❌It’s not Your Content

Google Web Creator Conversation

Google invited a group of shadowbanned website owners to a "feedback session."

✍🏾I was not at the event but I read extensive first hand accounts this is a summary of what happened.

People showed up hopeful, expecting answers, maybe even a solution or two. These were the content creators that were hit by the "Helpful Content Update".

Pre-HCU, smaller sites had a fighting chance in Google’s SERPs.

They weren’t perfect, but you could break through.

That’s gone.

Despite Google’s claims that they only target individual pages, not whole sites.

Everyone in that room had seen their entire site tank overnight.

One day, they had traffic and visibility; the next day?

Everything was gone.

At the meeting, someone scribbled “diversity of results” on a whiteboard, as if to say: don’t ask too many questions—just accept it.

The thing is Google doesn’t have answers.

At the Creator Summit, they admitted they couldn’t fix the "extinction event" their own algorithm caused. They just kept repeating that a new update is “coming soon” and not to expect recovery.

If your site’s been hit by HCU, it might be wise to adjust expectations.✍️

Google’s algorithms seem rigged in favor of big brands.

They’re easy for the system to flag as “legit.”

But for smaller sites—especially those using templates or affiliate links—it’s a different story.

They get swept aside.

📉Spamming the System

However spammers have learned to game the system, replicating the exact patterns Google algorithm reward.

So while quality sites struggle to survive, spammy ones slide right into the top results.

💡*This is the part that every SEO and publisher should be aware of;*

📝TL/DR Of Compression

In search indexing, compression reduces the file size of indexed pages by replacing repeated phrases with shorter references.

Although not widely known, understanding compression is useful foundational knowledge for SEO.

💡It’s essential for storage, retrieval, and speed.

Compression can also be used to identify low effort SEO tricks like duplicate pages, doorway pages with similar content, and pages with repetitive keywords.

✅Compressibility can help flag this kind of content because these pages end up with low unique content and high repetition rates.

By running a quick test to see how "compressible" a page is, a search engine could identify patterns typical of content farms or doorway pages.

🧩But it’s just one piece of a larger puzzle in search engine algorithms.

🪟Microsoft Research Paper About Detecting Spam

One of the co-authors of the research paper is Marc Najork, a well-known research scientist who currently holds the title of Distinguished Research Scientist at Google DeepMind.

He is one the distinguished researchers listed as a co-author of the 2006 Microsoft research paper on identifying spam through on-page content features.

The researchers made an important discovery that everyone interested in SEO should know.

The paper analyzes several on-page content features, including compressibility, which they found can be used as a classifier to indicate that a web page is spammy.

💡The research paper explains that search engines compress web pages and use the compressed version to reference the original web page.

The big takeaway?

💡Compressibility is a useful tool for spotting some kinds of spam, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. There’s a wide range of spam out there that slips past this single signal.

For publishers and SEOs : high compressibility might signal spam.

In other words, relying on just one signal can lead to false positives. By combining multiple signals, you get a clearer and more accurate picture.

Understanding compressibility gives publishers and SEOs insights into how search engines might evaluate content, even though it’s uncertain whether search engines actively use this measure today.

🔑Key Takeaway

SEOs and publishers should recognize that effective spam detection requires multiple signals working in tandem to achieve accuracy.

Understanding concepts like compressibility helps creators produce better content and refine their strategies for ranking well.

Ultimately, maintaining quality, uniqueness, and value in content remains the best approach to staying visible and relevant in search engine results.

🧠Incorporating AI: It's a Mindset

• By raising your AI awareness, you can demystify the technology and see it for what it is—a powerful tool for innovation.

The real question is, will you keep up, or will you be left behind?

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📚Reference

SEO RoundTable: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-ranking-update-coming-38323.html

Search Engine Journal: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-compression-can-be-used-to-detect-low-quality-pages/530916/

Detecting spam web pages through content analysis: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1135777.1135794