I know what I'm about to say isn't what WA is about, but while one needs to keep informed on what Google does, it simply can't be the only source one looks to for traffic. Google themselves say more than 90% of all websites will never receive one visitor from them. And over the years I've read so many complaints from site owners that the latest Google updates nerfed their site.

It reminds me of my time on Amazon. One day you are riding high self publishing, then they tweak something or penalize something and traffic falls off a cliff.

I made so much more money when I realized Amazon wasn't the only game in town and spread my work into as many baskets as possible.

This once again proves the primary focus should be on the visitors, not the search engine, not the affiliate sale rushed at every opportunity taking precedence over why the person came to the site.

I remember reading maybe two years ago when I started thinking about blogging a mommy blogger who was making 5 figures a month. She didn't really do affiliate marketing, and had spent years just blogging mommy things and built this huge following because the connection was real.

Then she decided to have a page encouraging others to blog and offering an affiliate link for hosting and because of the trust factor from all that good will and connecting she hits it out of the park on conversions. I assume her email list is huge as well.

Bottom line, write for the person wanting you to scratch an itch (yes, this does include SEO so they can find you), and let the other stuff fall into place. It will fall into place if you respect the reader and don't view them solely as a walking wallet.

Thanks for the write up. I hope any here who might be doing any of the practices you listed above will reflect on how they feel when they visit a site that has any of those attributes. One of my biggest gripes are the sites with the popups (usually trying to get my email) and on mobile there is no way to close the window and resume reading the information I went there for. I obviously bounce from the site and if I remember never click on the link again since it won't give me what I want without surrendering my email.

Great post, Diane! 👍

I really like reading about this stuff.

The MOZ Spam Score for my guitar site is 1%.

Perhaps Google will develop a “spam score” for GSC with a listing of opportunities for improvement.

Not all infringements of spam policies may be obvious.

The WA Training clearly points out best practices.

Stay Well, 😊
Frank 🎸

Thank you for another informative post Diane!

-Mike

Hi Diane, thanks for the heads-up. Have a great day.

Thank you, Diane, for these updates.

Thanks, Diane. This looks interesting and helpful. I will try to use it as I set up my first website.

Thanks Diane,

Hopefully rankings respond positively as they remove the spam 😉

Thanks Diane might have to think about not using pretty links, Bitly and the others

Andre

Thanks Diane, appreciate you keeping us in the loop!👍

Thanks for sharing Diane!

Mel