Was already feeling the downs and downs (yes, it never went up after the hit) from Google’s core updates and those random unannounced ones.
The site was struggling, but then Google hit Replay Jutsu with the Spam Update, and that was it. It is pretty much gone now, completely murdered.
My website doesn’t show up in search results anymore, only the homepage does. None of the other pages appear, not even if I search using branded keywords.
I started Replay Jutsu back in March 2024 during the core update that wrecked almost every independent publisher’s website.
I have already written two posts about this, so I won’t go into much detail here. Replay Jutsu was actually growing really well, though.
Google Destroying Small Sites While Big Publishers Dominate
By May 2024, I had hit 100k+ monthly traffic, thanks to covering JJK’s Shinjuku Showdown Arc every week along with other manga and games. I basically write recaps and reviews of the mangas I read and the animes I watch.
But then during the August Core Update, Replay Jutsu got hit. It was like what HCU did to those other sites, it started happening to mine too. I began losing rankings in the USA, and eventually, all my articles lost their top spots.
Even new stuff I published didn’t rank high anymore, even when there wasn’t much competition. But weirdly, in tier-3 countries, things were fine, still ranking at the top. It felt like some sort of classifier was placed on Replay Jutsu to keep it down in tier-1 regions only.
Originally, the site was a mix of anime and gaming content. But an ‘SEO expert’ suggested I should pick one topic, either gaming or anime.
Since the name Replay Jutsu leans towards anime, I decided I should go all-in on that. So I deindexed and deleted all the gaming content.
After that, Replay Jutsu became fully focused on anime. For a while, I did see some improvements in my rankings on new content.
By the end of October, I noticed something was off again. I guess there were some unannounced updates because my website lost even more traffic. Then came the November Core Update, and that was it, I stopped ranking completely for any of my new content. Even my older posts got pushed way down.
Nobody is Safe
This wasn’t just happening to me, though. Back in September, even some big outlets were hit by ‘unannounced updates too’.
Dexerto and Sites under Gamurs Group had huge layoffs. GGRecon, which was a pretty popular gaming site, ended up shutting down completely.
It all started with the September 2023 Helpful Content Update (HCU). That update hit a lot of editorial sites really hard. Google said it was meant to “improve” search results, but I guess their idea of improving meant wiping out small publishers.
After seeing how many sites got buried, instead of fixing the HCU classifier, they doubled down. They baked it into the core update in March 2024 and dropped a spam update at the same time.
That combo was brutal, it wiped out so many publishers. A lot of small sites just completely disappeared from Google search.
Back to Replay Jutsu, December came with another core update, and then a spam update, and that was it for my site. Replay Jutsu got completely wiped out.
The funny thing is, that a lot of sites that were killed by the March 2024 spam update somehow made a comeback.
They are back in search results like nothing happened, my site is gone. So, I guess those sites are “legit” now, and mine magically turned into spam.
Google says they want independent creators who actually have expertise about the topic to show up in search results.
But in reality, they rank the exact opposite. They mark genuine sites as spam, even when those sites are publishing original, quality content.
I personally only cover anime and manga that I have actually watched or read. I go through every episode or chapter in detail, writing full recaps and then sharing my reviews.
But if you look at the anime search results, it’s all big publishers now. Their writers clearly have no idea what they are talking about. It is just copied and reworded stuff, but since those sites have high authority, Google ranks them at the top. Makes no sense.
What Google Says and What Google Ranks
This year, Google updated its spam policies and added something called Scaled Content Abuse to its documentation. Basically, they say if you are using AI to create pages just to manipulate search rankings, they will mark your site as spam.
But here is the funny thing, this is exactly what a lot of big publishers are doing. They are cranking out AI-generated content, and Google is rewarding them with top rankings and even giving them snippets.
Hindustan Times’ Low-Effort Content
Below I am attaching an example from HindustanTimes, which has been mass publishing Ai AI-generated content on a lot of manga chapters and anime episodes.
The example I’m talking about is a piece on Dandadan Season 2 speculation. It is clear the writer has not even watched the series.
In the article, they say Season 2 will pick up at the start of a new arc, but that doesn’t make sense. Season 1 ended mid-arc during The Cursed House Arc, which runs from Chapter 28 to Chapter 50 in the manga.
The anime adapted up to Chapter 34, so there is still half of the arc left to cover. How could Season 2 jump to a new arc when this one hasn’t even finished?
On top of that, the writer claims Jiji is a yokai “evil eye” who will be introduced in season 2. But if they had watched the anime, they’d know Jiji was introduced in Season 1, and he hasn’t turned into a yokai yet. It only has 12 episodes, so watching it isn’t hard!
This is the kind of low-effort, misinformed content that gets rewarded just because it’s coming from a big publisher.
Another example, I am going to share is of Chainsaw Man Chapter 188 speculation by Hindustantimes. The speculation is copied from Sportskeeda, just a bit paraphrased using AI.
For both of these articles, Hindustan Times is ranking right at the top. The same writer who “covers” these animes and mangas (using AI, obviously) also writes about music, USA news, NYT crossword games, Hollywood, and who knows what else.
A very talented writer. Covering every topic under the sun like that, but clearly not doing the basic research needed for the content they are publishing.
ComingSoon AI Abuse
Another example of a content farm I want to talk about here is ComingSoon. I have actually mentioned them in my previous articles too because I caught them stealing my Blue Lock manga content three different times.
This is the third time I have caught @comingsoonnet stealing my guides and outranking me, at this point it does not even seem unintentional!
— Masab Farooque (@MasabDF) November 5, 2024
The article is then published on their own blog and Yahoo as well. pic.twitter.com/EoNtEVgMKr
.A writer from ComingSoon is mass-publishing anime articles without even watching or looking into the details.
Now here’s an example of their “research.”, an article on blue box anime. It has already been confirmed by the producer that the anime will run for two cours straight, meaning it is going to have 25 episodes, not 12.
This was announced a long time ago. The anime is currently on a break and will return on January 2nd, as confirmed by Crunchyroll.
But here’s what the ComingSoon writer did: they just randomly published an article claiming there won’t be a “part 2.”
They said there won’t be an episode 13 and basically canceled the rest of the anime themselves. Like, how does this even happen? and Google ranks them on top!
The same writer also covers Blue Lock chapter release dates, but it’s literally the same article over and over again with just the dates changed. They copy-paste everything because they can, and Google still ranks them at the top, even in Top Stories.
What’s worse is that the writer doesn’t even know the basics about Blue Lock. For starters, Blue Lock isn’t available on Manga Plus or VizMedia. It’s a Kodansha manga, so it’s not on those platforms at all. They even linked the Blue Box manga instead of Blue Lock on VizMedia because, obviously, Blue Lock isn’t there.
Before I called them out last time, they didn’t even know Kodansha publishes Blue Lock. They just kept mentioning VizMedia. They get away with this stuff while actual, well-researched content gets buried.
Pinkvilla Mass Paraphrasing
Another big publisher, PinkVilla, has also jumped into covering manga chapters. I’m not sure if they have some kind of partnership with Sportskeeda or what, but here’s is what they do, they take recaps from Sportskeeda, run them through AI paraphrasing tools, and then publish them as their own content.
And this paraphrased content? It not only gets the snippet spot on Google but is also syndicated on MSN, shows up in Google’s Top Stories, Google News, and everywhere else. The traffic? According to stats shared in the PinkVilla article, their piece on Chapter 288 got 310k views.
And it’s not surprising. With the way it shows up everywhere, Google Discover, Google News, syndicated platforms, and even the snippet, it is bound to get that kind of reach.
TimesofIndia The AI Content Scraper
Another big publisher I wanna call out is the Times of India. Yep, a political news site that’s somehow also writing about manga chapters now. It’s completely AI-generated, paraphrased content stolen from other websites. I mean, anyone can look at it and tell it’s just GPT stuff published on their site. No effort, no actual knowledge, just straight-up copy-paste.
I could list way more examples, but I think the ones I haveshared already give you a clear idea of what these big publishers are up to. They are gaming the system with zero effort or actual knowledge, and yet Google keeps favoring them on SERPs.
State of Google Search in Anime Space
Google has wiped out a lot of independent publishers that used to cover anime and manga. Now, it’s mostly the big publishers left, and I’ve already shared examples of what some of them are doing.
The truth is, that Google doesn’t care about the quality of content anymore, they just care about brands.
They want high-authority sites showing up for every search, even if those sites are putting out copied content or misinformation. As long as it’s from a big name, Google just lets it slide.
As an example, If you do a quick search for Chainsaw Man 186 release date, Hindustan Times gets the snippet, and the first page is just filled with AI-paraphrased articles. And, as usual, OneEsports somehow shows up twice for the same keyword with the same article!
Big publishers also syndicate their content to sites like Yahoo and MSN. What’s crazy is those pages rank too. Like, the same article shows up on their website, then on MSN, and then on Yahoo.
And somehow, all three versions rank on Google, plus they show up on Discover and Google News as well. Below is an example:
While these big sites are allowed to share the same speculations, they don’t even need to read the manga. They can just copy-paste stuff, and they will still rank.
Meanwhile, Google killed my website with their spam update, even though I actually write detailed recaps and speculations. I put effort into my content because I actually know what I’m writing about.
Final Words
Google isn’t even trying to fix the mess they made with the HCU. Instead of addressing it, they have doubled down, making it impossible for independent media sites to survive.
They know what they have done, but their priorities have shifted. Google Search used to be their main focus, but now it is all about Gemini. They have already added Gemini into Search with those AI Overviews that try to answer your query directly. I think their goal is to turn into an answer engine instead of a search engine.
That is why they are getting rid of smaller publishers and keeping the big ones on the SERPs, they plan to partner with them and use their content in AI Overviews.
The open-web thrives on diverse voices, independent creators, and niche blogs. Kill that, and we are left with a boring, shallow internet that only serves corporate interests.
— Masab Farooque (@MasabDF) December 19, 2024
