My site is 1.5 years old, with only 70 posts, and I was ready to throw the towel in. But after watching your video, it has inspired me to keep going. Keep up the excellent work, Carl. You're helping out people every day.
This was a really useful video and great to know I'm not the only one seeing similar results. In five years of running niche sites, this is by far the most bizarre update I've ever seen from Google. Everyone who's getting hit are the people who have followed the guidelines to the letter and played by the rules, only to be outranked by completely unvalidated and quite frankly unhelpful forum content. Google have lost the plot
Google is concerned about competition in the AI industry and is working hastily to stay ahead, sometimes making decisions that may not be the best ones.
@@yatenderrawat2703 It feels very back-handed - one one hand they now say AI content is OK, but are not replacing answers with poor-quality forum content that's completely unhelpful and 5+ years old with absolutely no E-E-A-T to see my try and avoid AI blog posts. This has also caused genuine bloggers with significant experience and well-written content to have their businesses destroyed completely unfairly
What do you mean by "needed action"? Especially when the website that I cared about most and tried to create the most high-quality content was hit (30-50%), the less quality one like 20%, and my AI-generated content got +150% up. Their decisions are irrational so you can't make rational ones to combat it. How in the world a company that has employed thousands of engineers for 25 years can say "We were absolutely wrong with our algorithm previously, but now we are right". If they were doing things rationally, the changes would be slight. These morons hit me hard twice in two months.
ปีที่แล้ว +4
Oh My goodness. The uncertainties and the ups-and-downs are stressing me out
Well said, Carl 👏 My main site dropped significantly too, but I also believe that some of that is seasonal, so I am not overly worried and I will continue to build content ready for the start of the next season. Luckily for me, I already have a diverse range of income streams so that I do not rely on only one of them. Thanks for the insightful and informative video.
Thanks for this. I got his hardest by this than any other time in my 4 years owning my site. It's kinda given me a kick up the arse as I was coaxing along on a small amount of articles when there's definitely more I can publish and I do no social media at all. I'm pretty clueless about reddit though.
@@CarlBroadbent You know I actually meant to write pinterest! No idea why I wrote Reddit in that comment! 😅 Can you please send me the link to the video where you talk about refreshing content? I think that's a priority for me first.
the Google game has been like this from the beginning... they will always pull the rug out from under you and make it harder. it's a never ending game.
@@CarlBroadbentBut why is it that after all these years (25), the changes should be smaller and smaller. Now, it's the hardest one since I remember (12 years).
Fantastic video and I second that on not looking at analytics. Coincidentally I woke up this morning and the first thing I though of was: I’m not going to look at it. I have content to edit, briefs to assign, and coffee to drink. I wish everyone the best.
Now my original content blog is on second page of Google search and all the blogs that copy my contents and pictures are on first page at first second and third position where my website was before. Carl please advice me what can I do ?
i first noticed a 25% drop during the August Core Update but then i've got all my traffic back and a slight boost in the current September Helpful Content Update. AI-assisted articles.
Congrats on the growth! I also run a site with Ai content that saw some gains this update. The traffic first grew around 20-30% & then boosted upto 160% a day into the update, but now has again normalized/dropped back to 20% growth this month overall. Can you give a bit more insight into what you mean by 'Ai assisted' articles? Thanks!
@@LifeIsATest4TheHereafter really appreciate the response bro. I don't really edit the articles much but I do give chat gpt a highly specific prompt including a headings outline. I do proof read for factual errors though which are quite uncommon in my niche as GPT 3.5 has ample of updated content on the subject matter. I've seen some growth overall but 10-20% decline in impressions over the past two days. I'll need a week or two to draw any conclusions though. Wish you luck 🤞
Sorry to hear this. For sure you'll recover, the question is when. Big drops and recovery can even happen during an update. I know how it feels. If only we knew why, but I also have examples of high ranking sites that really add very little value. Trying to make sense of that is hard.
I also saw my best pages have been replaced by reddit... So I hope that any one looking for specific answer will ultimately come to blogs satisfying the query, rather than getting a mix of opinion by going to forums.
I think however that Google rephrased their writing about a human written approach in a text during this rollout; something that could be interpreted that they don't care how the content is produced.
Thanks for the advice having just looked at my analytics which have fallen off the same cliff. So I won’t be looking again until I’m brave enough to. Ps don’t forget the tourism season is drawing to a close so it could be part of the reason unless your website is global 😢
This update really gave me a hard time. I lost like 25% of my traffic. Many articles lost their rankings. But only like 1 or 2 positions mostly. My Affiliate earnings dropped by 50%. 😢 I hope It bounces back....
The higher the quality of my site the bigger drop I have. Disabling my 14-year-old Adsense account (based on made-up accusations) 2 months ago wasn't enough for them. BTW, the new website with AI-generated content skyrocketed. They have something done to their heads.
I saw a 70% increase in traffic from the August core update up to around 2k UV/day, it also gave me loads of snippets. Then this September "helpful" content update took it all back. Very frustrating. Like you said though, it seems to be lots of low quality user generated content that is getting pushed up, including forums in my niche. Most of these dont even fully address the users search querie. I have articles that I have written from personal experience, including detailed tutorials with video that I produced. These are live action videos of me performing a highly skilled task that would be very difficult for someone to recreate without a lot of knowledge, time, and recources and Im being outranked by a forum with a handful of useless replies. Mind bottling
Yeah, they disabled my 14-year-old AdSense two months ago (a Google representative tried for almost 2 months to figure out why and didn't find the answer). My best sites (now they are earning nothing because of the ban, went down almost 50%) and AI-generated content went up by 150%. I guess AI is helpful then.
@@inlovewiththailand So you are saying that a company that has employed thousands of engineers for 25 years had it almost completely wrong, but this time it's fine? Shouldn't there be like slight changes after all these years, instead of an Earthquake?
@@vesogry yes there should. I completely agree with you on that. But when you're building a website and completely rely on 1 company to sent you traffic, that's always a tricky thing. Same as when you only promote products from Amazon. If that 1 company decides to change something, it can hurt you big time. But also, my articles rank for keywords that are not that focused on the article, so I know that in time, those rankings are probably cut off.
Was doing some searching a couple days ago, not work related. It was awful. Had to skip past bard and the top results for multiple different queries until I found a decent result.
No as most sites following their guideline still got hit. Just sit Ito it and wait to see what the results are after the update. Then check the data and look at what got affected the most
About 40% down across 5 sites. Lost about 4000 clicks a day in a few days. I would prepare for the worst, I have only seen rollbacks on about 1/5 updates after innitial big changes
John Mueller thinks your website does not deserve to rank as per Google because your content is not helpful enough. It's much better to have the forums ranking.
But if your sites goes down when Google makes an update, someone else is going up? And sometimes it's the oposite. Other sites go down and yours go up? Right?
I will thanks google I have written 1500 articles on a finance blog and all with AI tool giving me 3000 dollar of income after my traffic increased from 1200 per day to 3500 per day❤
My site is 1.5 years old, with only 70 posts, and I was ready to throw the towel in. But after watching your video, it has inspired me to keep going. Keep up the excellent work, Carl. You're helping out people every day.
Glad it helped. 1.5years on the grand scheme of websites is nothing at all. I wouldn’t give up yet it’s still a baby
This was a really useful video and great to know I'm not the only one seeing similar results.
In five years of running niche sites, this is by far the most bizarre update I've ever seen from Google. Everyone who's getting hit are the people who have followed the guidelines to the letter and played by the rules, only to be outranked by completely unvalidated and quite frankly unhelpful forum content. Google have lost the plot
Yes their engineers must be on drugs 😂
Google is concerned about competition in the AI industry and is working hastily to stay ahead, sometimes making decisions that may not be the best ones.
@@yatenderrawat2703 It feels very back-handed - one one hand they now say AI content is OK, but are not replacing answers with poor-quality forum content that's completely unhelpful and 5+ years old with absolutely no E-E-A-T to see my try and avoid AI blog posts.
This has also caused genuine bloggers with significant experience and well-written content to have their businesses destroyed completely unfairly
My opinion on google algos: always wait for the algorithm to finish roll-out. After that, analyze and take needed action. Great video Carl!
100% correct
What do you mean by "needed action"? Especially when the website that I cared about most and tried to create the most high-quality content was hit (30-50%), the less quality one like 20%, and my AI-generated content got +150% up.
Their decisions are irrational so you can't make rational ones to combat it. How in the world a company that has employed thousands of engineers for 25 years can say "We were absolutely wrong with our algorithm previously, but now we are right". If they were doing things rationally, the changes would be slight.
These morons hit me hard twice in two months.
Oh My goodness. The uncertainties and the ups-and-downs are stressing me out
Me 2
Well said, Carl 👏 My main site dropped significantly too, but I also believe that some of that is seasonal, so I am not overly worried and I will continue to build content ready for the start of the next season. Luckily for me, I already have a diverse range of income streams so that I do not rely on only one of them. Thanks for the insightful and informative video.
You're welcome
Thanks for this. I got his hardest by this than any other time in my 4 years owning my site. It's kinda given me a kick up the arse as I was coaxing along on a small amount of articles when there's definitely more I can publish and I do no social media at all. I'm pretty clueless about reddit though.
I would stay away from
Reddit. Continue with what you’ve been doing and maybe look at Pinterest and videos
@@CarlBroadbent You know I actually meant to write pinterest! No idea why I wrote Reddit in that comment! 😅 Can you please send me the link to the video where you talk about refreshing content? I think that's a priority for me first.
the Google game has been like this from the beginning... they will always pull the rug out from under you and make it harder. it's a never ending game.
You are not wrong
@@CarlBroadbentBut why is it that after all these years (25), the changes should be smaller and smaller. Now, it's the hardest one since I remember (12 years).
@@vesogrymore and more websites to filter through
Fantastic video and I second that on not looking at analytics. Coincidentally I woke up this morning and the first thing I though of was: I’m not going to look at it. I have content to edit, briefs to assign, and coffee to drink.
I wish everyone the best.
Be strong. There’s no point causing yourself worry. You’re doing the right thing.
Same boat, rankings up but search impressions fell off by 12,000 a day. Now seeing drop in traffic...ugh....time to knuckle down and work harder.
Positive mentality I like it good luck
FYI: Pinterest has it's own algo updates and they are quite neurotic.
Very true. No where is safe. But often does not change as big as google. I’ve only ever seen 1 really big algo change on Pinterest
Now my original content blog is on second page of Google search and all the blogs that copy my contents and pictures are on first page at first second and third position where my website was before. Carl please advice me what can I do ?
3:00 - Why are you showing a bounce rate instead of visits or sessions?
That’s just a screenshot for b-roll to show sites can go up and down and recover. It’s not one of mine.
Thanks Carl! Really great video 👍
i first noticed a 25% drop during the August Core Update but then i've got all my traffic back and a slight boost in the current September Helpful Content Update. AI-assisted articles.
I’m so pleased for you. Well done
Congrats on the growth! I also run a site with Ai content that saw some gains this update. The traffic first grew around 20-30% & then boosted upto 160% a day into the update, but now has again normalized/dropped back to 20% growth this month overall. Can you give a bit more insight into what you mean by 'Ai assisted' articles? Thanks!
@@CarlBroadbentthanks for your kind words :)
@@LifeIsATest4TheHereafter really appreciate the response bro. I don't really edit the articles much but I do give chat gpt a highly specific prompt including a headings outline. I do proof read for factual errors though which are quite uncommon in my niche as GPT 3.5 has ample of updated content on the subject matter.
I've seen some growth overall but 10-20% decline in impressions over the past two days. I'll need a week or two to draw any conclusions though. Wish you luck 🤞
Sorry to hear this. For sure you'll recover, the question is when. Big drops and recovery can even happen during an update. I know how it feels. If only we knew why, but I also have examples of high ranking sites that really add very little value. Trying to make sense of that is hard.
It's easier to make sense of it a few weeks after the event
"For sure you'll recover" - How do you know that?
@@vesogry Because Carl seems to focus on all the right things, and no short term tricks. Recovery at some point makes sense he if perseveres.
@@peak196 You have no idea whether he recovers.
@@vesogry Great conversation! Thanks.
A true star - thanks for talking common sense.
Thank you
Yes...thanks for this video!@@CarlBroadbent
I also saw my best pages have been replaced by reddit... So I hope that any one looking for specific answer will ultimately come to blogs satisfying the query, rather than getting a mix of opinion by going to forums.
The Reddit results will drop off soon I’m sure of it
I think however that Google rephrased their writing about a human written approach in a text during this rollout; something that could be interpreted that they don't care how the content is produced.
you're 100% right.
Thanks for the advice having just looked at my analytics which have fallen off the same cliff. So I won’t be looking again until I’m brave enough to. Ps don’t forget the tourism season is drawing to a close so it could be part of the reason unless your website is global 😢
I did expect a small drop but this is horrific 50-60% now lost
Insightful advice!
Thanks. Much appreciated
My articles are ranking on Google, still I am noticing 40% traffic drop
Are they at the same positions
Same thing here. Impressions and positions. I’m thinking they are showing ai results.
Sound advice Carl, cheers! 👍😎
Thanks 👍
Thank for this I have 4 sites and all got hit too
Sorry to hear that
This update really gave me a hard time.
I lost like 25% of my traffic. Many articles lost their rankings. But only like 1 or 2 positions mostly. My Affiliate earnings dropped by 50%. 😢
I hope It bounces back....
Sorry to hear that
The higher the quality of my site the bigger drop I have. Disabling my 14-year-old Adsense account (based on made-up accusations) 2 months ago wasn't enough for them.
BTW, the new website with AI-generated content skyrocketed.
They have something done to their heads.
If a blog with original content has been hit can we do email to Google search team to look into that ?
No. They won’t reply if you can even get them to open the email. Message John mueller on twitter
I saw a 70% increase in traffic from the August core update up to around 2k UV/day, it also gave me loads of snippets. Then this September "helpful" content update took it all back. Very frustrating.
Like you said though, it seems to be lots of low quality user generated content that is getting pushed up, including forums in my niche. Most of these dont even fully address the users search querie. I have articles that I have written from personal experience, including detailed tutorials with video that I produced. These are live action videos of me performing a highly skilled task that would be very difficult for someone to recreate without a lot of knowledge, time, and recources and Im being outranked by a forum with a handful of useless replies. Mind bottling
Very frustrating hey
Yeah, they disabled my 14-year-old AdSense two months ago (a Google representative tried for almost 2 months to figure out why and didn't find the answer). My best sites (now they are earning nothing because of the ban, went down almost 50%) and AI-generated content went up by 150%. I guess AI is helpful then.
well that's the other side of it, right? People get way more than what they earn and a new update puts you back with both feet on the ground,
@@inlovewiththailand So you are saying that a company that has employed thousands of engineers for 25 years had it almost completely wrong, but this time it's fine?
Shouldn't there be like slight changes after all these years, instead of an Earthquake?
@@vesogry yes there should. I completely agree with you on that. But when you're building a website and completely rely on 1 company to sent you traffic, that's always a tricky thing. Same as when you only promote products from Amazon. If that 1 company decides to change something, it can hurt you big time.
But also, my articles rank for keywords that are not that focused on the article, so I know that in time, those rankings are probably cut off.
You said the best advice: don´t look at GA to maintain mental health.
I didn’t look at ga4 for two weeks it was great 😂 I had to look at gsc as many people said it’s an indexing issue caused by the HCU. It isn’t for me
Was doing some searching a couple days ago, not work related. It was awful. Had to skip past bard and the top results for multiple different queries until I found a decent result.
It’s not great for the user just yet that’s for sure
I was making $3,000 a month in ad revenue. Now I drop half of it 😮💨
Sorry to hear that. I hope it comes back soon. 🤞
Helpful
Glad to hear that
damn everyone got smashed by this update by the looks of it!
Sure did
my site that hasn't been affected by any updates got hit by this as well. this is a concern for me
Yeah I real concern for everyone affected. I’m sure it will reverse in a few days or next update
@@CarlBroadbent i hope so. seems like it is a really impactful one. higher than normal affect on site owners
@@BlogSprout yeah the serps look worse than I have ever seen it. If google is happy with that then god knows what we are all doing wrong.
Apparently, John Mueller is happy with that and thinks there will be no rollback.@@CarlBroadbent
I was smoked as well across 3 sites. Biggest drop in 3 years
Sorry to hear that
My site was also hit, any theories as to what has hit sites that appear to be following Google's guidelines?
No as most sites following their guideline still got hit. Just sit Ito it and wait to see what the results are after the update. Then check the data and look at what got affected the most
About 40% down across 5 sites. Lost about 4000 clicks a day
in a few days. I would prepare for the worst, I have only seen rollbacks on about 1/5 updates after innitial big changes
Yeah Roll backs are not guaranteed
Wonderful!
Lost 50% traffic on articles that are written by a group of vets and then reviewed by another group of even more experienced vets :) Google is nuts.
Jesus. What do you have to do to satisfy e.e.a.t anymore??
@@CarlBroadbent Sell your soul
@@realhercules for 2-3 million pageviews a month I might 😂
John Mueller thinks your website does not deserve to rank as per Google because your content is not helpful enough. It's much better to have the forums ranking.
@@krod16 😂😂 yeah. Forums meet all the e.e.a.t requirements lol
But if your sites goes down when Google makes an update, someone else is going up? And sometimes it's the oposite. Other sites go down and yours go up? Right?
Yea but you expect sites that answer the search query to go up right?
My sites always stay the same or go down. Oh sorry, my mistake, my AI-generated one went up by 150%.
5-10 year old sites, reddit, quora, old forums have gone up which does not make sense as the content is poor.
I will thanks google I have written 1500 articles on a finance blog and all with AI tool giving me 3000 dollar of income after my traffic increased from 1200 per day to 3500 per day❤
My Health niche fertility website traffic is going down 400/day since 12 sept
Sorry to hear that
12k to 5k click per day :-(
Jezs sorry pal
Got hit as well 😢
Oh no sorry to hear that
Carl, the site that dropped in traffic slowly, I'm assuming you put a lot of work into it to help it recover, but it didn't?
No. Only has one site so that but it never recovered.