So, this hasn't gathered much attention, but Google has updated its search quality raters guidelines, with the following paragraph:
The Lowest rating applies if all or almost all of the MC (Main Content) on the page (including text, images, audio, videos, etc) is copied, paraphrased, embedded, auto or AI-generated, or reposted from other sources with little to no effort, little to no originality, and little to no added value for visitors to the website. Such pages should be rated Lowest, even if the page assigns credit for the content to another source.
Although search quality evaluators’ ratings do not directly impact rankings, they do provide feedback that helps Google improve its algorithms.
Lol - neither my AI-generated content, AI-assisted content, nor my 100% human-written content seems to rank, unfortunately. I was hoping that doing well on Pinterest would change things, but it doesn't look like it has, as of yet.
@andy Is Google pushing more people towards YouTube? Everyone I talk to says a blog is just not enough in 2025. They say it’s all about diversifying using socials and person-to person video. I’m a year into this and trying to come up with a new strategy that will work. I’m very frustrated atm….
Is Google pushing more people towards YouTube? Everyone I talk to says a blog is just not enough in 2025.
Honestly, I have no clue - maybe @diane might have some thoughts on this. I've pretty much left the "Google" bandwagon (I optimize all my content to rank on it, but don't really get enough traffic from it to make them a priority).
If I had to take a stab at answering this, here is what I would say:
If you are trying to rank on Google, then Youtube would be a great platform to try to rank for as well - partly being because Google owns YT and ranks TY videos just as high as some blog posts (and has a whole tab dedicated to videos). So it's a win-win in terms of getting your content seen in different places (i.e. people can find your YT content on YT but also though Google searches as well).
Personally (and I think I said this some where else last year), I believe that blogging as we knew it is dead. Setting up niche websites with just some blog/written content and then trying to make money from them is a lot harder than it was pre 2023. It's still possible now, but I think it's more difficult.
Because of this, diversity is key. I don't think it matters what you choose (whether that's Pinterest, FB, YT, etc), but you want to make sure that you are building out multiple channels where you can promote what you have to offer.
Simple example - the main site my wife and I work on does really well on Pinterest and I've be experimenting with Facebook for a while. I don't know if you remember a previous post I discussed how I bought into a FB group. Long story short, I just recently fully acquired that FB group and it's now generating about a third of the income for this site currently (this is due to a lot of different reasons, but the point of all this is...) - diversity is key. I now have three channels that I can promote my content on (Pinterest, FB, and to my email list [email is another channel you should be building regardless]). If Google changes (or I figure out what I need to change to get better rankings from Google), then that would be a 4th channel I could utilize too.
I’m a year into this and trying to come up with a new strategy that will work. I’m very frustrated atm….
This would be a good discussion starter on another forum thread (which I would encourage you to start and answer these, and see what the best course of action would be), but I'd be interested in knowing what your site is, what you've done with it, and why you think the previous strategy you've been working with isn't working for you.
@andy Is Google pushing more people towards YouTube? Everyone I talk to says a blog is just not enough in 2025. They say it’s all about diversifying using socials and person-to person video. I’m a year into this and trying to come up with a new strategy that will work. I’m very frustrated atm….
I have a Youtube channel for a few years now, and it hardly gets traffic to my site, although the 'community' part on Youtube is not to be underestimated. But actual clicks to my site or Google minding that to rank your posts, I don't think so.
Creating a brand though, I think still works, but this means you would have to be on more than 1 social media platform, and if you want to grow on those, you honestly need help from either a virtual assistent, or (AI) software. Because, trust me, you can't do all by yourself, you'll burn out in no time.
Turning to Bing doesn't make sense either, we'll never get that amount of traffic from Bing as we used to from Google.
Because I already was on several socials, I think that my Google traffic has slightly come back (200-250 per day), but it's not 'wow' at all, i will never have the former traffic back from Google alone. Most of it is now from Pinterest or direct traffic from other socials and my newsletter.
I wish I focussed a long time ago on my socials, because I never had this traffic before, where the focus was on Google, in all those years on WA, some of those 'experts' should have told me: 'girl, with your niche, you should highly focus on those socials!'. They acted like 'just write good content and you'll rank in Google', was good for everyone and every niche. That just wasn't true in the first place.
I would have been on Mediavine by now, if they would accept me that is lol, I'm pretty sure of that.
And since the start of AI, WA kept on insisting that "ranking in Google will come back, as it always has during the last decades'. And they kept on gaslighting people (including me, ugh, got so mad about that).
Google to me, just doesn't make sense anymore, if you see my google statistics from september 2023. Before those months they were like: 'ok, Lizzy, your content is so great, lets get that traffic up'. After that, it went down. In March 2024, again down. The whole spring, summer, almost to zero.
All of a sudden ( I didn't change a darn thing, except place a forum on my site), august 24: "we're sorry, your content is actually pretty good, let's get it up again", ever since then it's been going up and down, up and down, like a rollercoaster. it doesnt matter what I do 'for google", they can't actually 'read' if your content is good or not, it depends if your topic is covered by Reddit or Forbes or not.
The only things still ranking, are things that these 2, or Youtube, hardly or not talks about. SO YOU WOULD NEED TO BE REALLY DEEP INTO YOUR NICHE, like day and night- deep, to figur out what people in your niche really want to know. And that's just a guessing game. Who does that? Explore Reddit, Facebook, forums, all of it, to the bone.
I hear people saying now "but Lizzy, you are now on all those socials, so you must still have some Google traffic because you have pivoted'. NO, no one can conclude this, because I have been on tons of socials for years, almost since I started my site, and that never got me more traffic from Google.
Also, I figured out that the most money will always come from ads on my site, not from affiliate marketing. It really really depends on your niche. Product reviews? Do those still work? When you look at Google SERPS, the first thing you notice is ads for products. Followed by a forum, maybe a blog, if you're lucky, followed again by ads for products. Google is now filled with ads for products, how could we still compete with that with our blog with product reviews on it? (yes, if your Youtube channel is succesful, that could still work)
I'm not an SEO or analyst, but it's just my 2 cents and some common sense. I see so many SEO's arguing between them and I'm like thinking often "nah, that's not true".
I think that these days, you can't depend on blogging allone anymore, yes you need to expand on socials, and yes, that will cost you money if you don't want to burn out. These days you need money to make more money. It is what it is.
Depending on the platform you use, that would even require paying for your own ads, like Facebook. It's called ad-arbitrage.
I always listened to people dm'ing me on WA, telling me when I used the 'comment on my blog' function, to 'not place ads on your site, it is enoying", so at a certain point, I didn't. Turns out this is making me the most money, so who is wrong in this then?
Bottom line: find your own way. Depending on the niche: try out EVERY SOCIAL PLATFORM for at least a year. And stop doing the ones that don't work for you. The ones that are working: dive deep into these, with courses, follow people who are succesfull in your niche on a certain platform and see what they do. (is it 5 posts/reeels/youtube shorts a day, then do that. Do they have nice AI pictures, then do that. Do they ask controversial questions or post funny memes, that is what you need to do as well, etc..)
I feel like I could keep on writing here, but I have been where you are now, and it really is a matter of keeping up and inform yourself and test things out, even ask AI, brainstorm and 'chat' with it. That one-class per week on WA doesn't cut it, at all. And neither does 'the community' there anymore, not any longer.
But I'm stubborn and have a lot of time, so maybe that's easier for me, I admit hahaha!
All the best,
Lizzy
@ohnoo_not_her Thanks Lizzy. So far, everyone is pushing me into YouTube for my guitar site. I’m looking into that at the moment. I already have an IG and am thinking about creating a Facebook to go along with it.
Unfortunately for me, my original mentor, prior to WA, let me pursue the weight loss niche as my first EVER site. I found all about YMYL on my own. Man, that’s been an uphill battle! It’s pretty much impossible to rank against the GIANT well-established sites and also competing against government sites. So, the advice I’m getting from experts I’ve connected with over the past year, is to stop with the weight loss niche and go after the guitar one.
One thing I have noticed in my first year of affiliate marketing, there’s so much conflicting information and strategies.
-Chase high volume/ low competition keywords
-Don't worry yourself about volume and competition, you’ll rank for lots of other keywords
-Don't chase monthly volumes, just answer people’s questions
-In GSC, add your high point and low point of clicks, divide by 2, and that’s the volume to chase
-Publish articles 5-10 per week/ 2 per day/ 5 per day, etc.
-Don’t look at data in GSC and concentrate on putting out more content
These are some of the ones that I can remember. Lol
To be honest, I have no interest in websites any longer, and rarely read SEO-related news, but the news I quoted above caught my attention.
I personally believe that it is impossible to get decent traffic from Google these days, unless you are a recognised ”brand” and have multiple social media accounts.
And a Domain Authority of at least 40…
You really have to assume that all of your traffic is going to come from social media.
I would say as a minimum you need 3 social media accounts, one of which to be video-based, but you need to post as consistently as possible, ideally every day.
I have entirely moved away from websites, and now focus on other forms of online income such as Amazon KDP, Etsy, Medium and more recently, Vocal.
To be honest, I have no interest in websites any longer, and rarely read SEO-related news, but the news I quoted above caught my attention.
I personally believe that it is impossible to get decent traffic from Google these days, unless you are a recognised ”brand” and have multiple social media accounts.
And a Domain Authority of at least 40…
You really have to assume that all of your traffic is going to come from social media.
I would say as a minimum you need 3 social media accounts, one of which to be video-based, but you need to post as consistently as possible, ideally every day.
I have entirely moved away from websites, and now focus on other forms of online income such as Amazon KDP, Etsy, Medium and more recently, Vocal.
Totally true, even big brands are losing money, there are now recently complaints that Google is losing them money lol (the most recent was Hubspot). I still follow a few SEO's here and there. And I'm like: "welcome to the world of small niches sites", and I got a lot of 'likes' from those same SEO's hahahahaha.
But don't forget though, that you still need a website, if you want to make good ads-money, although the focus is no longer on SEO. Because for Ads income and to get to Mediavine or Raptive, you need that blog still. Short form content however, is better these days, cause people just want the answer asap.
o be honest, I have no interest in websites any longer
That makes two of us Diane.
How have you been by the way? Hope you, Andy, Partha, and everyone else is in good health.
@yusuf Hey Yusuf, good to see you - 2024 was a year of ups and downs, but I am in good health, thank you!
The forever battle against Google updates. Why cant Google just leave well enough alone?
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