algorithm-updates - The Internet Marketing Driver

Wirecutter dropped heavily in search visibility over the past four months – Was it a reviews update, Google’s ‘Starkly different’ algorithm, or was vertical expertise rewarded?

August 18, 2025 Glenn Gabe

While researching reviews last week, I noticed Wirecutter wasn’t ranking as well in Google. And for some queries, they weren’t ranking AT ALL. So I dug in more to better understand their visibility trending in 2025. Note, we’ve had two broad core updates this year, including the March 2025 core update, and then most recently … Read more

The June 2025 Google Core Algorithm Update – Analysis and Findings including HCU(X) surges, AI Overview impact, YMYL volatility, and more

August 1, 2025July 21, 2025 Glenn Gabe

We were due for a broad core update, and a broad core update we received. The June 2025 Google core update was a red-hot update that rolled out on June 30th right before the July 4th holiday weekend. The update took 16 days to fully roll out, which was shorter than Google said it could … Read more

The Forgotten Coupling of clicks and impressions.

The Forgotten Coupling – With AI Overviews Surging in Web Search, Don’t Overlook Image Search, Video Mode, and the News Tab in Search

June 16, 2025June 16, 2025 Glenn Gabe

With the rise and surge of AI Overviews, and soon AI Mode, site owners are dealing with an unprecedented situation from a search traffic standpoint. Impressions in search might be stable, or even increasing, yet clicks might be dropping. And that’s often due to AI Overviews ranking in the SERPs for important queries that typically … Read more

Is it safe to auto-translate content at scale using AI?

Is it safe? Does Google’s evolving view of auto-translated content, and lack of action with Reddit’s AI translations, open the floodgates for site owners?

June 11, 2025May 5, 2025 Glenn Gabe

Update: June 11, 2025Google finally sent me a statement after I asked if they sanctioned the Reddit AI translation situation. I also asked if it was ok now to use AI translations since Reddit was heavily doing that across countries. They have published tens of millions of urls with AI-translated content. Like I originally covered … Read more

How to compare hourly data from Google Search Console via the GSC API and Analytics Edge

How to compare hourly Google Search Console Data (GSC) to track impact from major algorithm updates using the GSC API and Analytics Edge [Tutorial]

April 16, 2025April 15, 2025 Glenn Gabe

When a major algorithm update rolls out, it’s often helpful to view hourly data in Google Analytics to see the impact in near-real time. If a site is impacted heavily (surging or dropping), you can typically see when the update actually lands and the stark difference in traffic when that happens. One of my most … Read more

Reddit AI translations have scaled across languages and Google rankings are booming

June 13, 2025March 27, 2025 Glenn Gabe

But should rankings in Google be surging for that AI translated content? In my post I explain the Reddit surge across countries, the translated content that’s ranking well, what Google’s stance has been about machine translating content, and more. Update: June 12, 2025Google finally sent me a statement about Reddit’s AI translation situation after I … Read more

Mark Zuckerberg about machine learning classifiers.

Mark Zuckerberg Talks Classifiers, Confidence, and Algorithmic Collateral Damage (And it relates to Google Algorithm Updates)

January 16, 2025 Glenn Gabe

A recent appearance by Mark Zuckerberg on the Joe Rogan podcast provides a great explanation of how classifiers, confidence levels, and precision work with machine learning algorithms. He also covered how adjusting confidence can impact the amount of collateral damage occurring when updates roll out. And if you swap “Social” for “Search”, Zuckerberg could be … Read more

Google December 2024 Spam Update Analysis – 5 Case Studies Covering Scaled Content Abuse, AI Content, Doorway Pages, and more

January 7, 2025January 6, 2025 Glenn Gabe

The end of 2024 was a crazy time SEO-wise with Google pushing multiple major updates at the end of the year (and throughout the holiday shopping season). First, we had the November 2024 core update, which rolled out on November 11th and took over three weeks to complete. Then we had one week off before … Read more

Documenting Google’s site-level evaluation and impact on search rankings using the ‘Gabeback Machine’ [Googler Quotes, Videos, Documentation and more]

December 20, 2024November 18, 2024 Glenn Gabe

It’s not like all urls on a site suddenly become low quality overnight… It’s a site-level adjustment that can impact rankings across an entire site. Update: November 19, 2024: Google just updated its “Guide to Search ranking systems” page to include a paragraph right up top about using site-wide signals and classifiers. You can read … Read more

A Nightmare on Affiliate Street – How Google is picking off sites one by one that are violating its ‘Site reputation abuse’ spam policy

October 24, 2024October 24, 2024 Glenn Gabe

Update: I heard from Google’s Danny Sullivan and he confirmed that Google is not testing its ‘Site reputation abuse’ algorithm at this time. So the drops are from other changes that Google is pushing that must be impacting those affiliate directories strongly. Update 2: I just received a response from Google after following up to … Read more

Hijacking The Back Button and SEO: Gaming Navboost, Exploring Google Spam Policies, And What It Might Signal About Your Aggressive Advertising Situation

September 9, 2024September 9, 2024 Glenn Gabe

In an effort to keep users on their sites, some publishers have hijacked the browser back button by providing a feed of articles that drives users to more publisher content, including sponsored content and ads. That’s versus allowing them to return to the sites they visited from… Disabling, or hijacking the back button, is a … Read more