Ryan O'Rourke

Full-time indie webmaster since 2016. Musings on: SEO, web design, UX/UI, coding, mindset.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@UKCarlBroadbent @AndySkraga @NichesiteT I hear ya! :( I meant with FB specifically though. Seems like travel is pretty tough to get cheap likes and good click-throughs. Seeing a lot of accounts with big followings trying hard after the HCU, but don’t appear to be getting much traction on posts sending ppl away from FB.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@UKCarlBroadbent @AndySkraga @NichesiteT I’m guessing travel ended up not being one of those easy niches?

[Dan @Okayy_Dan]

A message to HCU-impacted sites:

There will be many posts today and the rest of the week giving you the heads-up on the impending Google Search Core Update. Amongst those posts will be implications that there may be "recoveries or partial."

Many professionals will claim that this Core Update is desperately needed despite previous updates following the same trend of decimating independent publishers.

Please do not wait for these Core Updates. Save yourself the pain. If you have any other skills, ventures, or career paths, pursue them. Do not fall for the SEO trap peddled by professionals advocating for science closer to unproven witchcraft.

These SEOs will share many graphs and examples highlighting recoveries. Be careful with the data you receive. 100% of the time, these are websites not explicitly targeted by the September 2023 HCU.

They will use recoveries from the March 2024 Update as comparison points. It's irrelevant.

Ask yourself this: If Google can fix many things in search in a short period of time, then why have they not fixed the fundamental error in search impacting legitimate HCU sites?

Why has the Site Reputation Abuse algorithm not been rolled out? Seriously, ask yourself why. Danny Sullivan was flagrantly expecting it to be followed by manual penalties—why wasn't it?

Why did the Reddit Deal lead to the biggest organic growth in search history? Why did Reddit block all search engines apart from Google?

Why has the Google Autocomplete feature suddenly been questioned concerning politics?

Once you have the answers, ask yourself why on earth Google would care about your HCU-impacted site.

I'm saying all this because I've seen far too much pain and livelihoods lost due to hope. Do not let this organization lie to you and control your life.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@MikeBlazerX Massively underrated take. I sense this could ruffle a few guru feathers lol

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@Okayy_Dan @Jake_Boly Yep, and it’ll be a pretty rude awakening for some when Pinterest realizes their platform is going to crap with all the auto-pins & spam and lays down the hammer. Same goes for FB, which has all but turned into a trashy, tabloid newsstand.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@TalebKabbara For most, I’m sure the intentions were good. What gets me now is how they’re all just pushing courses on social traffic rather than actually solving the fundamental problem with the business model. It’s a temp fix that’s gonna end up in the exact same place imho.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@Okayy_Dan And I suspect future recovery is prob about as likely right now for someone working their ass off as it would be for someone who just put their site aside. At this point, it seems clear that no amount of deleting or improving content helps.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@TalebKabbara @Jake_Boly @Okayy_Dan Doubt it’s algorithmically impossible; they just don’t want to take the time & resources to do it and their buddies won’t like it. Also, no keywords or topics should be “forbidden.” Content that best fits the query should win. Period. The web is NOT an information dictatorship.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@Jake_Boly @Okayy_Dan 100%. I haven’t seen a single HCU apologist who can point to an example of something they’ve built themselves that’s mindblowingly better than what’s getting crushed. Much easier to criticize than create.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@Okayy_Dan So, you put it in one article, they tell you that it’s off-topic and “unhelpful.” Put it in two, you’re writing for search engines which is also “unhelpful.” But a big media company does it? Helpful AF. Make it make sense lol

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@Okayy_Dan Even if you had a site full of those, it wouldn’t justify total annihilation. Not sure why it’s even a debate that pages should be ranked individually on their own merits, not suppressed by an arbitrary flag on your site based on algos that can’t even sniff out legit gibberish.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@Okayy_Dan I’m legitimately worried about future of the web at this point.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@Okayy_Dan Yikes! Doubt they’ll stop either with how they’re now getting rewarded now on all fronts, not just social.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@Okayy_Dan I think you’re being quite generous in assuming they actually watch the movies before writing the article 😂

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@ejtravelwriter @searchliaison @natejhake @rossstevens_uk @Katie16282772 @glenngabe Seriously, we would all love to see the logic on applying sitewide penalties to practically every older blog-style site out there. Because from what we can see, all it’s doing is discouraging anyone from improving their content and encouraging churn & burn AI garbage + UGC spam.

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

If you’re still pinning your hopes on blogging returning to “normal,” please read this and follow Nate’s advice. 🙏🏻

[Nate Hake @natejhake]

Every time I tweet about the HCU it goes viral, but I wish more of y’all would listen to the part where I say you should be building elsewhere and not waiting for Google to change its mind about your sites

I don’t have the answers. And I know it’s hard. But I do think the Internet is moving towards a future where you needs to sell a product or service to survive. Or at least build a passionate community.

That’s hard and you need to get started on it soon!

As one example, we are building to sell tours in Puerto Rico. To do that, our local writer is now starting a certification course — funded by us —to become officially licensed as a guide. Best case scenario we won’t be ready to roll until 2025!*

Obviously that’s an extreme example, but it takes time no what you do — especially if you are coming at it from a content creator background.

Get started now! Stop wasting your time just waiting on Google. Even if the HCU reverses, the traffic won’t look the same because of AI Overviews, intent shifts, from sources around the web, and the many many ads now above you.

If you’re still alive and kicking, use your energy to focus on building something else! Think what you have to offer the world and figure out a way to charge people for it.

*that was just an example btw. I’m not building in public. Wasn’t an invitation to analyze my site to death either.

[Nate Hake @natejhake]

💬 Don't speak Googlish?

Let me translate Google's latest blog post, titled "AI Overviews: About last week"

What Google said: "AI Overviews as a jumping off point to visit web content, and we see that the clicks to webpages are higher quality — people are more likely to stay on that page, because we’ve done a better job of finding the right info and helpful webpages for them."

What Google meant: "AI Overviews discourage users from clicking through, so only the most motivated segment of users will visit your site now. We'll keep all the other clicks and let our AI and ads do the answering. Oh, and you're just gonna have to trust us because we won't be sharing any data on that. Thanks for letting us plagiarize your content!"

[Ryan O'Rourke @rtorourke]

@MorganOMedia @rustybrick The bar’s been officially lowered 😂