From my findings, it seems those in the health, nutrition and wellness niche are mostly affected.

Personally, my organic traffic has been relegated to sambisa. I need to start recovering like Rwanda post 94.

Kindly share your experience and possible steps to take.

Some lost, some gained and some are not affected. Nobody still knows exactly what the update was about.

Exactly! I think health, nutrition and wellness niche were the affected ones. I have lost about 45% of my organic traffic since this update.

itsabdul:
Exactly! I think health, nutrition and wellness niche were the affected ones. I have lost about 45% of my organic traffic since this update.

I think that's the target, it's been a major slide

[url]Questechie.com[/url] seems to have been resurrected!

It's really unfortunate that most webmasters and bloggers don't pay attention to Google update, more reason not many are able to comment on this thread, as they are only concerned with Adsense and other monetization scheme.

Nuclearact:
Some lost, some gained and some are not affected. Nobody still knows exactly what the update was about.

The algorithm targeted unsafe and low-trust sites (especially Health/Wellness/Fitness)...

These sites are called Your Money Or Your Life sites that do sponsored posts, affiliates, drugs suggestions etc... What it mostly targeted is the quality and authoritativeness of the Authors on these sites. Authors who are experts and well known for these niches are now favored, than using content writers or copy-and-paste...

The most painful thing is that it will be a great uphill to recover... SEO Masters suggests that we wait till the update fully rolls out, as this is a major game changer, then we try to work really hard and hope for the best...

Recovery suggestions includes having Article Authors with very good profile and experience, having a standard About Me/Us page, removal of Sales Pitch/Prescription to unsafe or outbound links to scam sites in Sponsored posts, avoidance of Copy-And-Paste, more internal and external link building...

I got hit real bad, meanwhile I planned to work really hard this second half of the year to quadruple my views. I am now so weak!

I can't lie that I didn't fall short of these E-A-T Google policies... Y'all need to Google Marie Haynes and follow her SEO blog.

Goo0d luck guys! We shall rise again.

RapportNaija:


The algorithm targeted unsafe and low-trust sites (especially Health/Wellness/Fitness)...

These sites are called Your Money Or Your Life sites that do sponsored posts, affiliates, drugs suggestions etc... What it mostly targeted is the quality and authoritativeness of the Authors on these sites. Authors who are experts and well known for these niches are now favored, than using content writers or copy-and-paste...

The most painful thing is that it will be a great uphill to recover... SEO Masters suggests that we wait till the update fully rolls out, as this is a major game changer, then we try to work really hard and hope for the best...

Recovery suggestions includes having Article Authors with very good profile and experience, having a standard About Me/Us page, removal of Sales Pitch/Prescription to unsafe or outbound links to scam sites in Sponsored posts, avoidance of Copy-And-Paste, more internal and external link building...

I got hit real bad, meanwhile I planned to work really hard this second half of the year to quadruple my views. I am now so weak!

I can't lie that I didn't fall short of these E-A-T Google policies... Y'all need to Google Marie Haynes and follow her SEO blog.

Goo0d luck guys! We shall rise again.

That's a wonderful insight you've provided. But certainly this author authority do also apply to other niches outside healthcare, as not only health related sites were affected.

questechie:

That's a wonderful insight you've provided. But certainly this author authority do also apply to other niches outside healthcare, as not only health related sites were affected.

True, but we got hit the hardest.

To be frank, the sites that got up - many of them are not even authoritative specific niche sites, they just gained while we lost. Na only Google saabi their bulls crap new update, shii fvcked me up, walahi I feel like leaving the internet. Three years of ranking built, and it got thrown away in a day.

Tueh I am pained... lol

Exactly..health niche and money making niches took the worst hit.. My business sites were affected too... but the update won't be through till next..all those tips are just speculations ... so we have to wait till the update is over. There are some niches that it favoured big time..I know a niche with low competition and high demand. Most blogs in the niche got massive increase in traffic. Thinking of venturing into it myself. Don't lose faith. It should serve as a motivation to double your huzzle.
peace

royalads:
Exactly..health niche and money making niches took the worst hit.. My business sites were affected too... but the update won't be through till next..all those tips are just speculations ... so we have to wait till the update is over. There are some niches that it favoured big time..I know a niche with low competition and high demand. Most blogs in the niche got massive increase in traffic. Thinking of venturing into it myself. Don't lose faith. It should serve as a motivation to double your huzzle.
peace

Alright bro, drop the niche, maybe we can all venture oooh, I beg, Lol. This internet money, we must chop am tire oh, as I no fit do Yahoo Yahoo oh.. Lol...

Maybe you should send me a PM with the info, and see where we can partner.. I enjoy like minds. Thanks

All niche got hit not just health and those ones you guys are talking about. A friend of mine has tech, general naija and finance blogs. The tech and finance got hit (lost 50% traffic and rank keep dropping) while the third was spared.

And I don't think it's about links or anything cos the only links on his tech site are internal links but the finance ones does get outbound links to authority sites not just anyhow site which I don't think Google has problem with.

Which is why somebody needs to exercise patient till it fully roll out by the end of today and allow analysts do their job. Because just like Twitter's Danny of Google liaison said, don't fix what is not broken.

Just love that, ' don't fix what is not broken' . Let wait patiently for more updates and keep the good work

The Google dance still continues into August 9, more reshuffling in SERP!

Now that the update has finished, it's time to take stock! Who are on the winning side?

Anyone with details please. where do we go from here?

hmmm

Observing...

No wonder. I was wondering what happened. I lost about 45% traffic and adsense earnings reduced significantly within the last two weeks.

For someone like me who was planning to invest
about N500k to drive growth on my Nigeria focused blog (hire writers, do marketing and consistently pump out strong content) in the last quarter of this year, this kind of thing is very discouraging. One has to evaluate how sustainable this blogging thing is, especially as a reliable life time passive income stream. Cos that's all I was hoping to achieve.

Seriously, there's nothing worse than one's income being tied to someone else's whims and caprices. If your livelihood is tied to Google or Amazon, these guys can wake up one morning and decide to change their algorithms, payment terms, commissions, etc and thus leave you in the lurch.

The ultimate goal is to control your own destiny to the extent possible.

Silvermoney:
No wonder. I was wondering what happened. I lost about 45% traffic and adsense earnings reduced significantly within the last two weeks.

For someone like me who was planning to invest
about N500k to drive growth on my Nigeria focused blog (hire writers, do marketing and consistently pump out strong content) in the last quarter of this year, this kind of thing is very discouraging. One has to evaluate how sustainable this blogging thing is, especially as a reliable life time passive income stream. Cos that's all I was hoping to achieve.

Seriously, there's nothing worse than one's income being tied to someone else's whims and caprices. If your livelihood is tied to Google or Amazon, these guys can wake up one morning and decide to change their algorithms, payment terms, commissions, etc and thus leave you in the lurch.

The ultimate goal is to control your own destiny to the extent possible.

101% correct!

Silvermoney:
No wonder. I was wondering what happened. I lost about 45% traffic and adsense earnings reduced significantly within the last two weeks.

For someone like me who was planning to invest
about N500k to drive growth on my Nigeria focused blog (hire writers, do marketing and consistently pump out strong content) in the last quarter of this year, this kind of thing is very discouraging. One has to evaluate how sustainable this blogging thing is, especially as a reliable life time passive income stream. Cos that's all I was hoping to achieve.

Seriously, there's nothing worse than one's income being tied to someone else's whims and caprices. If your livelihood is tied to Google or Amazon, these guys can wake up one morning and decide to change their algorithms, payment terms, commissions, etc and thus leave you in the lurch.

The ultimate goal is to control your own destiny to the extent possible.

Yes, having one's online business and income at the mercy of Google and Amazon leaves one really uncomfortable. But truth be told, these are still the easiest online businesses to understand, break into, scale up and replicate.

I think the best thing is to diversify. If you're to bank on Google, have more than one blog/site. Same goes for Amazon. Although none of my Adsense sites was affected, one of my Amazon sites was slightly hit, with the remaining two spared.

With diversification, it's rare to have all your sites affected at once.

One of my blog was hit around March ending to /early April this year.... Traffic keep falling for 2 months lol.


Although I have several blogs but don't based all ur investment online.
Start a business and work side by side with your blogs that's all I learnt from then.



As you blog try to make your content to satisfy your users, research more, use more infographic if possible,
Delete thin content or if possible update them.
Have enough content on your pages, for me all my post on my health blog is not less than 1000 words with enough pictures and stuff like that.

Dont copy paste instead try to link to high authority blog as reference.
I believe with this your blog will be spared.


I believe bloggers who are able to go through their post, review them, and update them with more content will see recovery.

Anyone saying that there will be no recovery is not saying the truth. There will be a recovery for some that identify their weak points on time and work their site out of the sandbags google placed on them.

1) increase user experience on your site, check if your theme slows down the speed.
2) update your old posts and more words, remove thin content
3) reduce aggressive ads... Ads that redirect to another page, even reduce your Google adds and make them be above the folder (note that Google ads don't comply with it own rules)
So put it above the folder so that ur content first load before ur ads.

Note: Google is not punishing anyone, they just want to serves end users useful content

That's the way forward for me

mine skyrocketed

3html:
One of my blog was hit around March ending to /early April this year.... Traffic keep falling for 2 months lol.


Although I have several blogs but don't based all ur investment online.
Start a business and work side by side with your blogs that's all I learnt from then.



As you blog try to make your content to satisfy your users, research more, use more infographic if possible,
Delete thin content or if possible update them.
Have enough content on your pages, for me all my post on my health blog is not less than 1000 words with enough pictures and stuff like that.

Dont copy paste instead try to link to high authority blog as reference.
I believe with this your blog will be spared.


I believe bloggers who are able to go through their post, review them, and update them with more content will see recovery.

Anyone saying that there will be no recovery is not saying the truth. There will be a recovery for some that identify their weak points on time and work their site out of the sandbags google placed on them.

1) increase user experience on your site, check if your theme slows down the speed.
2) update your old posts and more words, remove thin content
3) reduce aggressive ads... Ads that redirect to another page, even reduce your Google adds and make them be above the folder (note that Google ads don't comply with it own rules)
So put it above the folder so that ur content first load before ur ads.

Note: Google is not punishing anyone, they just want to serves end users useful content

That's the way forward for me

wow, this is long.

it's crazy how Google has monopolized everything. I've not been earning anything from blogs gor thepast 3 months.

About this update, I don't have good rank on the SERP so don't think I was hit. growing new blogs

3html:
One of my blog was hit around March ending to /early April this year.... Traffic keep falling for 2 months lol.


Although I have several blogs but don't based all ur investment online.
Start a business and work side by side with your blogs that's all I learnt from then.



As you blog try to make your content to satisfy your users, research more, use more infographic if possible,
Delete thin content or if possible update them.
Have enough content on your pages, for me all my post on my health blog is not less than 1000 words with enough pictures and stuff like that.

Dont copy paste instead try to link to high authority blog as reference.
I believe with this your blog will be spared.


I believe bloggers who are able to go through their post, review them, and update them with more content will see recovery.

Anyone saying that there will be no recovery is not saying the truth. There will be a recovery for some that identify their weak points on time and work their site out of the sandbags google placed on them.

1) increase user experience on your site, check if your theme slows down the speed.
2) update your old posts and more words, remove thin content
3) reduce aggressive ads... Ads that redirect to another page, even reduce your Google adds and make them be above the folder (note that Google ads don't comply with it own rules)
So put it above the folder so that ur content first load before ur ads.

Note: Google is not punishing anyone, they just want to serves end users useful content

That's the way forward for me

Good insight, but hmmm, I'm not happy with this development.

I just went back now to Google search some of the keywords for which my posts ranked first on Google (at least for Google.com.ng searches). Most of the first position ranking gone! I usually out ranked Nairaland and even local newspaper sites (Vanguard, Thisday etc) topics related to the posts, but now Nairaland and the newspapers posts (even without the keywords in the titles) outrank mine! I also normally out ranked Jumia and Amazon in some cases (for product related posts), but now all relegated below these sites.... And we know that most searchers don't bother to go below the first two or three search engine results.

I swear down I have never been so discouraged about this blogging of a thing.

If Google is favouring the so-called high authority sites, that means they're monopolising the Internet. That can't be a good thing. The Internet isn't a place to do that, cos it's not like real life where many people would rather shop for basic things at their local store or kiosk than go all the way to Shoprite. On the Internet, the biggest will take it all, hence killing off all smaller competition (if Google prefers to favour the big guns). So if authority (rather than actual seo value of the post) is the key ranking metric, then I that's messed up.. It's either you're big or you're nothing. Please tell me I'm wrong.

Silvermoney:


Good insight, but hmmm, I'm not happy with this development.

I just went back now to Google search some of the keywords for which my posts ranked first on Google (at least for Google.com.ng searches). Most of the first

I don't think Google are favoring sites that have authority based on level of backlinks, social share, DA etc.

Google are trying to locate and rank sites that are authoritative in a particular niche / mostly sub niche.

If a site is known to talk about particular topic which makes other topics related to one another then that site has some sort of authority in such a niche/sub niche.

And how else do you tell authoritative site, if not backlinks, social signal and domain authority?

questechie:
And how else do you tell authoritative site, if not backlinks, social signal and domain authority?

Those are authoritative sites that lost out


Source: moz

3html:
Those are authoritative sites that lost out

Source: moz

.. You can imagine. Livestrong and Draxe.