November 4, 2024
Google recently held a Web Creator Conversion Event at the GooglePlex, Google’s offices in California. The event was invite-only and led by Google Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, as well as a handful of other Google Search team members.
The creator event was held to give content creators and publishers more information about how Google search brings useful results to users, and to offer creators a chance to share feedback on their experiences in search and publishing directly to Google employees.
Many that attended the event documented their experiences via X or blogs. So, here’s everything we know about the highly-anticipated creator conversion event:
Many of the creators in attendance were those negatively affected by the helpful content update in 2023.
Mark Hardaker was one of the attendees who voiced his concerns about the update. Speaking to several Google employees including Danny Sullivan, Pandu Nayak, and Elizabeth Tucker, Hardaker said:
’We’re now 13 months since the HCU update rolled out, I don't believe a single website has recovered, there is plenty of talk on social media on Barry’s [Schwartz] and Glenn [Gabe] and nobody has fully recovered. I just need to know how long this is going to take until the next updates and if you truly think any of the next updates have the ability to recover this. We have all tried everything possible in this room throwing spaghetti at walls, we have tried everything.’
Pandu Nayak responded with:
‘I have to say I am very very sorry for you, this is not great at all. I can't also give you any guarantees about recovery or not, I think that would not be responsible for me to say this. Because I can't tell what is going to happen. It's just the unfortunate state of how we operate here.’
Despite concerns, Mark Hardaker does believe things will eventually get better, having previously gone through a drop in traffic before and recovering after 18 months. However, others at the event left without hope of recovery.
Long-term blogger, Morgan McBride, who also attended the event posted on X to share her takeaways from the event:
According to several creators at the event, Google employees stated that a new search ranking update is coming soon. However, neither this update nor the next one will recover sites from the effects of the 2023 helpful content update.
Added to this, the next few updates also won’t take into account the feedback received from this event, as changes take a significant amount of time to implement.
Travel blogger, Kylie Neuhaus, shared this image of a slide from the event:
Despite updates being based around content, Google employees repeatedly told site owners that the issue is not their content.
After all, in a conversation with Dany Sullivan, Mark Hardaker was told that his ‘content was not the issue’. According to Joshua Tyler, one Google employee stated that ‘it’s not you it’s me’. Then, speaking to everyone, Danny Sullivan said ‘there’s nothing wrong with your sites, it’s us’.
This has ultimately left creators wondering how they can possibly recover if they supposedly haven’t done anything wrong in the first place.
This event was unfortunately not focused on providing anyone with answers, instead it was for Google to receive feedback from its contributors. So, whilst no advice was given on what you can do to recover your site (other than continue to follow Google’s search essentials guide), we do know another update is coming soon. As a result, it's more important than ever to keep up to date with the latest news from industry experts.
If you’re worried about your site or want guidance on improving your content, contact the experts today.
