Google Core Update May 23 - June 3, 2021

Google *finally* confirms 11 days later.

[TalkativeEditorial]

Yower, SEMRush is freaking out. A few of the other sensors seem to be spiking too.
This is hell. Never know what to do anymore, where to look...or what is actually evening happening.

[yollo03]

I want to add to the above, the highest keywords that generated income were lost in the current update. I know one website owner that uses a PBN with over 100,000 websites. I agree that it is no longer about content or thinking broad. Everyone should find their own path in this. I spy on my competitors and it reveals a bit on what they are doing.

[RedBar]

I know one website owner that uses a PBN with over 100,000 websites. I

If true then it's no wonder so many distrust The Net and throw their money a Amazon / EBay / Brands?

[yollo03]

Well this is large company with over 80k customers. They acquired 2 other companies in the meantime. The company is legit, this is the SEO tactic they chose.

[RedBar]

However they are trying to "lever" their position aren't they?

Honestly, I'm simply fed-up of these businesses with zero ethics ... they remind me of ... Google!

[superclown2]

a PBN with over 100,000 websites? Really? Have you any idea what that would cost? Even after the domains have been bought - very, very difficult to get hold of a handful never mind 100,000, and some would cost megabucks - you would be looking at millions of dollars a year for hosting plus around another million for domain renewals. They have that much money to spend but use BH tactics? Perhaps I'm missing something here.

[westcoast]

One trend that I am noticing in the entertainment vertical is that mid-sized expert / portal / niche players are getting squeezed out of the rankings in favor of somewhat random single page instances of the searched-for content.

So, in Bing, the top 5 results for (completely hypothetically speaking - this phrase doesn't show what I am illustrating properly, but analogous instances can be found all over the place) "spooky stories" will be 4 or 5 larger spooky-story specific websites. These sites contain a lot of spooky stories, and a user going to one of these sites can browse lots and lots of spooky stories. This is the way Google used to work -- they would provide links to the best websites to go to.

Google didn't like that. They realized that delivering users to a one-stop-shop for a niche kept those searchers off Google. So now the top 5 results are NOT those "portal" type websites, but rather individual articles related to the query. In shorty, Google is trying to replace those portal / content-keepers with links to specific instances of a type of content.

So whereas the top 3 results were once:

1. Spook Story Central
2. Spook-tastic.com
3. One Million Spooky Stories

Now the top 3 are:

1. A Great Spooky Story
2. The 7 Best Spooky Stories!
3. Google Play: Spooky Adventure

I see this trend on Google queries *everywhere*. What Google is doing is trying to circumvent niche leaders by directly (a) scraping and serving the content itself, (b) linking deeper down to actual instances of the content, forcing the user to search more on Google and click around on more google ads and properties, (c) burying websites that may become go-to locations for users to search for that specific content, so that they come to google instead.

At least, that's my perspective. Compare results to Bing and it is shocking how much manipulation of results Google is doing to get people to interact more on Google properties.

[edited by: westcoast at 6:36 pm (utc) on Jun 7, 2021]

[yollo03]

@Superclown, they have money. The company has 6 angel investors, one of them is bigger than the rest. On top of that they also spend money on google ads every month. The rich gets richer as they say. Just to be clear, it wasn't founded in 2020. The company started in 2010.

[christianz]

By tracking the referrer domains for my images I am seeing bunch of blogsport subdomains with super specific names like:

***-***-images.blogspot.com

still ranking and actually getting hits from Google. Also lots and lots of random, possibly previously used blogspot subdomains hotlinking and getting traffic also.

All hotlinked images plus auto generated text.

This is the state of Google. The most glaring spam issues that existed in December 2020, they didn't fix in these 6 months, instead they focused on how to further demote real niche leaders that have existed for 10+ years and transfer that traffic to Googles own platforms or priority publishers.

It seems that in Googles eyes whether you are 10, 15 year old niche leader with constantly updated valuable data, or you are auto generated spam site with hotlinked images, doesn't matter - they put it in the same category. It is either priority publishers or the rest.

[superclown2]

For example they are all using PBN's and anyone thinking a PBN does not work any more......your wrong.

Last December one of my competitors rose right to the top for a reasonable search term on the back of a pile of high authority PBNs and now after this update the site has fallen to the bottom of page one. My site used to be top so I know how much the owner probably made and I've a rough idea how much a PBN cost. I reckon they'll have done well to break even.

The only ones making money right now (apart from Google's favoured high ad spending few) are the ultra black hatters or those selling links IMO.

[superclown2]

@Yollo Another competitor who has been getting lot of top spots in my niche for the last couple of years has several thousand links from hacked Wordpress sites. The turnover is huge as site owners find out what has happened and delete the links but there are new ones being added all the time. As far as I can see they spend little or nothing on Google ads.

I wonder if this is how the site you noticed gets it's links, rather than by running an incredibly expensive PBN? It may be interesting to see whether their links are mainly on WP or similar sites.

Is it so difficult for an algo to detect a huge links turnover like this? My competitor's site is nowhere in DDG or Bing so it must be possible for a proper search engine to weed out obvious manipulation like this.

[ichthyous]

@superclown A constant churn of new links won't get you anywhere with Google, and in fact it might suppress traffic if too many new links come in at the same time. Links only start to count once they have aged, and from domains with some authority. I don't think Google can be that easily tricked by a constant supply of brand new links that quickly fade.

[superclown2]

A constant churn of new links won't get you anywhere with Google, and in fact it might suppress traffic if too many new links come in at the same time

Absolutely. It will produce short term gains only. We can always produce unique content of course! That will work until our months of work will be trumped by some lowly paid employees of megacorps writing a few words about it though. Churn and burn sites? Maybe, but what sort of Internet will we end up with?

In the meanwhile producing top quality websites that are absolutely focussed on what a searcher is looking for is pointless. I've been in this business for more than 20 years and I struggle to find them so goodness knows how the average searcher gets on.

The old Internet was an exciting environment full of innovation. Now no matter what search term I put in I can predict six of the top ten sites, none of which are experts in the subject but all of which spend heavily on ads.

If the last few Google updates are an indication of the future then the Internet will become just like a soulless shopping mall full of the same chains, the only ones able to afford the huge rents the mall owners (in this case Google) squeeze out of them, as the whole environment slowly decays around them and the shoppers drift away.

In the meanwhile; when this latest update hit I actually saw a few specialist sites start to rise! This only lasted a few days though. Looking through Google results this morning on mobile it is several full scrolls before I reach the organic results and page two or three before I reach anything like the sites I am looking for. In the meanwhile I am plagued by multiple googlespam popups which try to take me back to their favoured megasites. I really don't know if it is possible for Google to sink lower.

[christianz]

full of the same chains, the only ones able to afford the huge rents the mall owners (in this case Google) squeeze out of them

But but... Google tells me they are all about diversity and inclusion?

Why are the results getting less diverse and organic publishers like me feeling more excluded with each update?

[BushyTop]

After months of steady growth, we've been hit by this. Most frustratingly, we've developed intensely for web core vitals, which despite the lack of announcement at the time, I had put down to our growth. Now we've lost around 40% of traffic. I know this has been said 1000 times before, but its warranted. Totally insane, unjust and demoralising.

[BushyTop]

After months of steady growth, we've been hit by this. Most frustratingly, we've developed intensely for web core vitals, which despite the lack of announcement at the time, I had put down to our growth. Now we've lost around 40% of traffic. I know this has been said 1000 times before, but its warranted. Totally insane, unjust and demoralising.

[LynMan]

My site (eCommerce) got +50% in traffic (lost 20% in December update)

[RedBar]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld LynMan

Therefore you are now at 120% v pre-December?

Any adjustments / modifications made to your site?

Not seasonal?

In which country are you? Most traffic hits I have seen seem to be from USA, my non-USA sites are varying between 100-130%.

[RedBar]

My global site seems to be consistent at its new lower traffic level with USA traffic easily down the most, -56.1% May v February, before decline started in mid-March!

Last week's traffic was its lowest-ever since being launched, even lower than weeks 51 and 52 2020, pre-Xmas / Xmas / New Year.

[yollo03]

@Superclown, I worked for that company for a short while, that's how I know.

[mzb44]

A few months ago I mentioned the press release newswire parasite spam caused by the May and December 2020 core updates.

"best online <snip1>"
"best online <snip2>"

Also same in many other niches. Many "legit" niches as well. These aren't nearly all the examples.

Those pure-spam (as well as scam) press releases continue to happily rank #1 just fine, outranking legitimate and relevant non-spam industry publications & behemoths.

As such - as expected, really - it seems they did not reverse one bit the "root domain authority" (google's definition, not the moz metric!) > all thing.

I am not surprised in the slightest.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 12:00 pm (utc) on Jun 10, 2021]
[edit reason] No specific keywords, per forum Charter [/edit]

[superclown2]

@Superclown, I worked for that company for a short while, that's how I know.

Wow. Do you have any knowledge of how they host these? Do they have their own servers with large IP blocks or do they use many different hosting companies? I'd have thought that having so many sites on the same or similar IP addresses would have been a complete giveaway to Google; or perhaps they are still not as clever as we give them credit for.

I remember that getting a server with a full Class C IP block (we could, in those days) and packing it with sites was a common spamming method 20 years ago but it can't be that simple today. If it is still working them maybe the latest algo hasn't been programmed to detect it yet. Switching to one using artificial intelligence must be a huge challenge and maybe, just maybe, that is one reason why the current search results are so dreadful.

[renatovieira]

Very big drop today.

By my daily morning traffic patterns, today I will have a 50% drop. Finally, the update is confirmed on my side. It's disheartening...

No european users currently active on my global site. This is surreal!

[RedBar]

I am seeing movement in my US SERPs, not massive changes however several keyword products that went MIA have returned plus seeing more multiple page views rather than single ones.

My biggest keyword phrase is still locked-down to US companies but now there are 3 non-US sites in the top 30. It's very disappointing to look at some of the scrapey US sites being ranked higher than the far superior foreign ones.

I uploaded a brand new page last week and it's already ranking #15, I wonder how far it will go?

Meanwhile I have another site that G simply will not update after 6 weeks:-(

[Martin Ice Web]

This is getting rediculous.
Search term german google: 3,5mm KlinkeKabel hochwertig

1 made for amazon shopping ads site
2 - 3 amazon
4 other site
5 - 9 made for amazon shopping ads site (5 and 7 are copies of each other !)

This is the new standard in our vertical.
Once again: as a user i don´t want to have domains made for amazon shopping in the serps. If i want to buy at amazon i go straight forward to amazon. Where is diversity gone to?

[ichthyous]

A mild reversal of my English language traffic...Canada is back, Australia and UK are both up and even visits from NZ. USA still down by 39% but it's only 10am and that tends to recover late in the day. Most notably, the pages that were seeing up to 70% drops in traffic are now back to normal. I won't hold my breath yet as the reversal could reverse at mid-day and head straight back down, as has been the pattern for the last several weeks...

Comparing GSC clicks for March-June 2021 to same period in 2020 I am seeing a 50%-100% reduction in clicks to my site for a wide swath of terms. It's a catastrophe actually. The only saving grace was that clicks for searches for my brand name and its variations were up by an almost equally huge amount. Has anyone else seen this and what does it mean?

I am seeing that a competitor that is ranking across the board (a large corporate ecomm site) is actually using good old keyword lists on their pages...a tactic straight out of the early 2000's. Wasn't this supposed to harm your ranking or is it considered acceptable now?

[RedBar]

@MIW - Obviously Google has no fear of Amazon shopping whatsoever!

It seems to me that Amazon, like Ebay, is bidding on every phrase there is regardless of the product and if they can supply.

When Bezos goes into space he ought to take a long, long vacation and not bother returning:-)

[jmorgan]

I'm not liking this update.

[BushyTop]

We've had Zero conversions today

[renatovieira]

Things are pretty weird today. I don't think it's a consequence of the last update, but something happening today.

Could it be related to the 'cloud glitch' that happened this morning?

[RedBar]

I've just been looking at a couple of small, different niche widget UK sites that, basically, have been wiped-out since last Thursday, extremely low page views plus zero online enquiries since then.

Anyone else UK-based seeing similar for a niche site(s)?

Keyword products seem to be ranking well on the first page.

[ichthyous]

Could it be related to the 'cloud glitch' that happened this morning?

It must be...my traffic started off strong this morning, then at 9am sharp it dropped sharply and has stayed at zero from noon to 2pm EST, and that includes zero traffic from paid search ads.

[lee_sufc]

@RedBar - this is exactly what I'm seeing.

[RedBar]

@lee_sufc

First page and very few ads or distractions?

[saladtosser]

Youtube has had a massive boost for about 60% of the species I cover in the pet niche since the last update, luckily I saw this coming and have been heavily working on youtube and picking up 10-12 subs per day based on the sudden shift organics are making from websites in the SERPs to YouTubers. Would still rather be a content provider via a website but based on the SERPs cant run that rodeo anymore (at least not only, I'm doing both now but youtube is taking over a month on month). Obviously, if Google didn't own youtube none of this would be happening but have to move with the way Google is moving for information queries, at least in my area.... It's very sad, my website is better than my youtube account but youtube is being promoted and websites demoted in my area! If it carries on, and I expect it will youtube may become the default search engine promoted by the normal google search engine top (5-6 results). I guess at least if I can convert all of my website content into youtube videos I won't need to pay £185 per month for a dedicated website server and all that hassle that comes with it! If youtube hasn't come into your area yet, give it a try, make a video and a few months later your website is listed below it, fact!

This is where the antitrust should be looking, youtube and the way they force it down your throat because they own it! (as you can tell I'm begrudgingly becoming a youtube now, winning but don't want to have to do it because I know the effort and cost that goes into holding up a decent website and the costs involved of dedicated servers and good content!) Uploading a video right now, have a lot of people asking for it but feel like I'm whoring myself out ;(

[edited by: saladtosser at 9:03 pm (utc) on Jun 8, 2021]

[christianz]

This is where the antitrust should be looking, youtube and the way they force it down your throat

Yup. And they are force-feeding YouTube to all kinds of information queries where video is just about the worst information form-factor imaginable.

It is beyond stupid now. Do I really need to generate 1000 YouTube videos for the each piece of numeric facts and figures I am publishing in my website?

Its like we discovered WWW and Google is insisting that we must use video cassettes.

[saladtosser]

christianz i agree with you, you need 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time per year to earn a penny off your content even if google earns off it. This isn't a bad thing if it was just youtube but now it's forced down organics it becomes a problem for us, not them (or the YouTubers who didn't own a website a few years ago), enjoy them ads you cant scroll by though, they are plenty! On the plus side......................actually, there is no plus side for the web, just YouTubers, and as one forced into it I have to say it sucks!

[superclown2]

How can a video be suitable for information? By the time you've sat through an ad, watched the intro, squirmed at the hyperactive youth yelling at you to subscribe to his channel, you could have found the info you wanted in the SERPs several times over.

Searchers are impatient. The want fast results. Videos are clearly there to serve ads and detract from the organic results, not to benefit the searcher. Google is playing a dangerous game.

[RedBar]

WTF is going on?

Today I had a pre-update day of multiple global PVs until 19.00 UK time ... I was at 80% of my old level and then STOP STOP STOP ... in the last 5 hours I have gone back to a few single PVs ... Honestly Google, you are an indescribable, manipulative joke ... pathetic is too good for you ...

The Internet would be better off without your presence, you are a complete and utter disgrace to the geek community ... HONESTLY!

[ichthyous]

@RedBar...same thing here, the traffic was moving until about 10am, then dropped to nothing for the rest of the day...it's 7pm and I have had 2-4 PV per hour since this morning except for one spike at 3pm. I turned on paid ads and got three visits which cost me over $13...two of those visits hit the home page and left, and two were outside of my target area...in other words, they kill your traffic and even if you pay it's mostly BS, non-converting, and very expensive clicks.

[renatovieira]

@ichthyous @RedBar

Same boat!

[KaseyM]

Anyone having very slow indexing today?

[McMohan]

Blatant impetus given to sites built on expired high authority domains, with support or without from PBN links - is the flavor of the update so far for me.

The domain before expiring could haven been in any niche, doesn't matter.

[mzb44]

Blatant impetus given to sites built on expired high authority domains, with support or without from PBN links - is the flavor of the update so far for me.

The domain before expiring could haven been in any niche, doesn't matter.

Yeah this is going on for a while now.

The last 3 or 4 core updates significantly boosted root domain authority (not the moz metric!), meaning if it's high enough you can rank for anything you want.

I already posted a few examples here such as: keyword targeted and affiliate-linking press releases ranking above legit sites, expired domains of state embassies repurposed as financial scam affiliate sites outranking absolutely everybody legit etc.

Show these concrete examples to the famous SEOers who push the "EAT / google getting better at judging relevancy" narrative and they will immediately stop responding and will pretend they didn't see it.

[BushyTop]

This update has completely broken us. Never had so much non geo specific traffic. We're a UK business, but getting traffic from everywhere, presumably that isnt even human!

[lee_sufc]

@BushyTop. I'm seeing this, too. In addition, I'm seeing lots of very old pages that haven't been updated in 10+ years appearing in top five results.

[Martin Ice Web]

@BushyTop: located in german we get hits from japan. But to be honest, this was every time they pulled an updated.

[southernguy]

Yes, expired domains do rank well regardless of their niche, many of my competitors have been doing those for a couple of years now, they buy an expired domain for 5000.00 or throw their content up there and within weeks it's getting massive amounts of traffic and outranking everything. LAs year I saw lots of medical and edu domains with tons of affiliate content, they must be making a killing.

[BushyTop]

@lee_sufc and @Martin Ice Web I've never been more disappointed with an update. I've seen complaints about previous updates from other members in the past, but never been effected to this extent. We have of course seen drops, but this seems to have been a drop with the added bonus of non converting, non-geo traffic - so the bit we do have left is completely useless.

The pressures of covid were bad enough. Our e-com industry had already seen a dive because of the pandemic.

[ichthyous]

Never had so much non geo specific traffic. We're a UK business, but getting traffic from everywhere, presumably that isnt even human!

Ditto...I'm a USA business and my USA traffic has been declining since the mid-March updates, but this core update really takes the cake. I'm glad to see the UK/AU/EU traffic recovering in the last few days, but that traffic doesn't convert nearly as easily.

For the last two days page views have been strongly up by the time I wake up here...50%-250% increases, and pages that have been out of commission for weeks or months are almost back to normal. But USA traffic suddenly drops around 9-10am and stays down for hours so I still end up in the red by day's end. Let's see if this pattern continues, or if the USA update is just lagging behind the rest of the world.

[Martin Ice Web]

What wonders me is that with every update nothing changes for the better. Stil big companies rules and the in most cases amazon and ebay gain much more audience while other good sources get bourried on page 3 and 4.

If google would real push a updated that would bring some quality than they would demote amazon, ebay a.s.o.