the google update that destroyed 4 of their websit with timestamps YoutubeScribe.com

[0:00] imagine being featured as a Google
[0:01] success story only to have them tank
[0:03] your sight's traffic the very next day
[0:05] we actually had a photographer in here
[0:07] shooting in our kitchen and the next day
[0:09] we woke up and we had lost 75% of our
[0:12] traffic and Google Revenue overnight
[0:15] Google search algorithm updates have
[0:17] crushed countless small businesses and
[0:19] Charleston crafted was no exception felt
[0:21] like everything we had worked for for a
[0:23] decade had just been taken away from us
[0:26] it was very much a hit on my self-esteem
[0:28] like I wasn't actually good at what I
[0:30] thought I was good at Google even flew
[0:32] Morgan to their headquarters to hear her
[0:34] story but despite their explanations she
[0:36] left with no real answers and more
[0:39] importantly no clear path forward they
[0:41] said you have done nothing wrong this
[0:43] was not the intention everyone who is
[0:45] here has a good website they owe us an
[0:47] explanation and they owe us recourse I
[0:50] do not want to have a business that's
[0:51] dependent on Google
[0:55] anymore hi how's it going I'm Morgan I
[0:58] am half of charlson crafted we share DIY
[1:02] home renovation ideas woodworking builds
[1:05] and projects you can do to craft your
[1:07] home into your dream home you want to
[1:09] build a step stool let's do it I worked
[1:12] for the federal government for 11 years
[1:14] doing public relations and social media
[1:16] so then with things like woodworking is
[1:18] this something that you've been doing
[1:19] since you were a kid or like no I'm
[1:21] completely self-taught everything I've
[1:23] learned in this business has just been
[1:25] through trial and error and a couple of
[1:27] YouTube videos when I need them so ready
[1:29] to stand up on it kind of
[1:34] nervous look at that it's good to go
[1:37] what do you feel makes charlest and
[1:39] crafted unique so we really focus on
[1:41] very doable DIY projects and of course
[1:45] so much of what makes it unique is just
[1:48] us and our story and our family is woven
[1:50] into everything we do we don't build
[1:52] things just to build them because we
[1:54] think it'll be a hit everything we make
[1:56] is to serve our family and to serve our
[1:58] home and so our story is really tied
[2:00] into our work as well Morgan and Sean
[2:02] started their blog as a passion project
[2:04] but soon realized it had the potential
[2:06] to become something more a business that
[2:08] would change the course of their lives
[2:10] our first sponsor project was for cat
[2:12] food and they paid us $100 I can't even
[2:15] tell you how excited we were I told
[2:17] everybody I knew that we got paid money
[2:19] to put something on the Internet and we
[2:21] did that for a few years we were putting
[2:23] out five blog posts a week it was a lot
[2:25] of work and so it kind of got to a make
[2:26] or break point for us cuz we both worked
[2:28] full-time we had to either start making
[2:30] a little money or just peel back on the
[2:31] amount of work we're putting into it cuz
[2:33] even at that level it is a lot of work
[2:35] at a Crossroads unsure whether to go all
[2:37] in Morgan attended a DIY creators
[2:40] conference hoping for direction what she
[2:43] found were game-changing strategies that
[2:45] could transform her site's future I
[2:47] didn't know how people got ads on their
[2:49] websites that never even occurred to me
[2:51] but we met medine we got ads on our
[2:52] websites and we were automatically
[2:54] making multiple thousand dollars a month
[2:56] I took a class on SEO I never had heard
[2:58] of SEO before I didn't know anything
[3:00] about it going to that conference was
[3:02] the turning point where we realized that
[3:05] we could keep doing what we were already
[3:06] doing but actually earn money off of it
[3:09] armed with their new found skills Morgan
[3:11] was ready to put them to the test what
[3:13] happened next was beyond anything she
[3:15] had imagined a near instant success
[3:18] during Co there was this big viral thing
[3:20] where people were making squirrel picnic
[3:21] tables we saw as an opportunity this is
[3:23] the first time we ever kind of hopped on
[3:25] a trend people saw it on Tik Tok looked
[3:27] it up on Google how to build a squirrel
[3:29] picnic table found our plans signed up
[3:31] for our email list I mean our traffic
[3:33] was huge and it really showed us the
[3:36] realities of going viral what that can
[3:40] mean in 2023 when you were reaching kind
[3:43] of the peak of that traffic Point how
[3:45] much were you making then last year we
[3:47] made about
[3:48] $325,000 about half was ad Revenue I
[3:51] mean it's like four times how much money
[3:53] we made when we were both working it
[3:54] empowered me when my son was born in
[3:56] 2018 I was a CPA and I was able to quit
[3:59] my job be home with him so it changed my
[4:01] life in that way for the better so the
[4:03] it sounds like the recipe you took was
[4:06] to create blog content based on search
[4:09] focused topics and then to optimize that
[4:11] page and then it was just a repeatable
[4:13] machine that was printing cash for you
[4:16] yes Morgan had found a formula for
[4:18] Success so she doubled down so I created
[4:21] a new website which is celebrating with
[4:22] kids I had a lot of kids toy reviews
[4:24] kids crafts I created a website about
[4:26] house plant care and a website about
[4:28] paint color a lot of lot of people
[4:30] thought I was a little bit nuts for
[4:31] doing that and for managing that
[4:33] especially without a team I mean that is
[4:35] what I've learned in this business if
[4:36] you find something that's working lean
[4:38] into it as hard as you possibly can and
[4:40] then be willing to Pivot when something
[4:42] quits working just when everything
[4:44] seemed to be falling into place Google
[4:46] pulled the rug out from under them
[4:48] September of
[4:49] 2023 Google released the helpful content
[4:52] update in 10 years we had never been hit
[4:55] negatively at least significantly by a
[4:57] Google update overnight in September my
[5:01] three secondary websites lost 80% of
[5:04] their Google traffic and that was the
[5:06] same percentage of Revenue luckily
[5:08] Charleston crafted was Untouched by The
[5:11] Helpful content update you know I came
[5:12] up with a lot of ideas in my mind about
[5:14] why these sites were hit was it because
[5:16] they were newer was it because they were
[5:18] really made for Google content it was
[5:21] still real content but the intent was
[5:24] totally different than with Charleston
[5:26] crafted and it was really hard for me I
[5:28] took it very personally because this was
[5:31] my work this was a reflection of what I
[5:33] did and I think it was really something
[5:36] that I had convinced myself that I was
[5:39] really good at so to have the rug sort
[5:41] of pulled out from me felt like oh I
[5:43] guess I'm not that good if you had to
[5:46] use one word to describe what you were
[5:48] feeling in that time what would it be
[5:50] despair total despair because this was
[5:53] it this was like our whole
[5:56] basket we ended up pulling my son from
[5:59] the school we had him enrolled in
[6:01] because we felt like we didn't want to
[6:02] be on the hook for a large tuition it
[6:04] was stressful on my marriage my kids
[6:06] didn't understand my friends and family
[6:08] don't understand cuz they still don't
[6:09] understand how we even made money to
[6:10] begin with felt like everything we had
[6:12] worked for for a decade had just been
[6:14] taken away from us um and we hadn't done
[6:18] anything wrong they featured us as a
[6:21] Creator success story on their website
[6:23] the worst part was in March 2024 they do
[6:27] a economic report and it has a section
[6:29] on each state in the country and a
[6:31] business that has been profoundly
[6:32] affected by Google positively and we
[6:35] actually had a photographer in here
[6:36] shooting in our kitchen during the
[6:38] renovation and the next day we woke up
[6:41] and we had been hit by the March core
[6:43] update and we had lost on Charleston
[6:45] crafted 75% of our traffic and Google
[6:49] Revenue overnight I had this sort of
[6:52] false sense that we were really well
[6:54] Diversified business because we do ad
[6:56] Revenue we do affiliate sales sponsored
[6:58] work um we sell digital products but
[7:01] when the traffic went away people
[7:02] stopped buying digital products because
[7:04] they weren't landing on our site certain
[7:05] brands stopped wanting to work with us
[7:07] because we didn't have the traffic that
[7:08] they were looking for it affected
[7:10] everything when we lost the page views
[7:13] soon after the traffic decline Morgan
[7:15] received an invitation she never saw
[7:17] coming so I was invited to the Google
[7:20] Creator Summit I was flown out to
[7:23] California to go to their Google
[7:25] headquarters it was so empty so vacant
[7:27] when they took us on a tour it felt felt
[7:29] very much like here's Google here's all
[7:32] your traffic and the dust might blow by
[7:35] but we did get the opportunity to learn
[7:37] about Google search and share feedback
[7:39] on what we thought they could improve
[7:42] but while we were there they were very
[7:43] clear they said you have done nothing
[7:45] wrong this has been far more extreme
[7:48] than we intended everyone who is here
[7:50] has a good website and that sort of
[7:52] turned to switch in me in the way that I
[7:54] approached the rest of the day I went at
[7:56] it as I've done nothing wrong my content
[7:58] is good you've told me my my content is
[8:00] good Google's told me for years my
[8:01] content is good I'm not doing anything
[8:03] wrong the problem is with Google was
[8:05] there anything that Google said that
[8:08] resonated with you or that gave you hope
[8:10] for the Future No we were told
[8:13] September's traffic is not coming back
[8:15] and that meant September before the
[8:17] helpful content update even if your site
[8:20] appeared on Google again you were not
[8:22] going to get the same level of traffic
[8:23] you were getting before there's been so
[8:25] many changes in the search results
[8:27] there's AI overviews there's so many
[8:28] additional things in there you can
[8:30] scroll forever before you get to a Blue
[8:32] Link now I do not want to have a
[8:34] business that's dependent on Google
[8:36] anymore Morgan and Shawn had every
[8:39] reason to resent Google they'd taken
[8:41] away everything they'd built but
[8:43] ironically it was also the key to their
[8:45] success I wanted to show her that SEO
[8:48] didn't have to be an all or nothing
[8:49] gamble that there was a way to make it
[8:51] work on her terms can you kind of walk
[8:54] me through the process of of what you
[8:56] started doing here because even for the
[8:58] previous 8 years we don't see anything
[9:00] like this where we see a real growth
[9:02] trajectory yeah so I think we started
[9:04] choosing topics to write about based off
[9:06] of what we thought would perform well on
[9:08] Google I used search console primarily
[9:11] to see terms that we were ranking for so
[9:13] at that point in time I started putting
[9:15] out a lot more roundups so you'll see a
[9:18] lot of best different paint colors and
[9:20] wood stained colors yeah so we did a lot
[9:22] of wood test stain testing and then we
[9:25] took that content that we created and
[9:27] created a lot of different blog posts
[9:28] the best gray wood stains the best light
[9:31] brown wood stains the best dark brown
[9:32] wood stains same content just sort of
[9:34] organized in different groups I think
[9:36] that's really cool because naturally
[9:37] with any keyword you're trying to rank
[9:40] for there's always going to be
[9:41] competition and if 60% of your traffic
[9:43] is coming from two or three posts and
[9:45] somebody comes in out ranks you you've
[9:47] lost everything right like basically
[9:49] what you're doing is you're taking like
[9:50] an investment strategy of compounding
[9:52] growth M Morgan Had A Clear Vision for
[9:54] Charleston crafted and was implementing
[9:56] smart strategies but when I looked at
[9:58] her paint color
[9:59] I spotted an opportunity that just might
[10:02] help bring back some of her lost traffic
[10:05] oo um you went crazy on that content
[10:08] there huh yeah I cranked it out man I
[10:10] mean this site was making like $4 to
[10:12] $5,000 a month off entirely Google
[10:14] revenue from what I can see here is you
[10:17] have some affiliate links yes and you
[10:19] have ads are those the two ways that you
[10:22] you were making money through here and
[10:23] and digital products I have a whole shop
[10:25] oh really so you can see I sell I have
[10:27] 287 paint color p paletes wow so every
[10:30] blog post that is about a paint color
[10:32] you can purchase a palette I sell these
[10:33] every day they still selling oh yeah wow
[10:36] I sell $1,500 a month in these from the
[10:40] site from the site wow and you have like
[10:42] next to no traffic the subdomain still
[10:44] gets traffic oh it does I think that's
[10:47] the thing with e-commerce though is that
[10:48] you don't have to get a ton of traffic
[10:51] because it's so commercial the people
[10:52] who were there are there on purpose yes
[10:55] I set this up after the helpful content
[10:57] update um and they're all on Etsy too
[10:59] why don't you I don't know if this would
[11:02] work move your blog content to your
[11:06] subdomain it's diabolical well you don't
[11:10] have to move everything just like
[11:11] looking at some of these pages so like
[11:13] let's look at some of them that were at
[11:15] the
[11:16] peak so best green gray paint colors I
[11:20] don't see why you can't move this over
[11:22] to the subdomain I'll try um so with any
[11:26] kind of testing like what you want to do
[11:28] is you don't want to move everything as
[11:30] it was okay but do things in stages the
[11:32] way that I understand it is that Google
[11:35] treats main like your main rout domain
[11:38] and subdomains differently okay and
[11:39] there's these conspiracy theories that
[11:41] they're getting rid of affiliate sites
[11:43] and they're focusing on eCommerce sites
[11:45] cuz these are people who own the
[11:47] products and you already have an
[11:49] e-commerce store right so why not try to
[11:51] create content there and rather than
[11:53] focusing on
[11:55] monetizing through Affiliates MH
[11:59] focus on just selling what you have yeah
[12:02] and like if you could get just driving
[12:04] more views to those palettes and I bet
[12:07] you I bet you that if you got this
[12:09] traffic back or even half of it back to
[12:13] your subdomain but the focus is around
[12:15] promoting the palletes which you
[12:17] probably talk a lot about in the content
[12:18] anyway I bet you'll make more money from
[12:20] that than you would have through ads and
[12:21] affiliate combined that's a really cool
[12:23] idea yeah can't hurt to try I'm
[12:26] obviously biased to search like it's
[12:28] been a big part of my life since a very
[12:30] long time ago I've also gone through the
[12:33] motions of of losing a lot of traffic
[12:35] and a lot of money because I rely too
[12:37] heavily on search a a good way to look
[12:39] at search is you're not so much creating
[12:41] content for the search engine yes but
[12:43] for the people who use the search engine
[12:45] right because there's a lot of people
[12:47] who still want to find you hundreds of
[12:48] thousands millions of people I hope so I
[12:50] hope they can find me you're helping a
[12:52] lot of people out there I think so we
[12:54] get a lot of emails from people with
[12:56] pictures of projects they've done in
[12:58] their home because they had our
[12:59] instructions you know and I like it when
[13:02] people do a project for the first time
[13:04] and then they send us something else
[13:05] they did that wasn't necessarily
[13:07] following our instructions but by
[13:09] building a project with detailed
[13:11] instructions they were able to build the
[13:12] confidence so I know we're helping
[13:14] people I know it Google can't take that
[13:16] away from me but they can just take it
[13:19] away from the people we could be there
[13:20] to serve after spending the day with
[13:23] Morgan she left with hope and a plan
[13:25] ready to rebuild but just days later
[13:28] everything changed our site had seen a
[13:31] moderate recovery in the November core
[13:34] update and then the December core update
[13:36] hit and that was all gone and then some
[13:40] so we are down to just crumbs of Google
[13:44] traffic pretty much nothing left coming
[13:46] in from Google but despite the situation
[13:49] Morgan recognizes the value of the skill
[13:51] she gained and what they helped her
[13:52] build I would say that building our
[13:54] business on Google gave us a way to
[13:56] reach a lot of people and taught me a
[13:59] formula for creating content really
[14:02] consistently to get really comfortable
[14:04] analyzing my own data it definitely did
[14:06] teach me a lot about myself and about
[14:11] data especially if you want to learn how
[14:13] to get traffic from Google then watch
[14:15] our free SEO course for beginners right
[14:17] here on YouTube

本文档为站内渲染。原始文件本地路径：saas/source/seo/SEO-seo方法论-youtube-seo-scripts-ahrefs-scripts-the-google-upd-49dad0.txt（仅本地保留，不入库不部署）