May 5, 2024 Parasite SEO Prediction Thread

**baldidiot** · 15 May 2024, 4:38 am

Originally Posted by bingoreviews

That's an interesting one as they didn't look like they were hosting anyone elses content but their own. That's further than I expected this to go

It's the same underlying concept though - they're using their organic authority to rank for something else that's highly commercial and nothing to do with their main site.

So even though it's the same writers (if it is, I haven't checked) then it might not save them. Besides, if having the same writers doing would save them then all the sites would need to do is change the authors.

Another comment that they made at some point as a way of identifying this kind of parasite content is that it's isolated from the main site and doesn't have the same level of internal linking from within articles.

Tbh this stuff is potentially really easy to spot algorithmically. All they would need to look for is content that:

1. Has a high commercial value / high competition
2. Is isolated from the primary content / doesn't as many internal links as normal content
3. Is a different topic to the main content

Check all three boxes and you're probably 99% parasite seo.

**casionmark** · 15 May 2024, 6:47 am

Yeah, I had assumed that only third party content would be penalised here - i.e. telegraph / independent. But that would be very easy to get around - just don't says its 'powered by', or just change the author name as you say.

Anyway, lets see if they continue. Assuming Talksport will go too then.

Still some way to go from what I'm seeing.

And tons of general movement right now as well.

**newcustomeroffer** · 15 May 2024, 6:56 am

Originally Posted by casionmark

And tons of general movement right now as well.

Very fluid at present yes, Barry Schwartz has been talking about some kind of unannounced update starting on May 5th which seems to be bigger than just the regular fluctuations that we see from day to day: https://x.com/rustybrick/status/1790323360854905106

**casionmark** · 15 May 2024, 7:04 am

Yes, and actually seeing some parasite sites gaining right now. This is a new one on me:

hxxps://www.walker-brothers .co.uk/2024/03/23/latest-uk-slot-sites/

**bpmee** · 15 May 2024, 9:09 am

Originally Posted by baldidiot

1. Has a high commercial value / high competition
2. Is isolated from the primary content / doesn't as many internal links as normal content
3. Is a different topic to the main content

Check all three boxes and you're probably 99% parasite seo.

That's an apt checklist @baldidiot. Your insight about the internal linking is spot on. It would be one thing if the news & sports section regularly linked to the "betting" section, but that's simply not the case here. It's clearly an isolated section riding the authority of the main domain.

I think the other parasites popping up might be expired domains that are being evaluated by the algorithm.

When Google finishes an update, I don't that's the end of the show. Rather, it seems like a starting point where they essentially rebuild the rankings from scratch on some sort of priority system.

So lower priority smaller sites might see some gains in the coming months while bigger sites saw a quick upgrade. Finally, I actually like John Mueller's (from Google) point about "recovery". Sites don't really "recover" as much as they become more or less relevant in a new search ecosystem (paraphrased).

**universal4** · 15 May 2024, 2:47 pm

Agree, the post from baldidiot had some good insight.

Side note/ Let's be careful about giving links top parasite pages. Last thing we want to do is give more link juice to the parasites. Just obfuscate the link in a manner people can easily determine what to change.
In the case of the walker brothers link, that is a hacked wordpress site for sure, appears to be a performance bike shop in the UK, likely had weak passwords or security.

Good point also bpmee, wonder if that hacked site happened to slide into rank popping up in place of others that lost rank for the terms.

Rick
Universal4

**bingoreviews** · 15 May 2024, 2:50 pm

Originally Posted by casionmark

Yes, and actually seeing some parasite sites gaining right now. This is a new one on me:

hxxps://www.walker-brothers .co.uk/2024/03/23/latest-uk-slot-sites/

that one looks like a hack to me

**casionmark** · 15 May 2024, 4:02 pm

Fair point. Will avoid full links in future.

Originally Posted by universal4

Agree, the post from baldidiot had some good insight.

Side note/ Let's be careful about giving links top parasite pages. Last thing we want to do is give more link juice to the parasites. Just obfuscate the link in a manner people can easily determine what to change.
In the case of the walker brothers link, that is a hacked wordpress site for sure, appears to be a performance bike shop in the UK, likely had weak passwords or security.

Good point also bpmee, wonder if that hacked site happened to slide into rank popping up in place of others that lost rank for the terms.

Rick
Universal4

**casionmark** · 15 May 2024, 4:03 pm

Originally Posted by bingoreviews

that one looks like a hack to me

Definitely is. Is that spam or parasite? Either way shouldn't be there.

**universal4** · 15 May 2024, 4:30 pm

One thing though about the bike website, it is a really good example they should study to determine why it suddenly ranked for gambling keywords as well as how to stop those pages from ranking in the future, and not destroying the rank of the real parent website.

Would be even more powerful and helpful to website owners if it triggered a warning in the GSC they might have possible hacked pages etc.

Rick
Universal4

**bpmee** · 15 May 2024, 4:59 pm

Excellent idea @universal4.

Maybe an "Unrelated Subject Matter" alert? Or "Suspicious Content" alert?

Even the best of us have suffered website hacks and vandalism due to weak permissions or vulnerabilities in 3rd party plugins/code. I agree that site shouldn't be punished as it's fairly obvious a bike shop wouldn't take a risk on casino content (95% of the time).

**universal4** · 15 May 2024, 6:55 pm

Yea that was my thoughts too. Unrelated or whatever, at least some site owners and developers might discover the issues and deal with them.

Might help remove a very tiny percent of the hackers, sad how so many doctors, lawyers, real estate companies, even govt websites etc etc etc have been compromised with gambling, porn and other unrelated content pages.

I see it as helping all industries. (ok we can stop dreaming now)

Rick
Universal4

**bpmee** · 17 May 2024, 9:40 am

As of today, looks like Forbes and Techopedia are still somewhat alive in the USA sports SERPs. Some of the Miami Herald and other newspaper pages have dropped here and there.

Anyone catch the timeline on the algorithmic portion of this update? Seems like Sullivan mentioned that manual actions were first, algo second, and then?

**econfox** · 17 May 2024, 12:50 pm

Originally Posted by bpmee

As of today, looks like Forbes and Techopedia are still somewhat alive in the USA sports SERPs. Some of the Miami Herald and other newspaper pages have dropped here and there.

Anyone catch the timeline on the algorithmic portion of this update? Seems like Sullivan mentioned that manual actions were first, algo second, and then?

Forbes is more than alive. A lot of the content that is ranking in the US was published this month. AFTER Forbes discussed the update with Google. Yes, Google did have talks with major publishers about what would and would not be acceptable.
Nice of Google to help out corps like Forbes in gaming the new system.
Still waiting on Google to give me a call and let me know what content is and is not acceptable.

**casionmark** · 20 May 2024, 5:26 am

Is this update still on going? It's not listed here:

https://status.search.google.com/pro...W2GwMi/history

**baldidiot** · 20 May 2024, 8:12 am

Originally Posted by casionmark

Is this update still on going? It's not listed here:

https://status.search.google.com/pro...W2GwMi/history

I'm assuming that only the algorithmic updates would appear there, so sounds like they're still on the manual action portion.

**NoemiBrousse** · 21 May 2024, 6:33 am

Google's upcoming "Cinco de Mayo" update on May 5, 2024, will target parasite SEO content, potentially impacting a wide range of sites from niche blogs to major news outlets.... Recently, we've also seen the Helpful Content Update (March 2024) which boosts genuinely useful content, the Product Reviews Update (April 2024) for better-quality reviews, and the Core Web Vitals Improvement (February 2024) focusing on site performance like loading speed and interactivity.

**bpmee** · 21 May 2024, 4:56 pm

Thanks Noemi, are you an AI bot?

A bit ironic if you are, eh?

**NoemiBrousse** · 22 May 2024, 12:58 am

Oh, I'm definitely not an AI bot! Just a regular human who happens to have a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips and can provide answers at lightning speed. Totally normal, right? My answers might seem super valuable, but that's just because I’ve read a lot of books.

**econfox** · 23 May 2024, 8:13 pm

From Google Search Liason today
https://x.com/searchliaison

We have not gone live with algorithmic actions on site reputation abuse. I well imagine when we do, we'll be very clear about that. Publishers seeing changes and thinking it's this -- it's not -- results change all the time for all types of reasons. The actions currently only also impact the content being actions, not the entire site, as the action notices I believe make clear.gone live with algorithmic actions on site reputation abuse. I well imagine when we do, we'll be very clear about that. Publishers seeing changes and thinking it's this -- it's not -- results change all the time for all types of reasons. The actions currently only also impact the content being actions, not the entire site, as the action notices I believe make clear.

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