Posted by January is no time to take your SEO lightly. The year closed with serious changes and announcements by Google and major generative AI players. Catch up on everything that’s happening in this month’s roundup.
In the month’s top stories, you’ll learn how the December spam update ended, see the newest evidence that sites have finally recovered after the August core update, and get a great summary of the tumultuous last year in SEO.
After that, you’ll get plenty more news and analysis. You’ll learn what top SEOs say about how the latest spam update worked, how the final form of SEO may have arrived, how sites are winning with calculators, what the new ChatGPT Search Update means, and more!
Google Search Status Dashboard: The December Spam Update is Over
Google announces that the rollout of the latest Spam Update is complete. It finished on December 26th, about two weeks after it started. This was the 10th spam update, following the most recent one in June.
As usual, Google was tight-lipped about what exact changes were being made. However, you’ll see some analysis of what happened in a few upcoming roundup pieces for this month.
This update provoked much discussion among SEOs while it was rolling out. Some community members were posting traffic drops as bad as 50% in the first few days. Others reported that the spam update undid progress they had recently made after the last core update.
Others reported more positive signs, including some of the first recoveries the site owners had seen since March.
Spam update recoveries weren’t the only kind of recoveries being tracked by SEOs this month. There’s also fresh data showing sites can and are recovering from the August Core Update. In the next story, you’ll learn about the data behind these recovery stories and hear why it may have been possible for these sites.
LinkBuilding HQ brings you this fresh look at recoveries from core updates. This video summarizes and links to some of the latest research on recovering sites that has been performed by major SEOs.
First, you’ll get a quick refresher on the original impact of the August update. In a referenced study that included more than 55,000 sites monetized with Mediavine, Raptive, or Amazon Associates, a researcher found that 53% of sites experienced traffic increases, while 47% of all sites experienced traffic losses.
Now, there is proof that sites can recover and that they can do even more. Some sites you’ll learn about have shown signs of recovery for the first time in 11 months, and the possible scale of recovery may surprise you.
Glenn Gabe’s research is first. In it, he covers his list of 390+ sites he has been tracking. 91 sites out of this list have experienced notable recovery, and he provides some data for you in his X thread. His thread includes some helpful graphics on the sites that recovered (and the ones that didn’t)
Wrapping up 2024 | Search Off the Record
AI and the work of the AI team were among the major topics covered. In one example, the hosts discuss whether SEO is dying and being replaced by AI. They all seem very skeptical that SEO is going anywhere. As one host quips, “SEO has been ‘dying’ since 2001.”
They discuss questions that keep coming up at conventions and how audience members with a growing interest in AI want to know about topics such as hallucinations, retrieval-augmented generative AI, and other emerging technologies.
Other topics in the long conversation include the future of javascript, which is used to turn websites into apps, using LLMs to write code, and NotebookLM. Check out the entire video to learn more about how some of Google’s influential leaders see the future.
Next, you’ll return to spam update data with fresh analysis. One SEO will examine whether the update was useful for dealing with search spam.
Many SEOs also reported problems with existing pages being de-listed and deranked from search engine results. As Barry notes, search results were highly volatile nearly every day of the rollout and then again for several days after the update was reported to have ended.
Barry judged this to be one of the biggest spam updates to land yet. He recorded many complaints from white-hat SEOs who denied using spam techniques and had to deal with serious drops during the vital holiday shopping period.
He shows you multiple cases of “dangerous” spam sites that benefited from the update. The conclusion seems to be that this update appears less effective at targeting spam than the previous ones despite the large size.
It’s unclear if Google is still tweaking this update behind the scenes despite the announcement you read about at the top. If you need some new techniques to avoid getting targeted by spam updates, why not try the “final form” of SEO?
This is the FINAL FORM of SEO
I figured out how to make more money with SEO than any other method. Would you believe that it’s angel investing? As odd as it sounds, I’ve earned some of my biggest paychecks partnering with businesses to provide funding and expertise in exchange for a share of the growth.
SEOs have an amazing position with companies that lack the expertise they provide. It’s possible (I’ve done it) to get equity and shares without putting any money upfront. This works like a joint venture between partners.
Unlike typical angel investors, SEO investors get to start with companies that already have traction, sales, market fit, and all the other factors that make a business a worthy investment.
8 Websites Driving Insane Traffic Using… Calculators
Chris Haines brings you this look at how calculators are some of the most powerful content you can create. To help you understand, Chris takes you through 8 examples of calculators and shows you how they are generating millions of views for their sites.
The examples show that this method is effective across some of the highest-value niches.
Calculators are huge in the finance niche, for example. Calculators that cover mutual fund returns, mortgages, and tax deductions from paychecks attract millions of visitors every month.
Calculators also perform very well in the health and wellness niche. Due to the traffic they bring in, the calorie counters on the list have an estimated value of $100K+. Pregnancy and ovulation calculators have also successfully pulled in hundreds of thousands of viewers a month.