Sep 29, 2023

SITE got hit during a Google Helpful Content Update

Hello Everyone,

My name is Kurt Twain, I've been helping people with their internet hardware and equipment setup since 8 years. I can't call myself as an expert, but I've helped a lot of people find the perfect equipment, perfect internet pack, and most of my setups are future-proof that my customers generally contact me after 4-5 years when their devices go bad.

I'm not a full-time SEO, but have self-learned many things.

I run a site called: ApprovedModems.org since 2021 and in all these time, I've been continuously pushing 520 high-quality articles, with proper images, alt-tags, and I even try everything to ensure that the information I've provided is actually helpful to my readers. In some cases, the steps that worked in the past might change, I keep updating my old articles and make sure that the problems of my readers are fixed.

On August 22 (during the Core update, my site grew a lot), I was quite happy that Google actually started liking my content and felt quite good that people actually felt my information/articles to be helpful. However, post September 18, 2023, I've almost lost 35-40% of the traffic. I've even consulted many SEOs, TBH, I don't outsource anything but the images/graphics (that too are original)

I also have hired some nice people to make sure that my website loads up quickly. Although, I can't guarantee, but I even avoid making small grammatical errors and if I do find them, I regularly update my articles and remove the mistakes.

Everything said, here's what I do:

  • Test equipment for compatibility with providers, with internet plans, and for the coverage area, devices etc and then write up the round-ups such as "Best Modems for Xfinity"
  • For how-to's I try to record the steps that helped me solve the problem and try to fix them up and if I can solve the problem, I write them up.
  • I receive around 30-40 emails every month, I respond them with solutions (customized plans, networking hardware setup, and even placement.)
  • I try my best to provide accurate information, test equipment, and what not (I'm not exagerating it, because I get revenue from commissions and ads, but I try to put the most unbiased and correct information)

I'm not saying that my site is the best, I might make some mistakes, but my work is quite good, that's what people who opt my service say and that's what I've experienced, there's one thing I can't ever be doubted for, that is my WORK.

With this update, I've lost almost 40% of the traffic which could mean that someone else has gotten better than me or Google has stopped trusting me. I did try to lookup for a few queries I used to rank for and have found wrong articles or even some misinformation replacing my site. The loss in traffic has made me anxious, it's like after all these years of experience and providing correct information, I still couldn't gain trust of an algorithm.

I know a lot of others would've been affected too, but I'm thinking about why I did I lose the traffic and what can I do to gain it back. Sadly, I'm bad at managing finance, have some loans that I'm supposed to pay (and with this state, I don't think I'll be able to pay, I know that's my personal problem, but just something anyone who depends on a site should know, one day, no matter what your work speaks, you can lose everything at ONCE.)

Anyways, I've tried looking in DEEP, I've found a few issues such as some minor mistakes, some missed out points, have also started making good quality graphics. Apart from that I couldn't really find out what caused my site to get HIT. Can anyone please HELP.
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All Replies (2)
Sep 29, 2023
Hi

In short words: your website is affiliate website and TBH earns a lot via aff links and adsense banners. It sells nothing except devices via aff links. That is the main problem because your focus is to earn money via traffic from Google but not to attract people.

Tell me - why I should read your content instead of other better websites especially on producers websites? What is the added value for me as a customer? 

In simple words: read about E-EAT https://www.mariehaynes.com/resources/eat/ 


And TBH - you are not only one with the same issue on that board - this is a huge problem (or not a problem) for people focusing on googlebot but not focusing on customers.

gonz0
Sep 30, 2023
This is how Google treats your website because of Helpful Content Update and last Core Update.

That's only this. 
Nothing else. 

I saw plenty of such websites for the last two years on this board and problems were always the same. And I understand you - it is really difficult to change your mind to look into your strategy and change it to focus on customers, engagement, gain organic backlinks and - changing style and intent of your content.

Ot you can wait for the next Helpful Content Update to see if website will be back. 

gonz0


Sep 30, 2023
Yeah, that's what I could continue doing. The worst part of this is, I've been working super hard and seeing some people steal those positions using SEO strategies and without solving the intent sucks.

I don't really do backlinks, I just post content and take continous feedback from my readers. The only mistake I've done is -- I've not built a brand out of this website, if it were a brand, things would've been different.
Could you share your URL?
Oct 1, 2023
The site is ApprovedModems.org
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6590281282975698372
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Search Help Center
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