August Core Update Released

[universal4]

Awful lot of hacked pages suddenly surfacing once again.

One of the searches I did show slightly over 20% of the results on the first 10 pages were hacked pages on unrelated sites like doctors, lawyers, drone picture marketers, pets and animals, various consultants and others.

Also noticed an interesting point I had not previously caught on the purple pages.

Rick
Universal4

[bpmee]

Might be Google doing an A/B authority test. In other words, rank pages purely on authority, then compare to those ranked using new algorithm.

[newcustomeroffer]

Some interesting bits in this video including a few sites that have seen partial and fill recoveries that were previously hit by the HCU update:

[Fonviggroup]

We've seen massive changes in ranking, both positive and negative. The updates in 2024 has been crazy in regard to iGaming affiliate marketing, if you ask me.

Has anyone else lost all rankings, then got it back, lost it agian and then got it back in august 2024? We've 1 site which has done this.

[bpmee]

I honestly think the KW count increases are due to Google's rediscovered preference for "independent publishers", aka small authority sites with demonstrated expertise and long running reputations. I don't think they're as much about HCU "recovery" unless affected sites reworked their content and/or links since last fall.

A fair bit of automated AI content and parasite SEO on major news sites has either been dinged or voluntarily removed by said publishers.

Still waiting for Techopedia and Forbes to get slapped. They've seen a minor decrease in KW counts according to Ahrefs but far from anything punitive.

Finally, I hope the positive changes small sites are seeing isn't an initial "burp" before something else comes along in a few days. Google still has a couple weeks to disappoint us!

[edgarf76]

LILY RAY'S PODCAST ON HCU RECOVERY = https://open.spotify.com/episode/79V...dc3609e53b4591

[oddsballs]

I disagree, a site i had was hit last November and is back up to the same if not better levels as of last month, and things are looking good with this core update.

[bingoreviews]

Awful lot of hacked pages suddenly surfacing once again.

One of the searches I did show slightly over 20% of the results on the first 10 pages were hacked pages on unrelated sites like doctors, lawyers, drone picture marketers, pets and animals, various consultants and others.

Also noticed an interesting point I had not previously caught on the purple pages.

Rick
Universal4

in the uk 'uk casino bonuses' certainly has a huge amount of hacked sites showing, there doesn't seem to as many as a few days ago, but the 1st 10 pages are littered with hacked pages

[newcustomeroffer]

Another update video from Glenn Gabe here that's worth a look:



Interesting examples in there of some parasite SEO sites being severely hit, although that could be completely separate to the site reputation abuse update/activity.

[econfox]

Not all parasite has taken a hit.
DenofGeek_.com has been churning it out this month and is ranking high for casino related bonuses. The site is a gaming site (not casino gaming).

Techopedia is still alive and well.

[newcustomeroffer]

Core Update confirmed as now complete on the GSC X account: https://x.com/googlesearchc/status/1831046515374330114

[gamblingvista]

Regarding Parasite SEO, I'm still seeing sites such as OutlookIndia or Salon_.com ranked well for top keywords in Google.

[bingoreviews]

Regarding Parasite SEO, I'm still seeing sites such as OutlookIndia or Salon_.com ranked well for top keywords in Google.

when they started doing manual actions it's as if they got so far and just stopped, there's still blatant examples floating about, and worse, some are coming back by just removing the link to the original companies content that is hosted

[wonderpunter]

From Danny Sullivans last interview looks like the idea of running the parasite seo update algorihmically has now been shelved so i guess media sites carry on doing whateevr they want https://www.seroundtable.com/intervi...ate-38024.html

[bpmee]

Quoting Sullivan from your article:

"Why is it not algorithmic? “The reason we probably won't have it any time in the near future is because we wouldn't be exceedingly careful and, and thoughtful in how we do it. So that's just taking time and for the moment, the manual actions are the way for us to go,” Sullivan explained."

Read between the lines. As we all know, authority is baked into the G algo. They're admitting that there would be too many casualties to do it automatically. And they're also admitting that authority gives you the benefit of the doubt and some latitude regarding what you publish. So parasite publishers still have an upper-hand, at least for the medium run.

Obviously, it's coming down to manual actions, which means there will need to be numerous complaints about obvious abusers. Close calls, "almosts", and "closely related content" will probably slide.

[newcustomeroffer]

Interesting that essentially admitted that they've bitten off more than they can chew and are having to rethink.

As you say this almost certainly leads to inconsistency with some who haven't been 'found out' or deemed to be the wrong side of the line carrying on as before. Those already under a penalty can't be too impressed with the situation that's for sure.

[gm2891]

Report deceptive or low-quality webpage.

Tried this tool? Some are saying it does the job.

I see the results are full of hacked and unrelated sites.

They don't benefit anyone.

[DKaur]

Do we have a thread for september?

[universal4]

The updates that most are seeing now are due mostly to the ongoing core update rollout that started in August.

As far as I know they have not announced another major core update at this time. Most of the largest big announced rollouts are a few times per year.

Google is always updating and tweaking things so there are always changes o0ngoing.

Rick
Universal4

[bingoreviews]

The updates that most are seeing now are due mostly to the ongoing core update rollout that started in August.

that's not true, that update finished rolling out 8 days ago, so any movements now aren't related