Friday, May 3, 2024
Delhi Woman Thanks Tim Cook As Apple Watch Saves Her Life. He Wrote Back
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Teen Caught For Sending Bomb Threat To Delhi Police Headquarters
Small review site lost 91% of its Google traffic to affiliate-focused SEO content
HouseFresh, a small, independent product review website that called out Google after being consistently outranked by larger publishers – has lost 91% of its Google traffic following the March 2024 core update.
In a new blog post, HouseFresh has virtually disappeared from Google Search results. Now what?, Gisele Navarro highlighted ongoing issues with Google’s product search results favoring “affiliate-focused SEO content” from big media brands, what they’ve learned and what’s next for the site.
Why we care. There has been a lot of anger about Google killing websites and industries in the wake of the March 2024 core update – and more is on the way in the form of Google’s new reputation abuse policy, which goes into effect after May 5.
Keyword swarming. Big media brands (e.g., Dotdash Meredith, Forbes) are using a tactic called “keyword swarming” and flooding the web with subpar content, yet dominating Google’s search results.
- Meanwhile, hollowed-out carcasses of legacy brands (e.g., DeadSpin and Money) pump out commercial (sometimes AI-generated) content, all designed to drive affiliate revenue while squeezing out every ounce of brand value that remains.
Traffic loss. HouseFresh also revealed how much traffic it has lost since October:
- “Since October 2023, we’ve gone from welcoming 4,000 people from Google Search each day to just receiving 200. And of those 200, most are adding ‘HouseFresh’ to their searches to find us specifically.”
Google doesn’t owe HouseFresh traffic. Navarro acknowledged that “Google doesn’t owe us anything. We don’t simply deserve to get search traffic because we exist or because we say we should.”
- She also hit back at people for “gaslighting us into thinking that our content is not helpful enough for readers.” (However, from what I saw, this was an honest critique, not gaslighting).
History repeats itself (again). SEO pioneer Mike Grehan discussed a similar experience that occurred at a search conference right after Google’s huge Florida update in 2003:
“So many attendees … felt that Google was putting them out of business.
One guy … explained loudly to the packed room that he had been the number one result at Google in his niche for two years, and his business was booming. Then, after the update, there was no sign of him in the SERP.
I suggested that he, perhaps, should not have ‘bet the farm’ on this one source of revenue to sustain his business. I also suggested that, yes, we should go to Mountain View and visit Google. And when we see either [Larry] Page or Sergey Brin come through the reception, he should walk right up to whichever one it was, kneel down and kiss his ass ‘because he’s been sending you free customers for two years!'”
Google’s Florida update: 20 years since the SEO ‘volcanic eruption’,
None of this is new. People have complained about Google driving them out of business for 20+ years. That won’t make HouseFresh feel better – but the reality is Google doesn’t owe you traffic, rankings or a living.
What’s next for HouseFresh. Navarro promises to be “relentless” on every platform where it makes sense for them to be. Sounds a bit like diversification, doesn’t it?
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Wednesday, May 1, 2024
40 Posts, 223 Hired: Lt Governor's Big Crackdown On Delhi Women Panel
Did Google really lose search market share to Microsoft Bing in April?
Statcounter has updated its search engine market share stats for April – and the results are shocking. If they’re true. I’m doubtful – but hoping Statcounter will confirm whether these numbers are indeed accurate.
By the numbers. Google’s U.S. search market share in the U.S. fell to 77.52% in April, down from 86.94% in March and down from 88.8% in April 2023. Meanwhile:
- Microsoft Bing grew to 13.05% in April, up from 8.04% in March.
- Yahoo (!) grew to 7.3%, up from 2.48% in March.
See why I’m skeptical yet? How are Microsoft Bing and Yahoo growing that much in one month?
But wait, there’s more.
Google’s global search engine market share dropped from 91.38% in March to 86.99% in April. Meanwhile:
- Microsoft Bing grew to 5.8% in April, up from 3.35% in March.
- Yahoo grew to 3.06% in April, up from 1.1% in March.
There are other unexplainable swings – some bigger than others – found in other regions as well, based on Statcounter’s data.
But. Before you start cheering, the data seems suspect. Some are expecting Statcounter to “correct” these figures because these sorts of big swings seem impossible and unprecedented.
Why we care. My first thought after seeing these numbers was: they seem wrong. User behavior doesn’t change this rapidly. While SEOs and others have been heavily critical of Google over the past few years, often with good reason, I’ve never seen market share figures swing like this in one month unless there was a change to how the data was collected or there is some sort of issue with the data.
What Statcounter is saying. Nothing yet, but I’ve emailed the company to get some insight into whether these numbers are accurate.
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