Vlad Rappoport

Independent SEO & Marketing Consultant | Founder of WellnessVerge (something big is brewing), Navigating through the world of AI and searching for what’s next.

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

Another example of a directly HCU-hit website (men's lifestyle publication). One update will show an uptick, then the subsequent one will show a drop, then an uptick, then a drop. The most recent June Core update shows an uptick, but very small relative to previous levels. Prior to HCU, they were getting 1M+ monthly visits. Can't imagine what's going on internally, such roller coasters, Google seems undecided about this site IMO.

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

Another great success story of NapLab, a mattress review website, initially experienced growth but was impacted by some prior core updates (never directly affected by HCU). However, it recovered and experienced additional growth starting in mid-May, with further growth following the June Core update. They have continued refining their hands-on testing methodologies and offering something unique to the web, one of the best on the web in the mattress space. Probably one of the hardest-working teams of people over there! Got their permission to share, of course!

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

Some of them, yes, some just monitored. The common denominator here is that none of the sites simply gave up. Each continued to stick to its own unique narrative and effort, relative to their available resources. They continued refining their methodologies, voices, and adding quality content, while also addressing their old, possibly problematic content. It's very difficult in the sense that sites can spend months (and now even years!) of effort and not see any positive movement, hence why many throw in the towel. So it wasn't directly tied in with "optimizations" but rather sticking to their mission (and refining) and discovering ways to produce the best possible content.

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

A lot of movement, before, during, and after the June Core '25 update. The first three screenshots are examples of websites with obvious prior HCU-impact, which began showing partial or even full recoveries with the June Core Update (content/review websites). The fourth screenshot is a small health publication that was also impacted by core updates and HCU and began seeing a partial recovery, only to get most of its gains reversed (circa July 18th). The fifth example is another content product review site that was impacted by the August '22 & Sep '23 HCU, as well as subsequent core updates, showing some gains and then reversals (it can't seem to catch a break)! cc: @rustybrick @glenngabe @lilyraynyc

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

@rustybrick @gfiorelli1 Ok, on it! :)

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

@rustybrick @gfiorelli1 Haven’t tried via API :)

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

Now that the March 2025 Core update is complete, I dug into many sites. As @glenngabe & @rustybrick have been covering, here are some additional examples of various sites that are operated by a single parent company that appear to be negatively impacted by this core update, some of which were also impacted by the Dec 2024 Core Update. These sites are a mixture of UGC and editorial sites but do not cover health-related topics. These sites used to have at least 85% more traffic before the previous updates.

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

Yep, we were due for one any day, and here we are, with the first one of 2025. Lots of movement began earlier this week actually. Stay tuned. Should be interesting.

[Google Search Central @googlesearchc]

Today we released the March 2025 core update. We'll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete: https://t.co/QoqMDbJu3D

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

@GrammarlyHelp Thanks! Appears to be working now.

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

@GrammarlyHelp Is Grammarly down right now? Proposed corrections aren't displaying inside actual Grammarly or anywhere else where I typically have it enabled.

[Google Search Central @googlesearchc]

The rollout was complete as of December 26, 2024.

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

UPDATE: It turns out that Google picked up on CNN's old version of these URLs, which contained the dates, such as https://t.co/kqQS6mpTpq. Clicking on them will redirect you to their new URL format (/cnn-underscored/article-name), which initially got deindexed. So, it doesn't appear that any manual action has been lifted as of yet.

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

Was CNN's manual penalty for its Underscored directory lifted? They were among the first we tracked to be deindexed, but today, a site-command search yields pages of results for CNN's Underscored directory. However, they are not ranking for anything, and traffic is still down.

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

A third party does not run this aggressive supplement affiliate review site, but the domain was bought from what was once a reputable nonprofit focusing on cervical cancer. They began dropping a few days ago but are now fully deindexed as of this morning.

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

Another third-party content partnership was deindexed today. https://t.co/e3Ky78u5BQ and https://t.co/vsYX6mlrWJ Two legit organizations teamed up with a 3rd party to produce affiliate content in elderly care, sleep, and other wellness topics. cc:@glenngabe

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

In addition to Forbes' Advisor directory, it looks like its /health directory, which houses all supplement content, has also been completely wiped.

[Glenn Gabe @glenngabe]

Huge heads-up! The manual actions for 'Site reputation abuse' have already started going out based on the policy update. Jason Kilgore first pinged me on LinkedIn that Forbes Advisor is not ranking for what it once was (not even for the query 'Forbes Advisor')... and it looks like the directory has been deindexed. Then I checked CNN Underscored. Same deal. And then WSJ Buyside. Same deal. Here is one of the manual actions just applied for a site impacted (not one mentioned above). So yes, Google has moved quickly with applying manual actions based on the new policy. Stay tuned.

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

Google Updated its site reputation abuse policy. If applicable, they will now treat sub-sections of websites independently that will not necessarily benefit from the main domain in terms of ranking.

[Google Search Central @googlesearchc]

Today we shared an update to our site reputation abuse policy. See our blog post for more details on what changed and why:
https://t.co/cLm3vzhtvR

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

@Marie_Haynes Accidental block via robots.txt ? :)

[Vlad Rappoport @vladrpt]

@rustybrick I see some movement, but it's hard to attribute it to the typical movements we see or this core update. Will check more sites/data tomorrow morning to confirm.

[Google Search Central @googlesearchc]

Today we released the August 2024 core update. It continues our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.

https://t.co/T6Qt0JUoWt