“I’ve noticed something related to the decline in traffic after the HCU, and it seems to me that people aren’t discussing it enough,” writes Rebekah Edwards.
Websites offering services relevant to their content are winning.
I’ve started comparing our clients who succeed in Google with those who are losing and noticed an interesting trend:
1⃣ Sites offering nationwide, relevant services related to their content are getting more traffic to blog pages, and…
2⃣ Sites whose real business offers local services are seeing an increase in visits to pages with local services but a decrease in visits to pages aimed at a broader audience.
For example, one client is thrilled with the HCU – their traffic has almost doubled, and from analytics data, it’s clear that the September update played a significant role in this.
Their services are relevant to the entire US audience, so posts in their blog are specifically targeted to them.
Another of our sites with moderate earnings related to the HCU is also in the same boat, although their “services” are recipes and a mailing list, so they’re not as clearly defined.
They monetize through advertising and haven’t seen significant increases, but they’re steadily growing.
Two of our worst-performing sites are local medical facilities offering (or offered) services in the US.
However, they’re clearly local companies, with most patients located in the state/district where they’re located.
Both sites lost a lot of traffic in September (one more than the other).
Recently, I also consulted with two clients with niche sites, both of which lost ~90% in the HCU.
In both cases, there were no service offerings – only product reviews and related content in a specific niche.
I don’t have a large dataset, but I conclude that Google, as it better determines what is “useful,” may be penalizing brands that create online content but don’t have a related business beyond that content (accidentally or intentionally).
Does this align with what you’re seeing?