01:29 Google's loophole where sites with a manual action can rank in AI overviews

02:42 Lily Ray's tweet and my retweet about sites ranking in AIOs with manual actions

03:07 Twiddler Down! When Twiddlers don't Twiddle

03:54 How deindexing with manual actions works

04:40 The maddening adventure of tracking AIOs

05:39 You couldn't see pure AIO performance data... until now!

06:20 Steps for tracking pure AIO data in Google Search Console

08:10 Examples of AIO clicks and CTR in Google Search Console

09:20 Click-through rate with #1 AIO rankings.

10:20 A note about using regex in GSC to combine queries.

11:17 Summary - The only time a manual action can benefit a site owner.

Blog post: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/how-to-track-aio-performance-gsc-manual-action/

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Interested in the amount of collateral damage that can occur when major Google algorithm updates roll out? Well, a recent appearance by Mark Zuckerberg on the Joe Rogan podcast provides a great explanation of how classifiers, confidence levels, and precision work with machine learning algorithms. He also covered how adjusting confidence can impact the amount of collateral damage occurring when updates roll out. And if you swap “Social” for “Search”, Zuckerberg could be talking about any major Google algorithm update.

In this video, I cover Mark's comments about classifiers and collateral damage, I cover how classifiers are used by Google with major algorithm updates (and part of its core rankings systems), I cover yo-yo trending and why that can happen with certain sites, and I end by covering the future of broad core updates (from my perspective).

Blog post: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/classifiers-confidence-and-google-algorithm-updates/

00:00 Introduction

00:39 Mark Zuckerberg about classifiers, confidence levels, and collateral damage.

01:58 The connection to SEO and Google algorithm updates.

03:18 The September 2023 Helpful Content Update (HCUX)

04:23 Classifiers and Google's guide to search ranking systems

05:18 Yo-yo trending with Google updates

06:25 The 'Kitchen Sink' approach to remediation is the path forward.

07:17 The future of Google's broad core updates.

09:02 Wrapping up.

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I cover the December 2024 Spam Update including key information about the rollout, what the update targeted, recovery from spam updates, and the difference between spam updates and link spam updates. Then I cover five case studies spanning doorway pages, scaled content abuse, AI-generated content, and more. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to the December Spam Update 01:08 Google's Spam Policies 02:17 Recovery from spam updates 03:21 Case One: Doorway Pages Galore 04:19 Case Two: Scaled Content Abuse with PAA Mining 06:06 Case Three: Scaling To Oblivion 08:32 Case Four: More Scaled Content Abuse With Programmatic Content 09:29 Case Five: More Doorway Pages and AI-generated Content 11:14 In Summary: It works until it doesn't

Blog post: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/google-december-2024-spam-update-case-studies/

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OpenAI revealed some important new features for ChatGPT Search as part of its 12 days of ship-mas in December. Day 8 yielded local search with maps integration, new treatment for navigational queries (which opens up ad opportunities), and then live mode now having the ability to tap into Search for up-to-date information. I cover each of these features and then end with a live demo of ChatGPT live mode with Search. Blog post covering the new features: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/chatgpt-search-new-features-december-2024/

Chapters: 00:00 ChatGPT Search new features announced on Day 8 of ship-mas. 00:46 ChatGPT Search overview. 01:50 Links to publishers contain utm parameters for tracking ChatGPT Search. 02:20 Heading towards Jarvis personal AI assistants. 03:50 Hello Local Search with maps in ChatGPT Search. 05:46 Special treatment for navigational queries. 07:14 Search advertising opportunities surface! 07:59 ChatGPT Search with live mode brings Jarvis closer to reality. 09:32 Live demo of ChatGPT live mode with Search integration. Follow me on X: https://x.com/glenngabe Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenngabe/

Learn why it’s important to fully understand all of the subdomains for your site. I have come across this situation a number of times over the years and I’ve seen some ugly situations. There are times companies don’t realize there are subdomains running either with legacy content, hacked content, spammy content, or even subdomains with malware or other security issues. And those issues can impact the site SEO-wise and ad-wise. I cover how sites can be suspended in Google Ads based on malware running on those rogue subdomains.

I cover several ways to find subdomains running that have search visibility, including GSC crawl stats, Bing Webmaster Tools Site explorer, third-party visibility tools like Semrush, ahrefs, and Sistrix, and I also cover some creative site queries.

So don’t get blindsided by your subdomains. Run some quick checks and surface them. You never know what you’re going to find.

Read my blog post:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/find-subdomains-with-search-visibility/

00:00 How to find subdomains for your site.

00:36 Why it’s important to find your subdomains.

01:28 Quality at the hostname level.

02:46 Security problems causing AD problems.

03:32 GSC Crawl Stats reporting.

04:58 Bing Webmaster Tools Site Explorer

05:45 Third-party visibility tools like Semrush, ahrefs, and Sistrix.

07:00 Creative site queries.

08:05 Bonus: Hosting providers can help.

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Have you read AI Overview studies and wondered how *your own site* is being impacted? I got you covered. This video covers my blog post that walks you step-by-step through combining third-party AIO data with Google Search Console performance data (via the Search Console API) and using vlookup magic to see the change in clicks and CTR when AIOs are ranking for your queries.

Note, this definitely works best for sites with a lot of search visibility and traffic from Google. So if your site doesn't have a ton of visibility, this process might not yield great results. BTW, having to write a 14-step process using multiple third-party tools, the GSC API, etc., to TRY to analyze AIO impact is RIDICULOUS, but that's exactly what Google wants unfortunately. And no, I don't think we will get AIO or AI Mode data broken out, so this may be the best approach for site owners trying to gauge the impact of AIOs on clicks and CTR.

Note, AIOs officially rolled out in May of 2024, so you can definitely compare to pre-AIO SERPs if you want (or any timeframe you want to compare to). I've been running this for several clients and it works pretty well (especially for larger-scale sites with a lot of search visibility and traffic from Google). So watch this video and read my blog post, walk through the steps, run the numbers, and analyze the impact of AIOs for your own site. You might be surprised with what you find -- or not. :) Have fun.

Blog post:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/how-to-measure-the-impact-of-google-ai-overviews/

Chapters:

00:00 Tracking the impact of AI Overviews on CTR and clicks.

01:01 Combining third-party AIO data and GSC performance data.

03:00 Exporting all AIO data via third-party visibility tools.

04:08 Export GSC data via the Search Console API (for two timeframes).

05:40 Apply vlookup magic in Excel.

07:31 An example of CTR and clicks impact based on AIOs ranking.

08:41 Recommendations and tips for site owners.

11:08 My thoughts about why Google isn't breaking out AIO data in GSC.

13:07 Summary: Tell me how this goes for you!

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I coined the phrase “Mt. AI” based on seeing many sites scale with AI-generated content, surge in Google, only to crash as Google’s systems pick up what’s going on (or Google applies a manual action to the site for “Scaled content abuse”.) Well, there was a great example of this happening recently, which provided a unique opportunity to see how citations in ChatGPT were impacted in real-time.

The website National Today added a new directory recently containing over 850K AI-generated local news articles. And no, they are not a local news site... The site surged in Google and in AI search platforms like ChatGPT. But those articles got noticed... And then Futurism wrote an expose about the situation, Google picked up the issue, and then applied a manual action for “Scaled content abuse”. And as you can guess, the site tanked in Google’s 10-blue links, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

But how did the site fare in ChatGPT? Well, that's the topic of my case study, which I cover in this video. I dug into AI Search visibility for National Today’s /us/ directory where all of the AI-generated local news content resides. Like I would expect, citations dropped heavily in ChatGPT once the manual action was applied. My video contains all of the details.

Chapters:
00:00 When “Mt. AI” crumbles, ChatGPT citations follow suit.
00:52 Scaled content abuse with 850K AI-generated news articles.
01:27 “Mt. AI” and the problem with scaling AI-generatedcontent heavily.
03:14 Google applies a manual action for “Scaled content abuse”
03:54 The site drops in AI Overviews and AI Mode.
04:24 What happens with ChatGPT when a site tanks in Google?
05:52 Examples of citations dropping in ChatGPT.
08:05 Some ChatGPT citations did remain (for now).
09:14 Summary: Don’t become the next “Mt. AI”. Beware.

My blog post covering the case study:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/when-mt-ai-crumbles-chatgpt-follows/

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“What do I need to do in order to be visible in AISearch?" I get that question a lot. So the "Gabeback Machine" is back, but with an AI Search twist :) In this video, I cover my blog post titled, “Straight From the (AI) Source: Is AEO/GEO different than SEO? Google, Microsoft, and others explain how to be visible in AI search [Quotes, videos, articles, and more]”.
There's a lot of debate about how to make sure you are visible in AI Search. Some say AEO/GEO strategy and tactics are different than what you should be doing for SEO, while others say what you do for SEO should cover AI Search. Well, just like I did when covering Google's site-level quality evaluation, Iwanted to provide a central place where site owners could find all of the information that the various AI search platforms have explained about how to be visible across AI search.
Join me as I cover quotes, videos, articles, and more covering what Google, Microsoft, and others have explained about SEO versus AEO/GEO. There is some great information directly from the source. I also plan to update my post as we learn more from the various platforms about AI search visibility.

My post about AEO vs GEO vs SEO and information from AIsearch platforms about how to be visible across AI search: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/straight-from-the-ai-source-is-aeo-geo-different-than-seo/

Chapters:

00:00 AEO vs. GEO vs. SEO – Is there a difference?

02:03 Straight from the source: What the AI platforms aresaying about AEO vs. SEO.

02:20 Google’s Jeff Dean about traditional search versus LLMsearch.

04:27 Google’s Danny Sullivan said Good SEO is Google “GEO”.

05:50 Google’s John Mueller and Danny Sullivan cover AEO vsSEO via the SOTR podcast.

07:27 Part two of John Mueller and Danny Sullivan covering AEO vs SEO in the SOTR podcast.

10:40 A quick note about chunking of content.

10:58 A quick warning about spamming for AI searchvisibility.

11:50 Business Insider interviewed Google, Microsoft, andPerplexity about AI search visibility.

14:47 Google’s Nick Fox on the AI Inside podcast about optimizing for AI search.

15:53 Google’s Gary Illyes about ranking in AIOs, simply usenormal SEO practices.

16:40 Microsoft’s Krishna Madhavan about optimizing for AIsearch.

19:28 Microsoft Advertising’s AI search demystified.

21:12 Summary: What you do for SEO should cover what’sneeded for AEO.

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Many sites are being impacted by a powerful Google algorithm update that was released in late January. And it sure looks like a reviews update to me based on analyzing many sites impacted... In addition, Lily Ray dug in and noticed many self-serving listicles were being impacted. Like we have both said over time, "It works until it doesn't..." Join me as I provide "Reviews update notes" based on what I'm seeing across sites impacted.

Chapters:

00:00 The January 2026 Reviews Update. Maybe?

00:40 A self-serving listicle twist via Lily Ray

02:40 Beyond listicles, a big Google reviews system update.

05:00 Volatility at the end of June. Big movement.

06:05 Lily Ray's blog post about self-serving listicles dropping.

08:52 Don't publish self-serving listicles. It won't end well.

10:34 Algorithm updates impacting AIO and AI Mode visibility.

12:57 "Reviews Update Notes". A lot of impact across review sites.

15:18 Wirecutter impacted backs the idea of a reviews update.

16:07 AI search platforms need to build strong anti-spam systems.

18:44 Summary: The January 2026 Google Reviews Update

Lily's post about the listicle situation:

https://lilyraynyc.substack.com/p/is-google-finally-cracking-down-on

My post about AI search platforms needing to build strong anti-spam systems:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/ai-search-core-systems-anti-spam/

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The Google December 2025 broad core update is in full swing and I’ve been covering my “Core Update Notes” daily on social media based on heavily analyzing the rollout.  In this video, I’ll cover findings based on my analysis of sites across verticals, including the impact they are seeing based on the broad core update.
Topics I’ll cover include when the update actually landed, heavy YMYL impact (like finance and health and medical), impact to news and media publishers, how sites impacted by previous spam updates are being impacted, a big tremor we saw on December 20th, impact to career/jobs sites, and then some interesting cases like Wirecutter and X dropping with the update. I also cover how the various search visibility tracking tools like Sistrix, ahrefs, and Semrush handle AIOs (how they affect visibility trending). I end the video witha wild situation where I messaged a publisher with a warning just one day before the update rolled out about a super-aggressive ad situation. You can learn what happened at the end of the video.
The December broad core update should take two to three weeks to complete and I will post more information as the update rolls out (based on my analysis).

“Core Update Notes” thread on X: https://x.com/glenngabe/status/1999478656352076012
Chapters:

00:00 The December 2025 Broad Core Update Rolls Out

01:00 Glenn’s “Core Update Notes”

02:13 Smaller core updates during the fall of 2025

04:24 The update lands!

05:59 YMYL Impact including heavy Finance movement.

07:09 Top Stories impact for news and media publishers.

8:08 Reversals from the June 2025 core update.

09:06 Sites impacted by previous Spam Updates.

10:23 How the visibility tools handle AIOs for searchvisibility trending.

11:31 Massive health and medical volatility.

12:52 Major news publishers impacted.

13:57 The first tremor of the December 2025 broad coreupdate.

16:49 Wirecutter heavily impacted (again).

18:50 Career and Jobs sites impacted.

20:07 X drops with the update.

21:38 Wild situation – Messaging a publisher with a broadcore update warning.

24:02 Summary of “Core Update Notes”

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For companies translating content into other languages, andpossibly using hreflang tags, it’s important to understand how that content is being surfaced across AI Search platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Claude. The AI Search platforms are in their infancy and will continue to evolve, but it’s important to understand the current state ofaffairs with multilingual content.

In this video, I provide several examples of translated content and how the various AI Search tools surface that content (or not). I also cover Google’s 10-blue links, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. And Bing results are covered as well.

Blogpost: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/ai-search-hreflang-multilingual-queries/Chapters:

00:00 AI Search and multilingual content.

00:32 International SEO, hreflang, and AI Search

01:30 Example 1 – Google’s Search Documentation for Sitemaps

05:50 Example 2 – Google’s Search Documentation for HTTPResponses

07:37 Example 3 – Cloudflare blog post

10:25 Quick recap of other tests.

11:18 Key points and recommendations for site owners.

12:34 Summary – Why AI Search needs to improve (and willneed to).

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The AI Search platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude,and others are in their infancy and some are taking advantage of that by implementing tactics that spam those platforms. But that will not always be the case. I cover how the AI Search platforms are building their own search indexes, will need to developer their own core visibility systems, while also building strong anti-spam systems. And when they do, sites gaming the system can potentially tank as those updates roll out. In addition, the AI Search platforms could even have their own version of Google’s webspam team that can place manual actions (penalties) on websites spamming to rank across AI chatbots.
And beyond that, I cover the importance of understanding site-level quality and authority to ensure high-quality and trusted content can surface across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and others. The AI Search platforms have work to do on that front. I cover all of this, and more, in my video.

Blog post:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/ai-search-core-systems-anti-spam/

Chapters:

00:00 The spamming and gaming of AI Search platforms.

02:36 With spamming Search or AI Search, it works until itdoesn’t…

04:13 AI Search platforms are building their own indexes.
05:40 The need for anti-spam systems in AI Search.

07:20 How are companies spamming AI Search now?

09:56 Site-level quality and trust in AI Search.

11:47 AI Search and “Authority”

14:42 Combining site-level quality and anti-spam systems.

15:58 The AI Search core systems and anti-spam systems arecoming.

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For news or media publishers syndicating content, or thinking about syndicating content, it's important to understand the visibility impact across Google surfaces and AI Search (like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude). For example, does the original content rank or does the syndication partner rank instead? In 2023 I wrote a case study analyzing the ranking impact of syndicating content to third-party sites across Google surfaces. Now that AI Search is here, and growing, I decided to run a new study but for AI Search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. The results were super interesting... In this video, I cover four different cases of publishers syndicating content and how that impacted visibility across both Google and AI Search tools.

Like traditional search, rankings and visibility were all over the place. So once again, it's important to control what you can control. Noindexing the syndicated content is still the path forward in my opinion. That's easier said than done, but the results were clear -- you can't guarantee that your content will be more visible in AI Search than your syndication partners. There was one unicorn, though, and you can read more about that in my post.

Blog post covering my case study:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/ai-search-and-syndicated-content/

Chapters:

00:00 AI Search and Syndicating Content

01:15 An introduction to the case study.

02:14 The influence of traditional search rankings on AI search visibility.

03:00 Case 1: Mixed results.

05:05 Case 2: A ranking mess.

07:21 Case 3: Even more confusion across surfaces and AI tools.

09:58 Case 4: A unicorn for AI Search and syndicated content.

11:24 Recommendations for news and media publishers syndicating content.

13:14 Summary: Control what you can control when syndicating content.

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Wirecutter dropped heavily in search visibility during the spring and summer of 2025. That was surprising given the high-quality, insightful, and thorough reviews content they publish (and have published over the years). In addition, it's a site within a site, and resides on the New York Times domain (which is a powerful news publisher).

In this video, I cover the situation, my analysis of the rankings drop, and explore several theories about what happened. For example, were Google reviews updates to blame, was it Google's 'Starkly different' algorithm or system at play, or was vertical expertise rewarded? I definitely noticed many smaller, niche publishers with reviews content surging as Wirecutter dropped. One thing is for sure, Wirecutter tanked in Google losing 69% of its search visibility over several months according to Sistrix data.

So join me as I explore a massive drop in rankings for one of the most authoritative sites on the web.

Blog post:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/wirecutter-drops-google-reviews-system/

Chapters:

00:00 Wirecutter drops in rankings heavily.

00:47 Finding the drop. And it was a big one.

01:14 Visibility trending tanks across all three tools.

02:26 3.6M queries dropped in the US alone.

03:29 AI Overviews and AI Mode drop.

04:44 Theories about what happened starting with Reviews updates.

05:44 Google's 'Starkly Different' algorithm/system.

07:13 Wirecutter wasn't alone. Many reviews sites have dropped.

08:18 Vertical expertise rewarded?

09:45 Closing thoughts.

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If your site is using JavaScript to render content via client-side rendering then it's important to understand that most AI search platforms cannot currently see your content. That includes ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and others. In this video, I cover a case study of a site that wasn't ranking well across AI Search, how they were leveraging client-side rendering, how that was causing problems, and what the AI platforms could actually see. It's great example of how JavaScript-based content can cause problems beyond Google and Bing in AI search platforms that are rapidly growing. I also end with a list of action items for site owners that might be affected by this issue.

Blog post covering my case study:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/ai-search-javascript-rendering/

Chapters:

00:00 AI Search and JavaScript Rendering

00:50 An introduction to the case study.

01:25 Vercel's research about AI platforms and JavaScript rendering

02:52 First signs of trouble - Favicons and Citation Problems

04:30 Testing ChatGPT for JavaScript rendered content

05:40 Testing Perplexity for JavaScript rendered content

06:24 Testing Claude for JavaScript rendered content

07:52 What site owners can do now.

09:15 Don't use client-side rendering for ALL of your page content.

09:45 Yes, Google (Gemini) and Bing (Copilot) can render JavaScript just fine.

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Has AI Search taken over in July 2025? Is Google still important or should you just focus on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI search platforms? In this video, I explain how to set up AI Search tracking in Google Analytics 4 to view the difference between AI Search traffic compared to Google Search and organic search overall. After setting this up across many accounts, AI search accounts for under 1% of traffic, and under .5% for most sites I checked.I’ll also explain how ignoring Google Search could lead to a drop in quality, which could cause problems with Google’s broad core updates (as core updates can impact all areas of Google including AI Overviews and AI Mode).Blog post covering the topic: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/ai-search-traffic-compared-to-google/

Chapters:

00:00 AI Search versus Google Search in 2025

00:46 A conversation with an IT executive about AI Search and the demise of Google.

02:20 How to set up AI search tracking in Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

03:45 What I found when analyzing AI Search traffic compared to Google.

05:15 AI Search example: B2C

06:16 AI Search example: Niche news publisher

06:42 AI Search example: Health and medical

07:18 AI Search example: Smaller publisher

07:41 Google organic drives the most traffic (by a mile).

08:33 AEO, GEO versus SEO - Be careful.

09:40 Google broad core updates and the danger of ignoring Google search.

10:12 A strong SEO strategy covers most of what you need for AI Search.

11:10 All Google surfaces that can be impacted by broad core udpates.

12:18 AIOs and AI Mode can be impacted by Google's broad core updates.

12:50 Wrapping up - AI Search is important, but don't ignore Google.

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