Did Google start to prioritize expertise over authority in September 2024? In this article, we'll look at sections of Forbes and CNN that saw traffic dips.
In Glenn Gabe’s most recent article, he wrote about sites that were possible targets for abusing Google’s site reputation abuse policy were seeing declines. Google responded saying that this was not the case, but rather, their systems “aim to understand if a section of a site is independent or starkly different from the main content of the site.”
They referenced this tweet thread from 2019:
Glenn shared several examples of sites with dramatic drops including Forbes Advisor, AP News Buyline, Fortune Recommends, Marketwatch Guides, WSJ Buyside and CNN Underscored. Some dropped on September 27 and some on October 15. I noticed many keywords with drops starting September 23, 2024. (I've added these dates to my algo update list.)
Here is a screenshot from Gyi Tsakalakis showing Forbes Advisor’s legal folder suffering declines.
Let’s take a look at some of the content that declined. What I want to know is whether the entire section of the site was clearly demoted or whether perhaps Google got better at recognizing who the true topic experts are.
Forbes Advisor /healthcare
This section of the site has been in decline since September 25.
I compared keyword rankings today (October 29) to September 23 in Ahrefs. The first thing I noticed was that many top keywords have held their rankings or improved.
However, some of those reported improvements aren’t really true. It looks like Ahrefs is reporting being linked to from anywhere within an AIO as a #1 organic listing.
For example, for “what is medical billing and coding salary”, Ahrefs reports #1 rankings for Forbes. With no AIO I see Forbes at #4. (Did you know you can see the SERPS with no AI results by adding -ai to your search?) With the AIO showing, they are in the AIO, but only at #6 organically.
Given that the AIO gives a detailed answer for this query, I expect this resulted in traffic loss for Forbes.
Let’s look at another. For the query, how to become a dental hygienist Forbes ranks #1. However, it ranks organically below an AIO. Again, I think many people who are looking for a quick answer will choose to read the AIO or perhaps click on one of the links in the link cards within.
We can’t fully explain the losses in traffic for Forbes from AIOs taking their keywords though. Ahrefs is indeed showing a large drop in keyword rankings, not just traffic. It’s interesting to see that the drop is much more prominent for keywords outside of the top 3.
Let’s use Ahrefs’ filters to look just at keywords that declined. There are a lot of them!
Some of these keyword ranking changes are likely just normal fluctuations. I looked for keywords that clearly declined in late September and saw something interesting. I do not think that Forbes was penalized, but rather, it’s possible that other more deserving sites were rewarded causing them to outrank Forbes.
The search term online sonography programs does not trigger an AIO. We can see that Forbes (purple) has been overtaken by organizations that offer sonography programs including Washburn.edu and Boisestate.edu.
how long does it take to become a crna triggers an AIO which Forbes is not in. We can see that the Cleveland clinic improved. They didn’t just benefit from Forbes’ decline, but jumped from position #8 to #2 to outrank them.
Another phrase that declined for Forbes was learn medical billing. This is a really obvious case where sites with real world experience on a topic were boosted, pushing Forbes lower. Nurse.org and AAPC.com improved for this query.
Let’s look at another site.
CNN Underscored
CNN Underscored does product reviews. The website states, “Content is created by CNN Underscored’s team of editors who work independently from the CNN newsroom.” You would think this section of the site would be a prime target for the site reputation abuse policy enforcement. Recall, however, that Google said that the algorithmic portion of this policy has not yet been enforced. It is certainly possible this section of the site received a manual action. Still, let’s see if Google’s systems simply demoted CNN Underscored or whether my theory is right and other more deserving sites were elevated.
The /cnn-underscored folder certainly has taken a hit (although they’re still getting a lot of traffic which makes me feel that a manual action is less likely.)
Not all keywords are down.
Let’s look at some that clearly dropped around September 23, 2024.
Oh hello. Taste of Home feels like a much better choice to rank for the query best knife set than CNN.
Although, ironically, the #1 position goes to a Forbes subfolder called Forbes Personal Shopper which has not declined but actually has grown slightly since late September. It’s interesting to note that from what I can see, this is not a third party site taking advantage of Forbes’ authority but rather, appears to be a part of the Forbes site, run by Forbes.
Here’s an interesting search term to look at: smart garage door opener.
It certainly makes more sense for Home Depot to rank for this term than CNN. However it’s possible their increase is simply because CNN has decreased. This could be a normal ranking fluctuation.
What’s more interesting is to see this ten year old site come out of nowhere to outrank CNN. MyQ.com is a manufacturer of a smart garage door opener.
Here’s another interesting one. For the query, best pillow for stomach sleepers, a Reddit post started to outrank CNN.
It’s debatable whether that post is filled with spammers promoting their own products. If they are real people sharing their experiences, this truly is a helpful post.
For that same keyword, Health.com rose up to outrank CNN.
What can we learn from all of this?
It’s hard to make definitive conclusions by just looking at a handful of queries. The main question I wanted to explore was whether sites with sections that are ranking based on the site’s authority despite lacking experience have been penalized or whether Google has perhaps done better at recognizing who should be ranking.
While it’s certainly possible that Forbes and CNN received manual actions for these sections of their site, I think it’s more likely that Google’s algorithms have improved in determining what is likely to be the more helpful, reliable and relevant result for searchers.
What does this mean for SEO? If you’re working on promoting a business with real world customers, legitimate expertise and experience on your topic, this is great news. Keep publishing great, original and insightful content. If my theory is right, what we're seeing here may be the beginning of significant changes in how Google recognizes topic experts.
However, I have concern for many sites that have thrived on an understanding of how search engines have historically rewarded authority via link signals and traditional topicality signals.
This was originally an analysis meant to be included in an episode of my paid publication, Marie's Notes. It grew to be large enough to warrant its own article!
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