When I reported on the Fred update that hit on March 8th and came up with my analysis, I said several times - there were sites that 100% saw a dive in their Google traffic that did not match up with the other sites.
Google's Gary Illyes confirmed over the weekend that when Fred was released, there were also other algorithms that touched down around the same time. Gary wrote on Twitter " but there were a number of updates around the date @rustybrick declared Fred a single thing." He added that each of these "updates" had other tasks and goals they accomplished outside of what Fred targeted.
I said 90%+ of the sites that I saw got hit and I reviewed at this point around 150 sites and Sistrix reviewed 300, all seemed to follow the low value content with ad revenue techniques. But other sites 100% got hit, like I said and those could have been hit because of link issues or other issues.
Gary Illyes confirmed here that if you were hit on March 7th or 8th, it could be Fred or it could be other issues that algorithms addressed. Which one were you hit by? Well, Fred seems fairly obvious and clear to see. So if you think your content is amazing, then maybe it is and maybe you weren't hit by Fred. But like I said, 90%+ of the sites I reviewed were low-value content.
Here are Gary's tweets:
@kimpittoors From my perspective every update is a Fred, but there were a number of updates around the date @rustybrick declared Fred a single thing.
— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) April 1, 2017
@kimpittoors @rustybrick Oh they do.
— Gary Illyes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@methode) April 1, 2017
Forum discussion at Twitter.
