Watch out for this Google Analytics chart trend

The other day I referenced a site that has a ton of traffic. I wrote "Cheatsheat.com" by mistake. It's Cheatsheet.com. My apologies. --------------------------------------------------------------- Last day to save 50%: The SEO Chatter On-Site SEO course discount ends tonight at midnight. Use coupon FATSTACKS at checkout. => [Buy this course here]()​ My favorite part of this course is all the info on using Google Search Console for finding more great keywords for new content as well as improving existing content. --------------------------------------------------------------- A good friend recently brought this next development to my attention. [Google has taken a clear and firm stance against AI content]()… for now. Google considers it Webspam. If discovered on your site you may suffer a manual penalty. Not that my opinion matters but I think it’s a good decision. I also believe Google had no choice. This decision is an effort, perhaps meager, to reduce pubs publishing thousands of AI articles weekly (or daily). Will rolling in some AI content chunks here and there on your site trigger a SERP death blow? I don’t think so. But here’s the problem with that. Publishing hybrid AI and manually written content is still a lot of work. Maybe it’s worth it but it’s certainly not publishing millions of words with the click of a button. I’ve dabbled with AI content software several times over the past year. I like to keep tabs on where it's at. It’s a lot of work for decent results. At least for me it is. I spent 3 hours writing one article with it. I could have done it faster from scratch. I basically rewrote most of it. Not worth it for me. More importantly, I don't like doing stuff on my bigger sites that aren't within Google's guidelines. Why? If the site takes a hit I'll always wonder if that was the reason. I invest in sites for the long term and while I know traffic will go down at times, I'd rather know it was due to the regular fluctuations than some form of penalty. That said, I wouldn't take issue trying it on some throw-away experimental site. I'm not at the moment and have no plans to but it's one way to give it a try. Here’s another AI concern and that is the possibility or probability that some hired writers are using AI software. I’m not always as diligent as I should be vetting content which means AI content could easily end up on my sites. It might be time to hire some editors to vet for this... not something I relish doing. ​ --------------------------------------------------------------- So Cyclebaron.com had a big spike in traffic recently. CB is my public niche site I launched as a sample site so folks can see how I set up my sites. It serves as a visual example. Initially, I was only going to have a few articles on it that were a result of my over-the-shoulder video series showing how I set up sites fast. Over time I've added content now totalling 43 published articles. It makes a few bucks each day. I'll slowly invest in this site over time. I'm kicking around an entirely new portfolio strategy where CB may play a more important role. More on this in 6 to 12 months (if I go through with it). The point is recently CB had a big spike in traffic. Check it out: ​ ​ Had I left it at that, I would have mistakenly assumed my organic search traffic was exploding. Fortunately I filtered GA for organic traffic which was as follows: ​ ​ Had I not more carefully investigate I may have concluded that this site's SEO is taking off. That conclusion might have led me to order a ton of content to take advantage of it. While adding content is almost always a good thing, in this case the underlying reasoning would have been flawed. Why? The spike wasn't SEO traffic. It was Google Discover traffic. I'll take Discover traffic but the problem with Discover traffic is it's short-lived and random. I've had spurts here and there with other sites but nothing consistent or astronomical. My point is if you see a spike in traffic, don't assume it's organic SEO traffic. On the flip side, that doesn't mean organic traffic doesn't spike. It can especially when a new site with a good chunk of content strikes keyword gold. I've had that too recently. Check it out: ​ ​ Further analysis is important if traffic is dropping as well. My biggest site's traffic dropped from its peak last June in large part due to Pinterest traffic drying up and COVID winding down (it undoubtedly benefited from people staying at home). On the face of the Analytics traffic chart, it looked like my biggest site was doing badly but a good chunk of traffic loss is from social (both Pinterest and Facebook). Also, the fact it exploded so fast with COVID, that offers another reasonable explanation as to it's drop and current long-term plateau. I'll take social traffic any day of the week but I also know that social traffic can be fickle just like Discover. Whatever is happening with your site, investigate. Don't assume it's curtains. I'll end with this. Did you know it took four years for my biggest site to hit around 15,000 organic search visitors per day? It was at that point that traffic really started growing and the site started earning really well. All those years back then blend together but a recent historical look at Analytics shed light on that. If you're in year one, two or even three, those are early years for a site. It really does take time for a site to grow into a big earner. Some of my newer sites are growing faster (thanks to having learned a lot the first time around) but it's looking like they too will take years before they hit their big traffic stride. Jon Fatstacksblog.com REMINDER: Last day to save 50%: The SEO Chatter On-Site SEO course discount ends tonight at midnight. Use coupon FATSTACKS at checkout. => [Buy the course here]()​ ​ Affiliate disclaimer: I usually put a lot of effort into these emails. I know, I know, it may not always seem like it, but I try. In an effort to make a few bucks for my effort, I often link to various products and courses. Assume these links are affiliate links. If you choose to click and buy, THANK YOU. It makes this thing possible. ​ ​ ​ [Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 2016 Hill Drive, North Vancouver, British Columbia V7H 2N5