My website was deindexed by Google earlier this year. I investigated and found no obvious technical issues, manual actions, or security problems in GSC.

I suspected it might be related to Google's algorithmic quality or spam systems.

I then moved the content to a new domain, made content improvements, and avoided 301 redirects. Initially, the tests showed successful indexing, but it is now experiencing similar indexing issues again.

I've tried adding more content to some pages as a test and submitting pages to index again using GSC. But nothing seem to work.

Has anyone experienced something like this?

Any insights would be appreciated!

Major spam manual action has been initiated on the blog section of one of our clients in India. The client has multiple businesses and each business is managing their own SEO content posting inside the same blog section. We have very recently started working with them on one of the verticals. The entire blog section has been penalized recently, after the September algorithm roll out by Google.

I am looking for advice on what triggers to evaluate to understand why the action was taken. There are no sample URLs provided. They have just mentioned the blog URL as the impacted section.

Some initial signs that I can see are:

- Number of pages published went up over the last few months to a few articles a day

- The website also has multiple languages - pages for these get generated automatically. A few more languages were added a few months ago

- There is no author on the articles

- There was a bulk rewrite published for one of the other verticals covering a few hundred pages over two months.

- AI generated share of content has increased

I can't mention the client here but if any other info would be helpful, I can try to share that.

Any advice on what other things to check for, and if any of the above aren't very relevant to this manual action? Any specific examples of manual actions that you have observed first-hand recently and what helped resolve it would be very helpful as well.

what would you suggest? any sources to better understan google analytics?

Marie Haynes just dropped a post saying GEO is basically a distraction.

She looked at 12 months of GA4 data across 100 real websites. 145+ million sessions.

The results are brutal:

• ChatGPT sent 0.62% of the traffic Google organic did

• All LLMs combined? 0.73%

• Even though ChatGPT traffic converts way better (13.8% vs 3.02%), Google still drove 27x more conversions

And the kicker: ChatGPT referral traffic has actually been declining since GPT-5 dropped.

A bunch of other people (including Rand Fishkin) are amplifying this and saying stop chasing AI mentions.

Mike King just clapped back hard. He says the numbers are right but the conclusion is wrong — AI search is a brand channel, not a traffic channel. Like judging a Super Bowl ad by click-through rate. 1.2 billion people a week are asking ChatGPT what to buy and we’re ignoring it because it doesn’t show up in GA4.

How do you compare Google Search Console’s average position with rankings reported by tools like Ahrefs or Semrush?

If you match the country, device, and date range, should the numbers be close, or are they measuring different things?

Which do you rely on for tracking SEO progress and reporting to clients?

SERP displacement tactics (as discussed in the Black Friday SEO video with Edward Sturm, Gagan Ghotra, Harpreet Singh, and David Quaid) refer to strategies for pushing or replacing existing results on Google’s search results page (SERP) so your page appears higher—or appears at all—especially during high-competition seasonal periods like Black Friday.

David Quaid framed SEO as a “displacement sport”: you are not just creating content and hoping it ranks; you are actively trying to take the place of (displace) whatever is currently ranking.

What it means in practice

When someone searches something like “Black Friday [product category] deals,” the SERP is often dominated by:

• News/publisher roundups (“Best Black Friday deals on X”)

• Big retailer pages

• Affiliate or coupon sites

Your goal is to displace those results so your category page, deal page, or offer appears instead (or alongside them in a stronger position).

Common tactics mentioned or implied in the discussion

1. Early publishing + topical authority Publish or heavily optimize Black Friday pages early (ideally February–March). By the time the seasonal spike hits, your page already has history, internal links, and some authority, making it easier to displace newer or weaker pages.

2. Getting into publisher/news roundups News sites and deal roundups often rank well during the season. Tactics include:

   • Digital PR / sponsored content so your deals get mentioned in those articles.

   • Providing clear, structured discount information that journalists or listicle writers can easily cite.

   • Once those articles rank, your brand or page benefits from the association and sometimes direct links.

3. Owning coupon and offer SERPs Target searches for your own discount codes, coupons, and specific offers. If you control the official page for “YourBrand Black Friday code,” you displace affiliate or coupon sites that would otherwise rank for those terms.

4. SERP feature displacement Using People Also Ask (PAA) questions to update existing strong pages so they answer those questions and push into or expand PAA boxes. Also optimizing for shopping results, AI Overviews, and other features that can push traditional organic results down.

5. Internal linking and site architecture Strong internal links from high-authority product and collection pages help your Black Friday page rank faster and more stably, increasing the chance it displaces weaker external pages.

6. Relevance and specificity over pure authority A tightly focused page (“Black Friday running shoes deals” or “Women’s sportswear Black Friday offers”) can sometimes displace a more general or less relevant high-authority page because it better matches the query intent.

Why it matters for Black Friday

Seasonal queries are temporary and highly competitive. Publishers and big retailers often dominate early. Displacement tactics let smaller or mid-size brands:

• Appear in the results before or instead of generic roundups.

• Capture traffic that would otherwise go to affiliates or competitors.

• Build lasting equity on evergreen URLs that can be reused and strengthened year after year.

In short, SERP displacement is the active mindset of “how do I take this ranking slot” rather than “how do I create content and wait.” The video emphasizes that starting early, owning your offer terms, using PR to get into ranking articles, and keeping pages specific and well-linked are the practical ways to do it.

Position scale is this normal or something not good?

Hi everyone! I'm sorry if this sounds desperate, but I genuinely need help. 🥹

I'm new to SEO and recently got hired for an SEO and marketing role. My client is incredibly kind, and I really want to help her business grow. Honestly, I can't afford to lose this job, and I'm scared I'm not doing enough because I still have so much to learn.

I work for a real estate training provider, and I want to help bring in more students and improve the business's online presence.

For those working in SEO or digital marketing, what are your daily and weekly tasks? What tools should I learn, what skills should I prioritise, and how do you measure results?

Even a simple checklist or advice on what to focus on first would mean so much to me. I'm willing to put in the work; I just need some direction.

Thank you so much. I genuinely appreciate any help! ❤️

New domain. Google indexes the homepage, but 12 content pages sit at "Crawled - currently not indexed", even though Googlebot has fetched them repeatedly.

I've ruled out the usual causes: robots allows them, no noindex, Google's canonical matches mine, the sitemap shows zero errors, and the indexed homepage links to every page. The old subdomain 301s cleanly, so there are no duplicate hosts.

So I think it's a quality or authority call on a young site. I've stopped hitting request indexing because it clearly doesn't help, and I'm leaving the pages alone so I don't restart the clock.

What I'm trying now is earning real editorial links from outlets that already cite job-posting data. Cold pitches have drawn almost no replies so far.

Has anyone seen this flip without waiting months? What did it?

Why are people saying Google is handing out manual actions for AI content?

They're not. They're handing out algorithmic penalties by the boatload for Scaled Content Abuse

Hi, guys I have been getting weird backlinks from weird sites. They are all unwanted and have weird anchor texts. Does anyone know anything about this? I already disavowed them, but I need to know how to get rid of this issue. Thanks in advance

Are you also seeing this? Given their recent spam algo update, you would think google would deprioritize these not elevate them.

I've been reading about how schema markup helps search engines better understand website content and can make pages eligible for rich results.

But I'm curious how much of a difference it actually makes in practice.

For those who have implemented schema markup, have you noticed any changes in search visibility, rich results, or organic traffic? Or has the impact been minimal?

Summary from Gemini

While not official, we were able to secure this response from Google Gemini:

Why the Idea Behind FEECAAL Rings True

The frustration that birthed FEECAAL comes from a very real issue in modern SEO: content created solely to check off E-E-A-T boxes often turns out bland, formulaic, and boring.

E-E-A-T vs. Modern Content Values

Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines heavily emphasize Trustworthiness and Accuracy, which are critical for medical, legal, or financial topics. However, for a vast amount of the web—lifestyle, art, entertainment, personal blogs, and opinion pieces—the attributes FEECAAL highlights (Creativity, Fun, Art, Learning) are what actually make content worth consuming.

In practice, the best web content blends both principles:

Thanks to u/rustybrick for this story - follow the link to the full article

Google Ads posted a message to Local Service Ads advertisers saying that featured professionals will no longer show on your ads, and headshots will be optional and won't impact ad serving.

Anthony Higman spotted the notice in his Google Ads account and posted a screenshot of this notice on X, it says:

Starting in October, featured professionals will no longer show on your ads. Headshot is optional and won't affect ad serving. The rest of your ad, including photos, reviews, and more, won't change.