Відео

Thank you for the detailed and insightful comment! You are on point on everything, apart from my videos being better than pro docs! 😁 I appreciate the support; I try to make every video look a bit more like a proper documentary. Lots of room for improvement. In the end, Google's visitors like you and me will dictate how the search engine will need to work. I'm sure Google's updates reflect that behavior and the data they collect.

@@JimMakosCom I run different websites right now, with all three in different focus areas. I can assure you that YMYL website was hit by far the craziest and there are very good reasons for this, as for instance the backlink profile of this project is not good at all. The other websites are either rising or staying the same as one year ago. And this what I said before: for those “important” topics, Google is probably put in more weight into solid backlinks as really well-written content. I don't have a lot of background with your project, but if you don't do it yet, consider it: make one channel for your website on UA-cam and talk about your expertise there - only this topic and connect all articles with every single video you put out. There are three benefits: a) you give your new audience to dive even deeper into your content on your website; b) you give Google signals that your website does not only write about stuff but publish videos, and c) you build a list of readers and customers over the time you can monetize differently. Why I am telling you this? There are so many examples of small UA-cam Channels which make six figures doing exactly this strategy without relying on Google solely. And you as a fantastic video creator have all the tools to do it. There is a saying: If you see that something doesn't work anymore, you need to try different approaches. If you change nothing, nothing will change. Keep on grinding and pushing … because what else is there to rely on? For sure not Google but only your own skill set. 💪

First, it's been more than ten years since I last traded, so I've fallen behind. And second, betting exchanges are prohibited in my country.

You wouldn't be wrong, but the plan has always been to never need to get a job in the first place.

Expect more! 🫶

Ah, those were the days, my friend! 📈

@@JimMakosCom Keep your spirits up, my friend! Things will get better :-)

I've heard that's the ultimate solution when everything else doesn't work: Copy the content to a new domain and start from scratch. Eventually it will rank at the same places the old domain used to rank. Nothing says that a future update won't take that down as well, though.🙄

I totally understand the frustration against Google, but it’s a free market and they are running their business in their best interest. The people will dictate whether they are making the right choice.

Yes, I’m feeling optimistic. 👌

Such a motivating quote! We only lose if we quit. Good luck with your websites!

I can, but I’d rather not at this time.

Those are about the same figures with mine. 80% is devasting, especially since it directly corresponds to revenue and income. I may not be affected that hard and Reddit isn’t competing with my website (yet), but with only one salary in the house, I might be more stressed. Did your site drop rankings in general, or was it Reddit/Quora/AI stealing your traffic? Best of luck to you, as well! ✌️

@@JimMakosCom I’m sorry to hear that about your site and household income. You guys may have to start hustling to bring in some money until you can get your site back. I was looking at going full time into blogging until mine tanked. As for my site, I was page 1 on almost every keyword I was looking to rank for, with many posts ranked top 1, 2, or 3. Then literally within a month of the update, almost everything I wrote - I’m talking lengthy, detailed content that gave tons of helpful information - dropped off the radar and didn’t even rank on any of the first few pages. Almost every keyword I used to rank for has Reddit in one of the top 3 spots. Really sad that 6 years of work, with everything written personally by me has fallen, all because Google is prioritizing forums and big campanies.

Honestly, the website I’m trying to recover didn’t have THAT much valuable content. I can tell you that my blog is way more valuable; that’s why traffic and rankings have been improving lately as I’m building more on my personal brand. That website may not be “rubbish” but it certainly doesn’t win any rewards! Or maybe I’m too harsh on myself for the work that I’ve done there and try to justify the drop in traffic and rankings. But the difference with my own blog is night and day. I hope this clarifies the video’s point better now.

@@JimMakosCom 👍🏻thks for reply

Well, I’ve been hearing of that collapse and the great reset for many years now. In the meantime, the world keeps spinning. I’m definitely not giving up and my endgame is certainly moving to our summerhouse and growing our vegetables and fruits. Just not yet! If you can make money online, moving away from cities makes total sense to me.

Thank you 👊

Thanks for sharing that, sounds equally disheartening and encouraging at the same time! Let’s stay positive and get working. ✌️

Well, they are a business and they care for their bottom line and revenues. I can’t blame them and I won’t tell them how to run their business. The point is how to adapt under the new circumstances. And whether AI is entitled to scrap our content. 🤔

I’ve got some ideas going forward for not relying so much on Google traffic or display ads for monetization. I’ll keep you posted!

In all honesty, the content was subpar for sure, so updating it is surely leads to better content. Google does manage the tricks, but we as small publishers would appreciate if the field was level.

The niche is education.

Haha I'm on a roll, aren't I? Well, it must have taken me less time to produce that video and editing was unexpectedly a breeze, but I'm not happy with the end result. Still it was a necessary experiment, I learned a few things and it was another chance to leave my comfort zone. It's a win in my book.✌️ thank you for the inspiration! More advice is always welcome.

Thanks for sharing your story and valuable experience! Very inspiring. The general shift is surely focusing on our personal skills and in-person services. How scalable can that be, though, compared to offering services online? Glad you worked it out, but I’d hate it to “work in person”. Still, adapting times are always the hardest.

Χρόνια πολλά Γιώργο, έστω και για λίγο καλά ήταν!

Και ότι χρειαστείτε εδώ είμαστε

I hadn't realized until now! 🙄

Was the decline gradual or sudden?

@@JimMakosCom Got hit last March and went from 2,000 visits per day to 1,000. Then HCU knocked me down to 250 per day in September. The March update this year has me down to 150. I'm actually updating my content and switching themes as we speak. Not sure if it will help, but it's all I can do.

I know it's hard to think positively right now, but let's say it's a temporary setback before achieving our dreams. They just moved the goalpost a bit. Let's stay focused. The ONLY time our hard word would have been for nothing will be if we quit. 😉

Try talking to humans in real life

Keep rowing the boat! 🚣‍♂️

Thank you for the tips and the inspiration, leading me to post a 🎙️podcast episode today with no script or a bullet point list! 👊 I hope I've come across as more authentic.

Best of luck, Brett! I hope you enjoy watching.

It's surely a "naughty" niche, but the website I'm referring to isn't my personal blog, in case you assumed so.

I said it was my own fault, that I was to blame, and that I was guilty of neglecting the website. The good thing about entrepreneurship is that you don't get fired, though. You just adapt and turn threats into opportunities.

I'm hearing even big ones are in trouble, I'm afraid.

Unbelievable and unacceptable! I'm a huge advocate of safety first and seeing myself not wearing the seatbelt feels so out of place (not so for my dad, though 🙄). If I hadn't shot this I wouldn't believe it happened! I must had a lot in my head at the time, but that's not an excuse. Thanks for pointing this out.

@@JimMakosCom Fair enough. I wish you all the best and I hope you're able to pivot successfully and your income recovers. Unfortunately, I think, sadly, we can both kiss goodbye to free organic google traffic though.

Thanks for the support Marlene! UA-cam is great and feels so creative. If only it wasn't so time consuming, though. AI is also disrupting YT but what it can't replicate is real life experience and authenticity.✌️

Indeed, I suppose many web publishers are facing similar struggles currently and it feels nice to know we're not alone out there.

@@JimMakosCom Yes, exactly

Well, I'll give it a shot nonetheless while working on my personal brand here. 🤞 Still the SEO subreddit includes a few success stories of recoveries so it's too soon to throw the towel.

@@JimMakosCom what success stories lol? there are no documented recoveries; otherwise I agree to focus on your brand; that's smart; build the channel up; but don't talk to me about recoveries

@@JimMakosCom There is zero evidence of any recoveries.

Thanks and welcome!

We're definitely not alone. Plenty of horror stories in the SEO subreddit. Be strong and best of luck to you too! How much traffic have you lost?

2-3k per day has dropped to 150. Income is down 85%.

@@GymCrafter Brutal. Are you working on the site or another side project?

I'm redoing every article on the site with an eye on mobile. First, I designed the site on and for desktop and that was a mistake. I'm adding new content as well as ramping up UA-cam significantly as well as Instagram and Facebook to try and drive traffic from there. I've also reached out to many brands to try to help amplify my content as Google seems to think that is a good signal. I've got about 6 to 8 months of runway to turn things around and even working 12 to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, I'm not sure that that's enough time.

⁠​⁠@@GymCrafterSounds like a ton of work but it will likely pay off. Fingers crossed! Good luck! 🤞

That's EXACTLY what's going on. We are all doing guesswork here trying to create great content for the user while trying to reverse engineer Google's algorithm by trial and error. And even if you create the greatest piece of content, an update can derank it sometime in the future. How many 10-year-old articles show up in search results today? It seems we need to keep on updating every single article to keep its rankings. On the other hand, it's a competitive world out there. Thanks for the wishes and for watching. Good luck to you and stay strong. ✌️

@@JimMakosCom this is where things go sideways. > not trying to reverse engineer anything, it's impossible > HCU, while content-focused is more like HEU (helpful everything update, not solely content) > HCU often miss-categorized and actually instead intent-shifts ex: 90k monthly volume broad to 1k volume-specific (not HCU, avoid chasing broad topics) > having audited numerous sites this week, I've seen plenty of content ranking as far back as 2018 (you only republish if you significantly improve content quality, doing so without is even worse) > AI tools like Topic, Rankmath, Surfer, etc. are running sites into the ground if used without owner oversight. If you optimize anywhere near the max of any of these tools and you are beyond over-optimized, jamming in keywords, mixing in miss-matched intent, and making recovery or success impossible. Proactive > Reactive > Inactive > Misdirected 1. Proactive: owners that put in the work and finished prior to Aug. 23, gained from all of the recent updates. (the percentage of owners with this mindset is extremely low) 2. Reactive: those who started late after the fact (Oct-Dec) are starting to recover now after significantly improving everything across their business, brand, website, and content. 3. Inactive: the do-nothing crowd, often influenced into doing nothing by constant stream from misdirected owners, are going to face a long 6-12 month struggle (or give up entirely at this point) 4. Misdirected: have given up entirely, took to posting negatively about everything, everywhere, and spend every minute on everything but their business/success (the noise, infecting mindsets everywhere) Do the things no one else is doing or willing to do! Purpose + Effort + Consistency If your purpose is misaligned, effort and consistency are lost. How to recover, forget everything, stop spending time externally, and focus on quality in the following order: 1. business 2. brand 3. site 4. content > last I note that content is last, as it will be extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible if 1-3 are ignored. As you noted yourself, "even if you create the greatest piece of content", well it's not just about content, and it's been this way for years now. As for the guessing component, if you put quality first in everything, it's easier than you think. However, it's by no means something you'll execute quickly. It will turn into a week-over-week, month-over-month, never-ending pursuit to increase internal quality. And the main problem, most didn't care as long as revenue was flowing and just didn't bother. Have a great weekend!

What an insightful reply! Thanks for all the advice, will surely take this into account! 👏 Are you a web publisher or a SEO expert?

​@@JimMakosCom I made a clear effort and added an authentic reply, which I can no longer see anywhere. With that, limiting my response to, Yes, and Yes, given it makes no sense to invest the time or effort here.

You are right! And to think that I wanted to pin your reply somehow! UA-cam comment system seems a bit broken if I'm being honest. I can see your comment and our conversation in UA-cam studio but when I check the thread on the UA-cam video, there are only my replies! I'll make sure to bring this matter up on my social profiles and here in the community posts. I totally understand your frustration and I'll make everything I can to shed light to your authentic reply. Again, I appreciate the time you invested in commenting.

Thanks, will do!

Thanks Thomas! I am and I will! 👊

That's another benefit of budgeting for years and comparing income and expenses YoY consistently. You get to see the picture twelve months ahead and plan accordingly. Thanks for dropping in!

Ha, didn't know that eagle quote! Very happy to hear people get inspired. I will do my best to continue on that path. Thank you for your kind words!