Google Algorithm Updates - 2023 Ongoing Discussion

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bernard said:
In the end, these are very different businesses and very different mindsets.
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It's not, it's the same business model as Radio and TV. Have content, shows, that runs against ADs. Even newspapers doit. YouTube has done it be best, but you people with MFA sites do it as well.

You create content and have people/advertisers willing to run ADs within it, on the side, before, or after the content. It's a simple mode that's been here since Radio and newspapers, even old school newsletters.

The only difference is your content, written word, is less desirable in the digital world. It's 2023, you guys need to do things which are more visual and desired in the environment otherwise you'll be out the of the SERPs.

If you look at the SERPs, they look vastly different than they did 10 years ago. Go to mobile and now you have different types of content/widgets and carousels within them which is even more interactive. So imagine it in 5 years. You're dead if you guys don't evolve and yes that will require putting in a lot more effort aka video.

thisishatred said:
So if you were in their shoes, what would you do?
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They're a company selling a product versus the Joshua guy that's an influencer/personality that then turned around and is selling a cookbook.

It's a company that uses influencers to push their product which is the smart way of doing things. In order for them to have a YouTube channel that works, they would need a personal or team of people to do stuff, with knives -not sure what.

I would have a clean YouTube presentation showing what the knives do, then go down the Food influencers, Chefs, and other celebrities that use knives route and get them to use the knives and come up with the content.

Makeup companies, Hair care products, and FashionNova companies leverage influencers to sell their product.

The product being sold is the knife company's #1 revenue source, versus the influencers like Joshua whose #1 revenue source is ADs.
 
To add to what @CCarter said, build a subreddit.

Why not embrace what Google does and create your own community on reddit? Start your own subreddit about knives, grow it, and establish yourself and your blog as an authority on knives.

Growing a subreddit is hard work, reddit users are smart and difficult to monetize, but having your own subreddit where you can promote products, information, videos, competitions, reviews, or books is a MASSIVE advantage.
 
tziahs said:
To add to what @CCarter said, build a subreddit.

Why not embrace what Google does and create your own community on reddit? Start your own subreddit about knives, grow it, and establish yourself and your blog as an authority on knives.

Growing a subreddit is hard work, reddit users are smart and difficult to monetize, but having your own subreddit where you can promote products, information, videos, competitions, reviews, or books is a MASSIVE advantage.
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The ChatGPT subreddit seems to be open for spammers, or more likely, the sub owner takes bribes for people to spam their stuff there.
 
bernard said:
The ChatGPT subreddit seems to be open for spammers, or more likely, the sub owner takes bribes for people to spam their stuff there.
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There are even mods that bribe admins to continue to monetize their subs. Reddit is a dirty place (and we are not talking about NSFW subs, LOL). But we are not talking about that spammy crap.

Here's an excellent example. It's a subreddit about weight loss, it has 36k members, it's active, and people give advice to each other, just like in a normal subreddit. However, look at the list of moderators - it has only one. Click on the profile, and you will see it's a guy who has his own website on weight loss, has info products and is an affiliate to various weight loss products. The guy is definitely making money.

And he's definitely not relying solely on Google's zany behavior and "AI testing".
 
Reddit is probably very lucrative if you have an Insta (or Onlyfans) to siphon users to. Most subs don't allow links to websites in posts, but they do allow and encourage (reddit) social links in your profile.

I bought a trollish domain for this purpose to capitalize on one of those weird reddit obsessions.
 
Have you guys seen those sites that are put on nativeads or on facebook. They are like celebrity/trendy topic websites, they also have tons of organic traffic, they have tons of articles and they are constantly running paid ads? I wonder how much those make. Has anyone here done that?

You guys are saying SEO is old stuff but then saying email? That's not old apparently?

Also, people here are saying youtube is better but isn't there more competition on Youtube? To create a blog you need to pay for domain and hosting whereas YouTube is absolutely free. So I don't know why people said the barrier to entry on youtube is higher?
 
My rank tracker seem to be reporting what seems as some fluctuations these last days. Could be a mild rollback, as usually happens.
 
freshpeppermint said:
Also, people here are saying youtube is better but isn't there more competition on Youtube? To create a blog you need to pay for domain and hosting whereas YouTube is absolutely free. So I don't know why people said the barrier to entry on youtube is higher?
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It's far easier to host a domain, and just sit there and write.

YouTube requires you to set up shots, record yourself doing said thing, either explain the video actively or voice over retroactively (either will require you to write a script so you're not mindlessly speaking), you then need to piece the video together in a manner that's digestible, usually via editing software - most editing software is somewhat expensive (for windows, Filmora is $50/yr and does basic editing). While most computers these days can handle writing tasks, they may or may not be equip for heavy editing.

In terms of hardware expenses, you need a decent camera or phone - the iPhone 15 Plus is around $1000 and has a solid camera, a standalone camera is around $500+, a decent lens is about the same, a 1 TB SD card is around $120. If you're recording the audio actively you need something to make that clearer - a shotgun mount is $50-100. If you're recording on an iPhone or with a camera you need a tripod - can range from $20-250. Depending on what you're recording you may need lighting, etc.

Are YouTube and Tiktok free to upload to? Yes.
But those upfront costs are likely necessary at some point.

In terms of writing: A decent writer is like $0.2-0.5 per word (or you write it on your own for free), hosting is $6 per month on a Vultr server, $10 per year for registration fees, and $10-ish for email if your hosting doesn't cover that.

What else is needed for a website?

A theme? - Generatepress is free and even the premium version and blocks are affordable.
A logo? - Ryan is $40-60 and on BuSo
A reviewer? - Depending on the niche, this is like $2-5 an article.
Products? - More often than not you can return these after reviewing.
A camera? - See the above for the cost of an iphone or camera + lens.

Both require time investment and depending on who you are as a person, video can be more taxing/stressing than sitting down and writing on a topic you're comfortable with.

It's also far easier to go back and edit a mistake in an article where-as if you fuck up in the video - you may be able to edit it out or at worst, the video is a wash.

You guys are saying SEO is old stuff but then saying email? That's not old apparently?
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Do you check your email everyday?

Also regarding competition - there's competitors in most niches you enter, no matter the medium.
 
bernard said:
It seems interesting, but it also seems predicated on getting "gold", which typically you don't get much unless you post cute animals or establishment politics.
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The new gold system is interesting for sure, and I have to say that I like the changes they're making overall in that regard.
 
The September HCU of 2023 rollout is complete:

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The carnage took just about exactly two weeks. It's interesting to see these newer type of updates be more chaotic and impactful than core updates.
 
Ryuzaki said:
The September HCU of 2023 rollout is complete:

1Ug2tSZ.png


The carnage took just about exactly two weeks. It's interesting to see these newer type of updates be more chaotic and impactful than core updates.
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It's been my experience that updates start before Google announces them and complete after they say they are complete.
Do you think it will stay like this or do you expect further changes?
 
Taq said:
It's been my experience that updates start before Google announces them and complete after they say they are complete.
Do you think it will stay like this or do you expect further changes?
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This for sure.

Also, it seems they've fixed the local SERP issue. I had a couple of local clients that started ranking nationwide for a hot second, but that has been rolled back.
 
Taq said:
It's been my experience that updates start before Google announces them and complete after they say they are complete.
Do you think it will stay like this or do you expect further changes?
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I think some corrections will follow. For example in the Dutch serps I have a site that lost all its featured snippets. Now a competitor take some over, but interestingly enough he has the featured snippet and #1 spot for some.

This wasn't uncommon a few years ago, but nowadays that shouldnt be possible anymore.

But of course I did only check this in my niche, so I dunno if it is the same in other countries and niches.
 
I wonder now when SGE is getting a rollout, maybe they will gradually roll it out over a year like we see on some serps, or maybe they drop the hammer and go full sge in 2 weeks like this update, that's worse case scenario. I am now budgeting for a massive drop soon.
 
tyealia said:
I wonder now when SGE is getting a rollout, maybe they will gradually roll it out over a year like we see on some serps, or maybe they drop the hammer and go full sge in 2 weeks like this update, that's worse case scenario. I am now budgeting for a massive drop soon.
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Can I ask why you predict a massive drop?
 
Seems to me as if things are still bouncing around a bit.
 
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I read by this Jamie guy on how Google does not like content sites so he will make his blog into an ecommerce store. Like has a section for "shop now" and offers products and he will do press release and all that but that won't be his main way of making money. He says he had real experts, actually tried the products in the reviews and EEAT, and the whole thing yet got hit so he's just gonna make the "business" seem more legit by making it a store.

There's also somewhere I read how this update some sites that had a lot of comments were ranking high. (Of course, there are the obvious high DA sites, reddit/quora boost, and stuff. But apart from that).

If anyone agrees with this or not based on the sites/data they have seen do share.
 
freshpeppermint said:
I read by this Jamie guy on how Google does not like content sites so he will make his blog into an ecommerce store. Like has a section for "shop now" and offers products and he will do press release and all that but that won't be his main way of making money. He says he had real experts, actually tried the products in the reviews and EEAT, and the whole thing yet got hit so he's just gonna make the "business" seem more legit by making it a store.
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It beats the poorly branded style of content sites most people start out creating.

All the sites I create that do well have some product or service that's front and center, even if it's not actually offered. A job board, an agency, something.

If I wanted to do a MarTech affiliate site, the homepage would be built to look like a marketing agency. It would have service pages created, who we serve pages, a pricing page, an in-depth contact-us form, etc.

Boom, easier backlinks via outreach and organically. Who will a journalist quote: a blogger or an agency owner?
Boom, potential additional revenue by fulfilling OR selling leads. OR, simply ignore! Don't connect the form to any email.

Perception is reality.

It's like the subtle difference between using we and I. We tested HubSpot versus I tested HubSpot. I can only do so much, but we can do a lot.

AND, if you do decide you want to offer a service or sell something, all you have to do is unpublish those old pages and create new ones. "Oh, but what if they look it up in archives?" Ignore, lie, or keep it real. Doesn't matter.

Of course, all this depends on what you're creating.

EDIT: picture it as a rank & rent site but not necessarily local.
 
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MrMedia said:
Can I ask why you predict a massive drop?
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There have been a few studies on estimated ctr drops with sge and traffic drops for sites, they range from 30%-60% traffic loss. I think the most comprehensive one was posted on search engine land where they tested through 10 sites and a large amount of queries. Ill look for it in the morning for you but it was posted this month and was one of the most trafficked articles they have.
 
tyealia said:
There have been a few studies on estimated ctr drops with sge and traffic drops for sites, they range from 30%-60% traffic loss. I think the most comprehensive one was posted on search engine land where they tested through 10 sites and a large amount of queries. Ill look for it in the morning for you but it was posted this month and was one of the most trafficked articles they have.
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Already seen it. Total guesswork dressed as science.

Darth said:
AI will answer questions without a click. How could it not?
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Ah right best give up then
 
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