White Hat SEO Does any update really matter anymore?

[LiquidDeath]

We keep reading from Google what needs to rank, but in the end game, I think we know it's going to be their ads. I remember the good old days when you could spam the hell out of Google, but now you need a huge budget for content, backlinks, and making sure your site is fast and well-designed. My huge question is, what other update can they give us that we don't know already?

 

[TheVigilante]

User @Nargil posted a few days back that updates now a days you won't even have the time to recover as you will be trying to recover from an update then there will be another update lined up so it's all a mess especially with the AI introduction

 

[Steptoe]

Complacency is (liquid)death for anyone who owns a website and relies on search traffic for revenue. There's almost no worth in covering Google updates for the past few years as they're near constant, and there's no reason to think they won't continue to be this way. Things will always change, so the best way to survive is to diversify - many sites in the same niche, many different 'types' of sites (ads-reliant, service, product, informational - if you can avoid the AI overviews!), different traffic sources.

 

[Rem]

No, with how short the frequency is getting nowadays
you just keep looking forward and pray they dont cut you off by your knees
just think of being in an alpha sandbox
you are the tester

 

[t2van]

I dont think search traffic and that is totally dead yet. It will take a generation or two to kill it off. Just like advertising on TV, Print etc while you have social and that. There's always still a generation behind that will keep it alive.

However that said since Apple introduced apps and the first iPhone I've always seen the internet progress towards "apps" so everything is locked behind a gateway I wasn't sure how it was going to happen but with AI. I can see that killing search and you just have apps for shopping etc websites will go away eventually but unless there's a sudden leap I don't think it will be in life time.

As for updates well Google only makes money with ads they want to keep you to earn money last few years has shown how SERPs have changed most results now you have to get past AI, Snippet, People Ask, Ads and Shopping Ads before you even get close to a first result..

I've always treated search as people first and It's taken YEARS but I have to say more recently it's finally paying off. I'll just keep doing that and heading down that route I think should cover me against any update (I hope)