Count me in on the CTR project. Just note my time zone is East Coast US... But I am game for just about anything.
@lebogang22 We'll see how many people we get for CTR manipulation, as 35 would be the absolute minimum, but realistically, you probably need about 20 different people on 10 different days (200 people total, hence why people use software or services to do it), but let's see how many we get and go from there. If we try it on a page that s already ranked fairly well (top 20), it should make a difference with just 35 of us.
As for the Parasite SEO, that is something I mentioned in this thread>>
However, I then realised that there was no way I could get all the information across in a one-hour "chat".
So, the "$27 for a one-hour chat" has now changed to - I've written everything out in the form of a number of blog posts (still publishing), so this is like a "course", but really, just me writing like I usually do 🤣🤣 but with lots of instructions, images, videos, etc. So, basically, the "$27" gets you access to the entire "blog post course", and obviously you can chat with me, ask quesitons, ask for recommendations, feedback, etc. as well.
So, rather than just "One chat", you can follow along the "course" at your own speed and just ask me whatever you want, whenever you want.
@petedr93 Hey Pete,
It's easier (and more lazy, sorry, lol) to just copy my reply to Lebogang here:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
We'll see how many people we get for CTR manipulation, as 35 would be the absolute minimum, but realistically, you probably need about 20 different people on 10 different days (200 people total, hence why people use software or services to do it), but let's see how many we get and go from there. If we try it on a page that s already ranked fairly well (top 20), it should make a difference with just 35 of us.
As for the Parasite SEO, that is something I mentioned in this thread>>
However, I then realised that there was no way I could get all the information across in a one-hour "chat".
So, the "$27 for a one-hour chat" has now changed to - I've written everything out in the form of a number of blog posts (still publishing), so this is like a "course", but really, just me writing like I usually do 
but with lots of instructions, images, videos, etc. So, basically, the "$27" gets you access to the entire "blog post course", and obviously you can chat with me, ask quesitons, ask for recommendations, feedback, etc. as well.
So, rather than just "One chat", you can follow along the "course" at your own speed and just ask me whatever you want, whenever you want.
@ohnoo_not_her Sounds good, re CTR manipulation… and course, if you see my replies to Lebogang and Pete (it’s the same reply copy and pasted, hahahaha!!), hopefully that will all make sense.
@mrdon Hey Don,
That's all good, time zones don't really matter.
Basically, clickthrough manipulation is "let's pretend to be real searchers", much in the same way, SiteComments at WA is "let's pretend to be real searches interested in this topic".
So, all CTR manipulation is we get a number of us on different days to make a search for a keyword + website name, so we're trying to "associate" that keyword with that brand, and although are trying to stamp out this type of manipulation (any type of manipulation really), they are very big on brands, and brand searches.
The software that does means you can be quite "aggressive", but you have to use your brain and play the game, BOOM! LOL!
As in, there's no way a website that's been online for 2 months is suddenly going to get 50 branded keyword searches a day, whereas, a high authority website that's been online for about 5 years can probably easily get 500+ branded kewyord searches a day (somewhere like Reddit probably gets over 10,000,000 branded keyword searches A DAY!).
So, all we're doing is "pretending" we're "real searchers", so "real searchers" would generally come from various parts of the world, and spend differing amounts of time reading an article, and some would click a link, some won't.
Therefore, it could something like:
"Diane you do the search on Thursday, any time you like, spend 8 minutes in the article, click at least 2 links, and if there's a YouTube video on the blog post, watch it for 1 minute 17 seconds. Don, you also do a search on Thursday, spend 2 minutes and 45 seconds on the blog post, watch the video for 38 seconds, don't click any links within the article, but click onto one of the menu items, and then spend 5 minutes 32 seconds there. Lizzy you do the search on Friday, blah, blah, blah, etc."
You get the drift, so we're just mimicking real searchers making branded searches, and obviously it even helps to have a few "fails" in there too, e.g. did a branded search, but left the website after 9 seconds, but didn't click anything else in the search results.
@partha I presume you would set up a spreadsheet for this, that we all had access to, otherwise, it’s going to be chaos to track!
I'm not sure I understand what to do (per CTR manipulation) but I'm willing to participate :)
Sounds interesting.
Hi everybody from that other "platform."
KP
@diane That’s a really good idea. And I don’t think it has to all be done by Partha. If we can get the group together, anyone who is particularly nifty with spreadsheets can create one and then we can each populate it with our days and times.
@lebogang22 To be honest, although I like that idea, I suspect that people would prefer to be told what to do and when, rather than working it out for themselves!
So, maybe have the spreadsheet set up pre-populated for the entire month, and color-coded cells for each day, that people could change when they have completed their task?
Just thinking out loud!
@jenny Jenny, cos I know you, I've got 3 words for you
DON'T DO IT!!!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Okay, realistically, if you were being "squeaky clean" and "going by the rules" ("the rules", which we are now starting to see are pretty much made up to suit what Google wants) then you would only change the date if you made a "major change" to that blog post.
Then, in keeping with being "squeaky clean" you may have a note so that your readers understand why there are comments on an earlier date than publication (I would argue that most niches outside of MMO/affiliate marketing, i.e. WE/US/affiliate marketers are "trained" to "spot" these things, but most "non MMO people" won't even realise, even if/when they do read the comments), OR, I know that you write in the "updated date" on your posts, so you changed that to "originally published".
OR
Simply, don't change the date on the blog post and let readers know the "updated date" whenever you make a "major change" to that blog post.
The above is the "squeaky clean", "I'm by the book, Google, I love you,please give me my traffic back!!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 version of how to do things.
The main plugins used to do this are NOT following "Google's guidelines", i.e DON'T try to manipulate "freshness" of your content by changing the published date WITHOUT increasing the "value" of the blog post!!
How's following Google's rules thus far working out for ya?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 (I'm not laughing AT you, I've had sites absolutely decimated over the last 21 months)
Anyway, so one plugin is RevivePress, you can use it for free, and the paid version, about $29/year, you can republish blog ppsts to today's date and it will automatically share the post to Twitter/X and Linkedin (the free version just republishes blog posts to today's date, NO sharing).
So, a lot of people are setting it to one hour frequency, having 24 articles republished per day, while spamming the hell out of Twitter/X and Linkedin 🤣🤣🤣🤣 with 48 "shares" in total EVERY 24 HOURS... and seeing their rankings in Google IMPROVE (it won't last forever, LOL).
And the other one is Jacky Chou from Indexy, his Revive .so
I think it's $29 per month (and $99/month for unlimited websites), and you put your ChatGPT/Open AI key into it, and then it with republish blog posts to today's date and rewrite the first paragrah of every republish. BUT, no sharing to social media, it just rewrites the first paragraph.
If you're doing THIS then you're really not worried about the blog post publish date and the comments date, you're simply trying to "manipulate" freshness.
So, "squeaky clean" and "by the book", NO, don't do it, just be aware that those who are... it's improving rankings... (again, I will say, for NOW!)
Now, STOP shaking your head, moaning about the length of the reply, while laughing!!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
p.s. the plugins could stop working after a while with "some hosting", as some hosts may have some type of caching that blocks scheduling plugins, so you may need to speak to your hosting support!!
[quote data-userid=“57” data-postid=“1000828”]
anyone who is particularly nifty with spreadsheets
[/quote]
I work with spreadsheets 8 hours a day so I'm up for it. Could use GPT to spit out the semi-randomised actions members would need to follow.
My only limiting factor is time but I'm up early (5am usually) to get some IM work done before the drudgery begins!
@diane Yep, a spreadsheet could help...
Am I giving the people here too much credit????? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Are we over complicating THIS??
ONE person has to follow ONE INSTRUCTION
"Go to google, type this website name and keyword into the google search bar, press enter, click on the article in question, bloody read it, that is you DONE for this ENTIRE experiment!!"
ONE PERSON = ONE TIME ONLY
But, if you think people need a spreadhseet to do a Google search and read an article, I'm ALL FOR IT!!!! (How much do you wanna punch me now!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣)
[quote data-userid=“3” data-postid=“1000834”]
@diane Yep, a spreadsheet could help...
Am I giving the people here too much credit????? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Are we over complicating THIS??
ONE person has to follow ONE INSTRUCTION
"Go to google, type this website name and keyword into the google search bar, press enter, click on the article in question, bloody read it, that is you DONE for this ENTIRE experiment!!"
ONE PERSON = ONE TIME ONLY
But, if you think people need a spreadhseet to do a Google search and read an article, I'm ALL FOR IT!!!! (How much do you wanna punch me now!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣)
[/quote]
Yeah, but, knowing how to organize something in a group, the hardest part will be figuring out a date for everyone :-p (especially with the different time zones I think)
@partha You complicated it, lol, by suggesting one person reads for 8 minutes, clicks 2 links and another person reads it for 2 minutes, doesn't click anything, etc.
We can't all read it on the same day, for the same length of time, and click the same number of links!
It needs to look random and genuine, yes?
So, people need to know when it's their time, etc
@partha Wow, Partha do you talk this much in real life?!! 😆😆
I do appreciate your response and for sharing the plugins.
For now I will hold off on manipulating freshness and will stick to my squeaky clean method, which is revamping my old blog posts as many of them need a complete overhaul and sticking to the updated date at the top of the blog post, then sharing them to social media.
@partha Hi Partha,
As my articles don't appear on SERP anymore, I don't care about Google and concentrate on other forms of traffic, like you said. YouTube is the only one doing well, but I can't put backlinks to my site while I'm new. Pinterest is giving me very few clicks, is not even worth mentioning it. The same Flipboard. On Medium my articles are not read at all.
I would like to ask you a few questions regarding what you just wrote.
1. Fresh published date- When I was updating old articles, on some of them I changed the published date, but not on many as I was worried about manual penalty from Google. So how is it? Should I do it or not? Will my website not be totally penalized for that?
2. How do I get backlinks to my site? I always did it through guest posts but takes a long time and I had DA 17, now dropped to 12. What exactly is this Parasite SEO and the backlinks you are talking about? Is it the Black Hat way and can your website be punished eventually for that?
I will be attending a course for Pinterest and Facebook pages in the coming months, so I'm hoping to move on. So far only YouTube is my hope.
Thank you so much for clarification
Nat
@nat Just a quick note about Youtube when you're new. You can get verified with your ID or face recognition and then you can place your links on it, you don't need to wait for this. BUT make sure to use face identification with your phone, because the ID identification is horrible, got rejected twice and then you need to wait another month to try again. Don't make the same frustration mistake I made haha!
Lizzy
@ohnoo_not_her Hello Lizzy,
Really? I didn't know that. I thought YouTube would punish you if you placed the links as they want people to stay on Youtube and not go outside.
So where do you do that? I went through all the settings just now and didn't find anything like this.
Thank you
Nat
Edit: What I found now is that you can add links inside the videos if you are a verified YouTube partner. But to apply you have to have 4k watched hours and 1k subscribers.
I added links in the description before, but I was told not to do it at the beginning until I'm monetizing as YouTube can punish you for that.
Hi - your YouTube channel would do even better if you took the time to create custom thumbnails for your videos.
Remember, with YouTube, you have to "stop the scroll" - your thumbnail has to grab attention within 2 seconds!
And ideally have text, so potential viewers know instantly what it's about.
Looking at your competitors, they have a huge amount of views, so it's a great niche with tons of potential.
Anyway, here is a thumbnail I created for your video on Prague, my favorite city!
Try experimenting with them, and see if it makes a difference.
@diane Hello Diane,
Thank you so much, Diane. Can I use this image as a thumbnail for the video?
Yes, you are right. I learned that in one course I attended, so I started to implement this and one video reached 6.8k views.
Yours is very beautiful. Thank you for your inspiration. Did you create it in Canva?
PS: I live in Prague. Let me know when you are visiting, would love to meet. :)