Hi - your YouTube channel would do even better if you took the time to create custom thumbnails for your videos.

Remember, with YouTube, you have to "stop the scroll" - your thumbnail has to grab attention within 2 seconds!

And ideally have text, so potential viewers know instantly what it's about.

Looking at your competitors, they have a huge amount of views, so it's a great niche with tons of potential.

Anyway, here is a thumbnail I created for your video on Prague, my favorite city!

Try experimenting with them, and see if it makes a difference.

Posted by: @nat

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As my articles don't appear on SERP anymore, I don't care about Google

Posted by: @nat

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I was worried about manual penalty from Google

Posted by: @nat

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can your website be punished eventually for that

Hey Nat, 

(It's loooooooong, I bet you're sorry you asked now!!! Hahahahahaha!!!)

Don't shout at me, but I've quoted your first sentence above, and then two other things you said within the same question.

Before I go any further, let's break these down:

"As my articles don't appear on SERP anymore, I don't care about Google"

IF your articles don't appear in the SERPs, if your Google Search Console and Google Analytics have seen a sharp decline in Google traffic, guess what?

YOU'VE ALREADY BEEN "HIT", You've already been "PENALIZED"

Okay, a MANUAL Penalty, the important word is "MANUAL"

This means that a HUMAN BEING has MANUALLY reviewed your website and placed a penalty on that website, which can be found in Google Search Console.

BUT

If you lose a LOT of traffic AFTER a Google Update, this is an "Algorithmic penalty", so no HUMAN review so NOT "manual"), but a "penalty" had been placed on your website by a "machine" (the algorithm).

You will NOT see this anywhere in GSC 

BUT

IT IS OBVIOUS

You have lost all your traffic.

That's it!!!

If you have lost a lot of Google traffic then you have some type of "penalty" or "classifier" on your website.

HOWEVER

In your two questions (I'll answer them in a minute)

You have said twice something similar to:

"I don't want to do anything that will get me penalized by Google"

I'm sorry, Nat, you know I love you, hahaha, so I'll be gentle, but I'll spell it out for you

YOU'VE ALREADY BEEN PENALIZED!!

Just think about it.

Forget EVERYTHING you've learned over the past few years, and THINK ABOUT IT from a very basic persepctive:

You used to rank in Google and get traffic from Google

AND NOW

You don't rank in Google and you don't get any traffic from Google

Once more, FORGET EVERYTHING YOU'VE LEARNED.

WHAT does the above say to you?

"Used to get Google traffic, don't get it any more"

PENALIZED (even if there is "nothing" in GSC, you have lost LOTS of traffic)

Now, in previous years, quite often traffic could come back at a later algorithm update, sometimes even if you didn't make any changes to your website.

I'm afraid I have to say that the Google game completely changed in August 2022 (after the first "test" Helpful Content Update).

Plus, since the last "official" Helpful Content Update of September 2023 (the HCU is now INCLUDED inside the "CORE UPDATE" from 2024 onwards)

NO WEBSITES ON THE ENTIRE INTERNET HAVE RECOVERED.

Furthermore, since the "Google API leaks" (I'm still thinking about this, I'm not even sure is this is a "test" from Google), we have literally been told (we kinda knew this anyway as experienced SEOs) that:

Websites are mainly ranked on authority, authority is mainly about backlinks (although QUALITY backlinks are always better than quantity).

Small websites are "held back" by what has been referred to as the "sandbox", and it is unlikely that a small website will rank WELL (posiition 1-10) for any keywords until it gains some authority or becomes a more recognisable brand (so, if your website name is "Nat's Africa Adventure", you may see improvements in ranking if lots of people are searching Google for "Nat's Africa Adventure" <--- but obviously this is unlikely until your brand becomes better known over the internet)

Something I;ve been trying to say to everyone for a while now, but many people aren't "getting it" is:

You've already been "hit" by Google, so stop trying to please Google and do everything "by the books" to PLEASE GOOGLE.

Here's an analogy, and another way to look at it.

Let's say I have a girlfriend called Nancy.

Nancy (Google) tells me that she thinks the quality of our relationship is "unhelpful", she then stops coming home, doesn't spend any time with me, she cheats on me with 100 other men, and does this all in FRONT OF MY FACE.

THIS IS WHAT GOOGLE HAS DONE TO MANY PEOPLE OVER THE LAST 21 MONTHS

Now, if I said to you:

"I going to change everything about me, change the way I look, change the way I act, change the way I speak, change the way I do everything BECAUSE I want to get Nancy back"

What would you say to me?

You'd tell me I was mad.

You'd tell me I was better than Nancy!

You'd tell me that I don't need Nancy!

You'd tell me that Louise (Medium), Claire (Pinterest), Sophie (Linkedin), and Tara (YouTube) all like me, and they are all interested in being my girlfriend...

BUT

In order to get the same type of relationship I had with Nancy years ago (before she became a B*tch , hahahah!!) with these new girls, I would need to work hard and prove myself to them first!

It is exactly the same with Google.

Google has CHEATED ON YOU, Google has treated you TERRIBLY, Google has STAMPED ON YOUR DREAMS, Google has been ABUSIVE towards you.

This is what "Nancy" did to me.

Would you tell me to fix my relationship with Nancy or would you tell me to go and find someone who DESERVES ME?

I say the same to you about your website

STOP TRYING TO PLEASE GOOGLE (they "cheated" on you)

Okay, life lesson over, hahahahaha!! back to your questions!

Changing date, will I be "penalized" (you already have been, Nat!) - see my reply to Jenny.

Basically, people are using RevivePress or Revive.so plugins (don't pay for either, I have something "special" coming soon), which GOES AGAINST GOOGLE'S POLICIES for refreshing content.

Guess what, they are ALL seeing improvements in rankings (by going against Google's policies)

Question 2: backlinks and parasite SEO

Okay, I will eventually do something around backlinks, but it's NOT as easy as "this is backlinks and this is how you get them", however, parasite SEO is much easier.

Firstly, everyone is panicking because of the word "parasite", makes it sound "bad", right?

All parasite SEO is - placing your content on a high-authority website

THAT's IT!!

So, think about it, when you "share" content to Facebook this is "placing your content on a high-authority website".

When you "share" content to Pinterest this is "placing your content on a high-authority website".

When you "share" content to Twitter/X this is "placing your content on a high-authority website".

The main difference with platforms like Medium and Linkedin is that you place your ENTIRE ARTICLE on these websites (it's still the same as sharing content to Facebook, the same principle, just different ways of "sharing" on different platforms).

Now, for platforms like MEdium and Linkedin I would say you can't draw any conclusions about whether "it works" until you have at least, hmmm, say, 30 articles on that one platform.

So, let's say you do have 30 articles on Medium and NOTHING'S ranking or giving you any traffic.

This says your keywords are TOO COMPETITIVE.

Medium ranks well for most longtail kewyords with not much competition, and still fairly well for medium competitive keywords too.

Now, the "backlinks" to a platform like Medium works differently to backlinks to your own website.

Every Medium article you write, if you link to an article on your website, you are providing backlink to your website.

BUT

You can make these "Medium backlinks" STRONGER by having backlinks to your MEDIUM ARTICLES.

Plus, as an example, a platform like Medium averages 1,400,000 new articles EVERY MONTH.

Let's say that every article is shared to Facebook, Twiiter/X, and Linkedin, that is 3 "backlinks" per article, so this means there are 4,200,000 NEW backlinks coming to Medium EVERY MONTH (it's MUCH higher than this, I'm just giving you an example).

So, if you send lots of backlinks to your Medium articles,99 times out of 100 it will IMPROVE the ranking of your MEdium articles (and the type of backlink really doesnt matter, the Medium domain has HIGH AUTHORITY - High Authority = you can get away with "blackhat". BUT, if you sent the same backlinks to your low authority website, there is a good chance that you will be peanlized by Google (if you haven't ALREADY been penalized = you've lost traffic during an algorithm update) - low authority website = you CAN'T get away with "blackhat").

So, what I've been saying for a few months now is to add content to Medium (or Linkedin), link your MEdium articles to your website articles, and then send backlinks (which I do for you) to you MEDIUM ARTICLES, and this will improve the "authority" of your Medium articles.

Once you have lots of "improved authority" Medium articles linking to your website, your website's AUTHORITY will eventually IMPROVE as well.

Over a period of time, this is how your website will eventually "recover".

But, for now, if you have a website that USED to get Google traffic, but doesn't any more, this means that EVERY ARTICLE YOU ADD TO YOUR WEBSITE WILL NOT RANK UNTIL YOU IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE'S AUTHORITY.

What's the easiest way to improve your website authority in 2024 = Parasite SEO (put articles on Medium and Linkedin, choose a few of these articles after 7-10 days to send backlinks to so you can improve their rankings, then you will be getting traffic to your MEdium and Linkedin articles, you Medium and Linkedin articles will be of "higher authority" (because of the backlinks), and they will also send traffic to your website.

For now, if you're not seeing anything happening on various social media platforms it's because the keywords you're targeting are TOO COMPETITIVE.

You can actually send backlinks to ANY platform that is linking to your website.

So, you can send backlinks to your YouTube videos, you can send backlinks to your Facebook share url, you can send backlinks to your twitter/X share urls.

These backlinks WON'T harm your YouTube, Medium, Linkedin, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Flipboard, Facebook, etc. content because all of these platforms have HIGH AUTHORITY.

Once more - you can get away with "blackhat" on a high authority domain (because they have millions and millions and millions of backlinks coming to them EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!)

I bet you wish you never asked me now.

If you ned to reach out to me privately, please do.