Okay, is this what you’ve ALL been waiting for?
You're NOT gonna like it!!
Hahahahhahahahahhahaha!
But, I’m not here to BS you, put a positive spin on things, or try to convince you to use outdated practices.
Of course, there is a way forward from what has been going on with Google for the last few months, BUT, the following are things that you should be aware of.
These are “talking points”, so please get involved, ask questions, provide opinions, etc.
Just know, NOTHING stays the same forever.
Plus, for those of you talking about “recovery”, you only need to worry about “recovery” if your entire business model is focused on ranking in Google (a terrible idea in 2024 and moving forward).
A website that has been” hit” can still be hugely successful (just so you know, one of my “hit websites” received 91,238 visitors in April 2024… with a grand total of 724 visitors from Google!! Hahahahahah!! F U Google, LOL).
Here goes… time to get “chatting”
(btw, it wwouldn’t be me if I’d proofread this and fixed any errors, hahahaha!! How else am I gonna wind u Old Fluff? LOL!!)
Talking Points
1. In order to rank for ANY keyword in Google, the domain upon which you place that content needs to have some “authority”.
2. If your sole business model is “finding longtail keywords”, writing articles to place on your website, then don’t expect much from Google.
3.If your business model is mainly aimed at getting Google traffic, then don’t expect much from Google.
4. Google has said for years, “write for people, NOT for search engines”.
5. This PROVES the two points above are TRUE, i.e. if you;re doing “longtail keyword research” with the sole purpose of ranking your articles in Google, then you are WRITING FOR SEARCH ENGINES.
6. If you lost the majority of your GOOGLE traffic in August 2022, December 2022, March 2023, September 2023, March 2024 you have had an “algorithmic penalty” placed on your website. This is different from a manual action. A manual action means your website has been manually reviewed by a human and they’ve decide that as a whole your website is spammy and unhelpful or you have tried to manipulate rankings.
7. Anyone who got “hit” during a “Helpful Content Update” has had a “sitewide classifier” added to their domain. It is highly unlikely that you will rank in Google for any NEW content until that classifier has been removed. This could take YEARS.
8. The “page-by-page classifier”, in MY MIND, was solely for large authority brands and websites who had previously manipulated Google through “parasite SEO”. As an example, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, and Outlook India had created specific subdomains for affiliate marketing and allowed people to pay money to write their affiliate articles to be placed on these sites. The 3 websites mentioned above either removed their “manipulative subdomains”, e.g. vouchers affiliate marketing, best casinos affiliate marketing, etc. or had them removed by Google on May 5th. The rest of their website remained untouched (still ranking, producing traffic and income, i.e. page-by-page classifier works for these BIG websites.
9. Websites that don’t appear to be a real business, i.e. websites solely created with content based on longtail keywords in order to generate affiliate income or ad revenue, were hit hardest over the last 9 months.
10. Many SEOs are currently trying to make their “hit” websites look like “real businesses” by adding an ecommerce element to their website, or even creating tools that would be useful to their target audience (no feedback yet as to whether this is working, it’s too early to tell).
11. Blackhat techniques from over a decade ago appear to be working. Here’s a list and the potential costs for doing these. Clickthrough rate manipulation ($30-$100), blog comment spam backlinks ($20-$150), even though this is spam, it appears that the User Generated Content aspect of blog comments from high DA/DR websites is pushing websites higher in the SERPs, Republishing articles at bulk on the most recent date ($0-$30/month). If interested in any of the above, just ask me, I can do these for you.
12. All websites should have “foundational backlinks”, which is mainly made up of profiles at social media platforms and web 2.0 properties. This will cost either $19, $32, or $49 for a ONE-TIME FEE (once more, if interested, ask me, I can do these for you). However, interestingly, these foundational backlinks which are on high DA websites, you might actually find that you can place very short articles on these and rank in the SERPs. For an example, Google search - Unlock Your Glutes Review - This is a product I reviewed about 4 years ago, ranked either position 1 or 2 until from 2020-2022, and just from this one product I made around $15,000 during that time. You can now see Flickr ranking on page one for this keyword. Flickr is a web 2.0 photo-sharing platform, the “article” ranking on page on for this keyword is less than 500 words and just has the product image (so, getting your foundational backlinks not only helps with creating your online brand, but you could actually “parasite” of many of these platforms to rank in Google).
13. If you’re following a “no backlinks” method, you may as well not bother with Google anymore, do you honestly believe that a “longtail keyword article” from a low DA website is going to outrank a high DA website that “kinda” covers the subject, even if it’s incorrect?
14. “Foundational backlinks” are important for your brand name to appear all over the internet, this makes you look more like a “real business”.
15. If you want to rank WRITTEN content in Google currently, the best platforms are Linkedin Pulse, Medium, and Reddit.
16. Linkedin Pulse and Medium both took a slight “hit” in Feburary and March 2024, but are still performing well.
17. Reddit has been really hot of deleting spam since March 2024, so you can still parasite off Reddit, but you need to “slowly” build up your account first, aim for 1,000 larma points for BOTH posts and comments BEFORE “promoting” (this could easily take 4-6 weeks of regularly comments and posting WITHOUT any links… but f you see this through, Reddit can be a goldmine by minth 3).
18. In order to rank content via Linkedin Pulse, Medium, or Reddit you can actually use “spammy backlinks”. If you send “spammy backlinks” to your main website you’ll get slapped by Google, they know these have been manipulated because you suddenly go from zero backlinks or just your own social media backlinks per month, to suddenly receiving 1000s in a month←-this is why you get slapped by Google. Linkedin, Reddit, and Medium all have huge domain authority, therefore, they receive thousands of backlinks every single day, this is how you can “get away” with sending spammy backlinks to your articles published on these platforms, and it will help to improve your ranking (backlinks for Linkedin/Reddit/Medium articles are $15, $30, or $50… once more, speak to me, I can do these for you).
19. CURRENTLY (it may change), a good affiliate marketing business model, which mainly involves WRITING content - get 150 articles on your website asap (just in case you think you;re working hard, many people are doing this within a mointh), have an email signup and a prewitten newsletter (at least 10 emails to get started), and a “lead magnet”, get your foundational backlinks done for branding, import all your website articles to Medium, rewrite slightly and place on Linkedin, get involved on Reddit, no promotion for your first month, and once you have the 1,000 and 1,000 post and comment karma, create a subreddit to add your rewritten content. It is likely that your Medium/Linkedin/Reddit content will rank higher than your website content (if ranking outside the top 3, you can use spammy backlinks to push these articles higher←-NEVER use spammy backlinks on your main site), your main website traffic will come from Linkedin/Medium/Reddit, but the “Authority” from these articles may eventually increase your own website’s authority, thus pushing you higher in the SERPs.
20. Google is fine with AI content, Google is not fine with regurgitated AI writer content that does not provide any ADDITIONAL VALUE to what is in the SERPs. “Adding your own voide” to an article that says exactly the same as 1,000,000 other articles already indexed and ranking is NOT WHAT GOOGLE WANTS. You will get nowehere ever with Google.
21. If you;re going to talk to me about “it works”, “I’m ranking” in Google, you need to have at least 150 articles on your site and at least 500 visitors per day from Google, otherwise IT DOES NOIT WORK & your “rankings” MEAN NOTHING (I’m sorry, I know many of us have been “trained” for “little wins”, and also “trained” for “its a marathon not a sprint”, but come on!!! Would a REAL BUSINESS be happy with less than 100 visitors per month and making about $50/month?)
22. Social media traffic may not be “as good as Google traffic”, but this is the “new normal”, either “pivot” or get out of the game.
23. If you’re website has been “hit” and you’ve lost all motivation for it, then you can try one of two things (which will work in the short term, but Google may eventually catch up with you, this could be the next algorithm update, or perhaps 2.5.10 years down the line). Firstly, if you;ve given up on a “hit” site, get a new domain, then find all the articles that were ranking well BEFORE you got hit, rewrite slightly and add to new website, then deindex the original article from the “hit” site. Just be aware that if your content was all “longtail keyword based at an attempt to rank in Google”, you’re new site will eventually get “hit” again.
OR
24. Mass-produced AI content was “hit” during the recent spam update, but just to show that most people don’t “think big enough”, this is applicable to those who are producing 100 articles per day, 10,000 articles per month. You can “get away” with 10-20 AI articles per day. You may eventually get “hit” by Google, but I guarantee that your content will rank in Bing. Let’s say per article ranking well in Bing brings in 10 visitors per month, for decent income generation, let’s say you want 30,000 visitors per month, that’s 3,000 articles you need to get published on your site, this will take you5-10 months to achieve, PLUS, if you get “hit” by Google, you’re not as worried, as you’re ranking in Bing, so just carry on producing 10-20 AI articles per day.
25. If you want get down and really dirty and REALLY, REALLY, REALLY Blackhat with a website that has been “hit”, get at least 500 articles on that website (go to a few websites in your niche, go to their homepage, type /sitemap.xml after the domain name, copy and paste all the urls, get AI to write them). Then pay for DA/DR manipulation (between $100-$250 for DA 50 - DA70), then sell backlinks (guest posts or niche edits) for your site via somewhere like Fiverr or Upwork (not very ethical, but as an example, a niche edit on a DA50 website, especially a RELEAVNT website to your niche could easily cost around $75-$150. You sell them for half that price, one sale a day and I’m sure you’ll feel a lot better (once more, as dirty as this is, speak to me, and I can help you do this).
26. Ranking NUMBER ONE in Google in 2024 for a “transactional”, “commercial”, or “navigational” keyword in 2024 is probably the equivalent of ranking NUMBER SEVEN in 2020 (you are now below, AI results, Shopping Ads, PPC Ads, YouTube Carousel). Ranking NUMBER ONE in 2020 saw an average 31% clickthrough rate, whereas ranking NUMBER SEVEN in 2020 saw an average 3% clickthrough rate, Therefore, in a keyword had a search volume of 1,000, you could expect 310 visitors to your website for ranking number one and 30 visitors to your website for ranking number 7. Ranking NUMBER ONE IN 2024 FOR THE SAME KEYWORD means you can only expect around 30 visitors per month. Are you starting to understand that putting the majority of your time into “writing longtail keyword articles” may not be worth your time? (especially if that content is being placed on a website with “low authority”.
27. Is there any point talking about SGE, Gemini, AI results in Google? This is simply scraping the internet and rewriting and placing at the top of the SERPs. What difference does this really make to you if you’re NOT currently ranking in position 1 (2 to 3 at worst)? Absolutely none.
Let’s talk about these (more to come next week)
6. If you lost the majority of your GOOGLE traffic in August 2022, December 2022, March 2023, September 2023, March 2024 you have had an “algorithmic penalty” placed on your website. This is different from a manual action. A manual action means your website has been manually reviewed by a human and they’ve decide that as a whole your website is spammy and unhelpful or you have tried to manipulate rankings.
This is what did it for one of our sites - Sep 2023 we got hit with the 'algorithmic penalty' (AP). What does this means in terms of getting that removed and/or doing something about it. It's a pretty big site, so I can't change the domain name/brand, but it's definitely not established as a 'business', so that may be the issue. Wasn't sure what the proper guidelines/next steps were in terms of AP's.
19. CURRENTLY (it may change), a good affiliate marketing business model, which mainly involves WRITING content - get 150 articles on your website asap (just in case you think you;re working hard, many people are doing this within a mointh), have an email signup and a prewitten newsletter (at least 10 emails to get started), and a “lead magnet”, get your foundational backlinks done for branding, import all your website articles to Medium, rewrite slightly and place on Linkedin, get involved on Reddit, no promotion for your first month, and once you have the 1,000 and 1,000 post and comment karma, create a subreddit to add your rewritten content
Not that you want to do this (when I have time, I may), but this wouldn't be a bad service/package someone could offer in the future. It'd be pricey, but worth it if done right.
17. Reddit has been really hot of deleting spam since March 2024, so you can still parasite off Reddit, but you need to “slowly” build up your account first, aim for 1,000 larma points for BOTH posts and comments BEFORE “promoting” (this could easily take 4-6 weeks of regularly comments and posting WITHOUT any links… but f you see this through, Reddit can be a goldmine by minth 3).
Will you have any training on this in the future (i.e. we being able to see specific examples of how to do this). For some reason I still can't understand how specifically to do this on Reddit, but need to teach my VAs to add this to their daily schedules.
As valuable and genuinely interesting as this is, I cannot get over
aim for 1,000 larma points
And yes, I know it's llama, lol.
This is what did it for one of our sites - Sep 2023 we got hit with the 'algorithmic penalty' (AP). What does this means in terms of getting that removed and/or doing something about it. It's a pretty big site, so I can't change the domain name/brand, but it's definitely not established as a 'business', so that may be the issue. Wasn't sure what the proper guidelines/next steps were in terms of AP's.
To be honest, this is a difficult one to gauge.
You have all these SEOs who have been doing case studies on a number of sites through ahrefs.
Sure, most case studies have followed between 50-1,000 websites, so it's obviously a very small percentage of websites that have been "hit", but ALL the feedback has been that NO websites have recovered thus far from the September 2023 HCU.
Some of the things that have been said are the main websites that got "hit" were ad revenue or affiliate sites with no real online branding.
Plus, the affiliate sites were just churning out reviews with no real proof that they had actually seen, used, or handled the products.
The ad revenue sites typically had a fixed footer ad and fixed video ads, thereby not really providing a great user experience.
BUT, in the same vein, there are sites who have done the above and NOT been hit.
We're told that "recovery" is simply about following Google's helpful content and spam guidelines that they publish, but in reality these are really difficult to decipher, and you can follow everything and not recover.
The other thing to look at is the past, sites hit in the massive updates of 2011, 2012, and 2017, took around 2 years MINIMUM to recover and they basically changed every single article on their website.
I'm not saying "recovery" isn't possible, but with the way the SERPs are at the moment, if the majority of your articles are "keyword-based in order to rank in Google", this could be viewed as "writing for search engines and not for people".
In other words, the main type of Blogging and SEO that has been taught for years is actually going against Google's guidelines.
I know some people are doing things like adding an ecommerce section to their website to make it look as though they are a "real business", but once more, this could be viewed as "manipulation".
For now, it could be the case that if you have a sitewide classifier on your website that you need to change EVERY SINGLE article on your website, or, just do what Lizzy is doing - rather than trying to "fix" something just to appease Google, why bother? Just keep your website as it is and aim to increase traffic from other sources (I know easier said than done, but you could spend years trying to "fix your website" to please Google, with no guarantee that it will work, or you could spend that couple of years trying to increase non-Google traffic sources to your website.
In other words, you ONCE MORE completely focus on ranking in Google (which you previously have done with great results, but now you've been smacked all over the place) or you just forget about Google. With time, more traffic come from external sources, and the gradual increase in authority, you may "automatically recover" as your website gains more authority.
Basically, anyone selling or speaking about "How to Recover From HCU" is scamming you... they don't know.
That said, here's a list of niche websites that actually grew in traffic (according to ahrefs) AFTER the MARCH CORE UPDATE, it could be a case of seeing what these sites are doing and then seeing how you can apply this to your "hit" website.
snookerhq [dot] com
mathster [dot] com
southernshelle [dot] com
vivaldicolor [dot] com
dogster [dot] com
lifestylewithleah [dot] com
lonelypinesfarm [dot] com
runlifteatrepeat [dot] com
scottmax [dot] com
nomastehungry [dot] com
As for the "service", yep, sounds good, but you can also offer "different levels" for more affordable options.
So, cheapest option could be something like set up website, add legal articles and 5 "normal" articles, do foundational backlinks, set up Medium, Linkedin, and Reddit.
Then you increase the price at "higher levels" which involve doing slightly more.
And then the top level would be the all singing all dancing EVERYTHING service.
As for Reddit, sure I can do a write up with examples, for now, what you can do is get a few Reddit accounts set up, and get your VA's to start increasing karma on these.
I've also got aged Reddit accounts (about 67, hahahahahahaha!!), all at least 5 months old, which kinda helps with "gaining traction" quicker on Reddit (I paid $15 per account, you can have them at the same price that I paid).
Then what you get your VAs to do is to offer comments on the AskReddit/r subreddit, as this tends to have a LOT of people on it, so even something as simple as replying to a comment that has 150 upvotes with "I agree, this is something that I've been saying too" could easily get you 50+ upvotes.
Your aim is to get your comment LLAMA (I am gonna kick that Old Fluff, hahahaha!!) to 1,000 as quickly as possible.
As for post karrma, the quickest way to increase this, believe it or not, is to find some "jokes" subreddits, get a load of funny jokes from a book, from across the internet (not Reddit), and then post a funny joke.
Once more, these subreddits are really popular and you can easily write 5-10 jokes and hit your post karma.
But, as I say, get a few reddit accounts started and get your VAs to do the above (and if you want some aged Reddit accounts, just let me know!)
@partha Sorry mate, you walked right into it, lol.
Do you think visual media platforms still play a part in this? Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, etc?
I know we've talked before about offering services/packages - I can do the AI writing, import old and new posts to Medium, rewrite for LinkedIn, etc, and you can do the dodgy stuff!
@diane oh yeah, 100%.
I've only listed the above as most people focus "content" on being written content, but we all know that the visual stuff is killing it.
Basically, web 2.0 properties (websites that allow users to create and share their own content) are absolutely killing it at the moment.
Even proven by what I said above about a Flickr "article" (I actually think it is less than 150 words) is ranking on page one for - Unlock Your Glutes Review- when this was one of the most popular exercise products in the late 2010s/early 2020s so probably easily has over 1,000,000 "reviews" written about it.
You could view "2024 keyword research" as
Put your keyword into Google.
See if there are any web 2.0 properties ranking on page one.
Create content on THAT platform
Have "external" links pointing to YOUR WEBSITE (perhaps a product review or email sign up)
Spam it with a load of crappy backlinks
RANK
To be honest, in the late 2000s, I made an entire mid-4 figure monthly business from JUST placing content on web 2.0 properties (they were EzineArticles, Squidoo, and Hubpages)
It's almost as though we've gone full circle.
This worked really well for around 7 years.
So, let's say that Google is more "clued up" than previously, this means that "manipulating website 2.0 domain authority to rank in Google" (whether written or visual-based websites) will "work" until it doesn't.
If we "got away with it" for 7 years before, let's say in the 2020s we can "get away with it" for about 2 years.
Basically, you've got two years to "fill your boots" and use all these web 2.0 properties (written or visual content) before Google no doubt comes up with another massive shake-up in 2026!!
Go for it..
Thanks for this harsh reality, Partha.
I have a couple of questions,
1. You mentioned uploading all of our blog posts on to medium, I have uploaded a few so far, but when uploading posts it shows the original published date. Many of my articles are from 2019, which I regularly update, but does this matter? Shouldn’t we be posting fresh content on medium?
2. You mention LinkedIn Pulse, LinkedIn pulse no longer exists as far as I’m aware?
So, are we just writing articles on our LinkedIn business page?
Thank you.
😀
@jenny Hi - you can copy and paste your posts on to Medium and change the settings manually. Within this post, I explain further. https://digitalmatrixcafe.com/community/medium/medium-gaining-followers-on-the-platform-vs-traffic-back-to-my-site/#post-264
Although I only understand about 3/4th of this ( and that is even because you explained the Reddit thing to me before a thousand times lol), I am actually happy that here on your own platform, you can finally be totally upfront and honest about this, and I can't wait to see any results.
So people: I am now cooperating with Partha for Reddit and it's been a ride so far hahahaha! But indeed, be very careful with their rules, and even Ai pictures (in my case)
Although my Google traffic has been going down to almost zero, my general traffic on GA4 has been slowly rising, because I am on Pinterest, Youtube, Facebook page and 2 FB groups, and now I am slowly integrating my older blog posts on Medium and Reddit is for Partha. (and he is even working on Linkedn, what? hahaha)
I see it as an investment for better traffic to my site.
I also got hit in March 23, got back up by deleting some of these crappy roundup reviews and updating other posts, and I had been doing that all spring and summer, while the numbers were growing again.
Then came along September, hit again. I was like: nah, tired of this. (what's left to update anyway?) I mean, I'm sure that I probably do have some crappy posts left on my site or are irrelevant to my niche, but I had a site-wide -classifier (pardon my English if this is not the correct term, sorry Diane and Partha- yeah, you too lol!) punishment anyway, I do think so.
But, I still saw Pinterest growing, put a LOT of time on my Youtube videos already and FB groups, and I was like: no, fuck that! (wow , i can finally use that word on a platform hahaha)
And I also saw one article of my own, ranking in Reddit, one that I had summarized with chat GPT for Reddit, so quite crappy to be honest, ranking above my expanded own blog post, which is now all the way down, under a 1000 ads and thus under the crappy Reddit post.
As you say Partha, and I repeated the same "elsewhere", billion people can be on google, but if they can't find you, because you disappeared in the Serps, what is the use? Apparently, that makes me the "bitter one".
I think I was one of the first persons thinking: well, if Reddit ranks my own crappy summarized post way above my actual post on my blog, why not JOIN Reddit? If you can't beat the "enemy" , join them!
By the way, do you guys know Niche site Lady on Twitter? She was also hit by Google, but is thriving through Facebook, love her! https://twitter.com/NicheSiteLady
I am also going to try to get to a 1000 followers on TIKTOK, to get a clickable link in my bio and when I have some time left, I will also put my crafting videos on Rumbler. But first, got to fill in medium, my Facebook agenda, while continuing with 1 blog post per week on both of my English sites, to keep it fresh (those still take me about 2 days work, because there is hardly use for me to use the AI writer in my niches), ànd I am translating my personal travel story to Dutch on a new domain. ( I can't do those 150 posts per month Partha hahaha NO WAY!). It takes me longer then I thought it would, oh well, it's an experiment.
(at least I'm not competing in Dutch with sites like Reddit, Quora, big dutch travel companies, just booking), but competing with actual social media like Instagram that I will be on anyway)
Great oversight thanks!
Lizzy
It is time to really focus on social media right now. Reddit is something that I will have to add on my daily list. So how do I even really use Reddit? And by that I mean is there a specific way of doing it, is there anything that I would need to think of when posting/commenting on Reddit, etc. I am still kinda new to this, so I don't really know how to use Reddit to drive in traffic.
Lol, you won't see me telling you that I am doing good in Google in a year! Haven't reached the 500 visitors!
Very interesting and scary 
I need to sleep on it, but many things here are like what I read from John Muller and after researching in Excel the research from Steven (link whisper), where he took many websites that had lost their traffic or increased it.
It is important to use one's own photos, for example, but many sites make that impossible.
I was thinking about 2 things, well a lot more, so I want to ask about 2 things.
1. I have 2 sites. One looks to have a good possibility to raise because I have a good site on Facebook for it, and it works fine. Plus, it is a travel site that had a push if Steven is right in his research.
But both you and John Muller talk about the difficulty of getting up again after hitting down. (I have not been so disappointed after I lost a cup final!).
But at the same time, I read between the lines that if we can come up with something new, it is possible.
I have over 400 posts and well over a million words on my main site, which is about sports gear. With a purpose, the name builds an umbrella for many types of sports. Do I read correctly that if I start writing about new sports (I am an Amazon affiliate, and Amazon is a problem too, even though there are some new good things), would it be possible to get success in that?
2. The algorithm hit. Is it possible to see if my sites have been hit by it? Other than having traffic on almost cero?
3. Do I understand it right that I can cope/past the articles from my sites and publish them on Linkedin (never had big success there), medium, and Reddit? I was started on Medium and got a warning after 4 posts that they were thinking of closing my site even though I couldn´t see anything wrong. I wrote them, and it will be open, but explaining to them was very "soft."
Even proven by what I said above about a Flickr "article" (I actually think it is less than 150 words) is ranking on page one for - Unlock Your Glutes Review- when this was one of the most popular exercise products in the late 2010s/early 2020s so probably easily has over 1,000,000 "reviews" written about it.
Interestingly, I'm seeing a DA14 site ranking at #3 for this keyword (I'm using a fresh incognito window in Chrome, region set to US) ... the domain is 12 years old.
Maybe a Flickr of hope?
