I've lost my footing with SEO

[MSaguaro]

Hello, friends! I've been in the business since 2014, and so far I've always more or less adapted. But since 2022, I've come to admit that I just don't get it anymore. I'm even wondering if Google hasn't decided to scuttle organic results, thus committing suicide, a bit like other search engines, like Yahoo. What's the point? I just don't get it. In fact, before, everything was clear; today, the results seem perfectly absurd.

Let me give you an example. I set up a very clean, public utility site, with only high-quality links (genuine links, legitimate, rare and expensive, from prestigious universities, government departments, etc.) The site rises a little, then sinks. At the same time, a good friend of mine sets up an idiotic site on the history of armchairs in a small European town (no, it's not a joke). He buys backlinks of deplorable quality from a Fiverr link farm, and within two weeks, he's ranked first in the SERPs... internationally... on a MAJOR query! And he stayed there until now. It's insane.

Old WH methods (added value, good backlinks, etc.) don't seem to work any longer.

Have all the whitehat veterans turned to blackhat? Does blackhat really work better than whitehat? Could you please share some insights (experienced experts only, please).

 

[georgetoons]

This year I started seeing much more success while focusing more on the content personally rather than the links. High quality content that really answers the keywords you are trying to rank for instead of keyword stuffing and heavy link building.

 

[bananasubmarine]

I've noticed that pure blog site don't do well anymore (on average). But if you have a normal business website where you sell a product or a service and then add a blog to it, you can still rank..
Google really hates blogging / affiliate as a business now..

 

[MSaguaro]

This year I started seeing much more success while focusing more on the content personally rather than the links. High quality content that really answers the keywords you are trying to rank for instead of keyword stuffing and heavy link building.

I was not clear enough.

I've ALWAYS focused on "high-quality content that really answers the keywords".

Moreover, my websites are always dedicated to issues that are NOT answered anywhere else on the Internet, or only partially.

Last, but not least: I don't even know what's "heavy link building". I reach out to gradually build a few dozens backlinks, which are 100 per cent legitimate, principally aiming at a) authority, b) high-quality traffic.

What I've described is precisely the failure of these reasonable methods and the triumph of dirty methods like "keyword stuffing and heavy link building."

I've noticed that pure blog site don't do well anymore (on average). But if you have a normal business website where you sell a product or a service and then add a blog to it, you can still rank..
Google really hates blogging / affiliate as a business now..

Thank you. I left blog sites back in 2006, and since my start as a professional in 2014), I have only been focusing on serious stuff (and I've never had the opportunity to get involved in affiliate business). But it's interesting, nevertheless: what country are you from (or specifically talking about)?

 

[georgetoons]

I was not clear enough.

I've ALWAYS focused on "high-quality content that really answers the keywords".

Moreover, my websites are always dedicated to issues that are NOT answered anywhere else on the Internet, or only partially.

Last, but not least: I don't even know what's "heavy link building". I reach out to gradually build a few dozens backlinks, which are 100 per cent legitimate, principally aiming at a) authority, b) high-quality traffic.

What I've described is precisely the failure of these reasonable methods and the triumph of dirty methods like "keyword stuffing and heavy link building."

Have you been able to find differences compared to your main competitors? For example the tone of writing, content size, briefness, structure etc? Also have you been using original content or relying more on AI?

 

[twoassassins]

I recently made a site, it ranked well, but not exactly on the main keyword, just the ones around that!

I think you should do some KW research at first to find out if the traffic you're looking for even exists and searches on your KWs. Then how much competition there is for those... One other major ranking factor these days has been an aged domain so maybe your friend bought an old preexisting domain and you a new one, so its tough to get it ranked! Doesn't matter if you make good content, that's what I experienced...

My competitor ranked on the main KW, his domain was older but all his content was poor, the tool itself wasn't as good as mine nor was the UI, but he still ranked, I checked his links and the errors on his site, which were still more than mine, but he still ranked, only because of the older domain!


Google's algorithms have become really shit now and mostly sites with little utility are showing up more often! This has been apparent lately,

 

[tazarbm]

only because of the older domain!

don't want to contradict you, but I also can't let this go, because as far as I know domain age is not a ranking factor. Now, granted, I've not tested this, so I don't know for sure, but it's something that I keep hearing from people that I trust, which is why I find your take hard to believe

More likely, your competitor is using good links that are hidden from crawlers of SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush, this does happen a lot lately (it's been going on for at least 3 years that I can remember), so I think your competitor has strong links to his domain rather than the domain being old...

 

[PHPInjected]

don't want to contradict you, but I also can't let this go, because as far as I know domain age is not a ranking factor. Now, granted, I've not tested this, so I don't know for sure, but it's something that I keep hearing from people that I trust, which is why I find your take hard to believe

Not the domain age itself, but the indexation age is the ranking factor. I don't know just how important of a factor it is, but the age of the index of the articles and/or the homepage URL is a factor.

 

[tazarbm]

Not the domain age itself, but the indexation age is the ranking factor. I don't know just how important of a factor it is, but the age of the index of the articles and/or the homepage URL is a factor.

never heard of it, it's probably a small ranking factor... Regardless, I still think his competitor has good links... or, it could also be a temporary thing now with the update and whatnot...

 

[PHPInjected]

never heard of it, it's probably a small ranking factor... Regardless, I still think his competitor has good links... or, it could also be a temporary thing now with the update and whatnot...

As of this particular moment in time, it's not as important as it once was, but I had thought that's what you were referencing.

With expired domains, when they were the creme de la creme in ranking (2018-2021-ish), it wasn't the domain age itself so much, It was the Google indexation age.

So, Google would see this previously trusted entity bring themselves back into the live index and you'd essentially start with no 'sandbox effect'.

There's a bit more to it, but it doesn't work the same way anymore. Still a ranking factor but not something necessary at all.

 

[Enchant]

I've noticed that pure blog site don't do well anymore (on average). But if you have a normal business website where you sell a product or a service and then add a blog to it, you can still rank..
Google really hates blogging / affiliate as a business now..

Omg, I realized this as well. It's crazy. I have a single domain with a blog on it that I write good articles and google doesn't rank them. But then I have a sub domain with a store on it that sell stuff, and I added a blog to the store and guess what, the articles on the sub domain with the store is ranking higher than the main domain with only blog. And I also write both these articles targeting the same keyword. I don't think google like blogs anymore, they like businesses that sells or provide a service.

 

[tazarbm]

Google would see this previously trusted entity bring themselves back into the live index and you'd essentially start with no 'sandbox effect'.

makes sense and explains why expired domains rarely went through sandbox...

Thanks for the explanation!

 

[CyberCommander]

Your problem could be solved with Warpindex. Since AI and the latest Google updates, websites are no longer indexed equally.
https://www.warpindex.com/

Or check with https://topseofactors.com/ or https://seotoollab.com/cora.html what you could optimize.

PS: im not a seller of this products only user. So this should not be marketing. Its a recommendation to solve the problems.