Given historical trends I was expecting a traffic and EPMV decrease for January, and my expectations were, unfortunately, met.
The positive I can take from this is that the reductions were consistent with industry trends, and not necessarily a sign of further declines in my site’s Google rankings. The negative is that the traffic continues to slowly dwindle and I don’t know if Google will ever come to trust and/or respect this site again, or what kind of content, and purpose this site should evolve to serve that will see it rewarded with organic search traffic.
Keep reading for more detailed breakdowns and screenshots looking at January traffic and revenue.
Site Recap
The site is in the ‘Entertainment’ niche – established in January 2021. Monetized with Ezoic advertising.
Approx 350k words of content over 300+ posts.
See full site history, content publishing breakdown, and traffic history here.
January Statistics
Comparing December to January Google Search console statistics, the trend within January itself is more comforting in that traffic and impressions were relatively stable, and there was no downward trend apparent.
However, when you look at the three months up to and including January, the downward trend is clear and concerning.
From a revenue standpoint, again the month of January itself looks ok from a trend perspective, but when you look at it within the context of the last three months, even though there are some spikes in revenue the general average is getting lower.
Comparison to the Ezoic Ad Revenue Index
I wanted to benchmark my personal EPMV performance with other publishers, so used the Ezoic Ad Revenue Index to check.
Though any drop in traffic and revenue is never welcomed, it is mildly comforting to see that I was not alone According to the index, there was around a %20 drop in EPMV across the Ezoic network which was reflected in my site performance.
The question for me, and one that I will look for answers for in February and beyond is whether my site bounces back in line with the index in subsequent months, or whether my traffic declines are maintained.
I can’t get any kind of consistent data in terms of results from other publishers, to determine a hypothesis about what should happen, as it does appear like the fundamentals of search traffic have changed in a MASSIVE way in the recent updates.
February Activity
As I alluded to in the previous discussion, I am not able to currently develop a hypothesis and what effort should lead to a certain result, in the new search environment.
It seems like Google wants to send product-related traffic to trusted sources like product manufacturers and retailers, and wants to provide opinions from trusted social networks like Reddit and the like. It must mean that traditional content sites, promoted by info product gurus will be a thing of the past.
The new wave of courses, regarding social traffic and email list building and traffic seems to be the next new thing, but I have not yet decided if that is a process I would like to or can focus on.
How long until those traffic sources get over saturated and people are sick of email lists that blast them every day, and social profiles that are constantly taking you away from the site you are on?
But when I look at the Ezoic Ad Revenue overall, it is clear there are still thousands of independent websites that are getting heaps of traffic. So there must be a content type, or content angle that can still be worthwhile pursuing.
I still haven’t found it though.
I’ve been looking at performance and rankings changes for a range of websites I follow and can’t find any rhyme or reason in terms of what type of content would be well suited to getting organic search traffic.
Amidst a range of content experiments, that is what I will continue exploring through February.
