Niche Twins - We used to kill birds.

We used to kill birds.

Well, we didn't exactly kill them.

Some died, yes...but it wasn't in cold blood or anything like that.

Miners used to carry birds with them, down into the mine shaft.

They would take a bird, a canary to be exact, put it in a cage, and bring it with them to work.

You see mines don't exactly have the best air flow. Poisonous gases, like carbon monoxide, build up over time.

Carbon monoxide is colorless, odorless, and tasteless - that's why they call it the "silent killer". You lose consciousness before you can escape. Then you succumb.

Canaries are small, have a rapid breathing rate and a high metabolism - carbon monoxide kills canaries much quicker than humans.

So you bring a canary into the mine with you, and if it dies, you know it's time to get out. Before it's too late.

That's where the saying, "a canary in the coal mine" comes from - an early warning of danger.

Google's September 2023 Helpful Content update was a canary in the coal mine.

Remember that update?

"Just" 7 months ago.

Feels like a lifetime.

The "Niche Site Killer".

Hard to believe then that we still had so much further to drop...

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I was optimistic that Google was going to make a big change after that September HCU update.

There were seemingly good sites that got hit hard, and didn't appear to "deserve" it.

Plus Google's search results were notably worse.

Much worse.

So I sent this tweet, and about 30 days later the March 2024 spam and core updates hit.

Boy was I wrong.

There was no reversion.

In fact, Google doubled down.

Sites that were hit previously, got hit harder.

And not just another 10%, or even 20% harder.

These sites are literally trending to zero in terms of organic traffic.

Even sites that you've probably heard of, maybe even looked up to - like The Retro Dodo.

These types of sites appeared to be established "brands".

They seemed untouchable.

Then seemingly overnight they are talking about shutting down.

It's caused a lot of folks to lose hope.

I know that feeling - waking up only to see your traffic lower than the day before. Day after day. For months.

A slow bleed.

It's soul sucking.

So what to do?

Do we pack it in? Call it a day?

Give up on Google?

I can't answer that for you - all I can do is tell you what we're doing.

So far we've been lucky - none of our sites (Niche Twins, Stay New England, or Startup Stumbles) have been hit by these updates.

But that doesn't mean they won't at some point - which is why we continue to focus on building several traffic/income sources.

Niche Twins (Twin Publishing LLC) is, in my opinion, a good example of this.

• NicheTwins.com - 13,000 sessions a month. Still mostly organic, but growing direct and organic social traffic by the month. Released a free tool, Display Ad Daily a few months ago. Just applied to Mediavine Journey.
• Twitter - 60,000+ followers between @nichedown and @patientpublish
• Newsletter - 9,000+ subscribers
• Software - Part owners of Keysearch.co, and always looking for more opportunities.

If Google decided to never send Niche Twins traffic again, Keith and I would still have a business. We'd be fine.

I think that's the new world we live in.

If you can't say that sentence, "If Google decided to never send me traffic again, I would still have a business" you probably don't have a real business.

And that's OK, if that's not your goal, and you're aware of the risks, go for it.

Personally, I would never ignore Google, or "give up on it" - it remains one of the biggest traffic sources in the world. Kind of silly to walk away from that.

But I also wouldn't build something that relied solely on it for traffic.

You've heard this message before.

From me even.

But some lessons in life, usually the difficult ones, need to be learned over and over again before we "get it".

Certainly has been the case for me.

Have a great weekend.

Hang in there.

Persist.

Talk soon.

​

-Mike