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Spotting Some HCU Recoveries in the Wild

It’s been a year since the Helpful Content Update which notoriously destroyed many independent publishers and niche sites.

While there have been some off the record, unofficial recoveries, the majority of HCU-weighted sites did not see any kind of recoveries with the latest core updates from Google. Most of these sites saw even bigger losses in March of this year.

Well, this week, we are starting to see a bit of a turnaround. Glenn Gabe reported on one site that looks like it’s making a full recovery.

The August Core Update begun August 15th. It’s still ongoing, but there is some hope for publishers again.

At least the ones who have managed to stick around. Of course, not all the ‘recoveries’ are this dramatic.

You have to zoom into many of these charts to see the upticks, but it looks like House Fresh is seeing some signs of growth:

Retro Dodo’s positivity is not as dramatic, but zoom in, there are signs of life again:

These are just a couple of the more ‘public’ sites, but there are many, many other HCU sites that have done the hard yards, improved their sites, kept publishing and have not seen any kind of increase, at least so far.

Of course, this is only part of the story.

Many publications couldn’t hang on after HCU.

The Story of Hardbacon

Just a few days before the August update, Hardbacon made the tough decision and public announcement that they were done, claiming bankruptcy, suspending all operations and closing up shop.

Today, the site does appear to have seen a bit of gains with this core update, but it looks like it’s a little too late, and not enough to save this company.

Sadly, Hardbacon's story echoes that of many publishers this year.

It’s really tough to keep publishing, to make improvements and to keep operations going on the promise of a better day. Not every publisher had the runway, or the means to find a meaningful pivot either.

I don’t really have a lesson in all of this except this: there are always going to be some winners, some losers in this digital game.

It’s up to us to keep figuring out where the new or better opportunities are. If you can learn to love the chase, the adventure of it all, you have a real shot of being around for longer.

This year has been a rough one. It’s been one of the most challenging years in my over a decade of digital business. And, yet it has also been one of my best years in the game as well.

Yes, both can be true at the same time.

It’s not just the Google stuff either that’s making this a challenging year.

There’s the macro economic picture, a return to a more budget conscious industry, shifts in the marketing world, social media algo changes…

And, if you are still here, putting in the hard yards, surviving and working hard to figure shit out, you are already ahead of the game.

And that is something to celebrate.

The Importance of Making Really Good Internet Friends

My digital business friends have become some of the most important people in my life. We speak the same language, we face the same challenges and we can connect on a moment’s notice.

My internet friends have been my lifeline this year.

If you want to thrive long-term online, the best and honestly, most fun way is to make some incredible internet friends.

We often get caught up in the metrics, data and strategic vision of it all, when what really matters is who we have in our digital corner.

I think my friend Dusti said it best:

I love that Dusti created this event to connect to her online friends, compare notes and really support each other. We don’t have to do this alone.

What Does Content Cost?

One of the questions I get asked most often is “what does content really cost?” There are so many factors to answer this question but I often tell people — much more than you think.

Content costs is not just the cost for writers, although that is certainly part of it.

Of course, my typical answer is always it depends.

Great content is more than just the words the writer creates. There should be a few layers of editorial. There may be some content design elements to create. There might be some subject matter experts to interview. And, there should be distribution as well.

This is why many of us hesitate to give an answer to this question. Well, the folks of Animalz decided to discuss what content marketing really costs and break it all down here:

You can also get that article’s breakdown of what they would charge if you sign up there. They also break down the value of the content, and include distribution in their pricing structure.

If you are curious to know what this content piece would cost, you can get the article breakdown price here. Before you do though, try to guess. Were you close?

Things to Read, Watch, and Ponder

▶️Is SEO harder to sell these years? Is it tougher to get results with SEO? These are some of the questions the SEOFOMO State of Consulting Survey asked and the results are in. Check them out!

▶️Would you love a no DM policy in your business? It may sound like a radical idea, but I see a lot of value in doing this and the team from Photoroom make a great case for giving this a go. Read more about their experiment here. 

▶️After years of keeping this under wraps, Upwork unveils the 5 key factors they use to calculate job success scores. Will this bring more talent to the platform? At the very least, it’s good to have some additional transparency if you’re going to dedicate your time and efforts there. Check them out now!

▶️If you are interested in Reddit as a marketing growth channel (do you want to be on the internet?), Ewen is sharing his thoughts weekly in the ReddVisible newsletter. This week, he shares why users actually prefer Reddit these days and asks ‘where does Reddit fit into a marketing strategy?’. Sign up here.

Thanks for reading. Next week, I’m sharing the story of a new, accidental digital founder who went from floundering and unemployable to the founder of a thriving online community and digital biz.

Stay subscribed to hear that story!

See you next week.

Cheers! Amy

Some Bonus Newsletters You’ll Love

If you want to get into the weeds on these topics, here are some newsletters that I read regularly that I think you’ll enjoy: