I lost all the traffic from my website - What's the problem?

[Brosforreal]

Hello,
I've a news website it's about anime, manga and stuff (In spanish).

I created the website on Aug 2023. I started gaining a lot of traffic immediately something i didn't expect for a new news website (200 to 4000 impressions and clicks) but since Sep 2023 the website started going down in traffic.
I thought the problem was the theme (the theme performance was low) so i changed it but that didn't fix the problem. then the Google core updates came and it ruined everything for me.

I asked some friends and they told me the reason why i lost the traffic was because i changed the theme when the website was performing better, other said no, it was Google updates.
Hence, since then the traffic went down. i only get like 50 to 200 impression a day and sometimes 2 or 5.
I tried some tweaks like changing the theme from "latest posts" to "static page" but that didn't change anything.

I honestly have so many question that i couldn't find the answers to elsewhere..
1. What do you think caused the problem to my website? (Google updates, changing the theme or other thing?)
2. Do you think changing the style from "latest posts" to "static page" is a good move? will this affect the seo?

NOTE: The website has 0 backlinks till now and only 298 articles.

 

[Fiducia]

80 % of Google rankings are based on content + traffic. If your content has been devaluated after the G updates and there are no backlinks - tough luck.

 

[Thulf]

Since HCU, Google SERP has largely become a shopping cart for buyer intent and information carousel for informational intent keywords. Check the current types of sites ranking for your target keyword(s) to see to what extent is that the case for your keywords. Also, the SERP's overall layout. Google likes to try and cover topics right there on Google without sending any traffic to the middle-man websites. If you're not selling anything, your info content will just get scraped and Google will show it outright without readers having to visit your site.

Another thing HCU changed is how Google seems to look at sites. Low authority (a.k.a not enough solid backlinks from authority sites)? Straight to jail. 3rd page is your new potential home after the sandbox period. It's like the housing market, really, and backlinks are the currency. Don't buy $5 avocado toast a.k.a low quality backlinks, they say, invest in stocks a.k.a high authority backlinks (depends on competition). Again, check the top ranking sites for your target keywords. Chances are Google won't show low authority sites on 1st page even if they provide the solution to the query, Google will still have put some larger authority site at the top even if irrelevant for the search query.

Add to that the UGC (user generated content platforms like Quora, Reddit, YouTube, etc) - without significant authority, you will also rank below these.

Combined, the landscape has changed since the HCU. Out with small-scale independent bloggers (that's you), in with the ad spots, scraped info spots, product or service showcase spots, UGC, SGE (basically built-in chatbot), and authority sites only.

As for what to do now: kindly forget about organic traffic unless Google dies, figure out an angle and focus on promoting/marketing your content via social media channels instead (if applicable).

 

[Brosforreal]

80 % of Google rankings are based on content + traffic. If your content has been devaluated after the G updates and there are no backlinks - tough luck.

That's sound logical.. any ways to build backlinks? I never tried to be honest and with the type of content i have (news) i've no idea how/where to start.

 

[Brosforreal]

Since HCU, Google SERP has largely become a shopping cart for buyer intent and information carousel for informational intent keywords. Check the current types of sites ranking for your target keyword(s) to see to what extent is that the case for your keywords. Also, the SERP's overall layout. Google likes to try and cover topics right there on Google without sending any traffic to the middle-man websites. If you're not selling anything, your info content will just get scraped and Google will show it outright without readers having to visit your site.

Another thing HCU changed is how Google seems to look at sites. Low authority (a.k.a not enough solid backlinks from authority sites)? Straight to jail. 3rd page is your new potential home after the sandbox period. It's like the housing market, really, and backlinks are the currency. Don't buy $5 avocado toast a.k.a low quality backlinks, they say, invest in stocks a.k.a high authority backlinks (depends on competition). Again, check the top ranking sites for your target keywords. Chances are Google won't show low authority sites on 1st page even if they provide the solution to the query, Google will still have put some larger authority site at the top even if irrelevant for the search query.

Add to that the UGC (user generated content platforms like Quora, Reddit, YouTube, etc) - without significant authority, you will also rank below these.

Combined, the landscape has changed since the HCU. Out with small-scale independent bloggers (that's you), in with the ad spots, scraped info spots, product or service showcase spots, UGC, SGE (basically built-in chatbot), and authority sites only.

As for what to do now: kindly forget about organic traffic unless Google dies, figure out an angle and focus on promoting/marketing your content via social media channels instead (if applicable).

Thanks for the detailed answer.

Do you think building some backlinks from authority sites (20-50 DA) could solve the issue?
Because as you said, the keywords i'm currently ranking for or tried to rank for in the past are all so competitive and the first page of the SER have a lot of high authority websites.
2. do you think going on the route of AI content could help as well? I was thinking to build a small topical map about different topic my website covers and also try to post as much as content as possible (let's say 200 to 500 article a month)

 

[Thulf]

Do you think building some backlinks from authority sites (20-50 DA) could solve the issue?

Probably.

The only sites of mine that survived the gas chamber had very strong organic backlinks. I never built any myself, so the sites that didn't get so lucky as to get random high authority backlinks just got disappeared by Google due to lack of authority. Prior to HCU, all my sites ranked top 3 for the main targeted keyword... Only the ones with strong backlinks have kept this position today.

I obviously tried to revive the ones that got disappeared. And so far, from the tests that I've run in very limited capacity, the only and only thing that moved the needle was backlinks. On the ones I built just a couple of more expensive backlinks, these became visible in the SERPs again - the stronger the backlinks were, the higher it ended up staying. Conversely, the weaker the backlinks, the lower down the site reached, and if too low, are now jumping between page 2 and 4 non-stop, sometimes disappearing entirely.

What did NOT work was this: more content (topical authority), interlinks, no interlinks; better content, worse content, daily upload, bulk flat upload, no upload... Has not mattered one bit thus far. It's like Google puts you in a bracket based on authority and only allows visibility on SERPs until some secret daily traffic quota is reached... Paradoxically, having less content seems to be more beneficial at lower authority, as that way the post targeting the juiciest keyword gets the most traffic share as it's the most juiced up post usually.

So, based on my experience, it's all about authority now. With enough of it, even if you fart on accident, Google will sniff it up like it was a blossoming spring flower.

It's like there's some baseline threshold based on the niche/keyword competition as to what kind of legit PA/DR/etc (not a manipulated one) you have to reach for Google to even consider you. Seems to be a common pattern. Once at the top, user metrics will start to play a role. Until then a fart is on equal grounds with something some1 poured their soul into...

 

[Emisesary]

All the traffic may be lost because of the latest update by the google.

 

[Fiducia]

That's sound logical.. any ways to build backlinks? I never tried to be honest and with the type of content i have (news) i've no idea how/where to start.

Start with blog comments, use generic anchors and/or your brand, url. Just ensure to get backlinks. Not only to your homepage but also to inner pages. Even nofollow and ugc are fine.

 

[phone unlockers]

Check your Google analytics, then check your links are still live and your webmaster. This is the easiest way to know what happened to your website.

 

[Brosforreal]

Probably.

The only sites of mine that survived the gas chamber had very strong organic backlinks. I never built any myself, so the sites that didn't get so lucky as to get random high authority backlinks just got disappeared by Google due to lack of authority. Prior to HCU, all my sites ranked top 3 for the main targeted keyword... Only the ones with strong backlinks have kept this position today.

I obviously tried to revive the ones that got disappeared. And so far, from the tests that I've run in very limited capacity, the only and only thing that moved the needle was backlinks. On the ones I built just a couple of more expensive backlinks, these became visible in the SERPs again - the stronger the backlinks were, the higher it ended up staying. Conversely, the weaker the backlinks, the lower down the site reached, and if too low, are now jumping between page 2 and 4 non-stop, sometimes disappearing entirely.

What did NOT work was this: more content (topical authority), interlinks, no interlinks; better content, worse content, daily upload, bulk flat upload, no upload... Has not mattered one bit thus far. It's like Google puts you in a bracket based on authority and only allows visibility on SERPs until some secret daily traffic quota is reached... Paradoxically, having less content seems to be more beneficial at lower authority, as that way the post targeting the juiciest keyword gets the most traffic share as it's the most juiced up post usually.

So, based on my experience, it's all about authority now. With enough of it, even if you fart on accident, Google will sniff it up like it was a blossoming spring flower.

It's like there's some baseline threshold based on the niche/keyword competition as to what kind of legit PA/DR/etc (not a manipulated one) you have to reach for Google to even consider you. Seems to be a common pattern. Once at the top, user metrics will start to play a role. Until then a fart is on equal grounds with something some1 poured their soul into...

Thanks for clarification.
I believe you're right .. as i've only 1 backlink at the moment. I'll try to reach out to some authority websites in the same niche to get some backlinks and see if this would get me a result or not.

 

[Brosforreal]

All the traffic may be lost because of the latest update by the google.

probably.

Start with blog comments, use generic anchors and/or your brand, url. Just ensure to get backlinks. Not only to your homepage but also to inner pages. Even nofollow and ugc are fine.

i will try that and see if it gets a result.

 

[Brosforreal]

Check your Google analytics, then check your links are still live and your webmaster. This is the easiest way to know what happened to your website.

Suprisingly, almost all the articles are indexed (i checked them out manually). I don't know what cause this problem but maybe it's like what "Thulf" said above. It's probably authority problem as it's 0 at the moment and 1 backlink.