massive google update running

**bpmee** · 19 March 2024, 9:28 am

Originally Posted by wonderpunter

Currently I see mostly junk and spam, thin low quality results. Not just me but pretty much every site I check even good sites are down massively, I think we are at the tail end of the spam update and think the core with the new classifier is yet to touchdown. I don't even think it will be finished in the 4 weeks they claimed but perhaps 5 or 6. it will be intresting to see what happens when they run the Paraise SEO part of the update on May the 5th.

I'm also seeing competitor sites I respect, and that should be gaining, slide a little. Perhaps this initial flush is meant to push parasite sites to the top, making them easier to identify for the next update? In other words, turning the nobs one way or the other will identify a sample of sites that should be ignored later?

Really sucks because good sites are getting hurt in the short run.

I've taken risks on my own projects and perhaps the chickens are coming home to roost, but nothing extreme that should produce the results I'm getting. Especially when I see obvious parasite sites steady or gaining. Fingers crossed.

**newcustomeroffer** · 19 March 2024, 10:35 am

Clearly not for now as the update is still working its way through, however I see that Danny Sullivan has confirmed on twitter that there will be an open feedback mechanism for webmasters to respond to this core update once it's complete, so anyone who has a particular issue with their or another site can at least have their say, for whatever that's worth:

When the update is finished, as we shared in our blog post, we'll open up a feedback form specifically so creators can share examples that we can explore further. Our ranking systems aren't perfect (nothing is), but we specifically preannounced having this form so we can get feedback that may help us improve further. Watch this page (though we'll also share about the form in other ways)

**wonderpunter** · 20 March 2024, 1:31 am

Originally Posted by bpmee

I'm also seeing competitor sites I respect, and that should be gaining, slide a little. Perhaps this initial flush is meant to push parasite sites to the top, making them easier to identify for the next update? In other words, turning the nobs one way or the other will identify a sample of sites that should be ignored later?

Really sucks because good sites are getting hurt in the short run.

I've taken risks on my own projects and perhaps the chickens are coming home to roost, but nothing extreme that should produce the results I'm getting. Especially when I see obvious parasite sites steady or gaining. Fingers crossed.

Right now the results are bad, not jus parasites but many one page ai generated outdated blogs, irrelevant results and even seen mapquest, google books, and spammy results hacked pages, expired domains etc.

**newcustomeroffer** · 20 March 2024, 10:11 am

The spam update element of this March 2024 update is now complete: https://status.search.google.com/pro...W2GwMi/history - the core element is still running though.

**bpmee** · 20 March 2024, 10:22 am

Originally Posted by newcustomeroffer

The spam update element of this March 2024 update is now complete: https://status.search.google.com/pro...W2GwMi/history - the core element is still running though.

Thanks, interestingly techopedia .com and similar high authority content farms are still live, and gaining KWs in some cases. So they must have decent inbound links.

Will be interesting to see how such sites fare as the core update concludes and subsequent updates roll out.

ETA: It appears techopedia was once a somewhat legitimate source of information, given its inbounds (some 301 domain redirects) and dictionary style content. However they've since jumped ship and started their own crypto and gambling sections, replete with hundreds of quick-hit articles that aren't anything special. Perhaps this one falls to reputation abuse?

**AlexCasino** · 20 March 2024, 10:46 am

Just gonna have to wait and see now, but will definitely be interesting to see what happens..

**Jens Frueh** · 20 March 2024, 1:46 pm

Really insightful observation about techopedia and similar sites! It's quite a puzzle, seeing some high-authority "content farms" not only surviving but thriving post-update. If these sites are indeed leveraging their established authority to rank new, arguably less relevant sections, it's a clever yet borderline manipulative strategy. This might indeed be testing Google's limits on reputation and content relevance. It raises the question: How will Google further refine its algorithms to distinguish between genuine content diversification and potential reputation abuse?

**bpmee** · 20 March 2024, 5:48 pm

Originally Posted by Jens Frueh

It raises the question: How will Google further refine its algorithms to distinguish between genuine content diversification and potential reputation abuse?

Two possible ways, either alone or in combination:

1) Whether the site has an established reputation (years) for publishing quality gambling content.

2) Whether the site's primary purpose, or subject matter, is gambling or something else.

@Baldidiot and others mentioned this upthread. I think it's solvable if they stop giving deference to major media sites whose main purpose is to report the news. At the moment, they're building out coupon pages, cell phone reviews, and "Top 5 New York Betting sites" articles that any one of us could write in 15 minutes.

**universal4** · 20 March 2024, 5:58 pm

I like points #1 and #2 bpmee.

I guess we should hope they start with #2, and then maybe give a little more weight to #1 (with possibly other factors also helping)

Rick
Universal4

**wonderpunter** · 20 March 2024, 6:18 pm

Originally Posted by bpmee

Two possible ways, either alone or in combination:

1) Whether the site has an established reputation (years) for publishing quality gambling content.

2) Whether the site's primary purpose, or subject matter, is gambling or something else.

@Baldidiot and others mentioned this upthread. I think it's solvable if they stop giving deference to major media sites whose main purpose is to report the news. At the moment, they're building out coupon pages, cell phone reviews, and "Top 5 New York Betting sites" articles that any one of us could write in 15 minutes.

They have removed topical authority and allowed AI to grow these two alone makes anyone an expert in anything hence the junk results, now it's just mountains of plain text garbage pumped out by chatgpt by people that have never even played a casino game.

**casionmark** · 21 March 2024, 5:43 am

Lots of interesting points on this thread.

Regarding media sites and guest post advertorial, I think best case scenario after May 5th is that articles like these get removed:

hxxps://www.mirror.co.uk/partner-stories/slot-sites-available-uk-2024-31575899
hxxps://www.theargus.co.uk/news/24100330.best-online-slots-uk-2024---top-10-slot-sites-real-money/
hxxps://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24195568.popular-online-slots-real-money-uk-2024-top-10-uk-slot-sites/

There is no context for those, they are simply paid ads stuck into a 'partner stories' or 'news' directory.

But I think these things are here to stay:

hxxps://www.independent.co.uk/betting/casino/best-online-slots-uk
hxxps://www.telegraph.co.uk/betting/casino/slots/best-online-slots-sites/

The Telegraph betting section now has 3,000 pages according to site:hxxps://www.telegraph.co.uk/betting/. It's integrated into the navigation and its content that Telegraph readers who will be interested in. It's written by Gambling.com staff but I'm sure Telegraph oversees editorial same as they do elsewhere on the site.

This kind of affiliate business tagged onto newspapers is just going to get bigger. Look at hxxps://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/ - its huge. And Associated Press have just launched their own affiliate section for personal finance - hxxps://apnews.com/buyline-personal-finance/. Independent has a best buys section - hxxps://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest. Ok, some examples aren’t betting, but the point is, when they are fully integrated with good editorial they are within the rules. Don’t’ see any of that going anywhere with these updates. Just makes getting onto page 1 for competitive keywords another 25% harder … at least.

Like I say, best I’m hoping for is that those rubbish advertorials stuck in ‘news’ directories are removed. Some still hitting page 1 today. But you can’t even be sure of that.

**bpmee** · 21 March 2024, 9:05 am

Great post and agree with your sentiments. I don't think the Gambling .com sponsored work on The Telegraph or Independent will get hit too bad. Maybe it will flux around a couple lower positions, but certainly not banished for good.

Really sucks because those sites aren't newspapers anymore, they're newsvertorials.

**nwalker** · 21 March 2024, 1:10 pm

I certainly hope the spam sites are dealt with.

My gut and what i'm seeing tells me that we're just seeing the beginning of sites with lots of authority branching out and monetising that authority more - be it from Gambling, Tech, Finance or any other veritcal of affiliation. They would be silly not to sweat the assets they have. I don't like it because of the impact it's having on affiiliates all over, but I understand why.

We just need to keep evolving our products and the channels we use to get traffic.

**Former Member 21** · 22 March 2024, 6:15 am

Now that the spam update is finished, those of us who didn't get hit can finally breathe a sigh of relief, at least for a while. I'd be very interested to see who got clapped and how they're dealing with it.

**cashspins** · 22 March 2024, 7:44 pm

The spam update is complete but many of the sites mentioned in this thread are not spam, but parasite. That part of the update is complete in early May.

**bpmee** · 24 March 2024, 4:03 pm

Yes -- they also have exclusive partnerships with major media, newspapers, and tv stations around the world. In addition to parasite SEO, the partnerships seem to require that journalists link to their sites in ordinary articles. These links are actually better, IMHO.

Will be interesting to see if they are punished for using major media as a big PBN. However I'm not optimistic, because there would be too much collateral damage.

The spam update definitely devalued links and many decent sites took big hits.

**wonderpunter** · 24 March 2024, 5:32 pm

I dont think we are even near done, not sure about you but from 5+ in the results all i see is pure spam, everyone else including legit competition not showing, just this junk . google claims to eliminate 40% spam, thats a lot. right now all i see is spam and the parasites but no actual expert sites that actually play casinos. just a lot of strange results
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**econfox** · 26 March 2024, 4:19 pm

Off topic but Techopedia has been brought up several times.
The site is lieing in its Mybookie advertising.
It says that Mybookie is available in all 50 states.
What makes it pathetic is that the "article " has a fact checker listed
hxxps://www.techopedia.com/gambling/mybookie

**bpmee** · 27 March 2024, 9:15 am

Originally Posted by econfox

What makes it pathetic is that the "article " has a fact checker listed

The fact checker thing is nonsense some publisher started a few years ago. It gives the appearance of quality and editorial review, meant to satisfy EEAT and build trust with readers. In some cases there are legitimate fact checkers, particularly on medical information sites.

However Techopedia probably whipped up some code to display an author name with a stock image photo. Techopedia is an expired/acquired domain name and content farm on steroids.

In other news, my own site has taken a hit. And I still see others whose work I really respect also down a bit.

Now, it looks like some of my pages are getting "reranked". Sudden pops from nowhere to top 50 for competitive terms. That's not high enough to make any money, but it's surprising. Overall KW volume down still.

The few winners I see can't be pure white hat. Will be very interesting to see what happens next.

**juliattard** · 28 March 2024, 7:47 am

if 40% of unhelpful content will actually be reduced in the SERPs, it will make way for high quality and accurate content again. Many SERPs have been flooded with spammy content for too long. Very interested to see the outcome

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