---
title: 'Google March Spam and Core Update Chaos - SEO Rant #1'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=TweO3OoU4l8'
video_id: 'TweO3OoU4l8'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 613
---

# Google March Spam and Core Update Chaos - SEO Rant #1

> Source: [Google March Spam and Core Update Chaos - SEO Rant #1](https://youtube.com/watch?v=TweO3OoU4l8)

## Summary

The video discusses Google's March spam and core update, breaking down the impact into three groups: influencers hit with manual penalties via reinforcement learning, average SEOs hit with hastily validated manual penalties, and a small number of low-quality AI sites hit algorithmically. The speaker argues Google is using media manipulation tactics to control the narrative and offers advice for affected SEOs.

### Key Points

- **Three groups affected** [00:57] — The updates break into: 1) influencers hit with manual penalties from internal research, 2) average Joe SEOs hit with manual penalties from classifier research, 3) algorithm affecting very few low-quality AI sites, mostly in English.
- **Reinforcement learning targeting influencers** [01:54] — Google uses reinforcement learning via proxies (top voices in SEO) to show the algorithm attacking, likely with limited success or pushing up worse signals.
- **Historical pattern of targeting** [02:47] — Google has a history of targeting specific tactics when they get too big: PBNs, guest posts, link insertions, and the speaker's own sites via authorship penalties.
- **Media manipulation and bias** [04:58] — Google exploits large SEO news sites that quote their documentation out of context, creating a biased consensus. Reference to Ryan Holiday's 'Trust Me I'm Lying' as a model.
- **Advice for algorithm updates** [08:36] — Don't react immediately; wait for settlement. Collect data, form networks with same-niche site owners, focus on what works, and be ready to cut losses.
- **Opportunities with Reddit** [09:29] — Leverage Reddit's strong relationship with Google and its AI data deal to rank content via subreddits.

### Conclusion

The speaker concludes that SEOs should not panic at initial fluctuations but instead gather data, collaborate, and adapt, while noting that Reddit offers new opportunities for ranking.

## Transcript

times in my SEO career but to a lot of people in SEO right now it feels like the new Google Al updates have completely wiped out AI content they have destroyed honest people's livelihoods and they have bought fear
and anxiety but actually for the most part at least it's not the new Google algorithm updates people are really scared of at all it's Google's new spam
policy and I think a lot of people have skipped over the fact that Google approaching combating spam has fundamentally changed which in corporate terms at least means all limits are off and it's time to do whatever it takes to
prevy the image that they that they are succeeding in this NeverEnding game of estro for long enough will tell you that there are a lot of similarities in Google's old playbooks here and we're only on day four of this release so I
want to start this video by saying that it first needs to be broken down into it first needs to be broken down into three separate parts because three different things have happened here first influencers have been hit with
manual penalties based on internal research Google has done remember when Danny Sullivan literally told us that they were reading our tweets now then secondly your average Joe SEO has been hit by manual penalties that have been
validated from classifier research and probably very hastily valid Val ated too and finally the algorithm has affected a and finally the algorithm has affected a very small number of sites so far almost
exclusively in English I'm talking 99% of English so far and mostly very very lowquality math page AI sites that you could reverse engineer of publishing frequency domain data and quality score classifiers alone so let's start with
the first topic the influencers getting hit and the one that really has had the biggest impact because of something called reinforcement learning and it's actually the technique that made AI so good in the first place but
unfortunately Google is using a very very very similar technique here in very very similar technique here in marketing via proxies aka the top voices within specific subsectors of SEO they're trying to show the algorithm
attacking but a very likely having limited success against or inadvertently pushing up other probably worse signals in the process and all of this means
that as is with any part of society a Chosen Few control the vast majority of messaging and that means it amplifies that messaging through them and it's
worked very very well for Google over the years again and again when pbns got too big they targeted build my rank when guest posts got too big they targeted an Martis my get my blog guest which even the white hats were abusing
that one and when cheap link insertions got too big they targeted sap and when I was being too loud ranking public case studies with my own name and my own authorship attached to it remember Google authorship guys they personally
Google authorship guys they personally targeted all of my sites 10 years ago targeted all of my sites 10 years ago now with pure spam penalties ring a bell and for those who will immediately write me off as a conspir
theorist this happened to me not once but twice and in one of my examples they but twice and in one of my examples they had a domain name that was a month old had a domain name that was a month old the site was live for just 11 days and
it was a project I decided to make showing a build-in public case study of growing made for AdSense sites which were all the rage at the time this were all the rage at the time this website had no links it had only high
quality cont content I had handwritten myself from personal experience over the 11 days because as you can see it was a diary and Google dinged it with all of my other sites in the SE same Google search console anyway the only links
that that site ever had was social profiles and you can go run it through ahfs now there's no historical links it looks completely clean because it was and Google personally targeted me in that removal and it was a Guilty By
Association action which is the similar thing that is happening here and Google also knows that large search engine news websites will just quote their documentation verbatim we all know that these large search engine news websites
love taking Google Engineers quotes massively taking them out of context and riling up the SEO Community for clicks and profit but it makes the industry consensus even more biased towards Google's documentation and when you look
at Fresh information about the latest topics it further perpetuates that bias when longer form content is being made and references those news articles if anyone has read Ryan holidays trust me I'm lying you will know that this is
Media manipulation 101 for the digital age you create a narrative you have others spread it for you so it no longer seems like you are the original source
and that it has always been the case even if it's explicitly false in reality the intern the internet now believes it and AI Bots that learn from these will
only perpetuate the issue even further with incorrect information a lot of AI hallucination isn't even hallucination at all it's just retrieving and repurposing data that is factually incorrect but the internet has published
it they also know that with these results comes mixed messaging because everybody in SEO is already opinionated enough and it's hard enough to come to a enough and it's hard enough to come to a consensus as a community on basic things
let alone topics we can never really be sure about we can never really verify and everyone in the industry has zero real access to what is going on behind the scenes even most of the spokespeople at Google probably have less insight
into the algorithm than you and I do because we are actually trying to rank things things and they are seeing overviews and glossy inflated engineering presentations meant to glorify corporate work corporate work
idealisms and wokeness and what these influencers should be doing to recover is definitely not what your average Joe SEO who's just been hit with the same
SEO who's just been hit with the same penalty same penalty should be doing to recover as well which makes it even more confusing when you're trying to listen to the those big voices who have been hit for advice because their approach is
hit for advice because their approach is going to be and should be fundamentally different and speaking of those Average Joe unfortunate folks hit by pure spam updates unfortunately we just haven't got enough correlated data yet to see
where Google may have originated your site from in the first place and it's probably going to take at least a couple of months to get enough of an Insight first before you know what the reason is behind your site but
if you know that your site is dog that's probably the reason and ironically before Danny Sullivan was the Search Le aison to Google 10 years ago now he did a Reddit AMA where he got a question about penalties and about the
example data that was inside them and he said himself that the data and examples you get from Google are not good enough and they aren't clear and they should give you considerably more information if they're truly trying to be helpful
he's now worked there for at least 5 years now and if anything penalty transparency has actually gotten worse especially with this current wave and finally before we get into my algorithm analysis advice if you liked my first
ever SEO rant video like this one let me know by commenting down below SEO is dead and I'll see how theaction out to this style of video to see if I do more in the future my algorithm updated device has always stayed the same and it
always will be the same don't initially react wait and see where your site react wait and see where your site settles because there has been thousands of reports over the years of sites getting hit at the start of argum
updates and seeing all the traffic come back or at least partial recoveries by the end of it and we've seen all sorts of weird fluctuations recently due to how these very complicated signal and classifier oriented algorithms actually
function collect and analyze as much data as you can try to form networks with other site owners or seos especially in the same or related niches
if possible because your data is going to be worth a lot more if you're in the same Niche than if you're in other niches that's just how Google's algo works and there are plenty of opportunities to go around and you'd
rather be thriving together than dying alone focus on what is working maximize your Investments there and be ready to cut them if hit the fan as it always inevitably will do in SEO and if you are really really struggling on what
to do next Google and reddit's relationship is only seemingly going to get stronger and there are multiple monetization paths that you can take abusing The Authority that Godfather Google has so kindly gifted Reddit preo
Google has so kindly gifted Reddit preo AI data deal to rank just about anything AI data deal to rank just about anything with Reddit posts and subreddits I'll with Reddit posts and subreddits I'll see you in the next rant peace out