🏁

​The March Core Update finished on 19th April. Google just didn't update their dashboard or tell us for another week, nobody knows why, it's annoying and we are still seeing volatility as the ripples of the update move over the web.

🔍

​ChatGPT may be launching a search feature, according to rumours started because OpenAI's recent SSL certificate logs revealed they have setup search[dot]chatgpt[dot]com

🛍️

​There is mounting evidence that Amazon and other e-commerce sites are filling positions for queries traditionally held by affiliate-style websites such as "best" queries, with sites like TIME and UGC on Forbes dropping.

📰

​Google Publisher Center to stop allowing you to add publications. Instead, Google will automatically add eligible publishers and will eventually remove those publishers not eligible.

💰

​Google's Q1 earnings call announced strong revenue growth at almost the same time as a scathing write-up by Ed Zitron claiming Google's ad department is having a negative impact on organic to make more money.

📊

​47% of the sources Google's SGE pulls from are in the top 10 traditional search results is one of 11 insights according to a new analysis of 500,000 SGE queries by Tomasz Rudzki.

🕷️

​Google updated their Googlebot and crawler documentation to add a range of IPs for bots triggered by users of Google products that they don't have direct control over.

💩

​Unfortunately for the internet, services that are using AI to spam Reddit to promote products are now becoming commonplace, exploiting Google's surging preference for showing "the front page of the internet".

JS bookmarklet to access cache links

Google's 'retired' web cache functionality still works if you know the correct URL structure. AJ Kohn whipped up some JS bookmarklets to do it for you to do just this 🤓

Cache link dates are not first indexed dates!

If you do use the Google cache: viewer, keep in mind that the "snapshot" date provided is the last time the cache was updated. It does not reflect the date/time the page was originally indexed. I've seen this cause confusion before!

Migrations to new domains may be more risky now

Do you really need to migrate domain? Site migrations always carry risk. In my opinion, something within the last 12 months of Google algorithm updates has made domain migrations much more risky than they have been previously. 📉

Apart from the recent WooCommerce > Woo migration that was reverted after 5 months (pictured). I've had 3 websites reach out in the last 2 months that have experienced big drops after domain migrations - and other seasons pros like Abby Gleason have experienced the same.

I have some theories, but I am fairly certain it is down to how Google is now assessing sites, brands and domains.

Single subdomains are okay :)

There is nothing wrong with using a subdomain (www is a subdomain!). However, in my experience, spreading a website over multiple subdomains will make it less visible than if it's all in the same place.

Google has some metrics which are applied at a subdomain level.

Have a site migration "Plan B"

if you think a migration you're doing might be risky, it's worth remembering: "A plan without a plan B is a bad plan" 😅

Having some criteria for success defined prior to the migration, as well as what the agreed thresholds and actions are can be really helpful. This might be something as simple as:

"If we lose >25% of organic traffic after 6 months, we will reverse the domain migration"

Yes, that's not a situation you want to be in - but that's why it is worth a little planning!

Having these things planned means everyone can discuss and agree with a level head what the prudent steps might be. If you don't make this plan, it can cause undue stress when stakeholders are trying to make decisions under pressure, perhaps with incorrect expectations.

Top Core Updates referrer leaderboard

A big thank you to our top referrers, who have signed up over 10 people to the Core Updates newsletter, go follow them!

🥇 MJ Cachón Yáñez (LinkedIn / X)

🥈 Lidia Infante (LinkedIn / X)

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Got any feedback?

Hey did you read this far? Fuuu.. Thanks! If you have any feedback, I'd always love to hear it - just hit reply and I'll be sure to read it.

~Mark Williams-Cook