E1082: WPBeginner used to be one of the biggest WordPress educational blogs on the internet.

According to Semrush, WPBeginner was getting around 2.6 million monthly clicks from Google at its peak in May 2021. Now it appears to be down to roughly 27,000 monthly clicks.

That is not a small decline. That is a near-total collapse in Google traffic for a site that many WordPress users have relied on for years.

In this episode, I break down what may have happened, what probably did not cause it, and what WPBeginner could do if they want to recover.

I cover: - Why WPBeginner's traffic decline is so unusual - How Google algorithm updates appear to line up with the drop - Why AI stealing clicks probably does not explain the whole collapse - Why "Google hates independent publishers" is too simple of an explanation - Whether content decay or keyword cannibalization could have played a role - The problem with overly promotional top-of-funnel content - Why self-promotional listicles can work until they stop working - How bad user signals may have hurt the brand over time - Why long, fluffy blog posts with delayed answers may no longer work - Why Google may be rewarding shorter, faster, less promotional answers - What Lars Lofgren said about pruning and cutting down the site - Why WPBeginner may need to consolidate, rewrite, and remove a large amount of content - How WPBeginner could shift from bloated blog content to shorter conversion-focused SEO pages - What other SEOs and publishers should learn from this case

My take: WPBeginner probably did not lose nearly all of its Google traffic because of one single issue.

The more likely explanation is a combination of: - Too much cannibalization - Too much promotion in informational articles - Too much fluff before the answer - Incomplete answers - Searchers losing trust in the brand - Google updates rewarding more-trusted pages that answers the query faster

If your SEO strategy depends on long informational posts that exist mainly to push products, plugins, affiliates, or internal offers, this case is worth paying attention to.

It will still work in small amounts.

But when an entire site starts to feel like that, Google and users will eventually stop rewarding it.

⭐️ Lars Lofgren's post on 𝕏 - https://x.com/larslofgren/status/2066581447373394325?s=46 ⭐️ Lars Lofgren's post on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7472346782119866369/ ⭐️ WPBeginner - https://www.wpbeginner.com/ ⭐️ Episode 898 - How NapLab Built an SEO Moat (103,000 Keywords, No Shortcuts) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9vzdovTfmw ⭐️ Episode 989 - Google's Helpful Content Update DESTROYED the Internet (What Actually Happened) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YLUFjYrIEA

💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/

00:00 WPBeginner Traffic Collapse 01:27 Lars Lofgren Flags 03:07 Possible Causes Rundown 05:48 Promotion Backlash 09:23 Fluff Content Problem 11:15 Can They Rebound 13:13 Prune Rewrite Refocus 15:08 Wrap Up And Farewell

The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/

#searchengineoptimization #seo #wordpress #blogging