4 PROVEN Steps To Beat Google Updates (Ep. 332)

Get the NEW Content Audit Blueprint as soon as it lands! 🔥👇
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Google just released a fat core update and all the rules you know about SEO are about to change again. As Google has already started de-indexing what they deem to be low quality sites, content auditing has never been more important.
It's the process that might save you from an extinction event during the next update, or could resurrect your site if you've already been affected. Plus, it's the only process that's consistently shown results for websites affected by previous large updates like Panda, medic, spam and core updates.
So in this episode, we dive into what this latest core update means for SEO practices, and break down exactly what you need to do to curate content that will keep Google - and you - happy.
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A special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, Digital PR Agency Search Intelligence:
search-intelligence.co.uk/
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Check out our full breakdown of the latest March 2024 core update 👇
• New Core Update: This ...
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Timestamps
00:00 Intro
03:47 How Google works (for context)
25:33 The content auditing process
28:17 What we did at Authority Hacker
33:13 Step 1 - Collect a list of all your indexed pages
34:22 Step 2 - Import your list into the Notion template
35:50 Step 3 - Grade your pages like Google
49:23 Step 4 - Make decisions based on your gradings
56:09 How often should you run this process?
57:09 At what stage does this become relevant?
57:55 Can I outsource this work?
59:12 Do I need to go through ALL of my pages?
01:00:26 How does this impact topical authority?
01:04:13 Should I change direction?
01:06:26 Good news for AH Pro members
01:09:09 Wrap up

[@FeryKaszoni]

I’ve listened to so much Authority Hacker podcast lately that I’ve started having Gael’s accent when I speak (just a slight shift from my Hungarian accent)😅🙌 Great content, honest and in-depth discussion, I’ve listened to this while driving to office this morning 👌

[@CorinneSegura]

i start moving my head back and forth after watching gael

[@equinoxb8711]

I have to use subtitles 😭

[@olliep8117]

Another thing that's just come to me as you mentioned that "qualifier" in the algo is the entire concepts of "topical authority" and "helpful content" are contradictory and catch us in a double bind. Google says they want "topical authority" - which I understand as covering a topic on your site pretty thoroughly and comprehensively, so it's kind of a mini resource on that topic and readers don't need to go anywhere else to get the info they need. So we do that, and produce pretty complete topical clusters for a few topics. And then Google's algo turns around and says "ah, you've too much content on your site and we don't think some of it is 'helpful', so we're de-ranking the whole lot" Which is it Google? Do you want comprehensive topical coverage or not? It's like we can't fulfil one of these principles without breaking another one. Again, I don't think there's any way smaller sites can win with Google at the moment. UPDATE - the guys did cover this exact issue around the 1 hr mark. The "write fewer articles of higher quality" makes sense. Basically, even if we know there's loads of keywords we COULD answer and fill in gaps in the search results, we just have to pick the juiciest ones and ignore the rest. In other words, kind of limit ourselves and not serve the ends users of search engines by NOT writing some articles we could write, just to not annoy Google by producing too much content. Shows the ridiculous, inverted world we're currently living in in SEO right now.

[@TB-zt6hs]

No one knows how to beat Google updates anymore. Everything is just guessing

[@AdamWagner-uo2zh]

Exactly, I see a lot of guru's called so SEO specialists talking about how to do that and this but in the end they never really can't know exactly what google is doing and will do.. its guessing 😅

[@dinorossi6611]

Yup. Exactly. And they are all just recycling each other's prophecies and nonsense.

[@marianSEO563]

Bingo! Just influencers make money off of it.

[@10pesosand25centavos]

You can't beat the house. Too bad Google's the most used search engine. Best way to win is to make it on par with Bing.

[@olliep8117]

I'm writing this right at the start of the podcast, as one of many fed up bloggers right now. I'll see if the show changes my mind, but right now for me: The point is, there is no point right now in SEO for small sites. I just think that Google does not want smaller sites appearing in SERPs right now, whether their content is helpful or not. I've just had a site smashed 50%+ that is literally one of the purest examples of first person experience and adding value to the SERPs. I'm starting to think we're kinda being led on a wild goose chase with all these concepts like "topical authority", "write for people", "helpful content" blah blah blah. I just think that no matter what we do, Google has smaller sites in their crosshairs, regardless of how conscientious and helpful we are with our content. I really hate what's going on in SEO at the moment.

[@sathya1495]

DO SEO THEN

[@mat4042]

Agree, it's ridicoulous. I love AH guys, but they are no where near what is going on. Whole AH concept is put down the drain with last G updates.

[@qartheros]

Was your experience more interesting/insightful than those of the other pages ranking?

[@olliep8117]

More than that, my blog was the ONLY site online doing what I'm doing for that particular niche. And based on personal experience, 10+ years. Even the traditional method of finding an underserved niche and filling the search results online that no one else has filled yet, is being phased out. You have to limit the content you write and actively choose NOT to answer some longer tail keywords, and just pick the juiciest ones and produce fewer articles. The end results - search engine users don't get properly served. Google has turned SEO in a completely ridiculous, inverted, counter-intuitive mess with these updates. @@qartheros

[@itswesleyonline]

@@qartherosthe answer to this is always “Yes everyone is rubbish and mine is the best” and usually it’s not true 😂. More often than not, the harder people cry about a Google update the worse the website was 😅

[@simon.stjohn]

Excellent video, and unlike some who say the video is too long, I think the detail and unscripted format brings more insights and useful gems. Thank you!

[@AuthorityHacker]

Much appreciated!

[@vinces5761]

Excellent video.Could you make a video on how to prune content the right way with google search console. I don't want to deindex good posts. Thanks again guys.

[@CorinneSegura]

but how is mark doing??

[@BellyBlissBelle-fu9ry]

This is great information, thank you. Content pruning has always helped me in the past. I have a travel site, and my question is after the last few Google updates, I added lots of personal travelogue-type stories with original photography (so I'm not just chasing keywords). Although these posts could be deemed fairly thin (as I didn't want to waffle on), should I keep these in or delete these?

[@vladyslavdmytruk8659]

How to act when i have like 95% of news content and only 5% of affiliate focused pages. Should i focus only on aff pages and dont look at tons of news wich is wont be producing any traffic anymore?

[@gabrielacovay]

I have the content audit checklist they guys speak of in this video and I have to say it’s is so detailed and helpful!! If you want to recover from HCU and bullet proof yourself against future algo updates do this audit now

[@kbm125]

have you actually seen a recovery?

[@katiecaftravel]

I don't understand how people are making audit checklists without any metric of what works and doesn't work. There's no recorded example of a recovery, so this audit checklist means, what?

[@TravelswithTedRV]

When’s the blueprint going to be available? You said Monday but it’s still says wait list

[@philrendell1767]

When you say no index a page, due you mean just for google or all search engines?

[@AlexaWilliamsMeisler]

I've signed up for the free version of Ahrefs. Can someone tell me how to run the report to see all indexed pages?

[@davidcruickshank5913]

I remember ​​John Mueller saying "Use affiliate links if you must, but don't be an affiliate!" That sentiment appears to have been integrated into recent Google updates. Because affiliate websites are inherently separated from the direct quality control, fulfillment, customer service, and after-sales support of the products they promote, Google's algorithms will assign them a lower trust rating. If you have built a website purely to generate revenue from affiliate links and adverts and then been hit with the HCU, then it is unlikely the website will recover. I suggest that ​​the structure of affiliate websites may inherently limit their ability to meet Google's highest standards for trustworthiness, impacting their visibility in search results. Unless Google changes its philosophy, the current niche site business model will become increasingly difficult.

[@EasyandDelish]

Is there a plugin or any other tool to de-index a bunch of posts without having to go over one by one? 😊

[@kristur]

Hey guys, thanks for this - very informative. One question came to mind, what about optimizing assets in the media library, would that be positive karma towards the god of G? I mean, images are hosted on urls, crawled and indexed...

[@AuthorityHacker]

I guess it can contribute a little bit but as long as your images are optimised you should be fine.

[@cravetheplanet]

Would you prune right in the middle of update if you got hit algorithmicly?

[@AuthorityHacker]

If you got a manual penalty, yes, if not, I'd wait until the update is over.

[@peterpanic5052]

I got the butter and the money for the butter from this video

[@diazo5679]

I purchased the course. It is a great course, that goes into every detail in-depth. I only wish it was in English as I struggle so hard to understand it. I try to get enough to get the gist of what he is trying to say. It really gets bad when he stars to drift off of trying to articulate his speech and degenerates into a slur. I need to watch much more of it at one setting…..but the speech just wears me out and I just rest for the day.

[@ankitsheoranweb]

Link is not working

What about not indexed pages ? Noindex them ?

[@AuthorityHacker]

You could but if Google has already stopped indexing them, I'm not sure it will make a big difference.

[@CNEF]

thank you

[@andreisaioc]

Got affected a bit, and i had maybe 20% of the content with AI, but with human corrected AI parts. So the traffic has gone 20% up and down in the past few days, we will see how it is by next month. But starting a content audit already

[@AuthorityHacker]

Good luck to you!

[@olliep8117]

@57:10 re: newer sites and wait 2 years - I'd have to disagree from my own experience. Just had a new site smashed 50%+ that is barely 6 months old and was doing great as well. A very small batch of content 10-15 posts was 301 redirected from an old domain, but all of the rest was published recently. Made sure to build out topical clusters 1 by 1, and site was doing great until March 6th. All sites, including new ones, are vulnerable. I think a new site gets a grace period of a few months maximum, if that, nowadays.

[@qartheros]

This is what Gael was talking about in the beginning. There's the legacy algorithm which is easy to optimise for (so you were growing), then there are the big updates that will come along and RIP you. This is the first big update that's hit your site.

[@olliep8117]

That point was interesting, but the point I was making was the length of time (grace period) a new site gets. Around the 57 minute mark, they say leave it 2 years before worrying about this stuff with a new site, but my personal experience says no, you get 2 months maximum grace period, if that. You need to worry about helpful content updates literally as soon as you launch a new site nowadays. No grace period anymore. @@qartheros

[@LinoWalker]

Well, my content audit is going to be easy, because Google just stopped sending me traffic altogether. And the site was already struggling.

[@proteacher4980]

😂

[@leandrosantorsola684]

I love you Gael. You should play Baldurs Gate and the Fallout Series, I know you would LOVE them.

[@user-rz6dt7kx1i]

Wow! So you are saying websites build with years of hard work is going to be unindexed just because Google has a lot of these websites? What next, a subscription service to be on Google search index. The higher the plan the better ranking. Huh!

[@PaulVoorberg]

Firey meatball incoming 😅

[@AuthorityHacker]

When it’s Mexican day at the Ikea restaurant

[@PaulVoorberg]

@@AuthorityHackerkzbin.info/www/bejne/jJLUlYSeqtuDn5o

[@samobrien297]

Can i have some of what Ferry is smoking?

[@FeryKaszoni]

Haha I just have lots of coffee with Link Juice in it 😅 🙌

[@silverbackag9790]

I will never order links via Search Intelligence due to their annoying as fuck ads.

[@pmich8913]

Little stupid voice “nenenene ne ne nenene”

[@CorinneSegura]

i like to think google uses gael's shit site®algorithm

[@rkem1000]

I wanted to watch the whole video, but it's hard to follow. The speaker jumps around a lot, making it difficult to understand. He speaks perfect English, but he talks way too fast for most people. I can't catch the main message of the video! No one knows how Google works behind the scenes. Just focus on creating valuable content that helps solve people's problems. Many websites out there don't offer real value and are filled with adds and popups. So, don't worry too much about what he said. It's all just guesses.

[@NotThatOlivia]

noooo, you want us to believe, that this podcast was "recorded 4hrs before the announcement of the new core update"

[@jimmears]

I'm punching out of your video because too much jibber jabber. 4 P R O V E N ... S T E P S ... That's A L L I W A N T !!!

[@mattJM92]

If you already know what they're talking about in the beginning and you have the context, then you can probably skip to 25:33 :)

[@PazLeBon]

guy dont keep still. try weed

[@livecasinoreports2466]

Guys, as much as i appreciate your opinion and point of view from time to time, as much i start to stop your videos after couple of minutes. One hour is just way to much time. especially because Gal seems to be jumping more and more into the comedic corner. He swallows half of the sentences and mumbles away the other half. Can't you find a way to bring your good messages to people in a different way than in the Saturday evening cinema format????

[@kristur]

Have to disagree, I have no complaints - rock on Gael and Mark!

[@LinoWalker]

If there are any parts of the podcast you aren't interested in, you can hover over the video itself and down where the duration is, you can see the chapters in the video. That way, you can skip to whichever part you think is so going to be the most helpful for you.

[@gabrielacovay]

Disagree! I like this format. Feels like I’m there hanging out with the guys and having a chat! Keeps things fun and less depressing during these depressing times 😂

[@rawfeederlife]

I listen when walking my dogs, doing yard work, or when I'm in traffic. Helps it to go by quickly 😊

[@BibiTheLinkBuilder]

FIRST

[@jimmears]

OH OH Here's a cookie. 🍪

[@BibiTheLinkBuilder]

what kinda cookie @@jimmears