{"id":309,"date":"2024-05-20T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherylroll.com\/niche-blogging-new-google-reality-strategies-440595\/"},"modified":"2024-05-20T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T13:00:00","slug":"niche-blogging-new-google-reality-strategies-440595","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylroll.com\/niche-blogging-new-google-reality-strategies-440595\/","title":{"rendered":"Niche blogging in the new Google reality: 5 strategies to thrive or die"},"content":{"rendered":"
If you are a niche blogger focused on building a site on which the majority source of your income is display ads from Google, 2024 has not<\/strong> been kind to you.<\/p>\n From Facebook to Reddit to X, the talk of the Internet in blogging has been the utter wasteland of decimated traffic patterns caused by Google updates. Thousands of blogs from every possible niche are down as much as 90% in traffic, with no recovery in sight.<\/p>\n How did we get to this point?<\/p>\n First, sites were hit with the September 2023 helpful content update (HCU)<\/a>. This continued with the double whammy of the March 2024 core update<\/a>, which contained an evolved HCU classifier (now baked within other core algorithmic adjustments), along with a spam update that ran concurrently.<\/p>\n The last HCU update in 2023 was advertised by Google as impacting sites with identified unhelpful content<\/a>. Those sites had a classifier assessed against them at the site-level causing rankings and visibility to plummet.<\/p>\n Usually, for recoveries to happen, impacted site owners must make dramatic changes to their site, content, UX and bottom-line quality. This allows the site-wide classifier to be removed and the site can then “bounce back.”<\/p>\n For those negatively affected by past HCU updates, data showed impacted sites suffered from a plethora of shared issues<\/a> that, if corrected, should have resulted in sites bouncing back in 2024 when the classifier was again re-run.<\/p>\n However, when the new March core update was introduced, the previous HCU classifier had evolved, and Google retired that original algorithm<\/a> and replaced it with multiple systems. These multiple systems were all designed to further assess the overall “quality and helpfulness of site content” as part of the main core update calculations.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, instead of seeing any<\/strong> recoveries for sites affected by the previous September HCU negative classifier, we have seen continued hammering of both existing sites and the addition of tens of thousands of newly impeached sites.<\/p>\n That loss in traffic also means a loss in ad income and for a content creator whose niche blog may be the sole source of income for their family, the effects have been devastating.<\/p>\n There has not been a week in 2024 during which I have not received at least one email from a blogger in dire straits, bemoaning the loss of their livelihood due to these recent updates.<\/p>\n Most ask the same question: “Is there hope of recovery, or should I pack it in and quit?”<\/p>\n The goal of this article is to provide some alternatives while we wait for Google to sort out its issues. I and other SEOs believe Google is “broken,” and this most recent update was overbroad and overzealous and did not<\/strong> improve search quality for the majority of queries.<\/p>\n Hopefully, some kind of rollback in the future is coming. <\/p>\n But if it doesn’t, I am offering these strategies to put your efforts toward in 2024 to build new traffic sources and keep a blog alive as a viable income stream for you and your family.<\/p>\n Introduced by author Gay Hendricks in his 2009 book “The Big Leap,” the zone of genius concept postulates that everyone has unique strengths that they should focus on within their business to achieve lasting success. All other areas are best delegated to third parties or qualified professionals.<\/p>\n The average blogger wears many hats. However, the need to do everything can lead to exhaustion, split focus and dashed expectations. <\/p>\n To overcome this, bloggers need to understand their strengths, invest time in those efforts and focus on letting go in other areas.<\/p>\n For example, I am personally terrible with accounting, so I do not keep my own books and I do not do my own taxes. I have professionals for that. It’s the same for email marketing. It’s not my zone of genius, so I rarely speak on the topic and have experts I consult when I have questions.<\/p>\n Instead, my zone of genius is in site auditing and live training of bloggers on accepted best SEO practices. And I spend the majority of my time weekly doing those two things at scale.<\/p>\n A great way to take a personal inventory of individual strengths and find your own zone of genius is to fill out a worksheet that breaks down the areas into competency zones. Here’s a simple Zone of Genius worksheet<\/a> that is free to download. <\/p>\n You may want to even go a step further and put a dollar amount next to the issues you like doing and those you do not. Each of us should have an idea of our hourly worth. <\/p>\n Now, apply that figure to those individual tasks. How much would you pay to get those non-enjoyable tasks done?<\/p>\n For example, if your time is worth $199 an hour and something that takes you eight hours can be done by someone else at half the price in half the time, that’s an investment most of us would make.<\/p>\n Understanding your zone of genius is imperative<\/strong> for content creators looking to build new channels for their blog and best invest their limited time and resources into processes and endeavors that will move their niche blogging efforts forward.<\/p>\n It’s common for Google to be the top source of traffic for the average blogger. The downside is that when things go “wrong” with Google, the hit in traffic and income can be devastating.<\/p>\n Diversifying traffic sources is just smart business. <\/p>\n For the average blogger, the following are just a few of the viable traffic sources that should be prioritized in 2024:<\/p>\n Google can certainly feel like the only game in town for bloggers who lose half their income overnight. <\/p>\n However, investing time and energy into multiple channels above can result in solid returns. And in most cases, it’s easier.<\/p>\n Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStrategy 1: Recognize your zone of genius <\/h2>\n
Strategy 2: Concentrate on social and non-Google traffic sources<\/h2>\n
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