Oh, Fiddlesticks!

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   eugbugposted 5 months ago

   "Buckle Up: Google To Make Major Search Ranking Changes"
   
   https://www.seroundtable.com/google-sea … 36369.html

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      chef-de-jourposted 5 months agoin reply to this

      So the truth is out!!!
      
      Now I know why there's so much editing going on in my neck of the woods, Owlcation. Dozens of articles spruced up in the last week or so, minor tweaks by the looks of things but I sense some panic in the HP offices.
      
      Ah well, I'm no doom-monger but it could be curtains for HP if this Google update really bites....then again....perhaps this humdinger of an update will finally see TAG change the awful layout and ads combo and make the page reader-friendly, again.
      
      Hold on tight folks.

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         SerenityHaloposted 5 months agoin reply to this

         This in my opinion is the only way forward. Better layout and a big update to the ads.

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            Kenna McHughposted 5 months agoin reply to this

            Keep writing super, duper content and hope TAG/HP has the smarts to keep us afloat.

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         Dean Traylorposted 5 months agoin reply to this

         I'm in the same boat.  A lot of my Owlcation articles are getting edited to death! The thing I find annoying, however, is the constant changing of the lead photo. They often replace it with something that has little to do with the articles. I've gone back and removed some of the photos, especially on those that already had high traffic. They're panicking, yet at the same time, they are marring some of our articles with highly questionable editorial moves.

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            Solarasposted 5 months agoin reply to this

            Those image replacements helped the Pethelpful site.  If you don't like the one they suggested, I suggest you find one that is unique, save it with an SEO title.jpg and write an SEO caption to replace it.  The original image should still be there, just pushed down lower in the content.
            
            New images seemed to be the best form of update to content, and resurrected some of my fallen articles.

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               Dean Traylorposted 5 months agoin reply to this

               Already replaced most of them and put the original ones back in place (especially the ones that happen to be photos I took). Still, whoever puts up the photos during the editing process seemingly find the most mundane and unimpressive ones.

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                  Solarasposted 5 months agoin reply to this

                  I just replaced one that was very ugly - and it had a weird white line through the middle of it.

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                  SerenityHaloposted 5 months agoin reply to this

                  I do think there can be improvements made to editorial considerations for photographs. A long time ago, it was much better. I think now people are moving too fast and picking pictures without much consideration. They're just trying to get the job done. That's how it seems for some pictures, not all.

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      Venkatachari Mposted 5 months agoin reply to this

      He also said "I do not want to say that word Buckle Up for those who are doing it quite well". So, those who are already making their posts more friendly and useful to their users need not worry about these changes.

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      chef-de-jourposted 5 months agoin reply to this

      I just checked out one of my articles on Owlcation. It goes something like this... 6 lines of text....big blank space.... 4 lines of text....big blank white space....5 lines of text....big white blank space.....you get the idea HP?
      
      Not sure why the ads aren't showing but if I were a Google crawlerbot I'd demote this page pronto. As a reader I'd be out of there double-quick. This is not the page of an authoritative site.
      
      In short, this is why traffic has plummeted and why each Google update over time will demote our work.

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   FatFreddysCatposted 5 months ago

   *(SIGH)* Honestly, I can't even find any f*cks to give anymore.

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   PaulGoodman67posted 5 months ago

   We can only hope that we see an improvement.
   
   HP has done a massive amount of editing and made major changes to other elements of the site but so far to no avail. In fact, things only seem to have gotten worse over time.
   
   So hope is a commodity in short supply.
   
   Of course, the Danny Sullivan pronouncements are characteristically vague and lacking in detail and could mean any-fookin-thing.

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   Venkatachari Mposted 5 months ago

   But they also said, "I do not want to say that word Buckle Up for those who are doing it quite well". So, those who are already making their posts more friendly and useful to their users need not worry about these changes.

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      eugbugposted 5 months agoin reply to this

      They always say something like that though and we still get punished because they presumably have issues with ads or slow loading of content on the webpages.

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         Venkatachari Mposted 5 months agoin reply to this

         Yes, that's a concern for our stuff to please the Google Gods.

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   PaulGoodman67posted 5 months ago

   As well as the usual content vagueness from Google, there's no indication of a time scale that I'm aware of. This could be something that's happening tomorrow or in a year's time.

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   Solarasposted 5 months ago

   Down in the comments from your link (Eugene) is this comment from Googleisjoke.
   
   Some suggestions we can't do, but I may try removing 2000 words from one article which used to get 400-800 views and now gets 40-50.  It is about 8K and maybe too verbose for Google now.  Perhaps less is more. lol.
   
   
   "Played with this for a week, hopefully you find it helpful
   
   So here we go, tips to resolve articles with 0 clicks and 0 impressions. Many people complained, have this issue? It's solved do this -
   
   1. rename title completely in a new way
   
   2. Make the completely new intro for the article. Not just rewording and removing some paragraphs, MAKE it NEW
   
   3. REMOVE from 1K to 2K words from your post seems to be the biggest KEY. For example if your post has 8k words, reduce it to 6k, if your post has 4k words, reduce it to 3K etc
   
   4. Remove Videos/embeds , and image galleries if you have any
   
   5. Make sure your posts NOT have 2 vesions. With " / " and without it, it's a huge seo thing and you can know this by asking hosting. That means each URL of the post is with and without it.. It usually happen once site get hacked, very slight hack though.
   
   6. Check SITE://YOURsite.com/ "keywords phrase" (not just keywords alone) then, SEE if your post is redirected to error / homepage. If it is, grab the URL, and make the redirect to a NEW url. This is the way to find URLs that get Stuck in the google search and you forget about them
   
   7. Rename Images "Alt Text" + add URL for each image. To Alt Text, put the post name + domain name at the end, separate either by - or |
   
   8. Within 24 hours your posts will be back in google, on the positions where they were last time
   
   UPdate/bonus: If you have listicle/review (10 best or so), change the order of the products / items, so 1st would be 5th, 3rd would be 1st and so on) so you literally make overhaul of it
   
   UPDATE 2: I forgot this, I think it's the MOST important change lol, if you have words like BEST or TOP, or anything like that in the title, REMOVE It! ALL Articles that don't have THIS, rank well!
   
   Example: 12 Best Websites To Find Song Lyrics 2023
   
   instead do this -
   
   The 12 Websites To Find Song Lyrics 2023"

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      viryaboposted 5 months agoin reply to this

      I’m taking some advice from here. Thank you for these suggestions Solaras.

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