In this episode of SEO 101, Scott Van Achte covers the August 2025 Google spam update, Ahrefs’ new traffic tracker comparing LLMs and search engines, Googlebot crawling issues, practical Search Console tips for duplicate content, a survey on AI Overviews and zero-click searches, and advice for recovering from website hacks and strengthening site security best practices.
Show Notes:
- Google August 2025 Spam Update
- Announced on August 26; rollout may take weeks.
- Affects all languages and locations.
- Last update was in December 2024.
- No specific details on targeted spam.
- Ahrefs Launches Traffic Tracker
- Compares referral traffic between ChatGPT and Google.
- Allows selection of engines for comparison.
- Data based on 44,421 websites using Ahrefs’ free tool.
- Current data covers December 2024 to July 2025.
- Google Crawling Issue Resolved
- Reduced crawling issue reported on August 8.
- No ranking impact but fluctuations noted.
- Issue now fixed; crawling expected to normalize soon.
- Fixing ‘Duplicate without user-selected canonical’ in Google Search Console
- Duplicate content identified in reports; not penalized but affects indexing.
- Solutions:
- Eliminate duplicate content and use canonical tags.
- Ensure all pages have self-referencing canonical tags.
- Address HTTP vs HTTPS issues with proper redirects.
- Maintain consistency with WWW and trailing slashes.
- Manage session IDs and tracking parameters.
- Survey on Google AI Overviews
- 4% of users never click links after reading AI Overviews.
- Trust levels compared to traditional snippets:
- Much more: 11%
- About the same: 41%
- 37.8% would leave AI on for all queries; 17.7% would turn it off for all.
- 66.4% of respondents satisfied with AI Overviews.
- Impact of Site Hack on Traffic
- 50% traffic drop reported after site hack injecting fake product pages.
- Recovery can take time; cleaning up does not guarantee immediate traffic recovery.
- Recommendations to prevent hacks:
- Use strong passwords and 2FA.
- Ensure site uses HTTPS.
- Regular backups and updates.
- Educate staff on cybersecurity.
Sources:
Google releases August 2025 spam update – Overview of Google’s August 2025 spam update and its expected impact.
Ahrefs Launches Tracker Comparing ChatGPT & Google Referral Traffic – Introduction to Ahrefs’ new tool for tracking referral traffic between search engines and AI models.
Google fixes reduced crawling issue impacting some websites – Details on a crawling issue that affected site indexing and its resolution.
Google Search Console: How to fix ‘Duplicate without user-selected canonical’ – Guidance on resolving the “Duplicate without user-selected canonical” error in Google Search Console.
Survey: Only 4% Of Searchers Don’t Click From Google AI Overviews – Insights from a survey on user interactions with Google AI Overviews.
Google Traffic Drops 50% After Site Hack; Recovery Can Take Time Says Google – Discussion on the impact of a site hack that led to significant traffic loss and recovery challenges.