The Google Spam Update Is Done And It Was A Bloodbath For Some
Editor Note: As you might have noticed we've moved to Ghost. Please bear with us as we go through the migration.
Google's March spam update has finished. And for some it was a complete bloodbath and for others not so much.
The social media platforms were a flutter this month documenting how some sites that relied too heavily on artificial intelligence for content took the biggest blow. Some even were deindexed.
This being said, I'm not against using AI to help you write your copy for your site, but for crying out loud, just use AI as a starting point. Then expound upon what it gives you and make it your own.
I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, but I still see people bragging about how they used AI to write their whole site and didn't do much to change anything — you know who you are😉. This is risky at the minimum and to be quite frank, STUPID😜.
AI can be a time saver, but only if it doesn't create more work and a headache later down the line.
This past month I heard all over social media about sites getting manual actions placed on their site. A manual action is when an actual human dings your site because it was in violation of Google's guidelines. So, in this case the machines can't be blamed for the decrease in rankings or deindexing.
Over the 50+ sites that I'm monitoring, some of which I'm actively involved in the SEO, didn't get hit. You know why? They are writing original content and only using AI as a tool, not a replacement for the human writer!
In the end, figuring out what piece of content got you in trouble is going to be the key to get yourself back in Google's good graces. The problem is that many of these alerts from Google haven't be specific or helpful. So here's a little pour out of my beer for anyone who has to figure it out. God Speed. You'll need it.
Were you hit by the Google spam update? What happened, hit reply and let me know the details.
The Latest From Entrepreneur's Enigma
Don's a local Startup celebrity, he is one of the organizers/head mentors of the Founder Institute Keystone Chapter. I've very active with FI Keystone. It's a great organization.
Web Jawn
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Oh great! Just what we need. 😒😜 - X Cancels Content Deal with Don Lemon as Musk Continues To Censor Content He Doesn’t Like
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If you didn't have enough of a reason to leave Twitter. Also why are journalist still on that cesspool of a platform? 😡 - Instagram Updates Hashtag Search To Broaden Discovery
More discovery is always a good thing. And Instagram is clearly take it seriously! 👍 - How to block Threads on Mastodon
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Web Find
The Fediverse Report is a great newsletter/site that covers all things going on in the Fediverse!
Podcast Suggestion
Hard Fork is a tech podcast from the New York Times and Platformer. Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, hash out the latest news. Great discussions ensue and it's an enjoyable hour-long podcast. Check out here.
That's It For This Week! Keep Rocking It!
-Seth
