Spam update looks like it's hitting bulk pages
One SEO says the sites getting hit by Google's spam update include ones with a separate page for every phone number and area code. If your pages are written one at a time, this is not about you.
Why your traffic moved
Spam update appears to be hitting mass-produced pages
Early signs point to Google's current spam update (a ranking change aimed at sites breaking its spam rules) landing on sites built from templates. Lily Ray says she is seeing hits on highly templated, programmatic pages, like one page for every phone number or area code. This is one SEO's read on early data, not a Google statement.
Early signs that the current Google Spam update is hitting sites with highly templated, programmatic, (probably) AI-generated pages, like one page for every phone number/area code
Who this affects: Sites with large sets of near-identical pages generated from a template or data list.
- Our take: look for pages that differ only by a swapped word.
Getting into AI answers
People can now ask Google to watch a topic for them
Google switched on monitoring in AI Mode (its chat style search) for everyone worldwide. Robby Stein says you tell it what to look for and Search keeps checking sites, forums, social posts and a shopping catalogue of 60B+ products, then pings you in the Google app.
Who this affects: Anyone whose customers might want alerts about their products, stock or local events.
- Do nothing, this is a feature your customers turn on.
Do not do this
Your rank tracker may be showing a crash that did not happen
The rank tracking glitch has now narrowed to specific tools, with several SEOs reporting fake drops in Ahrefs. JH Scherck says every site his team works with looks like it tanked, but spot checks show rankings are fine. Charles Floate thinks Google is adding anti-scraping measures after losing the SERPAPI court case, though that is his guess.
Every site we work with has "tanked" in Ahrefs, but when we spot check, rankings are fine.
Who this affects: Anyone who watches their Google positions in a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush.
- Search a few of your keywords yourself before believing a drop.
- Check Search Console clicks, which come from Google, not scraping.