Google is getting even worse for independent sites

 (theverge.com)

69 points | by colinprince11 hours ago

4 comments

  • bwb11 hours ago
    It is insane how they have destroyed a wide swath of indie websites, I just wrote on this subject and how bad they hit us: https://build.shepherd.com/p/hi-google-please-stop-the-bed-a...
  • nicbou3 hours ago
    I am terrified that Google will kill the website I live from the same way. It’s a genuinely useful website that people in my area know and love. Everything is written by hand from original research. It is only a matter of time before my traffic is handed over to Reddit or some other top 50 website that happens to have user generated content on the topic.
    • meowster2 hours ago
      Program some bots that use ChatGPT to answer questions by summarizing your website, and maybe 5% (or less to look less spamy) of the responses have a link to the corresponding blog post?

      Maybe create a subreddit for your niche location/topic?

      It absolutely sucks, but this might be one way to allow people to find your content.

      • nicbou1 hour ago
        These things would cost the same effort but bring a tiny fraction of the traffic.

        If it comes to that, I will find other ways to earn a living. The content and website infrastructure will still be valuable to other people, so I can have my "exit". There are lots of other opportunities to make money in my little industry, but none are nearly as rewarding as helping a ton of people for free. Worst case scenario, I can always go back to web development.

        I would just find it really sad if Google killed something useful and replaced it with SEO spam.

  • nextworddev7 hours ago
    Google’s strategy has always been “pay to play”. Just look at their recent deal with Reddit, now much of SERP is slop from Reddit.

    But with AI overviews, that may have been the last nail in the coffin for indie creators

  • ChrisArchitect9 hours ago
    Misleading, article from May;

    Some discussion about the HouseFresh case at the time:

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40239811