Google Screwed You - 27 Talking Points

SEO
41

@jenny Yep, that's what I was trying to say (not very well, hahahaha) a few weeks ago,

I keep PERSONAL Linkedins.

The business page is more geared towards INTERNAL Linkedin traffic.

The personal page and the "pulse" (write article) option is more geared towards ranking in the search engines.

And I've had "shares" also rank in the search engines (it's ridiculous, it's a 10-word share to a Medium article, and the "share" is ranking at number 6 for the keyword, my Medium article in ranking in the Featured Snippet, and the original article on my site is ranking about position 1,000,000, 🤣🤣🤣)

42

@partha Is it best for me to continue with my personal LinkedIn page and share my posts vs share them on my business page??

Or do I share on both ( but that would be overkill 😆)?

I did just start the business page maybe a week or 2 ago, so I shall see how it goes.

43

@jenny I had the same question Jenny, but then I saw you asked it.

I would really like to use my business page and not my personal profile, so @partha, does it make any difference?

Also, what's the advantage of sharing a Medium article to LinkedIn instead of sharing the original article on our website? You said that even this small share post on LinkedIn sometimes ranks for the keyword, but wouldn't that also happen if you share the article on your website?

Or could it be that the DA of the destination website also impacts the ranking of the LinkedIn share post?

44

@yusuf "Are there a lot of people who do this?"

Depends how many people think like me and the "level of knowledge" of the people you are selling to.

If I purchase backlinks, first thing I do is put the site through ahrefs/semrush and view the last 24 months for both traffic and DA (DR in ahrefs).

Massive spikes in DR/DA means it's been manipulated, so I won't touch it.

Massive drops in traffic means it's been hit with a penalty, I won't touch it.

I did say that the method was "dirty as hell", and not very ethical.

However, in the nicest possible way (I'm not being nice at all, hahahaha!!), many buyers on places like Fiverr are "ripe for the picking", i.e they don't know the industry very well, they are that clued up about things, so essentially you're taking advantage of their "stupidity".

Then it all comes down to your copywriting skills in selling your backlinks.

However, the best thing about this method, especially if you have a few sites in similar niches is you can offer NICHE-SPECIFIC BACKLINKS (only if it's a popular niche, as an example, Old Fluff and I have 3 food-related websites together, so this would be perfect for those, i.e. selling backlinks just to people in the food and recipe niche<--- looks far more legitimate that people "just selling backlinks", then you use your copywriting skills to sell the importance of niche relevant backlinks).

Your DA/DR is manipulated through a variety if backlinks, mainly high DA web 2.0 properties, and then tier 2 backlinks (backlinks to your backlinks) from "wikis" and "edu" sites.

Will it improve your ranking in Google? NOPE, it will either absolutely kill your website in Google's eyes for at least a few years, or they will completely ignore all the backlinks.

BUT

DA and DR are 3rd party metrics (not Google's, Google has a "hidden" PR 1-10 system), so your website will remain at a high DA to anyone who checks (you just don't want SEO pros checking, although most pros won't use Fiverr for "money site" backlinks, but rather tier 2 backlinks)

As I've mentioned, it's straight out blackhat and unethical, and in reality it won't do much to boost the other person's site, the likelihood is the backlinks will just be ignored.

However, if you have a few sites, you can definitely "manipulate DA" and then use your sites for tier 2 backlinks to send to articles on places like Reddit, Quora, Medium, Linkedin, and even the large Chess site you often write on (as I mentioned, spammy backlinks WORK when you send them to high DA sites, but they will kill a low authority website = low authority websites get very few backlinks, so it's easy to spot spam, high DA websites, get millions of backlinks every month, so it's not noticed)

Again, the practice is unethical, you;re not really helping anyone, just getting some money back in your pocket from your dead website!

45

@partha Makes perfect sense Partha.

It's not for me then. Thanks for being so blunt and honest about it.

46

@partha Thank you!
I was not using AI on Medium.
It looks like they thought 3 party was using my Medium account because I wrote a article about one company, for me Icelandic travel site, because it has one of top 3 show in Iceland.
That company had of course nothing to do with it except it allow me to use their photos which I did in mix of my own.
I complained about it, and they fixed it, but after a little, we are not sure of the tone!
But as you told me, and Diane, I can cope/paste it, I will start there.
Sports gear are in problem on Facebook, I at least, but the travel site love it! So I start with Medium and wait for your wise words about Reddit! :slight_smile:

47

@ohnoo_not_her Yeah, I think it was the AI.

I tell you what I think did it, firstly, we had the people moaning about it on the post, so perhaps someone reported me/you, and so they were keeping a close eye on us.

Then when I created the subreddit, the 2nd post was about "painting" (the article I published on Linkedin), and I used a couple of images from your "how to fix a bad paint job" article, the dollhouses with chipped paint<--- I now think these were also AI-generated... yes/no?

So, after probably reported I then added another post with a couple of AI images in it.. and BOOM!!

Lesson learned!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

p.s. "lairy" is NOT a compliment 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 EXCEPT when it comes from ME... cos I love it, I find it so funny it makes my day!! LOL! Diane and I used to PM each sometimes at WA, "Quick, go and read this post and stick up for Lizzy, she's biting everyone's head off and shouting at people!!! Hahahahaha!!" BUT, as I say, I found it brilliant, I loved it!! LOL!

48

@jenny I dunno!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Okay, I'll be honest, I've just "shared" stuff to Linkedin for about 7 years now, never engaged on the platform, never interacted with anyone, etc.

But, I started noticing a lot of Linkedin in the SERPs after the September 2023 HCU and especially during the March 2024 Core Update, so I started "properly" using Linkedin then.

Right, this is how I see it (with my limited experience of the platform)

Quick "lesson", Jenny, hahahaha!!

All social media platforms are that, SOCIAL, in the same way you have probably "normally" used something like Facebook to chat daily with friends, share photos of you and family, add "check-ins", like and comment on other people's statuses, just to be "social".

So, this is what ALL social media platforms are actually there for.

Now, Linkedin is still a social platform, but probably became initially "famous" as the "get a job" social media platform, LOL!

So, it was a place for potential employers and potential employees to "hook up".

So, as in the "normal world", when you are looking for a job, you bathe and clean yourself (hopefully, you do that every day!!! hahahaha), you put on your best clothes, you brush hair all pretty, you make sure you smell nice, and then you go off to that job interview "practicing" what you're gonna say the whole way there).

This is what we do, so in the "linkedin world" the way of "making yourself look clean and smart" is to create a business profile, so potential employers INSIDE LINKEDIN will hopefully notice you and offer you a job, etc.

So, even though "business" sounds as though it's aimed at the entire internet (which it is ALSO), it's mainly aimed at the millions of people INSIDE LINKEDIN.

Therefore, business pages "get rewarded by the Linkedin Algorithm" MORE than "personal pages".

Business pages can still do well in Google as well, BUT, what we are currently seeing ranking in Google is the old "pulse", now replaced by "write articles" on your profile, articles and now also shares, i.e. click on the social media icon next to my website or medium article and "share" to Linkedin.

Does "personal" or "business" perform better in Google?

That I can't answer personally, never used business.

All I can say is, that I use PERSONAL accounts and now have "articles" and "shares" ranking on the first page of Google in a variety of niches.

Should you share on business too? I dunno, never used it, LOL!

All I'll say is, you were ALREADY having some semblance of success BEFORE you asked the question a couple of weeks ago, so in my mind, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Now, I realise I could have said all of the above in about 30 words.. but, I didn't feel like it!! 🤣🤣🤣

49

[quote data-userid="22" data-postid="526"]

(wow , i can finally use that word on a platform hahaha)

[/quote]

🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

50

@partha Hey Partha ... very interesting thread! Thank you for all the time you're putting in here 😎

51

@partha Every response with you is like an essay, hahahah! Like you I never interacted with anyone on LinkedIn, I just basically shared my posts on my personal profile, and kind of felt like it really wasn't suitable because I was sharing dog articles on a business platform, LOL! But, I didn't care, I figured what do I have to lose. But, I was started to get some engagement.

It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I noticed other people in the dog niche using a business page, so I figured it might be best to use a business page. Again, it's too early to tell, but I'll carry on with it.

52

@jenny Hi Jenny

May I ask you? So you just put your content from your website to Linkedin business profile?

Just copy paste or is there a way the same like in Medium?

Thank you

Nat

53

@nat HI Nat, To be honest, I haven't written any articles on LinkedIn yet, so I don't know. I have only ever shared a link to my post on my website, in which I just write a brief paragraph to entice people to click on the link.

But, I would imagine sharing/writing an article on LinkedIn would be similar to Medium.

Hopefully, Partha or someone else has a better answer.

Jenny.

54

@jenny ah great. That is also a good idea. Thank you, Jenny

55

[quote data-userid=“5” data-postid=“568”]

[quote data-userid="22" data-postid="526"]

(wow , i can finally use that word on a platform hahaha)

[/quote]

🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

[/quote]

What? I even say it in Dutch in every day life hahahahahaha!

56

@partha yeah indeed, those chipped paint dollhouses were AI as well, wow! Who knew that they would make such a fuss about that on Reddit, while I have read that Googles AI is going to use Reddit as well for it, whaaaat?
Gosh, I didn’t realize I was shouting over there hahahaha! I don’t think that at the moment, 2 guys over there like me that much, 1 one of them even started following me, to see what I’m saying to people I think hahahaha!
Oh well…

57

[quote data-userid="22" data-postid="588"]

What? I even say it in Dutch in every day life hahahahahaha!

[/quote]

Sometimes, only profanity will do 😆

58

[quote data-userid="3" data-postid="509"]

if you're doing “longtail keyword research” with the sole purpose of ranking your articles in Google, then you are WRITING FOR SEARCH ENGINES.

[/quote]

I think this is a difficult one to accept. But we must accept it.

Like many others, my motivation to work on my site plummeted after the September HCU but I wanted to keep the site active with the little time I have to devote to this.

So I've completely embraced 'writing for humans' since January and committed to one post a week where I collate a selection of the week's news in my niche and also write a short opinion piece as the 'top story'. It's literally just to keep my site active with some fresh content.

It's a bit more work than I was counting on so I have now decided to use AI for some of the content - the opinion piece is still all my own work but I'm using Copilot to write the little 150 word summaries of the various news items I select.

To be honest, the quality of the AI content is pretty bloody good in my opinion. I'm not sure how Google would know the difference! I see a lot of 'journalistic' content which is really poor - looks like a 6 year old wrote it!

So no more keyword research and purely writing for humans. I'm pretty sure Google has no idea how to classify my posts now, as far as the overall topic goes (because there isn't one!). Maybe G will just consider it a news page.

My hope is that over time, as the percentage of human content begins to outweigh the 'WSE' content (Writing for Search Engines) then maybe Google will start to send me some love again.

But I guess until the classifier is dropped, it's a vain hope.

I've decided I want to keep my little site, long term because I can see it being a really nice hobby to spend time on. If it can generate an income as well then great.

In the meantime, diversification is the name of the game.

So my question is ... of all the possible avenues to follow (Medium, Pinterest, Reddit etc), as far as getting eyeballs on my site goes, which do we think is the best return on time invested?

Realistically, I get 2 hours a day to devote to my online activities. Some of that is time spent on my site.

I'm leaning towards Pinterest because the traffic does seem to be there and I think my niche would be a good fit for Pinterest but I'm interested in what others have done to successfully diversify and the return on time invested you think you've achieved (as far as traffic goes)?

I need to really focus my scarce time wisely ...

59

@nat I got the advice from Partha here in this cafe to write a summary of 5-700 words and post that on Linkedin. Then, you will have the link to the full article.

60

So, is LinkedIn a post or an article? I am confused about which is which. Long-form or short-form, forgive me for being clueless about all this. I'm starting to think about doing this rather than using Pinterest. I haven't done a thing, but PP has convinced me otherwise. Medium, I still don't understand it, I was poking around there today. I could not figure out where to post my article on both platforms. LinkedIn has two, right?

I need to watch some tutorials, perhaps on YouTube. I am a visual learner.