Regaining Website Traffic After Google Updates19 Aug 2024 / 23 minutes to read Elena Daehnhardt |
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As a small website owner, I understand the challenges we face. I write about AI and Python coding, sharing my knowledge with fellow professionals and students. However, the recent Google updates have led to a significant drop in traffic. With Google providing over 90% of our traffic, the struggle to regain our website visits is real. Is there any information about the Google SE website feature that’s crucial or any ranking details shared publicly?
Introduction
This blog is personal. I did not do much promoting or did not use any advertisements. Most of my readers found this blog, thankfully, to Google Search Engine (SE). I would be grateful if my readers found this blog and explored its content. I am happy that you are reading this post right now :)
However, lately, Google algorithm updates have substantially decreased the organic traffic to my blog. For instance, some of my blog pages used to rank on the first page for relevant keywords, but after the updates, they’re now on the third page, resulting in a significant drop in traffic.
There are rumours amongst small bloggers who have the same complaints. You can read much of these traffic cuts related to the small entertainment blogs on this Reddit.
Actually, most of the traffic now goes to huge websites such as Reddit. I find these websites very useful, and I respect the human efforts of developers and contributors helping these websites grow. However, small voices are not heard in this chorus of mega-websites overpowering and possibly influencing people’s opinions.
Although my blog is not solely entertainment, it is mostly educational, and I share my coding and educational experiences. I also inform about AI usage and credit the AI applications I use. Of course, this blog is about AI, and I have to use it. Otherwise, what is the point of blogging about AI evolution without using AI?
In short, my blog is also less heard, which is alarming. It means that my blog will not be as visited, and my personal experiences will not be as easily available.
Why is it so bad, my dear reader? The SE algorithm updates can lead to visitation manipulation and disappear any website from search results altogether.
Other websites might be favoured and pop up while getting the highest ranking, which might be less objective and, however, optimised in specific criteria or features such as profit or even promoting friendly businesses.
I don’t want to discuss the Google monopoly. I think that healthy business competition is healthy. To repeat, I respect intellectual property rights and understand the energy, human life efforts, and financial flows related to making SE prominent.
While I respect the intellectual property rights and the efforts behind prominent SEs, I believe in the importance of algorithmic transparency. We all deserve to know the game’s rules for fair competition in the online world.
The questions
Dear reader, as usually, I have so many questions! To start with, cosnider these:
- Can we easily find information on Google SE ranking?
- Can we also monitor Google SE update details?
- Is it really reasonable to start personal blogs online nowadays when there are very few visitors?
- Will SEs be obsolete in the future when AI takes over answering user queries without referring to online resources, which may become obsolete soon when LLMs acquire all the necessary knowledge?
- Is human opinion important when it is not heard by others?
- Shall we stop blogging at all?
- Shall we continue social networking at all?
There are so many questions popping up. It’s intriguing, isn’t it? Keep reading, my dear reader. I’m just as curious as you are.
Search Engines
There are plenty of search engines, the most important of which are Google, Microsoft, Bing, Yandex, Yahoo, Baidu, and my favourite DuckDuckGo (“Search without being tracked”), amongst others less prominent and having less search volume.
According to the statistics Search Engine Market Share Worldwide by StatCounter Global Stats - Search Engine Market Share, Google’s search volume is over 90% across all user devices.
Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Search Engine Market Share
This is why Google’s algorithm updates can significantly impact any website traffic, causing fluctuations that can be difficult to manage. Understanding how Search Engines (SE) work and implementing effective strategies is crucial for regaining and sustaining website visits.
How Search Engines Work
Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to index and rank web pages. The process involves:
- Crawling: Bots or spiders crawl the web to discover new and updated content.
- Indexing: The crawled content is analysed and stored in Google’s index.
- Ranking: Google’s algorithm evaluates indexed content based on numerous factors to determine its relevance and usefulness to users.
For a deeper understanding, refer to Google’s How Search Works.
If you have more time, please check the research paper by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine (institution access) and openly available at stanford.edu as referred in the blog at cornell.edu The Academic Paper That Started Google.
In short, Page and Brin developed PageRank to determine the importance of a web page based on the number and quality of links pointing to it. The algorithm considers the quantity and quality of backlinks to evaluate a page’s relevance. This approach is based on the premise that a page is important if it is referred to by other important pages. The algorithm assigns a score to each page, which helps rank the web pages.
So, it is great to have good-quality backlinks to rank higher in search results. However, it is not so easy for small blogs like mine to convince very important and big websites to link to my blog. I even do not bother since I believe that what is really important is to have good-quality content that is useful and interesting for my readers. Agree? - subscribe to this blog and return without SE when I have new posts ready.
If you are still interested in getting good backlinks to your website, you can read about link exchange methods further in How To Properly Do a Link Exchange (Google-Proof Method). Please note that I am not affiliated with them.
I also do not bother with link exchange at this moment. I am only interested in joining efforts to provide better content for my readers.
You can write to me personally if you have related blog posts or any fantastic collaboration ideas. I also welcome amazing quest posts about AI and Python coding.
Understanding Google Ranking
Google uses many ranking factors to assess the quality and relevance of web pages. Some key factors include:
- Content Quality: High-quality, relevant content that provides value to users.
- Backlinks: Links from other reputable websites that point to your content.
- Mobile-Friendliness: Optimised for mobile devices.
- Page Speed: Fast loading times improve user experience.
- User Experience: Ease of navigation and low bounce rates.
- Security: HTTPS encryption.
For more details, visit Google’s Search Central.
Improving Website Visits
1. Analyse the Impact and Monitor Performance
To understand traffic changes and identify affected pages, employ tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Adjust your strategies based on data insights and algorithm updates.
2. Review Google Search Essentials
Stay updated with Google Search Essentials to ensure compliance with best practices.
3. Improve Content Quality
Our readers also need more engaging and relevant content. I ensure that I add relevant meta-data for each of my posts and try to avoid keyword stuffing.
4. Optimise for Speed
Ensure your website is friendly on all devices using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. With this tool, I detected that the YouTube video embeds caused significant performance issues.
So, I had to use lite-youtube as a recommended straightforward facade solution. I like to use the CDN install, which worked great. When I have time, I will optimise the page load for mobile devices.
I have also started to move to modern image formats to further minimise the page loads, read Serve images in modern formats about AVIF and WebP formats.
Lossless WebP supports transparency (alpha channel) with only a 22% increase in file size. In cases where lossy RGB compression is acceptable, lossy WebP also supports transparency, usually resulting in file sizes 3 times smaller than PNG, read An image format for the Web.
5. Build Quality Backlinks
You can contact reputable sites for guest blogging opportunities or partnerships to earn high-quality backlinks. For this very moment, I am not in a hurry.
6. Improve User Experience
Simplifying site navigation and ensuring a clean, intuitive design is essential. I have spent quite a bit of time simplifying my design and allowing the simplest search, code copy, and referencing, among other things. I hope you like it. I promise to improve further when having some time :)
7. Secure Your Website
Indeed, HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt HTTP requests and responses. HTTPS is a must to provide a secure browsing experience. SSL prices vary, with an average of $60/year, according to Mulan G.’s post SSL Certificate Cost in 2024: How Much to Spend on an SSL Certificate explaining the different types of SSL certificates.
If you have a hosting plan, it is likely to have an easy SSL setup, and the first year usually comes for free.
8. Stay Informed
You can follow forums and Google’s official announcements to stay informed about future updates.
I like the blog by Neil Patel, providing up-to-date information on SEO and overall Web developments. I suggest reading his recent post Google Anti-Trust Trial: Unraveling Allegations and Implications about what is happening with Google anti-trust trial and what it means for website owners.
Neil Patel advises diversifying your online presence. Don’t rely solely on Google. Explore other search engines and platforms like Bing, DuckDuckGo, and social media Google Anti-Trust Trial: Unraveling Allegations and Implications. Neil Patel has also Comprehensive SEO Checklist (2024). I suggest reading if you are interested in SEO.
Asking Gemini
To clarify details of the Google SE ranking algorithm, I have asked Google Gemini directly:
I am a tiny website owner. I write about AI and Python coding. I have invested my time in CS education and worked professionally as a coder and IT consultant. I share my knowledge and ideas on my website with fellow professionals and students. However, the recent Google updates resulted in traffic drops. How do I get my website visits back? Is there any information about the Google SE website feature important or any ranking details shared publicly?
The output was the following:
It's understandable to be concerned about traffic drops after Google updates. Here's how you can approach the issue: **Understanding Google Updates:** Google frequently updates its search algorithms to improve search results and user experience. These updates can sometimes cause fluctuations in website traffic, especially for smaller sites. It's important to stay informed about major updates and their potential impact on your website. **Recovering from Traffic Drops:** 1. **Analyze the Changes:** Use Google Search Console to investigate what might have caused the drop. Look for changes in keyword rankings, click-through rates, or crawling issues. 2. **Core Web Vitals:** Google's Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that assess a website's user experience. Ensure your site loads quickly, is mobile-friendly, and visually stable. 3. **Quality Content:** Focus on creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content relevant to your target audience. Google prioritizes valuable content that answers users' questions. 4. **Keyword Optimization:** Make sure you're targeting the right keywords and incorporating them naturally into your content. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords. 5. **Technical SEO:** Address any technical issues that might be hindering your website's performance. This includes broken links, slow page speed, and duplicate content. 6. **Backlinks:** Building backlinks from reputable websites can significantly boost your authority and improve your rankings. 7. **Social Media:** Promote your content on social media platforms to attract more visitors. Engage with your audience and participate in relevant online communities. **Publicly Shared Information:** Google doesn't typically disclose specific details about its ranking algorithms. However, they provide resources like the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide and Google Search Central blog to help website owners understand best practices. **Additional Tips for Your Niche:** * **Stay Updated:** AI and Python are constantly evolving fields. Keep your content fresh and relevant by covering the latest developments and trends. * **Tutorials and Guides:** Create in-depth tutorials and guides that offer practical value to fellow professionals and students. * **Case Studies:** Share real-world examples of how AI and Python are being used to solve problems. * **Community Engagement:** Participate in online forums and communities related to AI and Python. Offer your expertise and connect with potential readers. **Important Note:** Google updates can be unpredictable, and recovering from traffic drops may take time. It's crucial to be patient, persistent, and adaptable in your approach.
Google Gemini also suggested me further reading links:
1. Google Search’s core updates and your website
2. The SEO pro’s guide to handling Google algorithm updates
3. Debugging drops in Google Search traffic
4. Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results
5. How results are automatically generated
Personally, I like the suggested links, especially 2 and 3.
My takeaway of the SE updates
Honestly, I feel like it is really hard for small website owners to keep up with big companies collaborating on link-building strategies and even possibly being favoured by SE. At this point, SEO efforts become fruitless.
Should we just plunge into oblivion and forget about pouring money and efforts into SEO for small websites? I don’t know. I will continue writing and sharing content with zero visits from SE. I just like writing and sharing what I have learned. I surely share everything with my beloved subscribers, family, and friends. I plan to also get more involved with social media and networking sites to share my links to content I want to have better visibility.
Is it fair?
Google or any traffic source makes you depend on their SE or other criteria for sending visitors to your website. At this moment, these criteria or ranking features are not openly disclosed.This creates a precedent of the possibility that people with such knowledge benefit from any SE updates and thus have better traffic outcomes.
It is not fair. I think that SE feature importance should be publicly disclosed so that everyone has equal chances to get traffic.
What could we do?
In my opinion, while we cannot yet achieve full transparency and could not really force SE to disclose their algorithms in detail, focusing on the highest-quality content and continuing to do what we do best is the only way to be known and get visitors visiting our websites again.
Another possibility is diversifying traffic sources. I have yet to improve my Pinterest presence. I would like to be more active in social networks. However, I have time constraints as a person who does everything technically and content-wise on this website.
I apologise that I do not post as frequently as SE algorithms expect. However, believe me, it how it works when you are a small website owner and do not have a vast amount of human resources.
However, this should not diminish the visibility of small sites. We want our voices to be heard. What do you think?
I understand that many of you reading this page are not yet subscribed. At this very moment, I ask my website visitors to subscribe so that they can return to my blog and get the new information, which is written honestly and openly for everyone to read.
Thank you very much, and all the best in anything you do so well :)
Discussion on the questions above
To conclude, I want to try to answer the questions we stated above:
- Can we easily find information on Google SE ranking? In my research, the details of the Google ranking algorithm are not publicly available.
- Can we also monitor Google SE update details? - 2. Unfortunately, we cannot monitor Google SE update details unless you have individual access to this information. However, we can monitor the Google Search Status Dashboard and view all incidents reported for Ranking.
- Is it really reasonable to start personal blogs online nowadays when there are very few visitors? - If you like writing and have spare time, blogging and sharing your experience never hurts. SEO practices and SE ranking algorithms may also change anytime and increase user visits in the future.
- Will SEs be obsolete in the future when AI takes over answering user queries without referring to online resources, which may become obsolete soon when LLMs acquire all the necessary knowledge? - The SE market is very lucrative. However, it is likely that search engines will continue existing, with more sophisticated AI agents working behind the hood.
- Is human opinion important when it is not heard by others? - Any opinion counts. You are free to express yourself even if nobody else cares about it. Remember that it takes courage to be openly minded and independent of the number of people in your audience.
- Shall we stop blogging at all? - Surely not, but blogging will always be there. It is optional in writing; it can be in video or any new kind of media that will be developed next. What about direct mind broadcasting, anyone? :)
- Shall we continue social networking at all? - We all know that social networking websites are often used to train AI without explicit consent. - You use what you like, and social networking is a useful tool for research and even a good traffic source.
Recap
So, I have decided to do the following:
- Focus on my content quality even more.
- Optimise my website speed using embed facades and gradually move to web formats.
- Index in more search engines.
- Post more on Pinterest and other social media.
- Get more in-depth for SEO optimisation when time permits.
- Relax more to get an inspiration :)
Conclusion
Recovering from a Google update requires a strategic approach focused on quality, compliance, and user experience. I have shared my humble opinion about what is happening for small website owners like me and what we can do about it. We can surely follow some good SEO practices, but most importantly, we should diversify our online presence. Good luck!
Did you like this post? Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.
Posts about building websites and SEO that might be interesting for youReferences
1. Google killed “small” entertainment blogs (real stories)
2. Search Engine Market Share Worldwide
4. The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine
5. The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine at stanford.edu
6. blog at cornell.edu The Academic Paper That Started Google
7. How To Properly Do a Link Exchange (Google-Proof Method)
8. Guest posts about AI and Python.
13. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
15. Serve images in modern formats
16. An image format for the Web.
17. SSL Certificate Cost in 2024: How Much to Spend on an SSL Certificate
18. Google Anti-Trust Trial: Unraveling Allegations and Implications
19. Comprehensive SEO Checklist (2024)
20. Google Search Status Dashboard
21. All incidents reported for Ranking
Google Gemini’s recommended links
1. Google Search’s core updates and your website
2. The SEO pro’s guide to handling Google algorithm updates
3. Debugging drops in Google Search traffic
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About Elena Elena, a PhD in Computer Science, simplifies AI concepts and helps you use machine learning.
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