HCU/SPAM/CORE Google Algorithm Impact Analysis Part 1 – The Victims

As 20K social followers on Linkedin and X can attest to, I’ve been looking at the carnage caused by Google’s HCU and accompanying SPAM and CORE updates and how specifically HCU (Helpful Content Update) and SPAM have impacted small, independent publishers over the last two years especially.

Some sites actually have had problems for longer.

Google Creator Summit

In 2024, Google invited many creators to the Google Creator Summit to… well, I’m not sure, and neither were the creators.

Long story short, Google says that traffic collapse has little to do with small publishers’ content, or SEO and not to hire an SEO.

Seems strange!

Out of pure curiosity, and as so many small independent publishers were going out of business, I offered to take on many of the independent publishers at the conference and others impacted pro-bono to review their sites.

I looked at 100+ sites over the last 3 months, including the Search Console data.

I then (for the first time) researched what Google said at the conference on the topic of HCU, SPAM and CORE updates, looking for what we SEO call Googlespeak.

That is, outside of technical SEO specifics, where Google is very helpful, pay close attention to what Google says and doesn’t say on changes they want made to your site, and changes they do make to their site.

PS – I found that Googlespeak I was after.

Can the Google HCU penalty be lifted or fixed?

Yes, we have been told.

QUOTE “Assuming a site hit by HCU in 2023 has fixed everything that caused the sitewide classifier to be applied, what is the timeframe for the site to start climbing again?” – OP

To be exact

QUOTE “Fix” is hard to say when it comes to relevancy, but I’d assume bigger changes would be visible when the next core updates happen.” JM, Google

However, most folks’ experience as you can see is:

QUOTE “We are many that would really love a reply to why not a single HCU-hit site have begun climbing again and why new articles won’t rank.” Q2

Coincidently I know the answer to Q2’s proclamation on why “new articles won’t rank” too.

How to fix it?

Don’t be YOU, in short, evidently, and we are told this does not “really map back to one thing”.

More on that later.

One last quote from Google, though, that I think is pertinent:

QUOTE  “These are not “recoveries” in the sense that someone fixes a technical issue and they’re back on track – they are essentially changes in a business’s priorities (and, a business might choose not to do that).” Google, John Mueller

As a technical SEO I can confirm at this end, JM was telling that part straight from looking at charts and technical audits, anyway,

If you bought a technical SEO audit to fix HCU, while useful, it’s nowhere near enough to help you at the moment until you fix the deeper issues.

The results

I have identified the primary ranking issue for those especially hit by Google SPAM updates in 2023 and 2024, or at least there are one or two GLARING correlations, that one contravenes Google’s guidelines, and the other is a gap in the system – perhaps this gap is where Google can do better, we have told and is what Search Liason was apologising for.

I can point to some sites, for instance, and confidently say Google classes you low-quality because of webmaster violations.

The good news is, that they ARE fixable.

The question is – can YOU fix a Google webmaster quality violation?

For that is what my hypothesis on HCU and SPAM updates revolves around i.e. this is not a punt, per se for me.

I have also identified where legitimate independent publishers fall to differentiate from Spam, as Google said.

The victims

In this first post, I present the victim’s traffic trends from Google Search compared to Google updates, so we can all “see” what smaller independent publishers are going through on Google since 2023.

The last time I checked each site, unfortunately, NONE had addressed the PRIMARY REASON for their ranking decline.

In the future, things will likely NEVER IMPROVE for most of these independent publishers, except for the odd surge and fall again, without action.

Because the primary reason for their “Google penalty” is something Google has been on about for…. over a decade, loudly. This is where Google has been, and will always go to. 100% they are not “rolling back” anything (although recent updates have been lighter it is demonstratable).

You either fix the primary reason for your traffic drop or you “move on”.

Ultimately, Google will protect its users, and themselves first – bear that mind.

PS – I never share private, identifying data on any site or micro category.

Only exhibits and trends.

Exhibit 1

Google algorithm impacts from HCU  and SPAM updates have impacted this site over the last few years. At first, I thought it was ads because nothing else technical was wrong with the site, and the ad density was heavy. But then again, many folk have distracting ads, and they don’t receive such harsh punishment.

Something else is afoot.

Exhibit 2

Google algorithm impacts from HCU and SPAM updates have battered this site over the last few years, too. Like many, the team there thought SEO was “easy”, up until the point it became, impossible, for them. It’s sad to say they haven’t listened and thought they could redirect their way out of issues.

This is exactly what HCU was designed to take out from the SERPs.

The owner has been informed.

Exhibit 3

Google algorithm impacts from HCU  and SPAM updates have decimated this site over the last few years. Again, I thought it was ads because nothing else technical was wrong with the site, and ad density was heavy. But, many folk have distracting ads, and they don’t receive such harsh punishment, as pointed out earlier.

Again, something else must be afoot.

Exhibit 4

This case was exactly the reason I built my SEO Dashboard in the first place.

Google got away with a glitch at their end in Summer 2023 (that I surfaced publically at the time) that cost this client A LOT of money. This “glitch” affected many sites in 2023, and involved strange canonicalization of URLs to other URLs.

HCU hit the month after, so it was quickly forgotten about, and hardly noticed I’d wager by most SEO.

The insidious aspect of this case was that looking at just traffic, there was NOTHING wrong to report using normal reporting at the time.

The traffic wasn’t going to the correct pages though.

Exhibit 5

Looking back on this site from 2023, I was called in to fix a Safe-Search Issue at the very point of traffic collapse and offered advice to deal with that instantly.

The customer was very happy with the result as was I.

However, what’s interesting is that it looks as though I inadvertently fixed “something else” on the site at the same time…. and I only made 3 major changes to the domain.

I remember the site was technically very efficient.

It took me ages to find something wrong with it….

That “something” I fixed, almost as an afterthought…. is what a LOT of HCU/SPAM/CORE UPDATE victims are…. missing.

Exhibit 6

I know exactly why this domain is the way it is because I invited the traffic collapse on purpose.

This is a CONTROL site for my tests. More on this later. This site has gone through every single SEO test you can think of, culminating in watching Google (as expected) chew its traffic up. The most recent test was to DEINDEX it on purpose, to see how Google would react to REINDEXING it, in its new state.

A state I put it in to test… something.

Let me tell you, it’s not good! More on that later, too.

Exhibit 7

This site owner is not happy at all.

Details soon.

Exhibit 8

Despite MAJOR improvements before I looked at this site for the first time in 2023 (and ongoing improvements to this day), this independent publisher still FAILS to address the PRIMARY RANKING PROBLEM for the site.

“SEO” does not get you out of this, at all.

Indeed, that’s why so many SEO have missed the crucial issues on these sites for over a year; well, those not versed in Google Search Quality Guidelines anyway.

The owner has been informed.

Exhibit 9

This is a clear indication of the Google Spam update penalising a site back in Oct 2023 – or at least after that month, it was never the same again.

Unfortunately for them, nothing they have done all this time has worked to resolve the situation, and they were smart enough to get to 12000 visits a month in the first place.

Fortunately for them, they have a glaring issue on my list that can be rectified (and quickly, too, on the surface).

Exhibit 10

Another interesting case. Details later.

Exhibit 11

Looking at exhibits 10,11 and 12(a), you can see some VERY similar patterns, despite all being in totally separate niches, totally unrelated and different owners.

Exhibit 12

To understand what’s going on with Google, sometimes it’s better to have more than one domain in your portfolio. Take these two domains from the same publisher.

Domain A: That bump at the end of 2024 is a good sign btw. It’s indicative that this is the stronger of the two domains in the portfolio, and that Google can almost evaluate its entity status that bit easier.

Domain B: Potentially a “Bloated Entity”. I am still a little unsure how much content was AI-generated or how bloated the situation was before the period I sampled. Both sites in the portfolio have the same endemic problem, though.

2 sites from the same independent publisher were hit at different times by Google. But also at similar times, if you look especially at March 2024.

How can this be if site owners were told there was nothing wrong with their content?

Google engineers specifically told them this at the conference.

The plot thickens.

The owner has been informed.

Exhibit 13

Unfortunately for this publisher, SPAM updates are designed to take out this type of content site. I’m surprised it took so long to be honest, though to be fair Google almost caught up in October 2023.

When an unexpected traffic collapse like that hits a site temporarily, it’s never a good thing.

This particular blog won’t rank again for much with its current Entity Health status, and be continually pegged back BECAUSE of its Entity Health status.  It is classified as SPAM at least for keywords it DID rank for.

You can rescue anything I suppose but this would mean entirely rebuilding the Entity from the ground up.

The owner has been informed.

Exhibit 14

This site has failed to differentiate itself from Spam. This process (where the onus is on the site owner) has little to do with content, ads or technical SEO.

Nothing, in fact.

Again, you are fixing this sort of thing from the ground up.

The owner has been informed.

Exhibit 15

This team evidently put some work in, albeit on a shaky foundation. Two things might be at play here. EEAT (maybe – as the topics covered on the site need some), and Entity Health status (definitely).

The Entity issue is EVIDENT and one of the core issues on my HCU/SPAM Entity Health Check.

This is fixable, with more information, I suspect.

I need to chat with the guy to confirm a few suspicions.

Exhibit 16

This site is a VERY interesting case.

Impacted at the VERY tail end of the Google Reviews Update. Yet, I diagnosed the SAME CRITICAL HCU/SPAM ISSUE on this site BEFORE I looked at it. It’s cases like this and a few others that get me thinking about all these names for different algorithms or what they target are, recently anyway, mostly designed to do one thing.

Discard SPAM.

More on that aspect later.

Exhibit 17

This is a customer I did some work on a few years ago. From memory, and unless something significant has changed, which I haven’t detected, then this is a site NOT susceptible to HCU or SPAM (and it should not be).

I need to revisit this exhibit, but from what I recall, the primary issues were primarily in the technical SEO zone. Anything could be at play, outdated content, doorways, AI overviews, the normal shuffling about – the site is just a little old.

This would need to be double-checked, and the drop in September 24 needs reviewed, but the team on this site is not known for taking risks and has a history of proficiency.

Exhibit 18

This site has the normal technical SEO issues and decent content. The owner is not pushing the envelope here, but not really gaining traction, and doing poorly since the October 2023 Google updates.

The site fails the Entity Health status test, though.

That is it fails my general rule of thumb checks to determine a few things…

Exhibit 19

This victim owns many hundreds of sites in this portfolio. Despite great links to most of the sites, in some cases, and a focus on sort-of-quality, the portfolio is currently sitting with 20% manual actions for SPAM, and random sites throughout the network penalised at different times via SPAM algorithm updates.

This is a bit harsh.

The owner has been notified, and I’ve offered to attempt to get the manual action lifted.

Domain A: A Google manual action example and what it does to your traffic. This “Google Penalty” is the death knell for some sites.

Domain B: Hit by SPAM algorithm update almost a year later.

They don’t like calling it a penalty per se (GoogleSpeak) but at the end of the day, you usually penalise yourself, anyway, so I don’t mind making the clear distinction (at this point).

Talking about GoogleSpeak actually, this is proof also that “quality links” count for nought when certain conditions are met and ergo, “links are not the most important ranking factor” – Despite us all knowing, links are right up there, even today 2025.

NOTHING trumps this ranking factor, so Google would be correct in proclaiming that ANY single important ranking factor is NOT the most important ranking factor (no matter how critical and even if it is number 2).

Pay close attention to GoogleSpeak.

This particular portfolio of sites (over 500) is clearly on Google’s radar.

But what for?

Well…..

TBC

I have 100+ HCU/SPAM/ CORE UPDATE victims I’m looking at, and I will add the most interesting here in due course, so we can check on them over the coming weeks, as I go through the motions of helping those who want help.

Check back over the next few days as I update the post.

PS All these case studies  have been generated using Hobo SEO Dashboard (see video below):