How to Recover if you were hit by the 2024 March HCU : A Strategy I haven't seen discussed anywhere

[Ozzyzig]

Did you move also in GSC? Or do you only 301 redirect without inform GSC to the domain change?

It was a brand new site and domain name. The original site is still up and has actually started to pick up again traffic wise.

 

[jyciap11]

It was a brand new site and domain name. The original site is still up and has actually started to pick up again traffic wise.

Ok thank you. Did you buy backlinks, or do it manually?

 

[AndyMac]

Yes, it’s surprisingly quick! The whole process can take as little as 10 minutes. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you out:

1. Export Content from the Old Site:
   • Log in to your WordPress dashboard on the old site.
   • Go to Tools > Export.
   • Select All Content to include posts, pages, comments, custom fields, terms, navigation menus, and custom posts.
   • Click Download Export File. This will create an XML file and save it to your computer.
2. Set Up the New Site:
   • Make sure WordPress is installed and ready on your new domain.
   • Log in to the WordPress dashboard on the new site.
3. Import Content to the New Site:
   • Go to Tools > Import.
   • Click on WordPress (if you haven’t installed the WordPress Importer plugin, it will prompt you. Just click Install Now and then Activate Plugin & Run Importer).
   • Click Choose File and select the XML file you downloaded.
   • Click Upload file and import.
4. Assign Authors:
   • During the import, you’ll be asked to assign authors. You can create new users or assign posts to existing ones.
   • Make sure to check the box to Download and import file attachments to bring over all your images and media files.
5. Complete the Import:
   • Click Submit and wait for it to finish. This might take a few minutes depending on the size of your site.
6. Verify the Content:
   • Once it’s done, check your new site to make sure everything transferred correctly.
   • Look through posts, pages, images, and other media to ensure it’s all there.

By following these steps, you can move all your content from one domain to another in just about 10 minutes. It’s a simple and efficient way to get everything transferred without any hassle.

The other approach is to effectively rewrite an entire site by extracting the Sitemap and doing an automation with Make/Zapier or using a WP plugin like Clonaleur to effectively rewrite all the content.

Ok thank you. Did you buy backlinks, or do it manually?

I can't speak for Ozzyzig, but I've personally seen classic PR media releases (ie, PR Fire, Presswire, etc) being effective in recent months rather than traditional backlinking strategies.

 

[GeeLark]

Your last line is what I'm trying to do. To convert tipsonblogging.com to a business site. Do you have any suggestions for me though man? I'm thinking about "Offering an AI tools" as service.

What would be the function of the tools you are offering?

 

[Ozzyzig]

Ok thank you. Did you buy backlinks, or do it manually?

I reached out to site owners that I used before to get two links from them.
Apart from that, one site naturally linked to mine and the other links are social ones

 

[elitebill]

Same case for the pangovet. Seems like they didn't buy a old company, but build one from scratch since the domain registered at 2024-05-19. 2 months old domain but they somehow succeeded. The real question is, for how long?

I think they also trying to shift their business model from content generation to telemarketing by this move, which is smart.

https://www.semrush.com/analytics/overview/?searchType=domain&q=https://pangovet.com/

They are now at 1.7 Million in traffic. Could be making $80,000+ per month now.

 

[Pixeth]

Thats right indeed. But I still doubt that they make any profit out of it since they have dozens of full time writers, full time veterinarians, dozens of freelance writers and full board of C Levels which they probably pay more than $100K year. Catster and Dogster are bought by them as well. Huge spike when they migrated their posts, BUT:

Catster got -%30 over time and still declining.

Dogster got -%35 since their launch and still declining.

So its basically a hit & miss schema.

These are all public data anyways, you can check yourself too. Its an interesting company to watch and learn from.

But what I am saying is, things are not that simple in this world and not what it seems. These guys were invested heavly on content before, like probably millions (in salaries over the years). They hit by HCU for sure, and now they are trying few tricks to recover their investments back. $80K/month seems big for you, but probably not for them.

 

[Davegnima]

301 redirect all urls or just clone the website on another domain? Int his case should we deindex the old website?

 

[jyciap11]

301 redirect all urls or just clone the website on another domain? Int his case should we deindex the old website?

I simply clone the old domain in a new domain, changed hosting, content that I think caused the penalty and redirect 301 old domain to new.
Now wait for the results.

 

[Dhilariousdandy]

I did some research to see if anyone has successfully recovered from HCU (Helpful Content Update) and found some surprising insights.

Currently, a successful strategy involves buying a site that represents a real business and front-loading it with the content from the domain that was hit. According to a Google SEO leak, there appears to be a classifier for small publishers, making it futile to attempt traditional SEO tactics for recovery if your domain has been blacklisted.

I wanted to share this information as I’ve learned a lot from the forum.

Example:

Petkeen.com was severely impacted, dropping from a peak of 8 million visitors to just 2,000. Their recovery strategy? They bought an existing website of a real business in their niche, preferably one that is over 12 years old, and transferred all their content to the new site. For instance, they acquired Pangovet.com, added all the content from Petkeen.com, and on June 29, 2024, had zero traffic. However, within 12 days, according to SEMrush, their traffic surged to nearly 500,000.

You can see the details here: SEMrush Overview of Pangovet.

They've employed the same strategy with other domains like Dogster.com, and it seems to be the only way to recover. I plan to try this with a domain of mine that was hit.

Short, informative, and pretty straightforward. Thank you for sharing this. I will definitely give it a shot.

Any guidelines on how to lookup closed businesses and how to reach out to them?

 

[elitebill]

Thats right indeed. But I still doubt that they make any profit out of it since they have dozens of full time writers, full time veterinarians, dozens of freelance writers and full board of C Levels which they probably pay more than $100K year. Catster and Dogster are bought by them as well. Huge spike when they migrated their posts, BUT:

Catster got -%30 over time and still declining.

Dogster got -%35 since their launch and still declining.

So its basically a hit & miss schema.

These are all public data anyways, you can check yourself too. Its an interesting company to watch and learn from.

But what I am saying is, things are not that simple in this world and not what it seems. These guys were invested heavly on content before, like probably millions (in salaries over the years). They hit by HCU for sure, and now they are trying few tricks to recover their investments back. $80K/month seems big for you, but probably not for them.

Dogster and Caster are relatively stable, with $80,000 in revenue coming solely from Pangovet. When you combine all sources, the total could range between $100,000 and $200,000. It’s important to note that the content they’re using already existed on their other domains, so they’re not incurring costs for new content creation. Instead, they’re simply migrating existing content from one domain to another to maximize ad revenue.

If Pangovet were penalized today, they could quickly launch another business domain, transfer their 10,000+ articles within a few hours, rank the new site, and continue generating revenue. It’s a clever loophole they’re exploiting, as Google penalizes only the domain, not the content.

I imagine they’ll continue this strategy for years until Google starts penalizing the content itself, which could take a long time. Meanwhile, they don’t need to produce new content or hire a large staff—they can run this operation with just a two-person team. This approach resembles a churn-and-burn strategy, but in this case, even if they rank for only six months across three domains, it could easily generate $1 million in revenue. With a lean team and pre-existing content ready to transfer to new domains if the old ones are hit, they’re positioned to keep this going for a while.

 

[Davegnima]

I simply clone the old domain in a new domain, changed hosting, content that I think caused the penalty and redirect 301 old domain to new.
Now wait for the results.

Have you redirected URLs 1by1 or just the entire domain?

 

[jyciap11]

Have you redirected URLs 1by1 or just the entire domain?

entire domain

 

[Davegnima]

I’ve cloned my website on another domain and let the previous domain goes to 404 since I don’t think a redirect form a hit domain would benefit.
my new website is still not indexed after a week. What should I do?

 

[4440]

Take a look at pangovet's traffic now, from 1m to 200k in just a month.
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/d...ffic-is-almost-dead-after-rebranding.1639487/

 

[lorainefuko]

To recover from the HCU in March 2024, this requires auditing content to improve low-performing pages, enhancing E-A-T, optimizing user experience, diversifying traffic sources, and increasing engagement with audiences. Monitor site performance regularly and adjust strategies.

 

[elitebill]

Seems they have taken a severe hit, but possibly have made $200,000 in those few months : https://www.semrush.com/analytics/overview/?searchType=domain&q=https://pangovet.com/

 

[Honest Marketing]

Seems they have taken a severe hit, but possibly have made $200,000 in those few months : https://www.semrush.com/analytics/overview/?searchType=domain&q=https%3A%2F%2Fpangovet.com%2F

I dont see a bit drop in se rankings tool for them. But they use a 301 redirect. I though thats a no no becuase it will transfer the penatly.. I thought this content move and success was done without a 301 right?

 

[elitebill]

Its clear as day.

I dont see a bit drop in se rankings tool for them. But they use a 301 redirect. I though thats a no no becuase it will transfer the penatly.. I thought this content move and success was done without a 301 right?

What tool are you using ?

 

[Honest Marketing]

SE ranking where oct looks good so far, below is ubersuggest tho



I fint it intersting they redirected the old Petkeen.com homepage to a "rebrand secondary page" that says

PetKeen Is Now a Part of PangoVet.​

I do plan on moving a business and their content to a new domain but to try without redirects. After a month if there is no uptick then implement redirects.
Might do an ai spin on the content so its not exactly the same too as an option.