Hey guys! So I understand Google recently had a new update, and I also read here on WA that sites were down yesterday.
I’m curious to know if anyone is suddenly ge
Hi - there have been several Google algorithm updates over the last couple of months, looking at Product Reviews, Helpful Content, and most recently, Spam.
Plus, as you say, if you were affected by the recent outage of your site, it will have been offline for over 6 hours.
So, Google will not have been showing any of your posts on its results pages. New Google Spam Update Released Today
thanks for this link, I'm not sure if I was affected by the outage, actually, but no searches came in for a few days which caused me some concern. Today, numbers are up, but I think they're from Bing and Yahoo. I'll definitely read that article again and keep an eye out on traffic next several days.
Search Engine Land explains traffic will hit sites with October 2022 Spam updates. It’s probably related to that updates. Google didn’t explain much about it but it’s seeking out specific guideline violations. That is all I understand from what I read. Give it some time it should spike back up if not will need to update your articles make sure no spam. At the mercy of Google so wait and see.
I figured it might have something to do with that - and I read through google’s spam updates too, but I don’t see how my site is violating anything mentioned in the article I read. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll keep my eye on analytics and see if I have to make any changes.
Just give it a few weeks, or so yeah best to keep your eye on it. Google has not said what specifics they are looking for. Are they looking for affiliate links? It is not spam but they have not defined it. It's not clear. I guess our sites are at the mercy of Google’s algorithm update. Their new AI spam update is learning, some sites will have a dive in traffic, that's expected.
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Is anyone experiencing less traffic?
Hey guys! So I understand Google recently had a new update, and I also read here on WA that sites were down yesterday.
I’m curious to know if anyone is suddenly ge
Hi - there have been several Google algorithm updates over the last couple of months, looking at Product Reviews, Helpful Content, and most recently, Spam.
Plus, as you say, if you were affected by the recent outage of your site, it will have been offline for over 6 hours.
So, Google will not have been showing any of your posts on its results pages. New Google Spam Update Released Today
thanks for this link, I'm not sure if I was affected by the outage, actually, but no searches came in for a few days which caused me some concern. Today, numbers are up, but I think they're from Bing and Yahoo. I'll definitely read that article again and keep an eye out on traffic next several days.
Search Engine Land explains traffic will hit sites with October 2022 Spam updates. It’s probably related to that updates. Google didn’t explain much about it but it’s seeking out specific guideline violations. That is all I understand from what I read. Give it some time it should spike back up if not will need to update your articles make sure no spam. At the mercy of Google so wait and see.
I figured it might have something to do with that - and I read through google’s spam updates too, but I don’t see how my site is violating anything mentioned in the article I read. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll keep my eye on analytics and see if I have to make any changes.
Just give it a few weeks, or so yeah best to keep your eye on it. Google has not said what specifics they are looking for. Are they looking for affiliate links? It is not spam but they have not defined it. It's not clear. I guess our sites are at the mercy of Google’s algorithm update. Their new AI spam update is learning, some sites will have a dive in traffic, that's expected.
See more comments
Curious to know what you guys think on this
Do you feel it’s more important to post blog articles regularly like 3 - 5 days weekly and do basic keyword research li
I kind of agree with your point - BASIC SEO with more content. That's what I would go for.
I read this article by Kyle some time ago, and I think it goes in that direction: The Strive for Perfection Kills Growth.
The more I think of it, the more I’m moving in the ‘more content’ direction. Thanks for that article too. Gonna def read it,
There is a balance. It takes time to write and I want to be sure I will rank and get traffic. If I were limited to one of your two options defined above, I would write 1 well optimized blog a week.
Thanks for your input - I think because I’ve been discovering new SEO tools, I just wonder what the definition of a well optimized article is. Cause what I’ve done forever is the basic keyword research we’ve been taught here within WA, which is simple, quick and easy to understand. but then there are tools out there that tell you every single keyword you should use, how often, how many headings, bolded words, number of pictures, and how to analyze your competition in very precise ways, and I guess that’s where I’ve gotten caught up in, wondering the value of tools like that.
Hi - just my opinion, but I can't see the point in doing "basic" or half-hearted keyword research.
Why spend time writing numerous posts, if you have not done in-depth research, and you are using keywords that are either too competitive or that nobody is searching for?
You can use every SEO tool on the market, but if you aren't answering the questions that people are genuinely asking, it won't make any difference.
Find fantastic keywords, write informative content that fully covers what the searcher is looking for, add an internal link, an external link and a YouTube video if appropriate. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.
Thanks for this feedback. Well I’ve been using Jaxxy always and following the the QSR and search rules we learn here in WA, and always do my best to answer the reader’s question fully. I recently discovered a tool called surfer SEO and it just takes this all to another level and maybe I’m getting too caught up in perfecting every little aspect of my posts. That’s why I’m thinking maybe I need to backtrack a little bit. When you say find fantastic keywords, is there a method that you’d suggest? Or are you mainly using jaxxy and what we’ve learned here in WA.
I suggest you read some of Partha's posts, and why he doesn't use keyword tools.
Not sure if you are aware, but Partha and I are collaborating on a website together. Using only his method of keyword research, we have reached over 22,000 page views per month, after only 8 months with 112 posts. The ULTIMATE Guide to Keyword Research PART ONE (Inside Partha's Mind)
No I wasn’t aware - Wow that is inspiring! I have got to learn more about this. I do know a little bit about his research method from posts I’ve read…which is searching the google search box for keyword searches and then checking competition to find at least two forum related sites (Quora, Reddit, etc) on the first page. I’ll check out that link now. If you guys are getting that kind of traffic so soon with only 112 posts, then you’re clearly doing something right - wow
Read this post too, that contains more useful information on how we have achieved these results so quickly. 20365 Page Views in May 2022 For an 8-Month Old Website (Old Fluff Faints)
Thank you so much, reading the first one you sent me now…I’ll read this one right after. Definitely needed this!
just read through both. This is really got me thinking...I think you just convinced me to ditch the tool I started using recently. I'm still in a free trial for it, but clearly, there isn't an absolute need for expensive SEO tools. I like your guys' approach. Now, I HAVE tried Partha's method before, searching google autosuggest, but have had a ton of trouble trying to find keywords that bring up at least two results that are from forums or FB, etc... but this most recent article, he also stressed that we should NOT do generic searches, so maybe I need to go back and create more specific searches. I have one question - when you guys do write out articles, did you already do your keyword research ahead of time, and have your 15 - 20 articles per cluster prepared, so you can just knock out an article? Or do you do the research for a new keyword right before writing?
Thanks again for these, and congrats on those rankings. That's inspiring, and clearly there is no reason to invest in an expensive SEO tool that only makes things more complicated.
Partha does the keyword research and typically sends me a minimum of 10 to write, and ensures we always have lots of keywords prepared in advance.
excellent - I was so inspired by those articles, I'm literally making a whole new list using your guys' strategy right now. Thank you again.
I keep cranking more content for my website and yes occasionally updating | enhancing as deemed fit.
I am thinking of cranking out more and not being so stuck on making sure each one is absolutely perfect by SEO. When you say updating you mean refreshing old articles?
Yes but you only need that as and when usually after the one year mark, however nothing to stop you editing it anytime.
See more comments
Is it more important to hit keywords or post regularly ?
Curious to know what you guys think on this
Do you feel it’s more important to post blog articles regularly like 3 - 5 days weekly and do basic keyword research li
I kind of agree with your point - BASIC SEO with more content. That's what I would go for.
I read this article by Kyle some time ago, and I think it goes in that direction: The Strive for Perfection Kills Growth.
The more I think of it, the more I’m moving in the ‘more content’ direction. Thanks for that article too. Gonna def read it,
There is a balance. It takes time to write and I want to be sure I will rank and get traffic. If I were limited to one of your two options defined above, I would write 1 well optimized blog a week.
Thanks for your input - I think because I’ve been discovering new SEO tools, I just wonder what the definition of a well optimized article is. Cause what I’ve done forever is the basic keyword research we’ve been taught here within WA, which is simple, quick and easy to understand. but then there are tools out there that tell you every single keyword you should use, how often, how many headings, bolded words, number of pictures, and how to analyze your competition in very precise ways, and I guess that’s where I’ve gotten caught up in, wondering the value of tools like that.
Hi - just my opinion, but I can't see the point in doing "basic" or half-hearted keyword research.
Why spend time writing numerous posts, if you have not done in-depth research, and you are using keywords that are either too competitive or that nobody is searching for?
You can use every SEO tool on the market, but if you aren't answering the questions that people are genuinely asking, it won't make any difference.
Find fantastic keywords, write informative content that fully covers what the searcher is looking for, add an internal link, an external link and a YouTube video if appropriate. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.
Thanks for this feedback. Well I’ve been using Jaxxy always and following the the QSR and search rules we learn here in WA, and always do my best to answer the reader’s question fully. I recently discovered a tool called surfer SEO and it just takes this all to another level and maybe I’m getting too caught up in perfecting every little aspect of my posts. That’s why I’m thinking maybe I need to backtrack a little bit. When you say find fantastic keywords, is there a method that you’d suggest? Or are you mainly using jaxxy and what we’ve learned here in WA.
I suggest you read some of Partha's posts, and why he doesn't use keyword tools.
Not sure if you are aware, but Partha and I are collaborating on a website together. Using only his method of keyword research, we have reached over 22,000 page views per month, after only 8 months with 112 posts. The ULTIMATE Guide to Keyword Research PART ONE (Inside Partha's Mind)
No I wasn’t aware - Wow that is inspiring! I have got to learn more about this. I do know a little bit about his research method from posts I’ve read…which is searching the google search box for keyword searches and then checking competition to find at least two forum related sites (Quora, Reddit, etc) on the first page. I’ll check out that link now. If you guys are getting that kind of traffic so soon with only 112 posts, then you’re clearly doing something right - wow
Read this post too, that contains more useful information on how we have achieved these results so quickly. 20365 Page Views in May 2022 For an 8-Month Old Website (Old Fluff Faints)
Thank you so much, reading the first one you sent me now…I’ll read this one right after. Definitely needed this!
just read through both. This is really got me thinking...I think you just convinced me to ditch the tool I started using recently. I'm still in a free trial for it, but clearly, there isn't an absolute need for expensive SEO tools. I like your guys' approach. Now, I HAVE tried Partha's method before, searching google autosuggest, but have had a ton of trouble trying to find keywords that bring up at least two results that are from forums or FB, etc... but this most recent article, he also stressed that we should NOT do generic searches, so maybe I need to go back and create more specific searches. I have one question - when you guys do write out articles, did you already do your keyword research ahead of time, and have your 15 - 20 articles per cluster prepared, so you can just knock out an article? Or do you do the research for a new keyword right before writing?
Thanks again for these, and congrats on those rankings. That's inspiring, and clearly there is no reason to invest in an expensive SEO tool that only makes things more complicated.
Partha does the keyword research and typically sends me a minimum of 10 to write, and ensures we always have lots of keywords prepared in advance.
excellent - I was so inspired by those articles, I'm literally making a whole new list using your guys' strategy right now. Thank you again.
I keep cranking more content for my website and yes occasionally updating | enhancing as deemed fit.
I am thinking of cranking out more and not being so stuck on making sure each one is absolutely perfect by SEO. When you say updating you mean refreshing old articles?
Yes but you only need that as and when usually after the one year mark, however nothing to stop you editing it anytime.
See more comments
This is such a basic question but I've never asked it and curious to know what your experiences have been with it.
Does page speed affect our google rankings?
I k
Of course man. My site already suffered because of this -_- Luckily, I solved it lol.
Pay attention to the Core Web Vitals inside Google Search Console, it all needs to be green.
Well, I am using the Autoptimize plugin, it's working great for me. But if you don't have speed problems then you should not use it.
I'll definitely check it out, my site was on the low end of red - when I checked Google Speed Insights. I've installed NitroPack for now, and still gonna explore other options, thanks for letting me know.
Plugins are good but first, make some changes to the posts. Make sure images are optimized and videos if you have them. Most of the time images are making speed problems.
Good to know - and yeah, a lot of my images just look oddly stretched out on mobile - even though I'm using an image optimizer. I'll look into this too thanks.
Yes it does.
If you are serious you may want to consider the premium caching plugin WP rocket.
https://wp-rocket.me/
yes it does ...especially on mobile...
if you are in the red then you will not rank as highly as if in the orange or even better the green...
wow, very good to know - I AM in the red too...I'm running WA's site speed plus, but I noticed on another site when I installed NitroPack it sped up the site a lot. I'm thinking to switch over. Thanks for letting me know.
you could try clearfy...
this has helped some members speed up their sites..
but use pagespeed insights to find out what is slowing yours down...
definitely want to be out of the red...
See more comments
Does page speed affect google rankings?
This is such a basic question but I've never asked it and curious to know what your experiences have been with it.
Does page speed affect our google rankings?
I k
Of course man. My site already suffered because of this -_- Luckily, I solved it lol.
Pay attention to the Core Web Vitals inside Google Search Console, it all needs to be green.
Well, I am using the Autoptimize plugin, it's working great for me. But if you don't have speed problems then you should not use it.
I'll definitely check it out, my site was on the low end of red - when I checked Google Speed Insights. I've installed NitroPack for now, and still gonna explore other options, thanks for letting me know.
Plugins are good but first, make some changes to the posts. Make sure images are optimized and videos if you have them. Most of the time images are making speed problems.
Good to know - and yeah, a lot of my images just look oddly stretched out on mobile - even though I'm using an image optimizer. I'll look into this too thanks.
Yes it does.
If you are serious you may want to consider the premium caching plugin WP rocket.
https://wp-rocket.me/
yes it does ...especially on mobile...
if you are in the red then you will not rank as highly as if in the orange or even better the green...
wow, very good to know - I AM in the red too...I'm running WA's site speed plus, but I noticed on another site when I installed NitroPack it sped up the site a lot. I'm thinking to switch over. Thanks for letting me know.
you could try clearfy...
this has helped some members speed up their sites..
but use pagespeed insights to find out what is slowing yours down...
definitely want to be out of the red...
See more comments
Curious to know if anyone else has done this?
Taken an old site that you've left dormant for a few years, and then reignited it by starting to add new articles to it con
Yes, if the content was ranked and is still getting hits. Then the age of the site can be a plus. But when you revive it keep adding some new content consistently for a period of time to get the search engines crawling it again more frequently.
Yeah I figured if I revived a site, I'd have to become consistent at posting again...I don't think any pages are being found, cause I discovered most articles were broken for some reason...so it may take a little time for the search engines to come back around. I guess in some ways then, it is like being a new site.
Yes, it does sound more like a new site then. But don't forget to check the rankings of your pages in Google Search Console even if you don't have traffic.
Vitaliy got you covered.
However yes dependent how it was performing and why it became dormant in the first place, could very well be for very genuine reasons.
Hi Paul, it really depends on how well the old site was doing:
Was it past the Google sandbox?
Are old posts still ranking?
Was the site SEO penalized?
If the answers are generally good (yes it had posts ranking and no penalities), then you can certainly resume the content flow and build it up.
Okay really good to know, thanks - I don't actually know how the site was doing. I checked and the articles seem to be broken, maybe cause the site hasn't been updated in a long time.
I don't think there were ever any SEO penalizations though...I just followed WA training here, but never completed that site. I will look into it and see what the status is. Thanks for your feedback on this.
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What happens when you reignite an old website?
Curious to know if anyone else has done this?
Taken an old site that you've left dormant for a few years, and then reignited it by starting to add new articles to it con
Yes, if the content was ranked and is still getting hits. Then the age of the site can be a plus. But when you revive it keep adding some new content consistently for a period of time to get the search engines crawling it again more frequently.
Yeah I figured if I revived a site, I'd have to become consistent at posting again...I don't think any pages are being found, cause I discovered most articles were broken for some reason...so it may take a little time for the search engines to come back around. I guess in some ways then, it is like being a new site.
Yes, it does sound more like a new site then. But don't forget to check the rankings of your pages in Google Search Console even if you don't have traffic.
Vitaliy got you covered.
However yes dependent how it was performing and why it became dormant in the first place, could very well be for very genuine reasons.
Hi Paul, it really depends on how well the old site was doing:
Was it past the Google sandbox?
Are old posts still ranking?
Was the site SEO penalized?
If the answers are generally good (yes it had posts ranking and no penalities), then you can certainly resume the content flow and build it up.
Okay really good to know, thanks - I don't actually know how the site was doing. I checked and the articles seem to be broken, maybe cause the site hasn't been updated in a long time.
I don't think there were ever any SEO penalizations though...I just followed WA training here, but never completed that site. I will look into it and see what the status is. Thanks for your feedback on this.
See more comments
Hey guys -
Super basic question - I never really thought to ask this, but is there any benefit to using the site content poster as opposed to writing directly in my blo
Basically, access to the CC0 images and the grammar/spell checker.
I got used to using it, so I just write in it. It's kind of nice how it keeps track of how many words you've written over time.
I find that it is easier for me, Paul, but it is a one-time deal because once it is on your site, you can only edit in wordress. So either way is good depending upon your preference!
Jeff
Right - I guess it’s convenient though cause we have access to stock photos right here in WA - but yep once on the site there’s really no way of editing any other way
Yes, indeed, Paul. I actually wish we could go back and edit in Site content too, though. I'd be fine with that.
Site content gives you access to free images and I believe you are notified by WA email when your post is indexed.
We use notepad to create the content so can work online and offline and we always have a copy as a backup. Notepad is format free, but we have to add h tags and images when we add it to WP..
Ah good to know about the indexing thing - I do get those emails…so that’s def a benefit of posting here In WA. I’ll have to look into notepad - thanks for the tip
Hi Paul
Site Contents is good for complete beginners and helps to keep a record of your posts but... as you know, once a post is published from within Site Contents it can't be published from there a second time with updates, so they have to learn to use the WP editor anyway...
and most of the benefits can be achieved by writing directly in WP block editor with (for instance) the free version of Grammarly turned on ... so I found writing directly in WP is more efficient...
That was the past, however. Nowadays I use another free, third-party app within which I handle research, drafting, editing etc that allows me to copy and paste into WP without losing formatting.
:-)
Richard
good to know, thanks - I may be switching over to writing in WordPress soon, so this info really helps. I actually haven't tried the block editor yet. Hopefully, it's simple enough to use that. You use another app to do research and drafting? That sounds great. Is that a plugin?
I am very curious what free third party app you use. We were using MS word, but ti causes formatting issues. Now we use Notepad.
and @jghwebbrand I use "notion.so" ... which used to be "notion.os" ...
I wrote a couple of posts a while back introducing the idea ... Productivity Tools For Writers How I Use notion.os For Efficient Article Writing If you decide you want to learn more, just ask...
:-)
Richard
Wow That is a whole work flow. Will have to spend some time to look at the details.
Thanks for your posts as well.
Totally your choice, some do some don't.
. SiteContent - The Complete Walkthrough I use Grammarly and paste plain in my blog direct | or use webpage builders.
There's a word count, spelling | grammar check, use of templates section or save a document as a template. When posts get indexed, it will show a colorful G to let you know it has been indexed.
Also if you edited a document in site content and published it, future edits has to be done in WordPress. Site content and WordPress work independently.
If you have selected your images from site content library, and you want to upload to your media library, I'd place my images in a document in site content and publish it to my site. it will be added to my WordPress media library. Then delete the “temporary image” doc in site content so that it does not get indexed as well.
ah good to know - yeah I knew that once I published from Site Content that the edits from that point forward can only be in Wordpress...I didn't even realize I could add images to a document in site content - thanks for the tips I will def keep in mind.
See more comments
Difference between using site content and posting to blog?
Hey guys -
Super basic question - I never really thought to ask this, but is there any benefit to using the site content poster as opposed to writing directly in my blo
Basically, access to the CC0 images and the grammar/spell checker.
I got used to using it, so I just write in it. It's kind of nice how it keeps track of how many words you've written over time.
I find that it is easier for me, Paul, but it is a one-time deal because once it is on your site, you can only edit in wordress. So either way is good depending upon your preference!
Jeff
Right - I guess it’s convenient though cause we have access to stock photos right here in WA - but yep once on the site there’s really no way of editing any other way
Yes, indeed, Paul. I actually wish we could go back and edit in Site content too, though. I'd be fine with that.
Site content gives you access to free images and I believe you are notified by WA email when your post is indexed.
We use notepad to create the content so can work online and offline and we always have a copy as a backup. Notepad is format free, but we have to add h tags and images when we add it to WP..
Ah good to know about the indexing thing - I do get those emails…so that’s def a benefit of posting here In WA. I’ll have to look into notepad - thanks for the tip
Hi Paul
Site Contents is good for complete beginners and helps to keep a record of your posts but... as you know, once a post is published from within Site Contents it can't be published from there a second time with updates, so they have to learn to use the WP editor anyway...
and most of the benefits can be achieved by writing directly in WP block editor with (for instance) the free version of Grammarly turned on ... so I found writing directly in WP is more efficient...
That was the past, however. Nowadays I use another free, third-party app within which I handle research, drafting, editing etc that allows me to copy and paste into WP without losing formatting.
:-)
Richard
good to know, thanks - I may be switching over to writing in WordPress soon, so this info really helps. I actually haven't tried the block editor yet. Hopefully, it's simple enough to use that. You use another app to do research and drafting? That sounds great. Is that a plugin?
I am very curious what free third party app you use. We were using MS word, but ti causes formatting issues. Now we use Notepad.
and @jghwebbrand I use "notion.so" ... which used to be "notion.os" ...
I wrote a couple of posts a while back introducing the idea ... Productivity Tools For Writers How I Use notion.os For Efficient Article Writing If you decide you want to learn more, just ask...
:-)
Richard
Wow That is a whole work flow. Will have to spend some time to look at the details.
Thanks for your posts as well.
Totally your choice, some do some don't.
. SiteContent - The Complete Walkthrough I use Grammarly and paste plain in my blog direct | or use webpage builders.
There's a word count, spelling | grammar check, use of templates section or save a document as a template. When posts get indexed, it will show a colorful G to let you know it has been indexed.
Also if you edited a document in site content and published it, future edits has to be done in WordPress. Site content and WordPress work independently.
If you have selected your images from site content library, and you want to upload to your media library, I'd place my images in a document in site content and publish it to my site. it will be added to my WordPress media library. Then delete the “temporary image” doc in site content so that it does not get indexed as well.
ah good to know - yeah I knew that once I published from Site Content that the edits from that point forward can only be in Wordpress...I didn't even realize I could add images to a document in site content - thanks for the tips I will def keep in mind.
See more comments
Mine had gone down. started to update posts now going back up again.
Good to know, thanks - just updating old posts? Or adding new posts?
Updating old posts.