So google has started to rule out broad Core algorithms In the middle of 2018. back then we Called it google medic because it seemed To mostly affect health sites however As time passed we have seen these core Updates essentially Affect pretty much every niche and a lot Of authority site owners have been Affected by these updates And when google decides to press the Refresh button on these updates some Sites lose up to 90 Traffic and it’s a bit of a slaughter For those sites that are affected there Is also some sites that go up from these Updates but overall there’s Massive volatility every time google Refreshes it and to be frank i’ve been a Little bit scared to talk about these Updates mostly because they are not very Well understood But the fact is they come every few Months at this point and they affect A lot of our listeners so here we go we Are going to be talking about these In-depth what we think what we know and What we think you should do But we won’t just talk about these Updates and what they do we will Also talk about how the community reacts To them And kind of like the content that he’s Creating around his updates how content
Creators in the online marketing space Are using them to build a bit of a Following and sometimes a business And of course because you guys like when We are very practical in this podcast we Are Also going to be taking a few of the Sites that got affected by these updates And we’re going to be analyzing them Live on the podcast and we’ll tell you What we think and What may have caused this or not a lot Of this is going to be speculation but It’s going to be fun And we will actually do more of this Analysis on friday So there should be a stream scheduled on The youtube channel right now You can go and register for it and mark And i will be live analyzing a bunch of Sites that got penalized Or at least affected by these core Updates so if you’re excited by this Content if you want us to not be afraid To talk about core updates Don’t forget to like the video subscribe And click on the notification bell I actually heard that the people who are Subscribed to our channel have 23 Percent less chances to be affected by These updates so Do yourself a favor and subscribe to the Channel and for now let’s get started [Music]
Everyone welcome back to the authority Hacker podcast i know you missed my French accent last week so i’m sure You’re glad i’m back but uh I am with the same person i’m usually With to talk about something that we Haven’t been Talking a lot about so first of all Let’s just go with the how’s it going Mark because i know you guys have been Missing that I see the guest last week kind of like Asked you but you You you kind of dodged it it’s like it’s Uh You didn’t try very hard i hope you Haven’t i’ve started asking the guests Now like i start off like hey yeah How’s it going kevin uh and i just Do that to see which of them like Respond in a way That would indicate they’ve actually Watched our previous episodes so i kind Of Know how many of our weird in jokes to Provide them with Fair enough uh and yeah i think it’s a Good test i think uh i think if people Ask to be on the podcast you should be Like Okay but how’s it going and if they have An interesting answer then maybe we Invite them Otherwise we don’t um
So if you are reached for the podcast Which i get about three to four a day at This point like our people are reaching To be on the podcast and You better put some joke about how’s it Going if not you You refuse by default um we are going to Do more these interviews though i think It was a cool interview so if you Haven’t seen last week’s podcast go Check it out Uh i was on the premiere with everyone Kind of like discovering it I had done the i had done the thumbnail With the designer that’s the only thing I did Um but uh i enjoyed it i think it was Cool and i liked him i liked uh i liked That he was uh Not not full of like most Copywriters and not like you know using Walls like Synergy and like uh it was actually you Know Kind of like buzz words and i hate that So it’s like this was good you know It definitely has written reviews and i Think the stuff on the intros etc was Interesting so If you do affiliate reviews on your site I recommend you go check out this Podcast this is Last week’s podcast so check the feed if You’re on the audio
Or check the previous video on youtube And you’ll be able to Find that here we uh so we actually have Another interview coming Up next week um with digital Pr link builder uh which is One you will not want to miss um i think It’s probably the show i’ve Or the interview where i’ve like learned The most i was i was talking to person Afterwards for Like a good 20 minutes just asking more Tips and advice and then picking your Brain and stuff is It’s good so check out the show next Week for that as well so make sure You’re subscribed Cool uh i’m excited we are going to be Doing more interviews I’m going to be doing some uh as well at Some point i need to just schedule some I have Some interesting ones that i’ve talked To people with i’ve talked with uh Like travis who does a lot of like site Investing and everything and so on so I’ll probably do one with him maybe in February So i’m looking forward to that anyway Let’s jump into today’s podcast because A lot of people have complained that we Spend too long in the intro So let’s jump into it and we are going To be talking about the infamous
Google car updates that have been Shaking the internet for like about Two years now maybe something like this Um When was the yeah the first one was like A like a few months before the chiang Mai seo Last year so something like that like Soon two years i would say Um and so it’s something it’s like Essentially these updates happen out Happen out of tina and then it just Seems to reshape a lot of the rankings And then everyone jumps on facebook and Tries to decide what google has Changed and then a show ensues and Like Nobody still knows what’s going on so we Haven’t talked about them even though Yeah we’ve talked about them but we Haven’t really like given our analyses Or things like that and i kind of want To talk about why we did that today and I want to Kind of like you know share what we Think about them but Also share what we think about how the Industry is reacting to them i think Um do you want to give another Description of what happened and what it Is etc did you do this better than me Usually so Yeah i mean this was really boring out Of a number of people
In our facebook communities our members Facebook communities Posting about seeing uh sites losing Half a million visitors overnight and You know Huge huge drops in their their traffic On at least one view through ahrefs and Kind of freaking out like hey do i Really want to get into this this Business do i want to um Is it worth living in a world where this Can happen Seemingly at random to anyone overnight Of course it’s not Random it’s not it’s not just the Luck whether this happens to you or not There’s things you can do which will Make you more likely to Succumb to it and things which you can Do which makes you much Less likely you can never avoid it but Would Sorry would you say there’s a degree of Randomness to it Not really no okay i believe there is a Bit Actually i believe some sites that are Pretty decent also get hit A lot of size get hit as well i Agree um i think i think I think it’s not random in the sense That google’s just trying to shake Things up oh yeah it’s random in the Sense that
Google will make an algorithm change at The core like of how it calculates who Ranks first second third etc And then that’s they have to make a kind Of Broad algorithm for that they can’t go Into every single serp and say oh well Actually in this case This algorithm wouldn’t work they’ll try And do that as much as possible and i’m Sure they have Very smart ways of of testing it and Ensuring that They’re not doing the wrong thing and Making sites go to the top as Did happen you know seven eight years Ago when when Some updates were were coming out you You saw that Um well they died recently too actually They’ve rolled back some of these That was the one case when i i remember Tim from ahrefs was Rightfully so that uh because they have Really good content on their blog and There was another Site which outranked them for a really Hot like big seo term I forget what it was we’ll put the tweet And And uh this this this other site this Other post Absolutely did not deserve to be there Um but that was the case and we
We mentioned this in one of our our Update podcasts uh last year that was The case where Google legitimately like made a big Mistake And said oh actually this is a there’s a Problem and they rolled it back and they Essentially cancelled that now whether That was Uh because they didn’t test it properly Or like the these These things happened which they didn’t Expect Then i you know we’ll never know but Suffice to say At the end now it’s not random because From that perspective because they’ve Said actually this was wrong so it Wasn’t like they were Ahrefs were getting yeah yeah randomly Yeah i agree um uh let’s just talk about I kind of like the evolution because Before When an update would roll out it would Be uh much more defined what google Changed right and they would often even Communicate about it right so for Example you know when they wrote panda They were like well we’re aiming at Low quality content and then they do Potential questions everything there as Well Yeah but even low quality right i Remember there is some questions when
They release it they were like okay Like would you trust this site to put Your credit card information on it would You trust medical advice from this site Et cetera et cetera so they had like Five six questions like that and it’s Like You know if you can’t say yes to these Questions then this is probably the kind Of sites for targeting that’s how they Would Communicate around that whereas and and Same with penguin they would be like I don’t think penguin they ever said They were going after links or something But It became pretty obvious What’s the guy’s name um matt cutts like Tweeted about it and You know said okay we found link van or Build my rank you know this is But this wasn’t penguin this was kind of Like that was like a Targeted manual thing against people who Use these networks Um but penguin i don’t think they ever Said it but it was pretty obvious it was And Kind of like interestingly they kind of Like went with that vibe when seos would Talk about it and you would talk to them About that and You know it kind of like confirmed that Way without ever saying it out loud
But there’s kind of like core updates um It’s a lot more difficult to tell what’s Going on and google will just not say Anything they just say essentially We’re changing the way we’re scoring Pages and if you are not ranking as high It’s just because you’re not Uh you know you’re not what we define Now As a quality page compared to what it Was before or something like that Essentially what they say they say There’s nothing to fix Just create great websites and they all Those are the Our guidance remains the same please Follow Webmaster guidelines and all this kind Of stuff Yeah so that’s pretty much and it’s much More difficult so i think i wanted to Talk about like Why it’s probably more difficult i think One of them is they’re probably batching Uh a bunch of updates at once so it’s Like it looks like You know it looks like they’re pressing A button and just everything just Changes But like what’s probably happening is That you know at google there’s probably Multiple teams i don’t imagine they have Like massive team workings on on like One update but rather
You know five people working on an Update on how you treat Exact keywords on the page and then you Have like 10 people working on this et Cetera and then They’re like here’s the deadline Where did you get this from well i’m not Saying that i’m just saying they’re Probably Batching the release of everything Because they press a button and just Everything changes at once you know it’s Not There’s not like i mean there is small Updates rolling out but there’s like a Big A big wave of stuff happening at once Right um and so it’s it’s It’s likely and i think they even Mentioned that they’re probably rolling Like they kind of like insinuated that They’re rolling multiple things at once As well Um so you would imagine that there’s Essentially multiple people’s work that Comes together at once gets tested Through the people who test the subs and Eventually gets rolled out you know I mean i would imagine that they they’re Able they have some kind of framework to Test this Internally but it’s something well they Do so there’s this That’s the quality rater guidelines
That’s what you read and so like We even have a post about the anatomy Hacker essentially they have like Thousands of people that literally have Two versions of the subs for a given Keyword and they have to pick the Winning one One of them is maybe the original one And one of them is the one after the Update And once they pass a certain quality Score through these testers Then eventually they will have the Update so i believe that what happens is There’s the engineers doing their work Then essentially they recompute a part Of their index With the new algorithm then they run an A b test of the results Against these testers and then if these Tests pos positive more than a certain Percentage they roll this out you know Yeah and and that’s the thing in order To fully test You can never fully test this just Because of the yeah there’s the Questions The volume of of searches going on and So many are Unique as well so you’re only going to Discover these Like big problems um yeah after they Roll it out massively and they realize Oh actually in this niche it doesn’t
Really work or like This because the the way the signals Work like people don’t link to each Other the same way Or something essentially what you’re Saying is there’s like a lot of work Going on over a period of time Internally so this is yeah kind of flat Or stable rather and then it’s released And Everything changes over the course of a Few days or a week but you can imagine That even for the testing it makes more Sense to like If multiple updates are gonna around the Same day you might as well just roll up Them out All in one single update recompute and a Small index Based on all these new factors and then Eventually actually look at the end Result Against what you have today because it’s Going to already be more accurate than If you did them one by one and then just Not really see that you know and then Eventually the results are really bad Then maybe you can decouple some of These updates and then just Test them against each other and maybe Roll only part of it and put push on Back to The engineering team et cetera the same Way as you create content really
Um so it’s like because they have a Whole testing environment because i have All of that I definitely imagine that there is more Batching and probably made even if they Didn’t really change the things they do If they change the way they work these Updates can feel a lot more Uh like you know a lot more difficult to Read because multiple things could be Rolling out at once because maybe they Do a better q a qa testing And to do better qa testing they’d Rather test things together at the same Time you know Yeah i mean i don’t disagree that They’re trying to do multiple things you Say it was well what i said Were Oh they have five people doing this and Ten people doing this it wasn’t exactly It was like Far too specific there i was like how do You know that yeah it was just an Illustration i said they might have A you know a small engineering team Doing one thing a small injury thing do Another thing then work comes together It gets tested And if it all works then you release it If parts of it doesn’t work send it back To the engineering team et cetera et Cetera and Oh i’m playing for the next release you
Know okay That’s that’s that’s how uh that’s how i Would work in my mind but like that Would be One reason why it might be harder to Read these updates because things might Be batched together And so there might be a link update with A content update for example and so like If the two things happen at once then It’s really difficult to tell well What happened on the content side versus What happened yeah it’s not even just Like oh we’re changing this one thing About links it’s like every update They’re changing and tweaking Every or most metrics that they work Some stuff the most variables All the time so it’s like you can’t even Say oh you know like Link’s got links got hit and you know There’s multiple parts of links it’s Like well links got hit in this case if This type of content but Excluding these types of niches because Of these factors and like It gets incredibly complicated Incredibly quickly And that’s probably one of the reasons We’re not seeing much communication for Them in terms of like hey this is what’s Happening because It’s too difficult to explain yeah i Think another thing that could be
Happening is a kind of like a butterfly Effect you know So um let’s say Let’s say you see like a typical thing That you see on facebook groups people Be like oh they are targeting affiliate Sites Right that’s kind of like blanket Statement google start getting affiliate Sites right Maybe the it’s just a butterfly effect Of them maybe Uh targeting a certain type of link Building that’s popular within affiliate Marketers for example Um and then oh or whatever or something Else you know or maybe like a certain Sentence structure or something Whatever stuff like that that is not Really targeted affiliate sites but Rather like something else but Eventually because it’s popular within That industry Then then that happens and then the size That link to them maybe you get hit and Then these sites Then pass less authority and then a lot Of affiliate sites end up being hit Without it ever being the intention of Google right so i think there’s a bit of Like There could be a lot of like unintended Side effects Of things they are trying to fix rather
Than them Actually targeting what people say on The facebook groups or something like That would you would you agree With that oh that would be no 100 i agree it’s also a case of uh You know spurious correlations where you Have Uh you you must have seen these graphs We’ll put one up on screen in the in the Youtube Um video at least where you have like The divorce Rate in maine usa over time And then that correlates perfectly with The per capita consumption of margarine Right now obviously those two things Are not in any way linked and unless The margarine is being poisoned um tin Foil hat But the fact that those those correlate Doesn’t mean that they’re related in the Same way that If we say okay there’s quite a few Affiliate sites saying in In these groups that they got they got Hit it doesn’t mean that oh actually Google’s going after affiliate sites now Because they’re affiliate sites it could Be that affiliate sites tend to have Like Thinner content or not be as good in Certain areas or not have certain Aspects that they’re they’re looking
From their content from They have cheaper writers that make more Grammar mistakes and they’re more Difficult they’re more strict on the Grammar or things like these you know Like and when And when you really dig into that thing Okay so google’s going after affiliate Sites It’s going after affiliate sites so if We go for the If we have a look at all the keywords That these affiliate sites that lost Used to rank for and used to get traffic For Are we not going to see affiliate sites There have they replaced them with Product sites when we google Best hiking shoes is it not going to be Third party people reviewing them is it Just going to be a list of hiking shoe Vendors No it’s not yeah i agree i think there’s A lot Around these there’s also a lot of Confirmation bias right so You’re looking you’re looking for again Affirmative size being paralyzed so you Find effect size being penalized but you Kind of like miss You know the pure content size being Penalized or the director is being Penalized or like things like that are Not even penalized by the way just
Affected by the update i don’t think we Should say penalized This is not penalties um so i think There’s a lot of confirmation bias and Usually My my best analogy that’s going to Obviously be on my analogy book that You’re eagerly waiting for one day Um for that is um you know when you go You talk to like entrepreneurs and They’re like oh yeah like look uh Steve jobs he woke up at 5 00 a.m elon Musk wakes up super early and he sleeps In a tesla factory et cetera so Waking up you know at 5 00 a.m or very Early is definitely an attribute to Being a successful entrepreneur right Um my response usually to that is like You know who else wakes up at 5am Factory workers they usually wake up Really early and start really early etc And have like early shifts etc And you tend to have a lot more factory Workers waking up around this time Especially because they live far away From work because They can’t afford like the housing That’s next to work or something like This et cetera Then there were very successful ceos Right so it’s like if you put back Everything into the general population a Lot of these like success factors Tend to actually not be success factors
Be just because these ceos woke up super Early or something like that and it’s Like it’s very average and a lot of People wake up early Regardless of their level of success Right and so it It it is a little bit like that in that Sense like with the You know all faces get affected or like Guest postings getting penalized or Something like that We’re kind of like zooming in into an Industry spending spend a lot of time in And then we are trying to We are finding obviously sites being Affected by these updates etc And because we don’t spend a lot of time Looking at these other populations of Sites and How other people who have info products Who have e-commerce Who have all of that etc then we are Justifying our analysis and saying well Obviously affiliate sites are being Affected therefore This update is affecting affiliate sites You know so another thing i want to talk About as well is not just like What may be causing these updates but Rather how the community is reacting to Them how the news are reacting to them Etc We as seos can’t really have a proper View of what’s happening when we work on
You on like you know three four five Sites it’s really hard to tell Uh many people will not even notice These updates if they’re working on These few sites Um so what we do is we you know create Content on blogs on News et cetera we have communities on Reddit on facebook etc It gives us kind of like a perspective On these updates that hopefully helps us Understand them better by Sharing experiences right and the Problem is it’s a little bit biased how It’s done so i wanted to talk about this As well with your mark And actually you wanted to make the First point so go so There’s a there’s a kind of movement Within the seo blogger seo news Side of the community to create content Which Explains exactly what’s happened because People are looking for this people who Have been hit Or even people who haven’t been hit and Are scared of being hit They’re like what happened here this is Really Uncertain i need to know what happened Or i’ve been hit How do i fix it tell me what to do so i Can go and do that And usually the answer is is not so
Simple it’s a little bit more Complicated it takes a lot of time to To research and to to go through and We’ll go through some examples Of that in the show today but you just Have to be careful of Seo bloggers ourselves included i mean We’re making a A podcast episode about this it’s in Reaction to demand like people are Really asking oh what do i do what’s it What’s going on here But there are also a lot of people out There who have penalty removal companies Or Seo tools focusing on certain things or Link building services or or Parts of services and they have a Monetary incentive to explain A penalty or not penalty explain the Core algorithm update In a way that which favors doing stuff Related to what they’re doing so you Might use their their services or their Tool Um even even if they don’t have services The seo news sites they they thrive on Clicks On ad revenue and they want to get People people in there and if they have Content around this then Everyone’s going to click it’s going to Be popular i know this app this podcast Episode is going to be
Popular as a topic so in in a way we We are the the problem there um even Though it’s not Quite um you know there’s there’s no Real missing Intentions there at least um what you Said before so The seo community or individuals in Their Seo community they rarely have enough Data to make accurate Assessments of this you need to look at Hundreds of thousands of sites And many many many points of points of Data Um even when you’re able to do that it’s Very easy to quantify Things like dr number of words on a page Age of sight You can even start quantifying to an Extent Quality of links and things like that But it’s much harder to quantify Some of the softer things like how good Is the content What’s what’s the quality level of the Of the content there’s no Tool that can really measure that we can Measure things like readability but we Can’t measure Is this a good review or is it not At least not yet so those factors those Softer factors tend to be overlooked In the in the industry’s reaction to it
And that’s why you see a lot of focus On oh google is just going after Affiliate sites it’s It’s uh too much affiliate reviews Versus info content Poor quality links things like that but Very rarely do you do you have people Saying okay well actually let’s let’s Take a look at this site It went down who’s above it now what What are they doing that they’re not Uh and then let’s dig into the the Actual content here is it serving the The user we’ve seen So much uh recently From google around searching intent Where An article which can be good but it’s Not exactly matching what people want to See It’s just not going to get anywhere so As time goes on and Those those factors often change you’ll See You’ll see sites fall off because They’re they’re Not lacking in the they don’t have the Correct intent In their content that they they used to Have And when you do find people talking About this stuff and in a reaction to a Core algorithm update it’s often rarely Actionable
They they don’t say okay well here’s how To fix it it’s more just like oh you Know Improve the quality of your content or Give some other generic Advice like that which is just Inherently Unhelpful um but the thing is like this This content which which seo bloggers Put out there It gets so much so many likes so many Reviews so many um So much engagement shares shares in the Communities It perpetuates other people to to do it And then it just And then you have like a bunch of people Who don’t know what they’re talking About Saying stuff to get attention and then You have other People quoting them and then other People in groups saying And i think that they said and it’s just This layers of truth start building up And there’s No fundamentals to it whatsoever Yeah for me it’s like taking vaccine Advice from your aunt On facebook you know it’s it’s pretty Much the same level at this point It’s like uh and the thing is like Because of the level of attention these Get and
I’m sorry for people who resent this Podcast but because of unrefined The seo community is in terms of Critical sense very many times This type of con even even poorly done Works really well right it’s like i’ve Seen many blog posts with like You know they find three sites that went Down and they find three bad things About that site And then they just essentially say well This update is about this because look At these three sites you know and that’s That’s what happens And i think it’s a real guru maker this Kind of like blog post like it’s it’s Exactly how you get a lot of people’s Attention Like if i wanted to be big in i am today Um and i had Zero sense of ethics that’s what i would Do i would wait every time there’s a Google update And i would find some size that went Down and i would write A big blog post with a bunch of Analytics screenshots with like red Arrows pointing at stuff etc Like buzzfeed style you know and then And then i would just i don’t care what I would write if i had no ethics i would Just like make stuff up right be like Look all these sites have slightly below Page speed average it must be a page
Speed update uh issue oh by the way look I found this one spammy link pointing to This site so it must be about links etc I guarantee you 70 or 80 of people would Eat it up Believe it and then follow me and then Buy whatever i’m selling right Um it’s like i didn’t really want to say This name because i think they’re nice But i was in uh when we were in bali Last year yeah before now in 2019 now Um i went to the marie haynes agency Presentation These guys are even quoted by google Right it’s like when these updates come Out like Google actually quotes some of their Blog posts um So it’s like they get a lot of credit From google right Um but i was very surprised to go to This Uh presentation because basically the First half was talking about these core Updates Which essentially was them pushing the Idea of e80 right it’s like uh So like putting trust and like showing Authority etc on your site And then when they would take case Studies of clients that they helped They would show very very basic fixes to These sites like Um we added an auto box we fixed the
Size speed We wrote the about page et cetera and Then they show some sites that went back Up right but It’s like i don’t have a view of all the Sites they take care of but it felt very Much like a portfolio effect you know of Like You know let’s say talk a lot about Penalties take 50 Penalized people you know because there Is a lot of like Refreshes to these updates etc to Whatever you do you might get Four or five back up six pack i don’t Know i’m just making i i This one is like speculation i’m just Putting a big speculation bar on this et Cetera And then use these as case studies to Essentially say look how stuff works you Know Um and then not really knowing what is The state of the other people that You’ve worked with or like etc And so it’s very i do marketing and i’m Pretty good at being building sales Pages etc And i would say that’s exactly how we Market a service like that it would work Really well Not saying that that’s what they do by The way so i’m gonna highlight that but What really struck me in the
Presentation is on one side they would Talk about all these new concepts etc And then essentially they do a basic Cytodid content pruning Type thing um that we’ve known for many Years content pruning started With panda tuna started pruning started Like It’s going to be 10 years and not that Long you know that that people started Doing this stuff and so essentially It’s like old old recipes for new Updates And it didn’t feel like that Groundbreaking and rather that like kind Of like Applying best practices that we already Knew about and using these updates As just a way to attract attention you Know to be fair And i didn’t go that presentation so i i Don’t know what what they said exactly But to be fair A lot of the time that is the remedy It’s because People have neglect i agree but they’ve Neglected the fundamentals and they need A penalty event or a a big negative Thing to happen to their site before They you know get their ass in gear and Actually start doing the stuff which They should have been doing anyway but Let’s be honest when you’re coasting Number one
It’s not always the first thing on your Mind I don’t agree i don’t disagree on the Solution um I just take the we’re gonna analyze Updates As a really smart marketing hook to just Do normal seo work for people And make it look more innovative than it Really is Like that’s that’s that’s kind of like What annoys me a bit and like It’s not necessarily what they do but Rather how people perceive that Which is not always the thing like it’s Very often we talk about something And then people will kind of like Interpret what we say And then something else will come out of It and be like oh girl said that or mark Said down the podcast it’s like well i Didn’t exactly say that or like It’s like but they might have Interpreted it and it kind of feels that Way and then you play on that ambiguity To make sales you know that’s what i’m Saying It’s like you don’t you don’t correct People you just let this ambiguity of Like oh there’s some kind of like secret Sauce to solve this Um by your initial hook and then you Just apply What you should do which is seo best
Practices because that’s what google Says people should do And that’s because usually that’s what Solves this kind of problems you know I i agree i’m just saying that’s like Kind of the fundamental that’s what Marketing is like positioning your Product Yeah yeah yeah it’s like bigger that’s Possible you know Everybody does it we do that as well you Know Yeah yeah but i you know in this podcast I wanted to just shine the light on that And i hope that people with enough Critical sense will understand that and We’ll maybe look at this kind of content With a bit more critical sense because That is what is going to help you kind Of navigate This sea of interpretations from people On the internet and i think that’s more Important than what we think about the Updates i think that’s If you have to take something away from This podcast take this away you know And also don’t believe everything you Read on facebook Exactly well hopefully you knew that Before but just like I mean you brought up the vaccine thing Like you wouldn’t take advice from your Aunts Um on on facebook about whether they’re
Good Or whatever you know you’d go to a Doctor kind of thing But exactly in in this case there’s like The there’s not a establishment there’s No doctors yeah common Wisdom common knowledge that’s been kind Of like Checked and tested and evolved over Years and that’s because nobody knows Like nobody knows exactly what’s Happening here Uh so it’s understandable that people Then Default to the seo experts Sometimes people like us you know other Other people as well And say oh what’s going on here you have To you have to tell me and like We don’t know exactly yeah and usually These kind of like Niches where there’s ambiguity are the Absolute best niches For info products if you want to do info Products as a business model Try to find niches with ambiguity and Then just establish an angle And people buy into that and you sell Them an info product it works really Well Um it works in finance for example it Will work in nutrition diet where again Okay there is science but there’s also a Lot of different schools and uh and like
People will fight with each other etc It works even in like things like Parenting and how to educate your Children how to train your dog as well i Guess it’s the same category Like things like that where there’s like Different schools and a bit of ambiguity And no like One way of doing things tends to be the Best niches for Um for info products and selling that Kind of stuff Usually hyper high pro commission sales Products Anyway anything else to say on uh Analyzing Community content etc on uh On these updates yeah so we mentioned it Before i just want to emphasize Again there’s a always a strong bias in The people who are commenting and having These discussions so Someone will post all you know google Tweeted the aggro the core algorithm Update coming out Anyone get hit and then all the people That were unaffected would just be like Keep scrolling like some people might Say no nothing yet But the vast majority of people will Just ignore it the people who respond Are the people who were affected by it So you get this cluster of The people worst affected or best
Affected in a positive Positive way and then that’s everyone Who’s talking about it so it can seem Like A as a percentage of people who are Responding to that facebook group post 90 plus percent of them were affected in Some ways you can think oh actually Everybody’s been affected by this this Was a really big deal When in fact that represents you know 0.01 Of of website owners kind of out there So you you have to be aware of that fact As well i think Um and there’s other yeah i mean you can Find so many sites that didn’t get Affected right for and i tend to do that As well like people like Uh i feel like affiliates got affected I’m like okay let’s find 10 sites 10 fsi That didn’t get affected Uh affiliates our um like you know guest Post links are Being affected okay let’s find 10 sites Like the guest posting building don’t Get affected et cetera And usually that’s how science works Right it’s like you make a hypothesis Then you try to disprove it And if you can’t disprove it then it’s Accepted as a theory which essentially Is going to is looking to be disproved In the future but there’s no active
Research for it Um that’s not how the seo world works And i think if scientists look at the Way we do research They would be uh there would be amazing The There’s no peer review as well right It’s like i think that’s an important Point In science there’s pure review which Means let’s say Someone says we have a remedy against a Disease Then what happens is like another Another group of scientists or usually Multiple other groups of scientists Then take that remedy and test it Themselves and say Yes we confirmed that worked or no that Didn’t work right and it’s like When this is peer reviewed and published Usually in Big new big uh like the in nature or the Landsat or things like that Essentially that’s when it becomes Accepted by the scientific community And then people essentially start to Replicate the findings of this like of The treatment etc Uh in seo that doesn’t really happen People just publish something and then People kind of like scroll through it Quickly but nobody really spends the Time to recreate the experiment or we
Check the data that has been shared etc And so it’s very easy to either be wrong Not trying to deceive anyone but just Make a mistake i’m sure If you check out data studies for Example i’m sure if you really dig into Them you would find one or two mistakes Easily Even if we didn’t intend to do anything Bad or it’s easy to just twist the facts And just Essentially push your agenda here um so You need to be a little bit careful On that and yeah seo research is is Usually poor quality And you need to take it with a massive Grain of salt when you Read it anytime someone says oh our Tests reveal this Like oh god you know just be very Careful Often they’re not actually testing Anything at all or often they’re it’s Like oh i’ll just look through like Six of my analytics properties and like See if i can Come up with something in 10 minutes or Or whatever so Be careful that and the other thing uh Last thing i want to say about this is Uh some of the data you see in ahrefs is Not always that that accurate Specifically around site traffic now Obviously if you have a site going from
Um 1.9 million visitors to 33 000 Visitors as we’ll talk about in just a Second Um then it’s pretty safe to assume that They’ve been they’ve been hit pretty Pretty badly but often you can see you Know fluctuations of 50 Something like that and it’s actually The site hasn’t hasn’t changed at all It’s just Um the way ahrefs calculate it is is not Yeah the the actual number you know Sometimes ahrefs updates but google Doesn’t you know and so you’ll see Fluctuations they try to kind of like Normalize it so they did that in the Past where there was like big drops and Then they kind of like renormalized it In the past so that it doesn’t look like There’s a big drop but you’ve got to Also be careful that the tools you use Might be updated And so they might show different data Because data source is also It’s a big challenge for these tools Especially like traffic data Um so you need to be a bit careful of That because you you essentially You’re like in a uneven field and then You have like another uneven field on Top which is your tool and then it’s Like At the average of the average of the Average and it just becomes quite
Distant from reality very often i mean Yeah authority hacker traffic for Example if you check on ahrefs we have Like four or five times more traffic Than what ahrefs will show for example And the curve also is not really Accurate like um It’s like we’ve been doing quite well in The last year it shows it’s flat Uh for us for example and uh and several Of our sites are kind of similar so Yeah i think uh i think it’s not the Most accurate thing that you can look at And again what i just did is i took Anecdotal evidence from one side To draw a conclusion that’s what you Need to be careful of by the way so like I’m just highlighting what i just did And don’t make generalities from my one Case study That’s that’s what people do and that’s What we try to warn you against Basically One thing i want to add to this is that It’s actually a Quote from plato so with the stack i’m Going from shitty analogies to quotes From plato because these people are much Smarter than me or used to be much Smarter than me Um it’s an interesting one it’s kind of Like a philosophy point right it’s like Uh it’s like one of his students said That uh he’s the wisest person he ever
Knows and plato said I know that i know nothing and that Sounds very deep But basically what is interesting is That as people get Wiser they accept the fact that there is Things they don’t know and can’t Understand And i think that’s an important thing It’s like as humans we try to fill the Gap With the narrative of something we don’t Understand right when we don’t Understand something We try to give it to give it meaning to Look for a pattern to look for something That just tells us What happened how it happened etc my Personal belief is that that’s where Religion came from we didn’t Understand death we wanted to explain it And so we You know came up with a narrative that Would explain that um That’s a personal belief everyone can Believe what they want um And it feels the same but like you know What i mean it feels the same Territory there you go that’s why i say It’s my personal belief etc i put a lot Of disclaimers around this Um but it’s kind of the same with google Updates what’s happening is Something is happening we see movement
But we can’t explain it we don’t know What’s happening and so we are looking For a rational explanation as fast as Possible So that we can fill that gap in our mind And we can understand what’s happening And that’s when They’re targeting affiliate sites it’s Guest posting links Etc type of reasons kind of come up it’s Kind of like our Mechanism in our brain to fill the gap And build a narrative Around what’s happening and so if you go Back to that quote from plato which is i Know that i know nothing And i think a lot of big issues that I’ve talked to will kind of like take That approach as well which is We don’t really know what these updates Are and not many people know exactly What these updates are and they might All be different ones Different things as well and we can’t Tell if it’s just the same one that’s Being Kind of like updated or if it’s just new Things that they are introducing with These core updates Um but i will i wanted to incite people To fight the urge to fill the gap And to absolutely give a meaning to Every update that’s coming up Because that’s usually how you come up
With superstitions and you invent Reasons for that and i actually Have a link from darren brown that i’m Going to be sharing in the cards here It’s a really old video But it’s a social experiment on how Superstition is built basically And i’m just going to give a two second Pitch on this it’s nothing to do with Seo But he basically locked people in a room And there was a counter on top That count and the goal for people was To get 100 points right so it starts at Zero and the goal is to get 100 points And there was many things you know there Was like a a a slot machine in there There was some balloons there was some Like games etc And so people are like oh what do we do In this room to increase the points etc And they start playing with everything And randomly some points start appearing Right and it’s like oh look i touched This balloon and my points went up the Points went up or like i did the slot Machine and it went up etc And actually what’s happening is in the Room next door they put A fish tank with a goldfish and a line In the middle of the tank And every time the goldfish crosses the Line they increase the points by one Point right so it’s completely
Unrelated to what the candidates are Doing completely Nothing to do with that and you see People building all these beliefs of What the things they did Do to increase the score points when it Has nothing to do with it and you see People do crazy stuff to increase the Point score By the end of it because they’re like oh That work that work look three times i Did it and three points increased on the Thing And i believe that’s a really good Explanation to what’s happening with Google updates Which is you know we might be looking at The completely Dif like at the completely wrong thing And because You know something happens when we do Something we establish causality when There might be zero causality And so i think it’s quite important to Accept that and go back to this Accepting that you don’t know and and And kind of like And that’s why essentially i don’t Disagree with what murray haynes does For her clients which is Follow seo best principles pruning the Content removing the sheet pages Updating your about page doing all these Things completely agree with what she’s
Doing i think this makes sense And that’s probably the best approach to To deal with these updates Um but you need to refrain from thinking That you know because you’ve observed One event that linked to the update or To recoveries or things like this Basically On the degree on the Scale how how where would you put this Uh Explanation mark oh i agree completely Oh wow i i’m uh very proud of myself Like I managed to quote to code different Sources and you agree with me Uh anyway let’s jump into size that got Hit so we’re gonna look at a few sites And and we’re gonna do what we told People not to do really which is like Um try to look at what’s what was wrong With this site and try to say Why they might have gotten hit and i Think You’re gonna do the analysis on the First one and then I’m going to try to to go against it Let’s just do that and then i’ll do the Second one and then you do the same Right Sure so these were these were not sized We just picked randomly these were the Ones which Other people had suggested hey look at
This what happened here On our in our facebook groups um so There’s already uh an element of Selection bias and And stuff here but the first one is Gearhungry.com Um it’s a rel or was a relatively big Site uh In august 2019 at 1.9 million monthly Visitors according to ahrefs november Last year it had 666k so it was already kind of declining A little bit But then from at the start of november The start of december 2021 uh 2020 it went from six to six to 33k So it lost 95 of its traffic Um that sucks um according to ahrefs Which is not A nice situation for the the owner of That site obviously Um now people were saying oh it’s a good Site why did this get hit And a lot of people were throwing around Things like oh you know it’s too much Affiliate content google’s going after Affiliate affiliate sites it’s the ratio Of affiliate content to To info content i saw some person was One person like actually planning on Writing a bunch of info content just to Balance out his Affiliate content that’s i really don’t
Think that that’s what’s what’s Happening here Um a big thing you notice about gear Hungry is it’s Super broad like i don’t even think they Have a niche Like it’s just they cover everything so They they review shoes Bubble bath guitars sunglasses Speakers home gym outdoor equipment Camping knives electronics all this Stuff And it’s it’s super broad first of all Second my problem with it is that the Content is just not good It’s the and i’m not saying it’s Really bad or it’s illegible like it’s Written by native english speakers they Have decent templates they follow a Nice outline it looks good on when when You’re not reading it Like the design the layouts is good But it’s the equivalent of a sports team Like showing up and playing the game and Thinking oh we just need to show up to Win Like and but not trying to win like They’re not they’re not doing the things That you need to do with your content They’re not really explaining okay We’re we’re talking about uh the best Hiking shoes why are these the best Hiking shoes Like let’s get into it they’re they’re
Re repurposing regurgitating The basic information which is on the Amazon Um sales page amazon product page and They’re maybe making like One or two comments about it which is Super generic And if i actually like if someone put a Gun to my head i’m like oh you have to You have to find the best hiking shoe I would not feel comfortable that i had The correct answer From reading this that from reading Reading their content So even things like um their their Introductions Um they’re they’re just a little bit Weak as well like they describe what the Product is In their introductions yeah it’s a good Choice it’s just So when we say it’s like so i i’m Careful because on a scale like it’s Still better than most most Content out there but it’s not as good As the stuff that’s ranking now on on Page one Maybe they’re i’m actually checking one Right now and uh I would disagree so i’m checking best Tactical backpack Uh i’ll send you the url so you can Actually check it out And i’m googling best tactical backpack
And uh honestly i don’t think it’s much Better what’s ranking number one right Now So it’s like there’s this site called Mwr.com which is a Basically a generate press site uh That looks terrible and ranks number one Right now Um but yeah and they seem to also be a Generic site actually Yeah so no it’s more like uh Outdoor and accessories i guess so Again their content is i wouldn’t Describe it as like world beating or Anything but It’s not like with google your content Has to be above a certain threshold like There’s only 10 10 spots so if everyone else is you Just need to be slightly less And of course then there’s there’s an Element of how much is your your overall Dr your overall site authority um taking You forward and it’s quite hard to Analyze because you’re hungry was quite High Dr site itself some of the other Examples we’ll talk about there’s a Lower Low dr site and there’s New low dr sites ranking on page one and You can clearly see a big Big difference there yeah i mean the Thing is like they are
A very generic site right they do Everything um And for a site that does everything Literally basically Doesn’t have a new shadow than reviewing Stuff the niche is reviews you know Um dr 70 is no idea Um because you know when you are in that Category of like Very broad sized that um will write Reviews about anything Then you are competing against new york Time that has why your qatar now You are competing against forbes you are Competing and so I don’t say that the content from the New york times no the comment from Haircut is better um but the content From forbes like roundup reviews from Forbes Please it’s a bit you know it’s Like they’re just ranking because They are 90 plus right but essentially Uh they are beat at that right it’s like There is a lot of like essentially Really big newspapers now that do Exactly the same thing With much much much better link metrics Um and so like You know in that case it’s like this There’s no content advantage And you are losing on the link metrics By quite a lot actually so Um you’re just not the top dog in that
Category if you were like Specialized so i was checking like Tactical backpacks right so if you are Specialized in like military equipment Then your niche focus would probably Make up for the fact that you have lower Um That you have lower authority and so you Would probably have a much stronger Chance of ranking for these terms So that’s kind of like that’s kind of What i’m observing is that it’s You know it’s like google is kind of Mixing in a lot of these roundup Review keywords um new specialized sites With very very broad sites like forbes For example you know we have that sports Site And when i google up the keywords Essentially like yeah you see forbes or You see like You know sites that should not be here Let’s be honest for a second they’re Just like Writing this for the seo mixed with Sites that are specialized in the sport That we’re writing about And so maybe you’re competing for only Two or three spots In the surf when you’re like a Generalist site writing a review about This term And uh and then if you are then you’re Competing against actually usually
Bigger players Like the 90 plus of these world that are Doing this so i would say And that’s why i would tend to see Um these kind of like big sites Drop because because you know all the Pages drop because essentially they’re Like Google may be recategorizing like it’s Up in like okay here’s the spots for General inside his response for Especially sites etc Then you’re competing against it by the Way again this is speculation Like we need some kind of expectation Line here This doesn’t mean it’s true this means It’s just what i’m looking at and what I’m observing As an individual that cannot possibly Gather enough data Through this podcast to give you the Absolute truth Um so be a little bit careful don’t Quote like don’t quote what i said as The absolute truth but rather as like Something that i’m observing right Um what i’m observing as well is that These sites they drop off a cliff when They drop the traffic right it’s like The whole site gets hit Um so it’s not like i don’t think you Can blame it on like a single page or Something like that but rather like a
Majority of the content on the site has Some kind of issue when you drop from Like you’re hungry went On november 28th of november 2020 they Had 626 000 91 traffic on ahrefs and on the 8th of January 2021 They had like 46 000 or something so It’s a it’s a it’s a site-wide drop so Yeah it’s like i’m wondering if this Doesn’t just flag the site Like you know the first versions of Panda and penguin they were just like You know you’d have like a half of your Site would be and Just like the whole site they’re like Okay we dropped the whole site and i These definitely seem to be site-wide Things and that’s how you need Weight fixes as well and usually fixing That one page or something Doesn’t do it um yeah it is an interest When you’re hungry but It’s it’s typical content farm i agree Like They just describe what they they Describe they tell stuff that people who Google these keywords already know right So like you know your google best Tactical backpack it’s like The first q a thing is what is a Tactical backpack It’s like thank you it’s like if i’m Googling this i obviously
Know what it is i’m already looking to Buy one and to get one Uh who makes the best one how to use a Tactical bag i mean Seriously like if again you’re not Looking for this In a buyer gap but rather you know you Would maybe talk about the materials Used right it’s like Maybe this type of material is better if You’re going to be going into a wet Environment but this one is going to be Better If you’re going into a cold environment And things like that these would be Interesting questions to ask It’s the same as like you know this um Alpha investor site that they made for Us then I you know i made a video on like how to Update the content et cetera and we Really got on page one actually like We got like top five i think for best Flashing toilet or something so Decent keyword yeah um from number 40 or Something Revamping the content doing zero link Building And and one of the things we fix is These stupid questions on the page Actually Um one of the questions that was on the Page was Uh how to flush a toilet
And i was like do we really need to go This Low on this piece of content and so we Went more for like okay what are the Types of flush you know like like How does it work and like which ones are The best pressure Like things like that uh how to pick the Best type of flush for your water Pressure things like this like things That are like something interesting All of these all of these things are What we mean as well they come under the Banner of of search intent like think of The person who’s googling this keyword What do they know already what do they Want to find out from you They know if they’re googling um about a Backpack they don’t need to find out Like how to put on a backpack or what a Backpack Is they already know that they want to Know the specifics about like What makes this backpack better than the Other or what kind of one is good for What Situation and that’s that’s where you Should focus your content and you can Ignore the Yeah the useless stuff yeah you need to Go past all these stupid questions it’s Not because you see them In because what people what happens is People see these questions
In google suggestions you know um so They just put like tactical backpack and Then it Either like uh they use a tool or Something or like the It’s in a traps as well it gives you These questions these stupid questions Like what is the tactical backpack etc And so they put it in there to help the Search intent i think this is kind of like i think this is where you need To apply A degree of uh critical sense in what You put in you pick in your articles And think about who is going to be Googling this it’s like someone who Googles who is a tactical What is a tactical backpack who is a Tactical backpack i don’t think many People google that um What is a tactical backpack it’s not the Same people who as people who Google her best tactical backpack it’s It’s it’s before that like you first the Search journey is your google what is The tactical backpack you read about it And you’re like Yep that’s what i need and then then You’re like okay i want to buy a Tactical backpack because from what i’ve Read I need this and you google best tactical Backpack but it’s kind of like one step Down in the funnel of buying and so
It probably should be two different Pages um so you need to apply that level Of critical sense there’s no tool that Does it for you which is why people Mess it up uh and fixing that on that Page For that case study of like a sample Size of one so again Take everything with a grain of salt but You can go check that video on reviving Old content and Actually if you put that page i didn’t Check recently but it was on page one Like uh after we closed the case study So that was pretty good Um okay i’m gonna take the next site Which is going to be petlifetoday.com So that is a site that pretty much does Everything pets but very very heavy Focus on Cats and dogs in their content so it’s Yeah it’s it’s quite focused And they also dropped a lot of traffic So they went from 570 000 uh traffic to 10 000 traffic According to a traffic again Take this with a grain of salt but that Hurts you know That was a big drop um and so it’s funny Because i Opened the website first when it was in The list and i was like oh this is not An affiliate site there is Um a lot of like you open the homepage
Today and there’s a lot of like info Content it was like you know what to do If your cat loses its hair and stuff Like that Um and i was like okay that’s great it’s Not an affiliate site and it dropped It’s going to like make our point right Except what i did as well is i took the Url and i put it in Archive.org and i looked at where it Looked like before they lost their Traffic right And then back then the homepage was full Of uh affiliate reviews only Everywhere it’s like you know like best Water dispenser for dog and Things like that basically it was Everywhere and it was everywhere on the Sidebar Of every article as well right so they Were trying to use the sidebar to Essentially Juice all their review articles uh so it Was very very heavy on that They did already implement quite a bit Of e80 On e80 signals let’s say on their site Um so they had uh autobots and kind of Like on the top of the article that like They had vets writing this and it was Written it was like doctor or something Et cetera and The autobio box would actually mention If the the writer was a vet or something
And then the about page at the time Already had a lot of eat They had kind of like the list of all The vet star work with them They had like a board of advisor and Like all of that like it was very very Well detailed to be honest they were Following a lot of the Essentially the recommendations that a Lot of people make to avoid Being hit by these updates at the time Which was very interesting to me Because um you know it’s like i I never really bought into this too much To be frank and so it’s interesting to Me that they had this before and it got Hit anyway Um and so following that what they’ve Done is they actually Changed the home page so now when you go On the homepage it’s not roundup Previews it’s going to be info content Pretty much exclusively And the review content is only deep Linked inside the site it’s kind of like Pushback It’s not unpublished though it’s like Every roundup review i’ve tried to open Was still here just not linked to from The homepage They also tried to increase the eat Stuff by changing their sidebar from Links to their roundup reviews To links to kind of like showcase
Vets that profiles that right for the Site um Like they try to essentially increase These eat signals right so Obviously what they’re trying to do post Update which is interesting is like If you want to learn it’s really Interesting to see what people what People look like before and after an Update And after that obviously it’s going to Be interesting to see if that site Recovers or not that’s how you learn About these updates right So far it hasn’t it seems um and so What i did i couldn’t really find Anything else So what i did is i took um i took a Random preview I think it was dog best dog hardness to Stop pooling Um and then i they had that page that Stopped ranking and i looked at the top Ranking sites as well i was like okay What is google showing On top right and it’s kind of funny Because if you google it There is zero eat i think rover.com for Example is one of the sites that ranks Number one or two for that keyword There’s zero eat like you go to the auto Bio of the rover.com Author of the article that ranks um it Literally says freelance writer etc
She has zero credential the girl who Wrote it and they have no shame in Putting that on the side and they’re Ranking number two or something Um they The content is like not really much Better than what they had On this uh pet life today site So what i did is then i put the url Of pet life today in surfer so i would Look at kind of like what is the Difference between them and the top Ranking pages And the only uh two things that i found Is one there were zero exact keywords In the body of the article like they did Not have the exact keyword And two they were quote-unquote Over-optimized for Dog harness which appeared 30 times in The content when the recommended range Was 7 to 13. Um i don’t think but like i think it’s An interesting one because Then the question is well if they do These things is it gonna is it gonna fix Their rankings I don’t believe it will because it looks Like these updates are site-wide like it Don’t go from Uh five hundred and seventy thousand This to 10 000 and you fix that one page And you go back up there’s definitely a Sideways issue happening here
But i believe that uh from my experience They should have more exact cures in the Body that might help actually Um so it’s i can’t tell you what Happened Um but i can tell you that The size that rank that they’re not even Focusing on Nearly as hard on the e80 stuff which Was a very interesting thing for me And i think it’s a good case study on Like like are we over Overthinking this are we over doing this You know um because the guess that rank On top literally have no shame to say It’s just a random freelance writer Who wrote this i i would also say just Just because Someone is a vet or as a Qualified background and whatever the Niche nisha does It doesn’t mean that their content’s Good like they have the authority but They can also Also write bad content or just not be a Good writer i’m not saying pet life’s Um pet life today’s content is is bad Per se it looks Good enough like i wouldn’t say oh this Is outstanding Um i’m definitely have seen pet sites Do do better um but it’s it’s not that Bad like Do you think they deserve to be hit
I mean compared to its ranking now no I don’t think so um i mean again yeah i Don’t think it’s the absolute best Like you know i buy a lot of dog Products i have a dog etc Um would i find their content useful Meh um is it worse than everything i Find already No it’s like kind of A couple steps up definitely from what Was the deal On gearhungry uh yeah there is Again you can see how they’ve Constructed their content In the way that they’re they’re Regurgitating What’s on the the product page for a lot Of their Their commercial costs yeah that’s what The top ranking do as well you know I know and i’m not saying you could Often have a case where A site gets penalized and others don’t But others probably should have As well if if you want to be equal but Just they didn’t get caught This time for for whatever reason Um but i’m just saying I just found something interesting That’s why i’m saying that um so at the End of a lot of the reviews it seems Like they have a lot Of exact match internal links to other Reviews so center url we can show it on
The On the podcast as well and you can see They have other reviews you might be Interested in The best dog food storage the best boss For pets the best bicycle trailers for The best vegetable there are your mimi Thai the best dog shoe is the best Do you see that yeah this is a bit uh This looks like a bit of stuffing to be Honest Uh to me so it’s like this is something Optimized anchors on internal links Basically Yeah you might you might be caught on This like this this could be Something that that hurts you would be So it’s like Yeah i i could i could see that i’m Gonna add this to the note so we can Show you guys As we talk about this but um yeah it’s So it’s like You know it’s not bad but you can see They’re like they’re thinking about seo Very hard And uh and they might have been Overzealous on some practices like Internal linking is good But i tend to prefer contextual internal Linking for example you know Um so yeah there’s some stuff where i’d Be like ah you might want to turn this Down especially given your current
Situation you know All right so this is getting quite long So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna Stop analyzing sites here But what we’re gonna do is actually this Friday we are going to be doing a live Stream with mark So it’s going to be on youtube only so You need to go on youtube it will be Scheduled at the time when this podcast Is Is here so you can just go and set Notification on our youtube channel And we will just be analyzing more Penalized sites so And you guys can ask us your questions As we do this and we can have kind of Like deeper discussions etc It should be interesting so let’s do That and uh kind of like jump on the Section that you prepared mark which is What should people do if they got hit Control your emotions first of all uh It’s a very Uh difficult thing to handle if you’ve Been working building a business and Then you lose 95 Of your traffic overnight you can kind Of feel Um emotional about it and and Make all sorts of rash decisions i’ve Seen people stop working I give up completely in these these Situations but
The reality is whatever business line of Business you’re in there will always be Serious threats existential threats uh Big industry shifts that come along and How you handle it and how you deal with Those will ultimately define Your success as a as a business owner This is especially true with updates you Have to be analytical you have to wait Kind of until the dust settles that’s Quite important because As we’ve seen there may be updates that Are rolled back or updates can actually Take A couple weeks to fully roll out and you Can see actually what’s What’s happened where where everything Lies so resist the urge to jump in and And start changing things uh immediately Uh my approach would be to analyze the Sites that won Rather than focusing too much on the Sites that the lost because the the Sites that won the sites that are there In the top 10 Now are the sites that are they’re doing Something right But there are billions of sites which Are doing which are not there Which are doing things wrong so it’s Better to focus on the Positive rather than the negative and Look really look at what they do That you don’t often as we we said
Earlier A update like this it can be uh Um prompt to actually do a bunch of the Stuff that you should have really been Doing Earlier i mean when was the last time You did a content audit on your site When was the last time you looked at Old content that you wrote three four Years ago has the Search intent for some of those queries Changed have your competitors just Started doing Better content than than you have I would be looking at these things very Very closely and ensuring that you’re You are serving the correct user intent And do a full Content audit to see where you stand Whether you want to delete this post Because it’s It’s not ranking it never has been Whether you want to improve it’s worth Worth fixing whether you want to rewrite From scratch Because things have changed the Landscape has changed so much Look at really look at your the quality Of your content and it can be Very difficult to do this if you’re Focused on your own site often getting Someone else In a friend and a site owner just to say Hey what do you actually think of this
And avoid any kind of person that says Oh it’s really good like you want Someone who’s going to give you that Brutally honest feedback and actually This is what’s not so good and And stuff and and i would i would get Someone like maybe i should sell a Consulting service doing that i’m pretty Good at it Yeah or or you could just come to our Live stream on friday where we’ll uh Yeah come on actually yeah we’ll take Some people’s sites if they want to Submit them forward and we’ll give you Some brutally honest feedback As well should be fun i would recommend People do that once a year by the way Don’t wait to be penalized Yeah i think that’s the correct way of Doing this like If you don’t be penalized do this one so Yeah and then um And and do as if you just got penalized Once a year and it’s going to Hopefully prevent it you know so audit Your content Audit your link profile as well i i mean Often you’ll get a [Music] Notice through webmaster tools search Console um If you if you’re doing anything you know Unnatural link penalties And stuff in which case you can really
Zero in on it but it’s just Good practice you know to actually like Prune anything which shouldn’t be there Or Um if there’s been any kind of like spam Seo stuff coming in lately that That can be a signal um that you might Want to want to take care of and Technical seo audits Internal linking site structure all Again all the usual stuff which you Should be doing anyway but Which the reality is we’re guilty of This ourselves for some of our sites we Don’t do it As often as we we should do so we need An event we do a bit of a better job now We have someone actually taking care of This full-time yeah but um We still we’re still we can do better i Agree Uh but the most important thing is not To stop working Um not to stop doing things which you Should be doing to grow your site I saw a really good example of a guy who Messaged me Like couldn’t understand why his site Got hit Wasn’t even that big of a hit but lost Some traffic And just stopped working stop making Content stop uh building links About eight or nine months after that
The site came back from a from another Update he didn’t really Change much but he spent that entire Time trying to figure out what was wrong Uh and then he lost out on all that that Time he could have been Spending growing his site and or doing The work that would later Result in in the growth he had like Analysis paralysis Kind of thing yeah i mean It’s like the thing is like you say that But we stopped working on health’s Ambition so it’s like People will probably call us out on that So let me just call us out on that but Just to be I mean would you say to to address that We stopped working on it Three months before the medic update When it got hit yeah so it wasn’t Because of that update We made a decision hey this is this is Not worth working on this site like so It’s not on the level of what we can do Anymore yeah and yeah Net present value of working on that was Not as high as All of our other projects yeah i agree I i wanted to say that because otherwise It’s too easy of a Call out you know and people will call It sound so i’m doing it I’m doing it for them i’m sure i’m going
To get a lot of thank you in the Comments as usual Um all right any final rules of wisdom On this for the people even though you Just gave them a bunch Uh no it’s just again what we said at The start Don’t listen to people on facebook Groups who have the answer because they They don’t i mean this is uh we’ve been Talking for over an hour here and we Didn’t have enough time to go through it So we’ll do an extra live stream on Friday Because there’s just so much nuance and So much detail to it that You kind of just need to understand the Framework of how these things work Rather than looking for that the answer Like oh this is why your site’s Got penalized so just fix this one thing Just change the settings fix this one Thing and it’ll be back to normal Business will continue yeah as it was Before it doesn’t work like that Yeah you’re looking for the silver Bullet i also wanted to highlight that It’s like it may seem kind of unfair And like if it may seems like oh seo is because it works that way google Can make an update and kill all your Traffic These things happen for pretty much Every online business model right on
Facebook I mean i know i know it for a fact you Can get banned for no reason And uh and you can never be allowed to Advertise again On youtube that happens as well you get Youtubers get demonetized all the time For whatever reason stop making money Completely On fba it happens as well like amazon Has been banning people Because they had too many negative Reviews or they got negative review Bombed or something Or amazon’s like building similar Products that Uh for cheaper based on what they see Someone else selling and they just come Away and take away exactly Exactly and then on the app stores is The same as well if apple doesn’t like The way you handle people’s data or Something like this they will ban you They will not make you rank They are going to take also 30 of all The money you make because apple that’s How they make a lot of their money you Know Um and so the and the play store it Works the same as well and so on if you Do chrome extensions it works the same Um there’s a lot of reasons and also Payment providers right if you Have a checkout on your site usually you
Use something like stripe or paypal etc And even though you own the product they Have leverage on you and they can make Your life hell Even though there is often alternatives We’re all dependent on the big platforms That make the internet and This it’s kind of like the same thing as Like the way people say oh all affiliate Sites Get affected by these updates people Will tend to say oh seo is Really really difficult compared to the Rest because look google can take away All your traffic if you kind of zoom Out and look at the curvature of the Earth you will see that Um you will see that essentially It happens in every business model and Now all the major platforms tend to have This kind of rules that can destroy Your business and make it very difficult So it’s not just an seo thing And if you’re hoping to bounce somewhere Else where this kind of stuff will not Happen it’s unlikely it will be the case You will just Find yourself in the same situation Somewhere else on another platform In the future so the only solution is to Figure it out and blow through So i’m going to be closing this podcast On this you can join the live stream We’re doing on friday so go on the
Youtube channel it should be scheduled Already so you can go ahead And just register and then it will Youtube will tell you when we go live And if you are a subscriber You will also be notified so make sure You subscribe like the podcast if you Want us to talk more about updates and Use well the topic And click on the notification bell so You don’t miss any video and if you have Any question Drop it in the comments as well and we Will actually go through that at the Beginning of the stream on friday is Going to be An easy way to stop the stream lighting So maybe maybe some people as well can If they have specific sites that they Want us to look at you can Put those in the in the comments and we Can’t promise to go through them all but Some of them we we may actually go Through on the live stream as well Yeah we’re gonna start with the comment Section of this podcast so it’s going to Be easy and you guys have a week to Essentially drop Them so see you on friday if you are Coming on the stream otherwise see you Next week and Have a good week bye and kind of Freaking out like hey do i really want To get into this
This business do i want to um is it Worth Living in a world where this can happen Seemingly at random to anyone overnight Of course it’s not Random it’s not it’s not just the Luck whether this happens to you or not There’s things you