Hey everyone,
So, Google has recently said that another Core update may be imminent, in fact, potentially rolled out in the next few weeks.
This is probably the "Big One" for those who've been hit in March 2023 Core Update, September 2023 Helpful Content Update, and the March 2024 Core Update.
This is the update that people who believe that Google will MAGICALLY return all their traffic, demote websites based on authority, and rank what is "helpful content" (once again, I repeat, YOU don't know what helpful content is in GOOGLE'S EYES, neither do I)
This is the update that those who have a "sitewide classifier" on their websites from an HCU will HOPE that this will be removed.
This is the update that those SOLELY relying on "writing articles to rank in Google" (and NOT doing ANYTHING ELSE to build a brand or a business) are hoping will "reward" them for their "quality article writing" efforts.
YES, this is sarcasm!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 (Google has already made their decision as far as I'm concerned, they will continue to reward authority and user-generated content over ANYTHING ELSE, plus they will reward real businesses that AREN'T websites solely based on affiliate marketing and ad income, and they will reward those who spend money on other Google services, e.g PPC ads, YouTube ads, etc. - Google is a business, and this is how you do business, most people won't like it, but tough, we've all had 25 years of Google fun, it won't ever be the same again)
Basically, after this next core update if all your Google traffic doesn't coming flooding back, then it probably NEVER WILL.
That being said, Diane did point something out to me about one of our shared websites, and it looks as though DURING the last spam update (20th June 2024 - 27th June 2024), this website, which had been hit in September 2023 and March 2024 had quite a big surge in traffic, which has remained ever since, i.e. it kinda looks like a "recovery", although I did say to Diane that we probably wouldn't know if this is a recovery until AFTER the next Core Update (Google can easily recover a website for a few weeks and then completely kill it a few weeks later, so for now, we'll wait).
Anyway, here's what Google's Danny Sullivan had to say:
"We’d tell you when the next core update will be if we knew. But we don’t know exactly yet, that’s all. These aren’t scheduled to a particular day. The ranking team makes changes, tests those, evaluates those and eventually we get a launch date. There have been many times I could have said “Core update next week!” because everything was on track for that to happen, but then there’s a need to do a bit more work or other things that might cause a pushback. I would expect we’ll see one in the coming weeks, because that fits in with our general cycle. But precisely when, that’s just not known yet.”
Hmmm, the first "test" Helpful Content Update was in August 2022 and we're only a couple of weeks away from August now... here we go again, hold onto your hats, personally I would say that if your "user-generated backlinks" (YouTube, Reddit, Medium, Linkedin, TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter/X, Quora, Forums) have increased SUBSTANTIALLY during this time, this MAY (I said "may") see some positiive changes for you in the search results.
But, as with EVERYTHING Google-related, especially over the last two years, don't hold your breath, we now know for sure (algorithm leaks from May 2024), what Google says and what Googles does are actually TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS.
Good Luck to ALL during the next Core Update,
Oh joy! Another unhelpful googly update to give us all more blisters.
that would be nice, but I'm not counting on it, as you say 😉
Good to know it now. Because I had, after many sleepless nights, taken the horrible, difficult decision to stop with one of my 2 websites after all these attacks of Google.
It was on the right track before all this, but the worst part is that I had spent more than $21000 on it. So, it is that part that was difficult. Only two years ago, I was asked by a buyer if he could buy it, a real person, etc., but I declined as the offer was far too low.
After this, I see what happens in the next 2 months.
I have two sites, and I will focus on the other one.
Good to know it now. Because I had, after many sleepless nights, taken the horrible, difficult decision to stop with one of my 2 websites after all these attacks of Google.
It was on the right track before all this, but the worst part is that I had spent more than $21000 on it. So, it is that part that was difficult. Only two years ago, I was asked by a buyer if he could buy it, a real person, etc., but I declined as the offer was far too low.After this, I see what happens in the next 2 months.
I have two sites, and I will focus on the other one.
Oh wow, on what exactly did you spend all that money on, if I may ask? writers, marketeers? I would feel horrible, so sorry
@ohnoo_not_her Yes, this can be the risk.
Mostly, 2 groups of writers, both good, but I should reduce to one (it was solo but is brilliant), but my health problem damages a lot of things.
@noteboom Hey Johann,
Okay, let's have a little bit of a breakdown of what you've said, and what I've been saying for MANY months now.
I think the main things I'm failing to get across to people (Lizzy has caught on and is now doing this) is
WHY ARE YOU WORRYING ABOUT GOOGLE?
Honestly, I think this has a lot to do with the Wealthy Affiliate training, but EVERYTHING is focused around, find keyword, write content, find keyword, write content, find keyword, write content.
Now, even I did this for many years, but eventually you have to come to the realization that this DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE.
So, by simply "doing keyword research and writing content" you are HOPING FOR A MIRACLE (and as far as I can see, due to Kyle's recent blog posts and telling everyone how "fantastic" everything is <--- is no-one noticing that this is ALL that Kyle is doing? He's just constantly telling you how fantastic WA is, that's it!!! NO ADVICE, NO HELP, Every single blog post he writes is "today let me tell about something fantastic about WA"<--- this DOES NOT help your business, this is what ALL WA members are hoping for too).
Basically, everyone who has been hit by a Google Update is hoping that everything will magically return one day.
This is known as being REACTIVE, i.e. you're just doing the SAME THINGS that NO LONGER WORK (what was Einstein's definition of insanity?) and hoping that they will MAGICALLY work again one day.
However, as an entrepreneur you need to be PROACTIVE, i.e. you need to face problems head on and come up with a solution.
It's plain to see that Google is basically ranking most content based on the authority of the domain it is placed on.
So realistically, someone could "do keyword research and write article" and do this 3,000 times a year, i.e. write 3,000 article per year
BUT
If no-one ever LINKS to those articles, YOU WILL NOT RANK (because there are 3,000 articels some will rank, some will bring traffic, but probably not much more than 15,000-20,000 visitors per month <----- this is a WASTE of all that effort) BECAUSE your website is NOT GAINING AUTHORITY.
So, when I talk about "Google not being the same" I am NOT telling people to give up on their websites.
BUT RATHER
I am telling people to give up WORRYING ABOUT WHAT GOOGLE DOES OR DOESN'T DO
If you are still creating content to rank in Google and NOT obtaining links from elsewhere then you are WAITING FOR A MIRACLE TO HAPPEN.
I don't want to sound harsh, but here's the truth
THIS MIRACLE IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN
Anyway, I feel really bad for you due to expenses, time, and having to potentially ditch one website.
Personally, I would always keep websites active and HOSTED, as "miracles have occasionally happend in SEO" (Oh yes, this is exactly what happend in 2011 and 2012, Google wrecked everything, 18 months later things kinda returned to a "New Normal", but it took 18 months. Will this happen again? I DOUBT IT... but it has happened before).
Okay, expenses and paying for website stuff, here's what I would do if someone hired me for writing services (this is NOT me pitching you btw, I'm just telling you what I would do if a client approached me for a writing gig... but obviosuly, if anyone does want to hire me, I'm always available 🤣🤣🤣).
Let's say my client has a $500/month budget and they want me to "write articles for their website".
Now, I will typicaly charge $70-$120 per 1,000 words, depending on the topic and whether I know it well or not.
If it's someone I know I'd give them a 30% discount, so articles for $49 - $84
Let's say this person is in a niche I know and understand well and they are a friend, I would charge $49 per article.
So, they would say to me for their $500/month budget can I write 10 articles.
My answer would be NO.
Here is what I would tell them to use me for as a writer:
Write FOUR articles, one per week, but promote those 4 articles to produce more BRANDED content online and increase backlinks.
So, week ONE, I write one article and place this on their website.
I then import the article to Medium.
I then rewrite the article slightly and publish on Linkedin, and ensure I have at least a couple of links from that article pointing to OTHER articles on my website.
I then find 9 People Also Ask queries from the main keyword that I wrote the website article around.
I then write these 9 articles using AI (the ORIGINAL article will be ALL ME, some AI for research, but it will be "Partha-Written" article).
I then open accounts at WordPress .com, Weebly .com, and Wix .com.
I add one article every few days to each of the 3 web 2.0 websites above and ALL articles should have an INTERNAL LINK and an EXTERNAL LINK.
So, at the end of WEEK ONE I have three articles in WordPress, 3 articles on Weebly, 3 articles on Wix.
All 3 wordpress articles will link to each other (internal links) and then 2 of the articles will link extrenally to a relevant, authority website in my niche, and ONE article will link to the ORIGINAL ARTICLE I wrote on the website.
I then do exactly the same for Weebly and Wix.
In week two I do exactly the same thing again, original article on website, import to Medium, rewrite for Linkedin, create 9 People Also Ask articles for WordPress, Weebly, and Wix, internal and external links, only ONE link from each of the 3 web 2.0 properties to my original article.
Repeat in week 3.
Repeat in week 4.
Finally, to finish off the month, I would create 100 social bookmarks for ALL of the content I have created on the website, Medium, Linkedin, WordPress, Weebly, and Wix.
That is how I would do article writing in 2024 for a client.
So, less content on the website, MORE content LINKING to my original content (if a writer can keep doing the above for you, then YOU can do OTHER promotions to get more LINKS to your website, video is fantastic, so short form video made into 3 different versions, then upload one to YouTube, one to TikTok, and one to Pinterest, also for each fresh article created on the WEBSITE, so only four articles in a month, create 15 tweets for each (ChatGPT), and in week one, I send 5 tweets per day for three days for ONE ARTICLE, and then repeat this for articles 2,3,4 on week 2,3,4 and finally, I would find 10 relevant websites in MY NICHE, and add ONE blog comment per day for the month, so 10 websites receive 3 comments each per month, and when I leave comments on other people's websites I add my website url to the "name part" of the blog comments section.
THIS IS WHAT I WOULD DO AS A WRITER FOR A CLIENT
The point being, if you are ONLY writing articles and publishing to your website, and doing nothing else... you are WAITING FOR A MIRACLE TO HAPPEN (sorry, Johann, I can do Magic, just not miracles, 😂😂😂 )
@partha I am probably one of the slowest performers in this group but even on my small scale I have noticed what Partha is saying. I haven't added any new articles to either of my websites in at least 4 weeks but I did rewrite a couple of articles for Medium and share to LinkedIn. I also rewrote a couple more that I posted straight to Linkedin, after a couple of weeks of not adding anything to my websites I noticed as expected that the traffic was dropping (even at my already low level 😆 ) but then the traffic started to come back and is now above where it was even though I haven't added any new posts to my site. I will be adding a couple shortly so will keep an eye on this but it looks like I will increase my Google traffic without adding any new posts to my site at all. Maybe it is a coincidence but it definitely is in line with what Partha is saying above.
Hi, Partha, and thank you.
Sorry for the late reply, but you understand why, in the text, one of my problems!
I am not much for talking about myself or my problems but to help you to understand I need to do a small summary because it had so huge effect in all I can do.
I saw when you wrote your story in WA and was really sad about it, but at the same time, I think you understand it better (even so, I would, of course, number one, that you hadn´t gone through this all).
I have been an athlete and coach for many years, both in the primer League and others. And in many teams, I was a captain.
So I had good self-confidence, I think more about others which is both good and bad, and I was in the front used to work in big stress and pressure circumstances as we do in top sports.
I own a family company at the same time.
Before 2013, I had a series of bad personal news (people around me were seriously sick, I lost my job for 3 years in the bank crash, and an ugly divorce, to name a few).
2013 was an issue that changed all things. I was in a dangerous work accident when a very heavy thing fell on my head. Doctors told me, who knew who I was even though I didn´t know him) that if I hadn´t been a goalkeeper in handball (in USA Team handball), I would have gone. If you have seen a famous movie conclusion, it explain all because I know 95% of their stories.
In short, after this, I have incredibly little energy, which I need to use very well and carefully. I don´t want to tire you, but in short, I can be too tired to do something after very little things like cleaning my home.
But I got good insurance benefits because this was a work accident. At the same time, this sum needs to help me for the rest of my life as I can´t work a "normal" job.
I am a fighter and never give up. I was in a lecture about online work and saw that this was the only possibility for me. I need to get things going, some miracle, to save my flat after 8 years, so this site is crucial for me.
I spent so much money on risk because it was all or nothing, and I had this money to try.
So this is my background for this job. Plus I like this job. But, there are 3 things I need to focus on: my sites, I still play international chess, and that is very important for me to do it and achieve success (I needed all my experience and a good team), plus daily life.
The problem is that I do more than I can and should because of my health. But at the same time too little for the site.
I have 2 sites. I put the Icelandic travel site on hold to give all in my main site about sports gear, things I know very well (most of them but have too many sports I am not used to). Even so, each product is different. But this niche is difficult for many social media and I get crazy if one more say it is no problem to build up e mail list around, I even don´t subcrient on that for this topic.
I had as all big mistakes in the journey and good things too. Follow Doug Cunnington about GKR was a game changer at that time.
But seeing all this change in the marker broke the confidence a lot because of these things I had explained. I am a brilliant writer who was an editor of over 30 or 40 and worked in the USA embassy for some time. So, even though she lives in a country where English is not her first language, she writes that she lives in the USA.
But for some reason, she is much cheaper than the prices you mention 
I have had the tradition to add with the salary each year as thanks for good job and have bonuses good too. Even so I had a moral because how low it was till I found out I was paying average monthly salary in her country.
Even so, the main cost has been in writers over the years, and it was difficult to stop this cooperation after all these years. The plan has always been to keep the site somewhat active or inactive to see how things go.
But part of this thinking was that I was scared of my health to work in other traffic that had gone Google (I understand what you mean by this helping me Google). I am a long-term thinker and am ready for gray things but not black hats.
At the same time, I have had my Icelandic travel site on hold. But I decided to open an account for it on FB to keep it open and see if something could work. And it did; I haven´t as many as you talked about, but I have around 8-9k followers/who like the site. Week in it have gone up to more than 120.000. Plus, I have been in many forums on FB (FB looks brilliant for travel sites) checking about the questions from tourists in 2 years.
So now I understand completely what they want, need to know, etc.
I am working in set it up. And I know my country inside outside.
Because all this, I was/is thinking about I wrote here.
It is a problem, after the divorce, that it take a loooong time to trust people. Even easy relaxed man like you are! And we know both how many ass... are in this market.
I admit that I trusted Kyle to much. That was part of the problem. But too, because of the energy, I follow/read very few and try to select them well and needed to trust them a lot.
In all this change, I lost my leg a few times because I was not sure what I should do, which is a horrible feeling. A short time ago, my traffic was around 20% from Pinterest.
But the problem with Pinterest is that they change all their systems regularly just to change. So I lost that traffic, which was really bad, as I believe traffic from Pinterest is the key for the sports site.
For many years, I have sent links directly after each new post to 4 social media. But I need to try to learn about YouTube faceless, as it is not for me to have my face there or talk.
But your idea about 2.0 and media is great, as always, and I will try it.
Sorry, this is too long even so I jump on many things. But one tip I have done has help me sometimes. After each review, I send the review to the company, like Nike, for example, and ask them to read it and ask if they would like to use it in their media.
In the worst case, they say no.
Sorry for the long and not good post, but I felt that you needed to understand why I was/are thinking about this decision and why I have this problem.
By the way, after Semrush, I have 14-15.000 backlinks, but most are for low authority and toxic. I am not sure what they mean with toxic backing even so I understand the word.
I'm really sorry! It was not my idea to bore you all with my problems—I never do—but somehow, a plus b plus... ended in stupidness of my half!
I'm really sorry! It was not my idea to bore you all with my problems—I never do—but somehow, a plus b plus... ended in stupidness of my half!
My gosh, that's not 'stupid' , there are lots of us who have stories like that!
I'll 'bore' you back with my story! (it feels good to get it of your chest sometimes, even to strangers!)
When I was 21, I went to Africa a few times, by myself and then joined an overlander, travelling to several African countries.
All very nice, had the time of my life. I was working as an administrative assistant at the time, even stopped that for a while, because I went back to university at age of 26, because I wanted to study Biology. I saw myself studying the African elephants and hyena's one day, in the paths of Jane Goodall and Cynthia Moss and Diane Fossey hahaha.
I even passed my first exams of maths and chemistry, which was a huge deal for me, because it was a while ago that I went to high school!
Then I got sick, from Africa. Apparently I had walked around with parasites (Schisozoma Mansoni) for years, without me knowing about it. I fell asleep in class, couldn't get in time anymore to follow the classes in the morning, stomach hurt, etc.
When I asked my family doctor, she just said that 'after three years that you went to Africa, that incubation time is to long for you to be sick from it'. I knew my body, this wasn't normal!
So stubborn me, I went to a well know hospital of tropical diseases in Antwerp, and this is where they discovered those little assholes, all over my body and they had already started to attack my kidneys!
I gained weight , because my kidneys held on to water, I had swollen ankles like a pregnant women, but the family doctor didn't see the signs.
Anyway, long story short, the kidney disease is under control, but ever since then with all the drugs they gave me, cortisones and immune depressors, I haven't been quite ok anymore. It was followed by one disease after the other coming back, diseases that you normally only get when you're a teen, like reactivated EBV, one infection after the other, you can bet that when I get a tick bite, that I have lymes disease, my body just doesn't fight things of as it should. You can imagine how scared I was of Covid, it was a terrible time for me. Of course, I didn't want to dy, but mostly I was scared of getting longcovid. Luckily I could avoid getting covid before the vaccins.
To make things worse: I also had 2 lower back surgery (the second time they touched a nerve during the operation, I was in terrible pain for months), a frozen shoulder, a neck hernia.. And those are just the most striking things, because I also have thyroid problems, medications or not, it doesn't solve all the problems.
So, I do move now, daily walks and every other day I do exercises and I travel back to Africa (yeah, call me stupid haha), I'm just a lot more careful now, some people call me panicky, but they don't know what it's like, do they? I'd much rather be careful, then not being able to do a damn thing anymore, because of constant dizziness and fatigue.
So, working online from home for me is ideal, and it gives me a purpose to try and gain enough with it, so the "proud me" can add to the household as well. My dream is that I can make enough money, so that for once, my husband could stay home part time at least. (also, where he works, his factory is in trouble, so we just don't know if he will keep his job or not until his pension , it's a mess )
You have a lot of success on Facebook, you should monetize that man, wow! (place links to your articles each day, if you can, and have AI summarize it and clickbait to the articles) And if your writer is doing such a great job, don't waste that content, have him create books with the content and sell them on Amazon?
It's such a shame isn't it, that WA focussed so much on just content for SEO and affiliate marketing. They had a few socials training, but only recently since the google update, they have been diving more into it. Too little, too late, if you ask me (besides the youtube series from RoopKittu)
A few years ago, when I got hit a first time, I asked Jay a 'ten minutes SEO report' for 50 bucks. He actually said back then already, that he was 'glad that the Serps had a lot of my socials'. THEN WHY THE HECK DIDNT WA TRAIN THAT MORE BY SEVERAL OTHER TEACHERS BACK THEN? One or 2 classes per trimester wasn't enough. Those 50 bucks per month for WA, or even more if you go premium plus, doesn't cover the much-needed information at all. There is such a lot of 'fluff' on there.
I mean, I could straight away notice, that not every niche just can rely on a blog only, you need to be everywhere for a LOT of niches!
Well, 'stupid me', getting this of my chest haha! Don't worry about what others think of you, if they think you are 'boring', they don't know your journey and what you have been through, have they?
I used to get a lot of 'djees, Lizzy, I couldn't be at home like that all the time, I would get bored" (FFS, I was sick!), or 'well, crafting those miniatures, doesn't provide for your pension, does it?". (crafting has been my lifeline, taking away sorrows for a while. And sure, Karen, I do realize that being at home doesn't provide for my pension, I'm already stressing out about that enough thank you!) Some people are just ignorant asshats.
All the best!
Lizzy
@noteboom Hey Johann,
Firstly, thanks for sharing your story, I did kinda "know" a little bit already (but not everything) due to some of the conversations we've had over the years, but thank you for sharing, I think you're very brave.
I will say one thing, and perhaps I have no right to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway 🤣🤣
Do NOT let 2013 define YOU as a person, this is NOT who you are.
You went through a truly terrible year, but once more, this NOT who you are as a person.
The Johann I KNOW is kind, sweet, enthusiastic, hard-working, inquisitive, and there's been more than one occasion that you've made me laugh over the years, you're kinda funny too, Johann, 🤣🤣
THIS is how I see you, Johann, NOT that person who had a terrible 2013.
Look, I totally understand the energy issues you talk about (I understand from YOUR point of view, which is why I thought perhaps I have no right to talk about this, it's not something that I experience on a daily basis), so I also understand you can only do what you can do, when energy levels allow for this.
I'm glad you have an affordable writer who's great as well, but something I try to get across is that don't concentrate ALL your content efforts JUST on your website, a writer should also be able to create content for various platforms too.
Once more, I "get" the Pinterest thing, unfortunately every platform has their own algorithms, and just as with Google, everything can be going great one day, and then everything is terrible the day after.
This is why most people say that "building an email list" is a must for ANY online business, regardless of what type of business.
The fact that your email list are people who you can regularly market to makes them a goldmine.
Anyway, let's get everything else set up and running first (hosting, coaching, etc.) and then I can maybe have a look over your website, and then have a conversation with BOTH you and your writer to give you some ideas and direction.
@partha Thank you so much!
You won´t know how this letter has helped me a lot! But it was huge!
Of course, you can write your opinion (maybe not about Arsenal, but that is another story! 😉 ).
I am a fighter, even though I sometimes have big ups and downs, and I use a lot of things outside the box (I know, boring sentence this outside of the box!), which has helped a lot.
I am definitely not against email lists! But I have tried them for so long that I feel they are impossible for my site.
But I am working on your advice about writing for a few platforms. Of course, my writers are very experienced and have no problem with writing where it is best.
I am starting again with my Icelandic site. All these small details when building it up delay me, and I hope I can start very soon.
There are very likely that in the next 2-3 weeks, volcano number 9 from 2021 and number 6 in the same place from 2022 (or 23), and that has always boosted my sites even so, I will, of course, not it happens, I can see many/all of them from my balcony).
This time, it will most likely come to the town, and it is strange to talk about things like that as there has been untold agreement that Icelandic companies don´t earn money from natural disasters in town.
I don´t do it either, but I give people information that they can use.
I know there are a lot of useful things. I know a person who, a few years ago, had success on Flipboard, which can give you an interesting link as you build a magazine there.
I haven´t had success there and haven´t either dug deep into it or used it for links.
But I should and will look at it because I believe many of my readers are there.
Thank you again, and to this member who supported me, I am very grateful for it.
And yes, I am an owl. It has been best to work at night, so I write more in the US time, I think
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