Google Update - May 27th 2022 - What I Have Noticed

[praetserge]

My site was climbing nicely until the update. Now down 90%. Hoping after the dust settles it recovers but I don't think I have a chance

Not all is lost, I'd like to be optimistic and believe some/many hit websites will recover once this update is finished.

 

[PVD2000]

Not all is lost, I'd like to be optimistic and believe some/many hit websites will recover once this update is finished.

I wish......

 

[welie]

Hey all,

I have a theory based on my site and other sites in my niche that dropped, that I would like to confirm with you guys. For everyone whose site has dropped, were you:

1. Using keywords from People Also Ask (PAA) in your content?
2. How many PAA keywords do you use for a 1000 word article?
3. Does your final article have too many questions in headings (H2/H3/H4)
4. If you look at your final article, does it look like a FAQ-style article?

My theory is that to combat the rise of PAA and/or AI generated sites, the algo now has some sort of a threshold for the number of PAA keywords you can have, and whoever is hit is somehow exceeding this threshold.

Of course, these are completely unsubstantiated claims, but it would be great if we can rule this out.

 

[Sanctioned]

Google doesn't really read your content, so it won't know if it is AI-generated or not. What it does understand though, is the metrics.
Are users spending less than 30 seconds on your site? right to jail.
Are more than 80% of users bouncing? right to jail.

https://tenor.com/view/straight-to-jail-crime-criminal-gif-16779501

 

[praetserge]

Hey all,

I have a theory based on my site and other sites in my niche that dropped, that I would like to confirm with you guys. For everyone whose site has dropped, were you:

1. Using keywords from People Also Ask (PAA) in your content?
2. How many PAA keywords do you use for a 1000 word article?
3. Does your final article have too many questions in headings (H2/H3/H4)
4. If you look at your final article, does it look like a FAQ-style article?

My theory is that to combat the rise of PAA and/or AI generated sites, the algo now has some sort of a threshold for the number of PAA keywords you can have, and whoever is hit is somehow exceeding this threshold.

Of course, these are completely unsubstantiated claims, but it would be great if we can rule this out.

I'm adding PAA stuff to my content but very gently.
1. Yes... somewhat
2. Once... sometimes, just a variation only
3. No... sometimes, I have q&a but completely unrelated to PAA
4. No
I lost impressions and rankings at first (clicks are the same), now, my rankings seem to be recovering but impressions are still falling. Go figure.

 

[Anticitizen1]

Hey all,

I have a theory based on my site and other sites in my niche that dropped, that I would like to confirm with you guys. For everyone whose site has dropped, were you:

1. Using keywords from People Also Ask (PAA) in your content?
2. How many PAA keywords do you use for a 1000 word article?
3. Does your final article have too many questions in headings (H2/H3/H4)
4. If you look at your final article, does it look like a FAQ-style article?

My theory is that to combat the rise of PAA and/or AI generated sites, the algo now has some sort of a threshold for the number of PAA keywords you can have, and whoever is hit is somehow exceeding this threshold.

Of course, these are completely unsubstantiated claims, but it would be great if we can rule this out.

My page that tanked had many h3, h4 tags. Now changed it and pinged through gsc. Lets see what happens.

 

[PVD2000]

If this is just an algorithm update, no penalty as such, updating the content, adding new links, changing site structure so bring it back? In theory.........a link detox to make sure no toxic links and disavow.

 

[Epicster]

Jeez that's brutal.

This is a bad business to be in.

Its like having a shop on the high street and watching someone burn it down.

All you can do is watch.....

All I can expect is a penalty or some dumb fool at google who switched off the rankings.

Never seen such a drop with a core update, I mean not even one page that is fine, Honestly speaking I am laughing more at this nonsense.

 

[Cutoff]

Google want money? Google update is the fast $oluction

 

[BaldHat616]

I'm confused

Across all my sites there was little to no impact yet

Some are legit business sites, some handwritten info content, some Jasper affiliate sites

but nothing happened really

 

[sportsline]

CONTENT IS KING !!! Great content is an important asset. It has the ability to create positive experiences for your potential customers and compel them to come back for more. Content can help educate your audience, ensuring that they're making smart purchasing decisions.

 

[praetserge]

CONTENT IS KING !!! Great content is an important asset. It has the ability to create positive experiences for your potential customers and compel them to come back for more. Content can help educate your audience, ensuring that they're making smart purchasing decisions.

Thank you.
I was posting crap and was wondering what was going on.

 

[kingseo21]

i need high Authority white hat seo backlinks but i see first your backlinks quality

 

[jstover77]

Google is just moving ranking signals around right now, but this one was a huge shift. For example, H2 tags and title tags jumped in importance by 30%. Ranking signals usually don't jump this much. Core updates tend to do this.

Link pruning started about 3 weeks ago. This was big for those of us who build backlinks. Ghost link value go bye-bye.

 

[welie]

I'm adding PAA stuff to my content but very gently.
1. Yes... somewhat
2. Once... sometimes, just a variation only
3. No... sometimes, I have q&a but completely unrelated to PAA
4. No
I lost impressions and rankings at first (clicks are the same), now, my rankings seem to be recovering but impressions are still falling. Go figure.

Thank you. My rankings are yet to recover, so it is possible that your ratio of PAA is acceptable. About the impressions part: I think as long as your traffic returns back to normal, impressions should not matter. If you get the same amount of clicks for lesser impressions, then those lost impressions were anyways of no use.

My page that tanked had many h3, h4 tags. Now changed it and pinged through gsc. Lets see what happens.

Thank you. Please let us know how it goes.

I see the opposite, PAA sites have jumped in traffic, at least for now.

Ah I see. Were you using exact PAA keyword? For example, if the PAA phrase was "do dogs eat spinach", did you use it as it is, or rephrase it to something like "Here's why dogs don't eat spinach"?

I also realized that I myself haven't answered my questions, so here they are:

1. Using keywords from People Also Ask (PAA) in your content? YES
2. How many PAA keywords do you use for a 1000 word article? 3-5, sometimes more
3. Does your final article have too many questions in headings (H2/H3/H4) YES
4. If you look at your final article, does it look like a FAQ-style article? I'd say around 50% of my posts look like FAQ style articles. Sometimes I use schema, sometimes not.

Link pruning started about 3 weeks ago. This was big for those of us who build backlinks. Ghost link value go bye-bye.

Could you elaborate if you don't mind? I literally don't understand any of it

 

[praetserge]

long as your traffic returns back to normal, impressions should not matter. If you get the same amount of clicks for lesser impressions, then those lost impressions were anyways of no use.

Not entirely true... let's say I have pages for medium-hard keywords on page 5 and they were moved to page 10. I can't just jump to page 2-3 all of a sudden so it's definitely a mid-long term pull-back.
I normally have easy, mid, hard keywords...

 

[ranga]

Ah I see. Were you using exact PAA keyword? For example, if the PAA phrase was "do dogs eat spinach", did you use it as it is, or rephrase it to something like "Here's why dogs don't eat spinach"?

I am myself not using PAA much, but I was tracking few PAA auto generated sites and their rankings have increased. all their pages are FAQ type but they are now showing unique content as per copyscape unlike earlier sites which just copied.

 

[wbrooks4]

What about the age of the site? anyone have an older domain that is experiencing drops?

 

[Ita-user]

@homeriscool
We would appreciate if you could answer this.

On my sites I haven't noticed any real change, but some websites I looked at were hit very hard. Specifically one that went from a traffic of over 1.2m to 300k+.

That's the biggest drop I've seen, losing 70+% of traffic.

Mine is the same (Website AGE: 1,5 Years).
I am Really Worried and Sad. Can I ask Something here as I Think Here are Some Big Experts on this Field?

Can (with time) a website RE-GAIN and Grow again?

Thanks to who will answer to me....

 

[HenryObi]

Can (with time) a website RE-GAIN and Grow again?

While I'm no expert, below is my answer:

Yes, some times Google releases updates to fix issues caused by the previous update.

Another thing is, if your site is lacking in one of the areas the update was critical of, you might want to fix that.