This is a question from a user on Reddit called ‘Mrsoglio‘:
My few months old website privatemarkets.world went from 1000 impressions per weekday to 15 after Google released its algo update in December (update on 19-Dec, drop in impressions from 20-Dec). I cant even find my articles on google anymore, which previously ranked top 10. What would you recommend doing?
Variations of this question are as old as Google itself. Help, I’ve lost my rankings, traffic, impressions, what should I do? Google ‘penalties’ have been around since the beginning, although representatives of Google such as John Mueller do their best to deny their existence. There are ‘manual actions‘ for very serious offences, and these are displayed in Google Search Console. But, although often denied by Google, there are also algorithmic penalties that can cause a website to lose ranking positions, or even be relegated to the very back of Google.
Through analysis over the last 20 or so years, I’ve noticed there are four types of algorithmic penalty.
Top three penalty: I’ve seen websites that on paper should be in first position, but they are stuck in 4th. After extensive analysis and research I could only conclude that Google is preventing them from going into the top three. This could be related to over optimisation on page, or on the website and Google has put a red flag next to it. I’ve seen websites stuck in fourth that had way more content, links and authority than the websites above. It wasn’t until a cleanup was carried out, such as removing pages or reducing keywords that suddenly the website jumped into first. Now, the debate on whether this is a penalty or not is arguable, but in my eyes it is. Adding more content and gaining more links would not move the website higher, it was only de-optimisation that eventually did the trick.
Page one penalty: Similar to the above, I’ve had websites stuck at the top of page two, when they had enough content, links and authority to be in first position. I had it with a new client I inherited who had quite a spammy backlink profile and their previous SEO agency had been buying links. They didn’t have a major penalty where they lost all ranking positions or received a manual action, but they were stuck at the top of page two for their main target keyword. All we could do was disavow all the spammy backlinks and focus on creating high quality content and links. Nothing seemed to work and they were on top of page two for 6 months or more, but then one day out of nowhere, they were in first position. Now, this tells me there was some mechanism in place preventing them from going on to page one. When this mechanism (penalty?) was lifted, they went straight into first, where they should have been all along.
Page 100 penalty: This is for serious offences that haven’t got a manual action. A website can effectively be ‘de-indexed’ or reduced to almost zero visibility without getting a manual action. I’ve seen this numerous times and again, is proof to me that algorithmic penalties exist. It could be related to link spam, or issues related to ‘Panda‘ or other content based algorithms. Websites that find themselves in this position will have a long road back and it’s not something to be taken lightly.
So, the question is, what to do when you see something like this?
There are a few key things to note in the question by this user:
- My few months old website
- Went from 1000 impressions per weekday to 15
- Google algorithm update 19-Dec, drop in impressions from 20-Dec
- Can’t find my articles on Google, which previously ranked top 10
Firstly, a few months old website is not going to get much traction on Google. I have seen new websites have an initial boost, a kind of honeymoon period, where new content has ranked quite well for a week, or even a month, but then it’s dropped down to where it ‘deserves’ to be according to the algorithm. Whether Google do this on purpose we will never know for sure, but I’ve seen it enough times to know that it’s a ‘thing’.
Secondly, there is a ‘freshness’ part of the algorithm. This is where fresh content can get an initial boost, before dropping down again.
Freshness systems
We have various “query deserves freshness” systems designed to show fresher content for queries where it would be expected. For example, if someone is searching about a movie that’s just been released, they probably want recent reviews rather than older articles from when production began. For another example, ordinarily a search for “earthquake” might bring back material about preparation and resources. However, if an earthquake happened recently, then news articles and fresher content might appear. – Google
So, this could explain having an initial boost and then dropping again.
Thirdly, was the Google Spam Update 19 December 2024, coincidence? I tend to not believe in coincidences where Google is concerned, and although in this case it could be related to freshness and the fact it’s a new website, it could indeed have been hit by Google’s Spam Update. Spam updates by Google used to be mainly focused on links.
Link spam was a huge part of SEO up to 2012 and beyond, and Google have had widespread updates to stamp this out. Since the rise of ChatGPT however, I’ve noticed a trend in Google updates focused on spammy ‘AI generated?’ content.
The Helpful Content Update released in August 2022 (coincidently, just before ChatGPT went viral), focuses on ‘people-first content’. This means it wants to know who created the content and why. There have been a few updates to this algorithm since 2022 and since 2024 we have been seeing various ‘Spam’ updates.
My hunch is they know it is only two easy for anyone to generate large volumes of content using ChatGPT or Claude. To combat this, they have put multiple algorithmic checks in place, hence ‘helpful content’ and an update to their Spam policies:
Scaled content abuse
Scaled content abuse is when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users. Examples of scaled content abuse include, but are not limited to: “Using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users.” – Google
The user in question doesn’t say how they are creating their content and how much they are creating. If they are using ChatGPT or something similar, and creating far more content than they would be able to without these tools, then maybe they have been flagged as spam.
So, what should they do?
To convince Google you’re not just churning out content for SEO, you need to focus on who you are as an entity. If you have a good reputation, then you will get away with far more.
You need to ensure your name as an author is recognised on the Web. Get featured in as many places as possible. Gain high authority links from trusted website. Gain reviews on recognised platforms. Focus on E-E-A-T. Ensure you understand your audience and create content that is genuinely helpful to them.
If you aren’t doing any of these then I would say you need to dramatically slow down or stop your content creation, because you’re only going to dig a much deeper hole.
Good luck!
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