Google Update News, The Future of Creativity on the Web, the Guy Who Killed Google Search

What you need to know

The March Core Update is officially done rolling out.

Long story short: more destruction for content sites.

If you survived then congrats. You’re definitely one of the Few, especially if you were hit by the HCU. Most sites that got crushed by the HCU also got decimated by the Core Update. This one seems like it didn’t do anything other than tighten the screws a little bit (ok a lot).

Google definitely wants to kill off the entire business model (other than major media companies and a few extremely high quality independent sites).

I haven’t been posting as frequently because I’m balls deep in the middle of working on something that (according to chatter from the SEO trenches) could turn things around for sites that were hit (hint: it involves disavowing links).

I’ll have a guide soon.

The update is dead, long live the update

Of course we already know that the next update is right around the corner. An update targeting “site reputation abuse” aka Parasite SEO is dropping on May 5th.

To my knowledge this is the first time Google’s given sites a warning period (two months ffs) before an update drops, but big publishers get to play by different rules I guess.

It is what it is.

I’m very skeptical about Google’s ability/willingness to destroy large name brand publishers, but I could be wrong about that. Either way we’re about to find out.

Interesting articles and videos

• Death of the Follower and the Future of Creativity on the Web - by Jack Conte from YouTube.com: Speech from the founder of Patreon about how changes in the algorithms on the web are hurting creativity. Interesting trip down memory lane to the 00’s days when the internet had more Wild West vibes. I miss it.

• Google search boss warns employees of ‘new operating reality,’ urges them to move faster - from CNBC: Google is freaking out about their ability to compete (probably for the first time ever). Good read for a bit of schadenfreude.

• The Man Who Killed Google Search - by Edward Zitron from Wheresyoured.at: Prabhakar Raghavan previously ran Yahoo into the ground as their Head of Search (30.4% to 13.4% decline in market share). He’s currently doing the same at Google. If you’re wondering why G has gone downhill in recent years, now you know.

From the archive (2022 edition)