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Google Algorithm Update Destroyed My Traffic - Need Expert SEO Advice

MapsandMeanings

New Contributor
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May 31, 2017
42
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43
Florida
Hello Everyone,

About a year and half ago I started a side website after my passion...music/guitars.

The intent was for it to start as an affiliate blog site and then morph into an authority site with my own courses and such.

February of this year it peaked at 8-10k impressions per day with about 100 blog posts.

Then the google algorithm update occurred. I knew google wouldn't be kind to me but it basically decimated my traffics slowly with it hitting an all time low last week.

I knew something was fundamentally wrong. The pages are indexed for sure just not coming up on keyword searches as they have been.

The sites ratio was 80/20 affiliate posts vs informational posts. I'm assuming the lack of DA along with most posts just sending people to Amazon was the reasoning (only guesses here).

My new focus moving forward is going to be informational posts along with my own products as I never wanted to rely on Amazon anyway.

The challenge is I need help and I'm seeking out assistance from companies/individuals and I'm getting all different types of opinions as to what the site needs.

Some will say the plan of action should be strictly informational posts for 6-9 months and then adding banner ads.

Others say to get rid of all the affiliate links in the old posts (80 plus affiliate link posts) and rewrite the content.

Another said the problem is the site speed and the toxic backlinks that need disavowing.

I don't mind spending money as since I'm a one man show, I need help as I'm also working full-time.

So my question is to those experts out there what do I believe? I want at least some yield for the services I would try to obtain.

My site is Home - guitarexclusive.com if anyone would like to scope it out and provide some feedback.

I appreciate anyone's time and feedback.
 
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thomasdao

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First of all, not trying to be harsh or anything but this is not an SEO forum.

About your problem, I don't see anything but part of a process. Deal with it and move on.

So my question is to those experts out there what do I believe?
You already asked many experts already, and I saw some good suggestions. But like many thing in SEO, the only way to know for sure is to test it yourself. Or you can pay for someone to look at your site and recover it for you.
 

SEBASTlAN

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Did you run an audit on it? There's many tools out there to see where you're coming up short:
- SeoSiteCheckup
- Seobility
- Seomator

I can already tell from your homepage title tag that you haven't identified the keywords you want to target. Maybe take a SEO course to cover all bases?
 

loop101

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First of all, not trying to be harsh or anything but this is not an SEO forum.

About your problem, I don't see anything but part of a process. Deal with it and move on.


You already asked many experts already, and I saw some good suggestions. But like many thing in SEO, the only way to know for sure is to test it yourself. Or you can pay for someone to look at your site and recover it for you.

Where did he already ask for SEO advice and get suggestions?
 
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MapsandMeanings

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May 31, 2017
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Florida
Did you run an audit on it? There's many tools out there to see where you're coming up short:
- SeoSiteCheckup
- Seobility
- Seomator

I can already tell from your homepage title tag that you haven't identified the keywords you want to target. Maybe take a SEO course to cover all bases?
Good suggestions. I appreciate it!
 

MapsandMeanings

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
May 31, 2017
42
14
43
Florida
First of all, not trying to be harsh or anything but this is not an SEO forum.

About your problem, I don't see anything but part of a process. Deal with it and move on.


You already asked many experts already, and I saw some good suggestions. But like many thing in SEO, the only way to know for sure is to test it yourself. Or you can pay for someone to look at your site and recover it for you.
I think this is a forum for a variety of business related topics. Why wouldn't I think that SEO would fit that bill? LOL
 

Oso

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Jan 18, 2022
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Hello Everyone,

About a year and half ago I started a side website after my passion...music/guitars.

The intent was for it to start as an affiliate blog site and then morph into an authority site with my own courses and such.

February of this year it peaked at 8-10k impressions per day with about 100 blog posts.

Then the google algorithm update occurred. I knew google wouldn't be kind to me but it basically decimated my traffics slowly with it hitting an all time low last week.

I knew something was fundamentally wrong. The pages are indexed for sure just not coming up on keyword searches as they have been.

The sites ratio was 80/20 affiliate posts vs informational posts. I'm assuming the lack of DA along with most posts just sending people to Amazon was the reasoning (only guesses here).

My new focus moving forward is going to be informational posts along with my own products as I never wanted to rely on Amazon anyway.

The challenge is I need help and I'm seeking out assistance from companies/individuals and I'm getting all different types of opinions as to what the site needs.

Some will say the plan of action should be strictly informational posts for 6-9 months and then adding banner ads.

Others say to get rid of all the affiliate links in the old posts (80 plus affiliate link posts) and rewrite the content.

Another said the problem is the site speed and the toxic backlinks that need disavowing.

I don't mind spending money as since I'm a one man show, I need help as I'm also working full-time.

So my question is to those experts out there what do I believe? I want at least some yield for the services I would try to obtain.

My site is Home - guitarexclusive.com if anyone would like to scope it out and provide some feedback.

I appreciate anyone's time and feedback.
Hey. Did a quick 5 minute dig and after an initial assessment, I'd consider reworking your anchor text and keyword(s). I'd also consider re-editing your content, but something you can do immediately is add internal backlinks. Finally, it seems you're using WP. A lot of people use yoast seo with decent results.

There's quite a few free tools that'll run audits, measure content, etc. Perhaps it's something worth looking into.

Good luck!
 
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MapsandMeanings

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
May 31, 2017
42
14
43
Florida
Hey. Did a quick 5 minute dig and after an initial assessment, I'd consider reworking your anchor text and keyword(s). I'd also consider re-editing your content, but something you can do immediately is add internal backlinks. Finally, it seems you're using WP. A lot of people use yoast seo with decent results.

There's quite a few free tools that'll run audits, measure content, etc. Perhaps it's something worth looking into.

Good luck!
Thank you so much! That's great advice and I will do just that. Appreciate the insight.
 

Zyzzz

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Hello Everyone,

About a year and half ago I started a side website after my passion...music/guitars.

The intent was for it to start as an affiliate blog site and then morph into an authority site with my own courses and such.

February of this year it peaked at 8-10k impressions per day with about 100 blog posts.

Then the google algorithm update occurred. I knew Google wouldn't be kind to me but it basically decimated my traffics slowly with it hitting an all time low last week.

I knew something was fundamentally wrong. The pages are indexed for sure just not coming up on keyword searches as they have been.

The sites ratio was 80/20 affiliate posts vs informational posts. I'm assuming the lack of DA along with most posts just sending people to Amazon was the reasoning (only guesses here).

My new focus moving forward is going to be informational posts along with my own products as I never wanted to rely on Amazon anyway.

The challenge is I need help and I'm seeking out assistance from companies/individuals and I'm getting all different types of opinions as to what the site needs.

Some will say the plan of action should be strictly informational posts for 6-9 months and then adding banner ads.

Others say to get rid of all the affiliate links in the old posts (80 plus affiliate link posts) and rewrite the content.

Another said the problem is the site speed and the toxic backlinks that need disavowing.

I don't mind spending money as since I'm a one man show, I need help as I'm also working full-time.

So my question is to those experts out there what do I believe? I want at least some yield for the services I would try to obtain.

My site is Home - guitarexclusive.com if anyone would like to scope it out and provide some feedback.

I appreciate anyone's time and feedback.
No offense but you brought this upon yourself. It seems you use AI content for some of your articles and you are focusing too much on revenue than providing value to your users.

Also, your backlink profile is nothing to write home about. DR 6 and you are competing against people spending 1000s of $ monthly on link building.

First of all if you don't have any budget to pay someone for SEO audit, sign up to ahrefs webmaster tools and connect your site via GSC. Once audited fix all seo issues and errors.

Once you are done with this, check the keywords you lost after the algorithm update. Check those ranking for those keywords and reverse engineer what they are doing.

Stop using AI content and update your existing articles to make sure they are in line with the search intent. Write more informational content (70/30). 70% helpful content and 30% affiliate content.

SEO is rapidly evolving and you have to adapt since you have no control over Google. Even after fixing everything you may not recover until the next algorithm update which may be around black Friday or Christmas time. Good luck.
 

MapsandMeanings

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
May 31, 2017
42
14
43
Florida
No offense but you brought this upon yourself. It seems you use AI content for some of your articles and you are focusing too much on revenue than providing value to your users.

Also, your backlink profile is nothing to write home about. DR 6 and you are competing against people spending 1000s of $ monthly on link building.

First of all if you don't have any budget to pay someone for SEO audit, sign up to ahrefs webmaster tools and connect your site via GSC. Once audited fix all seo issues and errors.

Once you are done with this, check the keywords you lost after the algorithm update. Check those ranking for those keywords and reverse engineer what they are doing.

Stop using AI content and update your existing articles to make sure they are in line with the search intent. Write more informational content (70/30). 70% helpful content and 30% affiliate content.

SEO is rapidly evolving and you have to adapt since you have no control over Google. Even after fixing everything you may not recover until the next algorithm update which may be around black Friday or Christmas time. Good luck.
No offense taken. This is exactly what I needed to hear.

Great advice. Thank you!
 
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