Time to Quit after Google Helpful Content Update (HCU)?

[@markuserikssen]

The issue with this update is that it doesn't only hurt sites copying materials and rewriting it or using AI, it's also that high quality websites of people traveling and owning products are hit hard. In other words: experts are also hit. If we zoom out a bit, I think it's better to diversify traffic sources. We've all become too dependent on Google. Google is too powerful. We do whatever Google wants and change all the time, but these updates keep hitting website owners hard each time. My suggestion: try to build other traffic sources besides SEO, like social communities, newsletter lists, etc. Even though it may not generate as much traffic as SEO, you still have a backup when things get worse.

[@danas986]

Agreed. I've felt for a long time that Google has monopolized search, and well, the entire web.

[@foxruneec]

Agree. I have been doing more info products and writing books. One benefit has been my DA has more than doubled.

[@markuserikssen]

@@foxruneec Well done!

[@hostingconnector]

But , My website has ranked and it recovered all the keywords which were lost in the past couple of updates !

[@markuserikssen]

@@hostingconnector That's great! But you never know what update they come up with next. Google changes perspectives all the time. It's up to you if you want to take that risk.

[@wonmoreminute]

EEAT and helpful content are bullshit… unless Forbes, Outlook India, and Reddit’s CoolJimmy69 really are the most authoritative experts on the entire f’ing internet. Decades of trying to figure this shit out and of all the information on the entire web about a topic, Google’s algo picks the one that says “sponsored content” at the top of the post as the absolute most trustworthy and helpful collection of characters and spaces to feed its users. Why even deliver “content” to searchers at all? Just make the SERPs 100% ads. And when did news websites become the authority on topics like the best lawnmowers of 2023? Maybe Bobby in sports and Mimi the meteorologist moonlight as groundskeepers, testing pull chords and plastic wheels.

[@skip1978]

well said

[@yamahamusicians]

Agreed. Do a search now for anything in my niche and you will see pages of retailers and sponsored links. Is that what Google intended?

[@xDomGrox]

I can't hear this anymore. What Google says and what Google does, are 2 different things. I was excited when I first heard about the HCU, that was supposed to reward sites that actually buy, review products and make their own photos, because thats what I did. Fast forward 1 1/2 years later, the search has gotten worse. I rank worse than many thin (bigger) content sites that never bought any of their products, backlinks are more important than ever and it appears to be random, which sites rank at the top. I try to look at my site as objective as possible and if I knew what to improve (besides minor things), I would do so.

[@peterk1115]

I agree.... buying products for review is the worst thing you can do ... unless you are multi million company.... Personally I no longer write content manually, never bought any products. My websites seem to recover and rank pretty well on AI content. These are the times when even number 1 rank is not worth much. It is harder than ever. Ranking for keywords like "best" "top 10" is almost impossible now. The only chance is on long term keywords with more specific questions... I can see a lot of people gave up and their websites no longer active at all.

[@AimeeLaFon]

I'm a writer for a gardening website, and we were hit so badly that I lost my only job. Needless to say, I am wrapped in a blanket at my desk here and just ate a whole bag of chips. Here's hoping that this is just a blip for us all.

[@gamiwork]

I have two websites in brazil that were hit hardly, 90% of loss. I have to go to Dropshipping now kkkk

[@steveiws]

Wow. So much bs floating around. People saying you need this and that, even you have to be in your photos. What crap. I wish youtubers would stop repeating what others tell them instead of actually learning what works for themselves. No one is an SEO expert. Anyone that claims they can tell you how to recover is bs unless they have personally spents hours reviewing your site. Its non sense to say if you theme looks like this you shouldn't rank.

[@jamesscott1711]

Real experts (like your gardening buddy) are getting destroyed by this silly update because Google should understand that a LOT of the real experts don’t know anything about SEO! So although they might be the most knowledgeable person in the world on a subject, they get penalised because they don’t know how to FORCE the signals Google seem to be attaching to their site.

[@krod16]

If you ask a barber for a haircut situation. All SEO's jumped on Twitter claiming all sorts of reasons for getting hit by the update.

[@jamesscott1711]

@@krod16 and they also have just the perfect 197 dollar course to sell you that will help you recover 😆

[@Delonge1820]

Btw my rankings are pretty much the same for the title tags, but the traffic dropped. Is anyone else in the same boat ? This makes me think that maybe a long tail filter is applied, since my traffic is still down around 50%. A bit weird.

[@fruitbatcat]

As someone hit by panda / penguin back in the day I really feel for the people hit by this, feels very similar. Most will recover in time but it can feel pretty devastating at the time.

[@vesogry]

6:02 - This guy talks BS. I don't even talk about my 12-year-old site that was hit 50%, but I checked the best site in my field and it was hit bad, probably at least 30% and it's plummeting for a long time, and this is my competitor's site. On the other hand, my 5-month-old site with 2-minute AI-generated articles is 150% up.

[@peterk1115]

Nothing wrong with AI content as long as it is good content.

[@easyspanieltraining]

Helpful content update? Yeah, of course it was. When I see forums ranking higher than sites that ranked well then that claim is a load of old bollox. I wonder who has been shovelling cash in Google's direction to encourage this 'helpful content update'.

[@fruitbatcat]

Tbf today I was looking for reviews on website hosts, the first first pages were just full of affiliate sites with the same 5 to 10 sites that I know have good affiliate offers, no unique advice or real reviews of the service - no real pros / cons or issues. I ended up going to reddit and within mins had a short list of good hosts to check out, plus I could see other genuine users talking about issues they had had with each host. How often users kick off about a big problem a host has, etc. That really is more valuable to me than a top 10 list of the hosts with the best affiliate offers. I think the public in general are catching onto that too. Google defo seems to be.

[@danas986]

Honestly? Before this update I have seen a lot of people complaining about search results being AI blogs and niche sites with fluff content, so people ended up adding reddit or quora to their search queries.

[@krod16]

That's like 1% of the people who search. 99% don't know what is reddit or quora.@@danas986

[@TheColossalBlanket]

Had a website for 5 years. Google loved it for all that time but has now lopped off 30% of my traffic. The problem I have is it's a niche about something I used to do but don't do anymore. I have old pics of it but it doesn't feature me in them. How do I prove to Google I know what I'm talking about still? The content is evergreen so it doesn't really change other than certain new products that come out that do the same thing. Also, I have popcorn theme. I'd love to see a tutorial on how to make the home page more brand like and not just a page that lists all my articles, this is something I'm hearing a lot of SEOs say that this signals to Google that you're just a content site rather than a brand.

[@vesogry]

I had a website for 12 years and Adsense for 14. Two months ago I was banned from Adsense because Ezoic put too many ads on my site. I tried to figure out what to do and 2 months later my site is down 50%.

[@8sutek]

Agree, would like to see some idea on how to do it as well ;)

[@NicheOrNitch]

I stopped publishing on all but one of my sites because of the updates. The sites constantly getting hit are ones I admit I don't have authority in. The site I've focused in on is in a niche I actually have tons of authority in and do everyday. And that keeps rising. But that's just me. I'm sure there are examples showing the opposite.

[@TecTimmy]

I'm down 30% across five sites. AI early adopters are hurting my tech niche sites as well as the "helpful" updates. I am pivoting to KZbin.

[@DonGiovanniiii]

KZbin/vídeo plataforms is The future!

[@katiecaftravel]

I live in Bali and I wrote all first hand accounts for my Bali travel blog, all original photos with me in them, and I was still decimated down to 30% of my traffic. I know another Bali travel blogger who is also a influencer with super high quality photos, and she was also decimated, so what does this “google wants experts” mean….

[@WPEagle]

They know what they want they’re just not very good at implementing it 😬

[@chonq]

Kas showing that guy's site for everyone to see is unnecessary. What an a-hole move.

[@jadens9569]

Thanks for the update. My sites are slowly recovering and most of my ranking returned to where it was before the updates. Which AI writers do you use for can you wash it?

[@drewmccu258]

I don't know. An algorithm that knows if you're passionate? Also the MV group and forums are loaded with people actively involved in their niche (people who do travel) who got nailed by this update.

[@prateekrastogi6469]

The prblm is one doesnt know whats coming next

[@jc4evur661]

AI Search...which will affect us all negatively

[@rogiergiersthove]

Great video! A few of my websites were hit as well but they all seem to be recovering right now with the exception of 1.

[@mikeysmith972]

If we are honest with ourselves, I don’t think most of us are experts in the topics we write about. Most of us are improvising, and we were only doing the absolute minimum before the update. That being said, Google has made a mess of this update; you just have to look at some of the sites ranking at the top of the SERPs right now to see Google's mistakes. John is not doing Google any favours with some of the comments he has made during the updates. I’m surprised no one from Google has had a word with him to say, 'John, relax and tone it down a bit.' But it seems he has been given the green light to speak his mind.

[@krod16]

John Mueller is the biggest tool produced by that company.

[@MeyTribe]

Weird for me to see this... I have at least 15 people in my community that DMd me saying they saw an insane spike in traffic and are happy for this change. So weird seeing it's hitting others differently.

[@MeyTribe]

I guess my community members are actually making proper content LOL (However, all of them are VERY niched in their websites)

[@soundgrips]

If there is something that you taught them that they are all doing maybe it is worth taking a look at to see if it can help you or other websites.

[@Delonge1820]

Btw this autority theory is interesting, and I’m sure it has weight in the core algo, but I haven’t seen it documented or mentionned for HCU before. I saw others guess it was an UX issue this time around since they appended the scope of what good content is in March or April of 2023 I think. But maybe you’re spot on and authority is the main issue here.

[@SoufianeSigma]

I lost 20% of traffic... thank you for the insightful video

[@jc4evur661]

Your Snack Eagle homepage 7:18 looks quite similar to the homepage highlighted by your guest 6:00 yet SE seems to be doing OK.

[@WPEagle]

Yeah. Weird, maybe homepage design isn’t a huge factor

[@roysuttontv]

Interesting observations, as always, Alex. Definitely, food for thought.

[@MEGATestberichte]

Doesnt Matter. I am an expert on my fields and still got hit hard as hell. Meaning 90% traffic loss. Doing it for 12 years, have own photos, did all by myself, real tests and so on. Now google only pushing big media corps.

[@dinorossi6611]

Hmmmmm? Should we still invest in Popcorn theme? :( . Tough times. My sites are doing OK .. suffered a small dip.

[@WPEagle]

of course. A lot of sites are doing just fine.

[@Mediatomcat]

Site seems to be taken big turn to the upwards. I have created it as a brand on not a plain niche. Hoping that's what's driving growth.

[@TDD_SA]

Can you explain what you mean sir

[@TDD_SA]

In details pls

[@shar2866]

Thank you so much for your videos - find them so helpful

[@ukbeautyroom]

My sites were affected but not too badly. One seems to have recovered today 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@nilaymallikk]

I lost 70% traffic 😢😢

[@gamiwork]

Sad

[@HomeStudioBasics]

Lol 7:29 so basically expertise, i.e. what you just harped on earlier in the video, doesn't matter then. Got it.

[@WPEagle]

Theres what Google wants and the reality of the state of the algorithm right now :)

[@danas986]

One of my sites is down about 40%. Not much of a monetary loss, since the EPMV was low. Currently thinking of removing ads from the site completely. It does quite well with affiliate links. My other site is down about 15%. Overall, not great. I have mixed feelings about the "expert" in EEAT. An "expert" in pets niche would insinuate content written by a licensed vet, because they're experts in animals right? The owner of a pet isn't an expert. Even if you have an experience with your pet, and maybe have done some diggng or asking your vet about stuff. Still not an expert in Google's eyes, I guess. I guess it's back to the ol' blogging about our lives. 😁

[@foxruneec]

I removed ads back in July on my three sites and honestly, it's been great for me. The sites looks much nicer and have a better user experience. That said I've put in effort to make info products and courses.

[@peterk1115]

"Expert" in google eye is the website with quality back links from authority websites + good content. You don't need to be certified or with years of experience in the field. Google wouldn't be able to check that anyway.

[@shavetutor]

My niche site has been unaffected by the update (knocking on wood)

[@Oscar-e6j4e]

Is your site hit by this update? Then here is the best chance of recovery fast: report a serp result that does not match the search intent anymore due to this update. You must know that these results were changed after the HCU. You can report the result by clicking on the 3 points next to a search result, scroll down and click on 'send feedback'. Then explain why is does not match the search intent of your keyword. Also tell more people to do the same. Of enough people are reporting the issues, Google will most likely consider a rollback of this update!

[@ComePlayCricket]

Those who have dropped more than 1000 keywords, do it is a good idea for them😂

[@rohitmehra87]

The problem is uncertain we don't know what google want.

[@paulgent9850]

Page visits way down but conversely Amazon commissions up

[@beyazlamor5591]

A website who copied and pasted %70 of my exact original post content, is in the first page. But my original content which was in top 3, dropped down to 95. The site who copied my original post was rewarded but my post was dropped down dramatically. And my site is an authority site about that keyword niche. I have nothing to say. This is jst ridiculous. Google did not do things right. That's certain. I've seen a website which have 2 different pages at rank 1 and rank 2, with a keyword. And another page from the same website is on 12th rank with the same keyword phrase. So it has 3 different pages in first 12 of the results with one keyword. WTF? Google deffinitely didn't do thing right. 😡

[@brettharter143]

Also, the idea they are putting "high quality content" at the top is nonsense, its mostly content which has lots of links at the top, i know this because i've written how to guides wherein i have photos of me doing said thing, with my own analysis , expert tips and tricks and yet it sits at rank 20 whilst number 1 has no real value talks about irrelavant details and uses stock photos.

[@julien1]

IMO its about time they did it. People spend their entire lifetimes becoming an expert and it has always seemed literally society destructive to have all these non experts pretending to be experts. Madness.

[@WPEagle]

But did they do it right? Is Forbes an expert on everything now - according to Google they are!

[@mattfeastonline]

I personally reckon google want our money Re: paid traffic..

[@chetanmali231]

my site also hit , my site is new growing 600-700 pv prday and after HCU dropped 90% now 40-50 pageview perday

[@ninjawhoya2073]

Kaz basically showed the popcorn theme

[@MowerMan]

Kasra? No he didn't it showed trellis

[@phillankester]

that was trellis - not popcorn! :)

[@NotAnnaJones]

Thanks!

[@MD4564]

How does Google determine who is expert ? Google in every update screws the traffic.

[@jc4evur661]

G has also admitted that websites that are perfect get hit also...collateral damage I guess

[@RichardWadeUK]

Excellent advice mate

[@travishamlin7106]

It has nothing to do with if it’s people or AI, if you can’t structure your blog correctly google won’t rank it very well.

[@nichesiteladyofficial]

Thanks for the mention, Alex 🤩

[@samsungsenses]

At this point, google hcu is just sending 90%of website back into sandbox period again i guess.

[@horror-panic-tube]

I am here because Google gemeni recommends me your video

[@WPEagle]

Really? What did you ask for 🙂

[@electronicearnings]

Yeah got a 50% loss of traffic, maybe more than that

[@Allofussurvived]

This is good thing

[@peterk1115]

It is getting worse and worse for niche websites... EEAT is complete BS. You won't rank for keywords like "best" "top" etc... any more... Don't even try with those words.

[@SideGigUni]

My traffic is up 20%

[@YorkieUniverse1]

So is that one guy saying if you have ads on your site, your site should get hit? That site he showed looked fine to me.

[@krod16]

He claims if you have a generic them and a generic blog roll main page then one of the signals to get hit. Your home page should be like how it's for a company or business as per them.

I have already quited.

[@raihanulIslamrana]

This also happened with me 😢

[@StupidRobotFightingLeague]

Nice beard.

[@Alex_1729]

So you're saying Google wants experts creating expert sites, yet your non-expert and AI sites were not hit... What are you not telling us? What's your secret. It's so confusing

[@WPEagle]

Il just saying what I hear. I don’t know why my sites weren’t hit that much 🤷‍♂️

[@neilanadams5173]

Parroting the nonsense that Google said. The expert angle is nonsense, if this was true they would have done something about it years ago.

[@WPEagle]

What’s the play then?

[@neilanadams5173]

@@WPEagle sorry for being harsh, now that I look at it, honestly this whole thing was a setup from day one. They promoted SEO and bloggers to generate high ranking content for their own ends, they knew this day would come and their AI will be used to keep users on the SERP and discourage organic results so as to pay bloggers less revenue. The play? Not sure but move across sectors, as you did with KZbin, and social media, newsletters but it's tough and I'm not entirely sure.

[@foxruneec]

My three are stable or slightly up. My one domain authority more than doubled and is 36 so that was fun - not sure it relates to the update at all. I had gotten rid of ads back in July and really working on info products and courses plus a bit of affiliate. So my income is not as traffic-driven as it once was which is nice - but I do work for it :)

[@ComePlayCricket]

This is all bullshit😂

[@simplifygardening]

Got slammed so glad I was doing a complete rebuild I lost 45%

[@WPEagle]

Hope you didn’t mind me using you in the vid 🙂

[@fruitbatcat]

You'll be back, your content is genuinely good.

[@CarlBroadbent]

I'm sure the rebuild will help when the next update comes round and the site is live

[@vapingtom7189]

Someone who supports Nichesitelady, I can not take seriously.

[@WPEagle]

Why?