Google updated their ranking rules in October. There are lots of complaints from site owners who have suddenly lost traffic.
Some comments I’ve read this past week:
A month has passed without me realizing it; my daily 6,000 clicks have turned into 200, and there has still been no improvement.
I have a website that used to get around 10,000 organic views per month and after the recent helpful content update, the rankings dropped and my website lost roughly 80% of the traffic.
Currently, I am working to improve the rankings on the website.
I also noticed that Google tends to rank AI generated content higher these days
What to do?
Check the user experience (UX). Be sure your site is easy to use. Check accessibility standards, the load time, and ease of navigation. Remember, Google uses the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking, so a responsive design is recommended.
Use Google Search Console. This is a popular tool for analyzing your web visits. See if Google is visiting your pages and if there are any problems with pages that are keeping them from being indexed.
Check Google’s official guidelines on creating content. They want pages that have trustworthy, useful information that is actually helpful and informative. If it looks like it’s just written for search engines, it isn’t considered authoritative.
Answering yes to these questions is a warning sign that you’re headed down the path to poor ranking:
- Is the content primarily made to attract visits from search engines?
- Are you producing lots of content on many different topics, hoping that some of it performs well in search results?
- Are you using extensive automation to produce content on many topics? (this means relying on AI to write your blogs)
- Are you just summarizing what others have to say without adding any value?
- Are you writing about things simply because they seem trending and not because you’d write about them otherwise for your existing audience? (Stick to your niche)
- Does your content leave readers feeling like they need to search again to get better information from other sources? (Notice how often your searches lead you nowhere near the topic you asked for?)
- Are you writing to a particular word count because you’ve heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, they don’t.)
- Did you enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, but just to get search traffic?
- Does your content promise to answer a question that actually has no answer, such as suggesting there’s a release date for a product, movie, or TV show when one isn’t confirmed?
- Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?
- Are you adding a lot of new content or removing a lot of older content because you believe it will help your search rankings overall by somehow making your site seem “fresh?” (No, it won’t)
Ultimately, your website needs a specific purpose and audience. Write for them, sharing your real life experiences, and answer common questions. Consider your site’s EEAT, an acronym for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Just in the subject, cool