Google just keeps playing games - Google

RE: Google just keeps playing games

Ohnoo_not_her — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 10:33:15 +0000

@rohanm I will thanks!

RE: Google just keeps playing games

RohanM — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 06:15:44 +0000

Well, it was actually me who said that, because I read it on Twitter lol,

{blue}:laugh:

Google just decided: 'let's rank forums, it doesn't matter what or who they are', but let's not reward good sites any longer, shall we?

Yeah I think the reasoning is forums are more likely to have real user experience. Reddit gets extra special attention!

I need to get back on Facebook , after I was banned last year, I hate it. But if I want to keep growing, I'll have to, ugh hahahaaha.

Ha ha ha ... I hate Facebook too!

Enjoy South Africa Lizzy :-)

RE: Google just keeps playing games

Ohnoo_not_her — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 12:46:09 +0000

@rohanm Well, it was actually me who said that, because I read it on Twitter lol, hence why I got a forum in the first place hahaha. (Partha knew a lot and helped a lot for free, but in some cases, I just don't know about him anymore, sorry. There, I said it, almost a year after he disappeared from the internet lol). Is he really? I think he still reads everything here, just incognito hahaha, just like WA members and owners.

Also, a blog combined with an e-commerce store, if you can, seems to be still doing well. My only competitors left on Google, are blogs that have an e-commerce store as well or do dropshipping simultaneously. I don't need all those fancy SEO tools to see this. (Partha depended a lot on those, in my opinion, they are not worth the price)
Lots of top posts on GSC have forum posts.
The thing is: my forum has never been active from different people, 2 real people have been active on it so far, and this includes Diana here hahahaha
The only person being very active on it, is myself, and I've invited people through my newsletters to join. So these forum posts are 'seen', but nobody joins any discussions at all. Google just decided: 'let's rank forums, it doesn't matter what or who they are', but let's not reward good sites any longer, shall we?

First I was thinking about BUYING comments, or even have AI comments automated, but again, I don't want to lose Mediavines Journey, they are way to good for ad income and it has been mentioned several times that people get banned for using excessive AI.

(Mediavine is influenced by 'mom-bloggers',who went on a crusade against AI-bloggers lol). I do NOT want to go back to Ezoic -trash or irritating Google Adsense, so I'm staying put lol. But they still rank my forum posts.

And Pinterest is kind of stuck for me at the same monthly amount, so I need to get back on Facebook , after I was banned last year, I hate it. But if I want to keep growing, I'll have to, ugh hahahaaha.

The moment I'm writing this, my GSC stats are very volatile again, going down at the moment , darned hahahaha.

I'm away to South Africa at the end of the month, and when I get back, on my to-do list: have WooCommerce or Shopify on my site, and get back on FB, aaaaaaarrrgggh to the latter lol! Keeping busy and I hope all goes well there for you!

Lizzy

RE: Google just keeps playing games

RohanM — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 06:01:45 +0000

@ohnoo_not_her Thanks for the update Lizzy. Always interested :-)

Google definitely seems to be favouring forums.

I'm pretty sure Partha mentioned this back in the day. If you can convince Google that your forum has real people on there offering unique, original advice and you're having healthy conversations going on, then the need for a high DA seems to be way less important for achieving page 1 rankings.

Same with real "bricks and mortar" businesses.

RE: Google just keeps playing games

Ohnoo_not_her — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 14:18:51 +0000

Anyone still interested in my Google stats? lol

So, a new core update has been rolled out, I think for about a week now, and my stats went slightly up again, but VERY volatile!

Today I noticed this:

2306

I know, it's in Dutch, lol
But what's important to see here is that a good keyword ( DIY miniature kits-, has gone down almost 100% in the rankings for my WEBSITE, but google is picking up posts from my FORUM . Mostly talking about the same stuff, UGH!

Moral of the story: get a forum on your site hahahaha (and Shopify/woocommerce, if possible ). The latter will get important for Google's AI-mode, what we talked about before.

Lizzy

RE: Google just keeps playing games

Zarina — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 19:34:07 +0000

@ohnoo_not_her occasionally I did get frustrated with hosting, and seems like SS is not regular these days (can take up to 24 hrs).

You guys are making me seriously consider leaving haha

(It's been on my mind for a while since I barely use/read anything now, but I just feel stuck there with the whole under 1 roof, the idea which I like.)

Guess I'm not a huge fan of changes in some areas of life hahah

RE: Google just keeps playing games

Ohnoo_not_her — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 13:02:44 +0000

@zarina personally, I get the most income from ads, always have. I felt like that wasn't talked about enough at all on WA. On the contrary, remember when we could place comments on eachothers websites? I got so many pm's back then on WA about me having ads, that it drove me mad. I was like: 'do you want to make money or not? Your personal taste doesn't matter, the biggest sites out there make tons of money with ads alone. For example this one : https://www.iflscience.com/

Still, the members on WA were all over me for placing ads on my site, ugh.

Yet, they didn't realise (and i didn't either at first), that it was actually their TERRIBLE HOSTING which made it impossible for my site to load fast enough.
And then : BAM, they made it impossible to use WP Rocket, which made it even worse!
By using WPX, I have NONE of these issues, whatsoever. And like Andy said, their support (if ever needed), is super fast!

Okay, it looks like I start rambling again about WA hahahahaaha, wasn't my intent lol
Lizzy

RE: Google just keeps playing games

Ohnoo_not_her — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 12:50:27 +0000

Talk about some success, Google has doubled my traffic since the last update. Far from my former traffic, but I'll take it! (for now lol)

The side-effect for me is that I'm getting 'free' products thrown at me for 'free reviews', either on my blog or my Youtube channel. And these brands think that they can just throw 'free products' at me, that I would make a full review video or blog post, put all my time and effort in it, without extra compensation. I don't think so, not anymore lol! I've learned my darn lesson hahahaha
If they want me to review a DIY house kit or book nook, they might as well pay me 300 bucks for it, at the least, which they don't, and then all get quiet hahahahaha.

I'm only doing this for 'free' now, if they have an affiliate program worthwhile or a sturdy backlink from a big brand.

But my main source is still Pinterest, some newsletter traffic, some bing, but to my surprise about 10k plus per month from Google. Have reached together 44k clicks per month now. So yeah @zarina ; learning about Pinterest/Facebook in some cases, is definitely the way to go forward!

1282

RE: Google just keeps playing games

Andy — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 15:22:23 +0000

@zarina Yeah, I can definitely share income traffic at some point in the near future. We need some success posts here are some point, right? lol

RE: Google just keeps playing games

Zarina — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 05:30:47 +0000

@andy Sounds excellent! Would be happy to hear about it all haha.

Emails is my the weakest suit, and sometimes I wonder if I wanna do it, but sometimes I understand that it's important to do it. Ugh lol.

But even if with Pinterest I get my traffic and income up, at least to $3K/month stable, then I'd be happy.

I'm curious (if you don't mind sharing your numbers), the traffic income, how much does it make you? Do you get paid in ads or thanks to affiliate links?

(Can answer in a future post, instead of here, again, only if you are comfortable sharing 😊)