Halfway Through Google's Latest Update
So, we are approximately halfway through Google's latest update, and I hardly dare ask how you are doing!
And, of course, Partha has said to stop endlessly checking your stats!
But, that is easier said than done, and I can't resist looking every day, and it's not pretty!
Let's take a look at some winners and losers, so far, with a further two weeks to go.
Losers
Here is a surprising loser, that has everything that Google is looking for.
Yes, it has a lot of product reviews, with affiliate links, but they clearly state "We are ad-free and buy all the devices we test with our own money."
The photos are all unique and genuinely show the product in use.
Their About Us page shows real authors, with their full names and real images.
And to balance the reviews, they have over 200 blog posts full of useful content.
And how has Google rewarded this great site?
They have lost over 60 % of their traffic, as they have been outranked by high-authority sites and Reddit!
But, here's a site that truly deserved to be trashed by Google - fresherslive.com
At its height, it was receiving six million visitors per month, but has now been completely de-indexed, it is not showing anywhere in the results pages.
And this is undoubtedly because, it had over 600, 000 posts, all entirely AI-generated with no human input or editing.
Winners
And now for a couple of winners, perhaps we could study them and see what they are doing right.
Starting with https://homesteadingfamily.com/ which has seen an increase in traffic of 50%.
Lots of engaging content, with photos of the family, they run a podcast, create their own videos for YouTube , and have a monthly magazine.
They are a successful "brand," they are living the life they blog about, and they are truly experts.
Another winner is https://cjeatsrecipes.com/ which has gained 40% extra traffic.
And bear in mind that recipe sites are very difficult to rank highly, and the competition is extremely fierce.
But he genuinely cooks everything himself, uses his own photos and videos, and note something important, that doesn't just relate to food blogs.
No long, rambling, irrelevant introductions.
You are here to check out the recipes, and that's what you get.
No history of the ingredients, or what health benefits they offer, that's not what people have searched for.
And it's the same for all sites in my opinion - give people the answer as soon as possible.
Don't bury it halfway down the page, thinking that people will stay for longer until they get to it.
Reality check - they won't!
They will jump off your page, go back to the search results and look for an immediately obvious answer.
Thanks for reading, don't ask me to comment further, I have no answers for you, I can't tell you how to recover if you have been hit.
I personally am going to wait until it's all over!
Recent Comments
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What??? You are checking your stats daily Diane... someone won't be pleased when they get back!!
I do the same though and it is pretty grim reading at the moment!!!
Nevermind... like you I will ride the storm, keep on keeping on and see what happens in a couple of weeks!!
👍🤣🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
You must have watched Mark Webster’s “ Winners and Losers” from AH News. He covers those same sites you mentioned here. I saw the video before you posted it, so I already know about this. If folks here want more info, watch the video on YouTube.
Probably, you couldn't mention them because AH is WA’s competitor, but so what? “that's business as usual.” Everything these days is fiercely competitive - that is nothing new under the sun or without the sun.
BTW, Mueller got his site reindexed, according to Mark.
There is also NapLab, which beat the HCU update; their site is similar to the housefresh website. I haven't seen Gael or Mark mentioning how they fared with this core update. NapLab was the winner of the HCU in September 2023. I saw Gael’s interview with them.
I am staying away from it all. I’ve been doing heavy Spring cleaning in my small flat. Doing that gives my mental health a boost just like Partha stated in his last post. I’ve been getting rid of junk mail papers and stuff that I no longer need. 😀
Thank You for this post: I agree with you that long drawn out sites are a waste of time, energy and money! I get it, that advertising pays and the more ads you get stuffed on the page the higher potential income from the site. But in an age where everyone wants prompt responses and answers - it just doesn't work.
Has anyone else done this: I text someone - wait a couple of minutes and then call them because I hadn't gotten any response ... Think about that as you create or update your site. You can put in more in-depth information but make it a link rather than in the main content!
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Very interesting Diane! My site is still so "young" with so few articles and videos I guess I don't expect much traffic yet, so I haven't been checking stats. I'm still learning all the ins and outs of GSC anyway. 😂
Thanks for sharing this post and information, I wouldn't have known otherwise. 😊
Kevin