Hi Brian, thanks for sharing. Im not familiar with link tree. I know nothing about that.

You can put lots of links in one URL, I have included the link below, its not an affiliate link or an affiliate website.

https://linktr.ee/

Thanks for the link to that linktree site. Im only on a few so not worth it I don't use all social platforms do not have time for it.

Lizzy, I am on Medium. Pinterest has photos and text. I tried full and just photos, and nothing worked, but with photos and text, I got more impressions and more saves than photos alone. Most are text-based, with photos and videos as well. Direct photos with no text give me 0 traffic, even 0 impressions. Not even hit a dent with direct photos. Remember, it's Pinterest is SEO, and many of what I see are photos with text. Direct photos depend on the niche. I did use travel photos and photography, but nothing. It happened; with 0 impressions, 0 saves, and 0 -too many photos, it's hard to stand out. I bold my letters into big blocks of letters with photos that seem to get more eyes to click. Traffic is down on both Pinterest and Medium.

Thanks for sharing. I am glad you recovered while I did not. I have tried LinkedIn before. Not much is happening there either, so I do not have time for all this. Remember I teach classes every fall and spring semester so my time is busy. Summer was my time to write more articles and use Pinterest and Medium.

It's back to school now. I have less time. I do not have time for Fakebook or anything else you talk about. I know you are right; you must do what is best for you in your niche. I experiment with different pins, and I am working on my pins. Using direct photos alone does not work for me. Maybe it works for Frank and Vitality and you, but not for me. I appreciate you sharing what you've done, its awesome. Good job!

Yeah, Im ignoring Google for now. My main two focus is there. I did post pins today, but I need to make more. I am looking at different pin ideas in my niche and its very super competitive so now I am thinking of doing ads with that to see fi I can get a boost there.. Im not interested in Quora or Reddit it is about upvotes I don't care for it. For me, Medium does not have much engagement, but Pinterest has more of its SEO. We can agree to disagree. Everyone has different ways so it's true we have to find what works for us,

I hope so too. People are saying it might or might not who knows. Yes its great to see you too Nick, comment allez vous? Moi, commence ce, comma ca! C’est la vie! I guess! 👍🏻😀

I sincerely hope so Brenda!!

I just got up to 304 posts on my new site and still no love!!

C'est la vie indeed mon amie!!!

👍🤣❤🤗

Sure! 😀

Hi, I used to do Quora, but I am not getting much traction there like I am with Pinterest and Medium. Those two seem to be better for me. I didn't get much votes there. I found it time-consuming. Quora does not generate traffic for me. I felt it was a waste of time. Exactly, my point, "no one went to my blog" as you say so that why I don't use Quora or Reddit. Getting upvotes means nothing to me. People can vote all they want, but it doesn't change anything because they don't visit my site. Im interested in outbound clicks. I do not see much SEO in Quora, even though some claim it works. It didn't work for me. I did a few on LinkedIn, but I am teaching college students, so really, my time is minimal.

Good point on the upvotes

Are all your 520 content still indexed in Google Search Console?

Not all of the 520 are indexed, but I don't care if they all are. Enough have been indexed.

But I plan on spending some time on search console one of these days.

Try and fix some. I always do a new validation once Google tells me some were not indexed.

The reasons why, I never understand.

Wow. I have less than 520 posts. I have about 78 posts, plus the 25 I am still working on. I write some of them myself. I am mainly focusing on writing for Pinterest and Medium audiences. Just because you have 100% on your site details doesn't mean that Google thinks so. I've been writing for people. Not for search engines.

Are you using social media? Social platforms help get eyes on your site, which is a great way to build traffic.

That is precisely what I am doing. Most of my time is spent on Pinterest and Medium. I also teach classes so I do not have much time to spare.

AI Author is too much fluff. I cut down the fluff and wrote in simple conversational language at an 8th-grade reading level or less, mainly using Hemingway Editor. I provide a lot of screenshots and social proofs and show real-life case studies. Have you done that? I have plenty of clicks because of these social platforms.

I do not have time to work on other social platforms, and it's hard to do all of them within a time limit. However, I do believe you about your traffic. According to Google, you will need to take a hard look at your content to find out if it provides helpful content.

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/08/helpful-content-update

It would help if you also looked at Crawled but not Indexed. I bet many are there, If so you will need to do a rewrite. I wrote a blog post about what you can do about it: Why Google Crawled but Currently Not Indexed Your Pages-How to Fix it .

What about your traffic? Has your website recovered?

My experience is very much like yours with over 460 posts and zero traffic and I don't see that ever improving and gets me to think should I scrap that website and start all over again but there are no guarantees that this won't happen again.

I found that many indexed posts are now deindexed.

Nobody seems to know the whys.

Mick

I am hoping traffic will get better after this. As you can see from the screenshot above, the traffic went down. Still, I am not looking at that because it's due to the Google Core August 2024 update, which started on August 15, 2024, and ended yesterday, September 3, 2024. So now that the Google Core update is done, hopefully, the new articles that I have written so far will go back up in the next month or so. It takes time, and not every article gets in the search engine results. I have been looking at my Crawled but not Indexed. I see some older posts got de-indexed for many reasons. Most of which is due to the content not being helpful. I did a total rewrite and made it sound as helpful as possible, but if Google didn't like it, then it won't rank, so I just focused on generating traffic on other platforms. I am ignoring Google. Social media platforms are the best way to get traffic and engagement. I am working on that.

It simply looks that Google considers AI generated content even if one makes edit changes as spam. I don't trust AI tools anymore.

Hi Mick, same here. I got many de-indexed. I did a rewrite but again no guarantees. Only paid ads is what Google wants. I figure out its not helpful content. Google doesn't think it deserves to be in the search results. We can see that Google only rewards high domain authority sites. That is what I am noticing, and also tons of backlinks. Google doesn't care about small publishers so its not the same anymore. Many left blogging and now doing socials that's where people are flocking to and doing paid ads on those platforms.

I feel your pain, wozzy. I've never heard of deindexed.strange.

460 is a lot of posts. I wouldn't scrap it just to start a new one.

Good , I wish the best.

I agree too. That why I am using Hemingway Editor, I write it totally myself. Even by doing it myself doesn't guarantee anything both AI and human written do get hit by Google Core updates.

Thanks for the info, Brenda. I use quora. I guess that counts as social media.

But I have learned that just because thousands are sering ones blog address, it doesn't mean any of them will go to the blog.

I also check my Bing to see how my blog is doing. Bing always has a message telling me I have no backlinks.

Those are not easy to get. Comment on other blogs. That's not a guarantee that that blog will then put my address on their blog.

And Google doesn't like when one tries to pay to be put on another blog

I agree, Google has destroyed this business.

You are right. Paying for backlinks is a bad idea. Its better to get them naturally but take a long time. Building trust these days isn't easy. I used Bing ads before its cheaper, Im going to try it again. Paid ads is the only way to get traffic.People are focusing on paid ads on those socials. Im going to try that too.

Yep! Many online businesses. Google does not know what it is doing. They admit they made mistakes, but many people have not seen many changes since the HCU update last September 2023 that ruined everything. Many people complain on social media, so that's where it is. I thought about doing YouTube my word. It's even more time-consuming. Time is a limited resource for me, so Pinterest and Medium are my main focus. I hope yours is doing okay. Are you doing socials, too?

Good, please let us know if paid ads work so I can too learn how to leverage them.

No, I am not using social media yet. I have decided to part away from AI and focus on well researched content only to see what happens in the next few months.

Yes, I sure will do that after I try Bing ads again. I know Vitality classes cover it so that you can watch his videos. I love his videos. That is where I am getting guidance from. I will start with a low budget and see where it leads me. First, I must make sure all my bills are paid this month. I need to figure out how much is left to invest in Bing or Pinterest ads. I've done it before. I did like Pinterest. It did help with some traffic. Pinterest can be time-consuming to create, sigh! I wish you and me all the best! 😀👍

Emmanuel, I wish you all the best! Good idea to try without AI to see if it makes any difference. Let us know how well you do with that! 👍🏻

Sounds like a good idea. I'll look into ads on bing

That hasn't been my experience. AI generated posts are extremely helpful.

Google has always indexed mine fast until recently.

There is no way that you can be sure of that.

Everybody is promoting and using AI even WA who not too long ago were totally against content spinners and here we are using them.

It has to be impossible for Google to know that content was written totally by AI unless there were some markers and a massive database to check against.

Far too much focus is on AI now and if Google penalized people for using it then they are a bunch of?

Using AI to create some content and then modifying it can take more time than writing the content from scratch.

Mick

Good luck.

Good and still why you can't get traffic? Because Google keeps playing the game of indexing your content and then deindexing them a few months later.

I have not been lucky with AI and I know how such content affected my websites.

One person I have read say that Google told him as long as the post is helpful, your blog will not be penalized.

I imagine most, if not all individual bloggers are using chatgpt for example.

There's no going back. Before AI, people who could afford it, would have human writers do the posts for them.

In the eyes of many bloggers, AI is the great equalizer.

Plus, AI an make an average blogger sound like a great writer.

Not sure. Most things related with Google is a mystery.

I hope you can do it.

I ageee with you that its much easier to weite the article myself from scratch. I do notice its time consuming with AI author. I use other AI tools to set up my structure and then I start writing like a demon. Edit in Hemingway editor. Keep it in simple language. Its an experiment I am doing. I do notice AI too many words that has fluff and doesnt really understand human emotions or human stories. Sigh! 😔

You are right

I have noticed this but paying for traffic is another minefield and big learning curve. I have seen many Jack it all in and leave WA. Obviously people have had enough and all you end up doing is fighting a losing battle with Google. I spent 2 solid years writing a lot of content which as far as I was concerned was unique and helpful and you think what you are doing is right but still your site gets obliterated by Google.

Everybody is using AI because that is the way things have gone and even Google promotes AI but why if they are still going to destroy your site?

I have been thinking about starting again but how do you know whether you are going to be hit with the Google BS.

Well, you don't so how are people today going to succeed?

We don't know that either.

In a nutshell just what do we know because it is all very confusing and probably that is for good reason.

Google says one thing yet means something else whatever that might be.

Google gives it you in one hand and you think every is OK then bang.

It's so sad that you don't have a way of contacting the teachers here to ask them what you are doing wrong.
I have a few ideas ( if it is in the MMO niche and you are promoting WA only).
If you have a new site from after the March update., you should see some traffic at least.
If it is an older site, you probably rely way to much on the AI writer and the hubs.
Write about what people want to know in your niche, not what the hubs or keywoord research tools say. Research your niche on socials. Who are the biggest competitors in your niche? And put their sites through Moz and see what they rank for.
I even write about brands whos adds appear on facebook in my niche.., and it gets me new traffic ! Look around on fb groups and forums to see what questions people ask and create your own socials!
Having over 500 posts and no traffic , something is defenitely not working!
The only way to go further is asking an seo what you are doing is ok, or stop wasting your time.
Theres no nice way in saying this.
Lizzy

💯 right.

Mick, I understand exactly where you are coming from. There is nothing wrong with starting again. Many have done just that, choosing a different niche.

But do understand that any time Google Core updates happen, you will always get hit—every time. It is just how it has been with Google since they started the updates. The Panda was the first in 2011, Penguin in 2012, Hummingbird in 2013, Mobile in 2015, Rank Brain in October 2015, and many more.

Many sites were hit at that time, and it's been proven throughout its history from 2011 to now. According to many SEOs, the worst was the HCU update in September 2023. Some even thought the Panda was bad enough.

It looks like Google's right-hand doesn't know what its left hand is doing. As usual, John Mueller would deny it. He would say that they are improving the quality of the search results. What Google defines as quality content may not be what we think. You are right about it. Whether it's BS or not, the search engine as it exists today is what it is.

Who remembers Netscape, AOL, and Yahoo (Yahoo now searches very small)? Many have come and gone. That's just business. It's business as usual, Mick! There is nothing new under or over the sun; it's just how it is.

The best thing to do is work on improving. I do heavy research to find what my competitors are missing and use a question format.

Have you thought about using question format in your content?

Asking the 5 W's: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. I follow Partha's method with Why Should You? Could I? Should you? Can I- give one example of Why You Should Choose Affiliate Marketing to Make Money Online? That's an example. Question and answer it in the beginning, then go into detail about why they should look into affiliate marketing. It's cost-effective, no need to create a product, and much more manageable.

Many are using social media now. I look for questions in Quora and Reddit, and those that have been answered are short; I go into details. I experiment with what is working and what is not. It takes a lot of analytical skill. Jay teaches us that.