Vlog #224: Glenn Gabe On Fixing Sites Hit By Google Core Updates, Links & Disavow

In part one with Glenn Gabe, we talk about Bing chat and Google Bard and also the use of AI-generated content, in part two we dig more into E-E-A-T and how AI tools may replace us all. In the previous video with Glenn Gabe we spoke about Google core updates, and here we talk about what you can do to recover and how you fix sites impacted by these Google broad core updates? We also spoke about links and disavow.

You need to look at content, user experience, ads, affiliates, and more. Glenn said the biggest issue is thin content, which is not short content, but content that is not helpful. Thin content at scale is a huge problem. The recommendation is to delete content or vastly update that content. Glenn said the person who is writing that content now needs to write better, higher-quality content.

Glenn said when it comes to old content, just don’t delete it. If the content is high quality, leave that content. But if the content is not relevant or good anymore then you can remove it. Don’t just look at how it ranks or how much traffic it gets, it should be a manual process.

User experience is an issue, aggressive ads, aggressive affiliate stuff, and more user experience are big issues with these core updates, and you need to improve that user experience. He also said the deception aspect is a big deal because if you anger users, that can be really bad.

Another issue is that there can be technical issues that may end up causing content issues. So while technical issues usually are not a core update issue, but if it generates low cruft content issues, that can lead to an issue in the long run. The same with “no results” found issues with pages. Technical issues are one of the easier areas for people to fix.

Also, with broad core updates, there can be relevancy updates, and there is nothing you can do about that. One day your site ranked well for a query, but your page is no longer relevant for that query.

External links usually are not a broad core update issue. Usually, your external links don’t factor into these broad-core updates. Links are essential, but you don’t need a ton of links to rank well, nor do links hurt you so much these days. It is not all about the links, but yes, links are very important, but it is not the end all, Glenn said.

In the old days, you could fix any SEO problem by throwing links at the issue. Now, it doesn’t work that way anymore. In fact, Google has been downplaying links for some time now.

We then spoke about the disavow tool, and Google has gone on record about not using it, and Glenn agrees, do not use it. Google has buried the tool in Search Console for a reason, Glenn added. He thinks Google can nuke the tool and maybe even this year, especially with SpamBrain improving and these link spam updates, at least he hopes.

We then tangent back into AI, content generation, AI search, and AI art. We rounded out about if Bing can take market share from Google over the coming months/years.

You can learn more about Glenn Gabe on Twitter at @glenngabe, on Mastodon, on LinkedIn and check out GSQI.

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Forum discussion at YouTube.