Do you work with niche sites and yet don’t fear Google updates?

I don’t know anyone like that.

Even after doing everything right, you often find that Google has taken a hit on your site.

So, is there any way to work where Google won’t hit you?

Or is there a method where Google can’t penalize your site?

In this article, I’ll attempt to explore this issue by drawing on case studies and real project examples. As always, all my opinions and verdicts are entirely my own. You may disagree, and that’s perfectly fine. In such cases, feel free to ignore it.

Recent Google Updates and a Few Thoughts

Lately, the way Google has been rolling out updates, it seems like even the “twice-a-day Paracetamol” strategy can’t keep up. While it may sound funny, that’s the reality we are dealing with. Google has managed to straighten even a lazy marketer like me.

Before breakfast, everything appears to be running smoothly. But by the time I’m done, it seems like Google has turned upside down. What a headache!

Not only do I have to deal with my own site, but clients have been keeping me on the run for the past few months, especially after the December 2020 core update and the minor updates in January (January 7, 8, 12, and 17, 2021, to be specific). These updates felt like storms in the middle of a calm day.

That’s the recent news. Or maybe not. As you read this, a more recent Google update would be happening now. As ridiculous as it may sound, this is the truth.

So, if this is the situation, what can we do? Will we just sit around and take the hit whenever Google decides to update? Isn’t there any way to shield niche sites from these hits?

Do we just light a candle and hope for the best? Can’t we come up with any solutions? Will Google keep punishing us for no reason?

This is what I’ve been pondering lately.

Have I found a solution?

No.

And yes.

How can the answer be both yes and no to the same question?

Well, it can.

Let’s talk about this. Over the past couple of months, I’ve thoroughly analyzed my own site, client sites, and many sites run by my peers. I will share the insights I’ve gathered from these observations, and I hope they will be helpful to you.

As always, there will be no earnings screenshots in this post, and all opinions expressed are entirely my own. You are welcome to disagree. If you know of a better solution, feel free to share. I write purely from my own experience and knowledge.

Niche Site Update Stories

Let’s begin with a few real-life stories. These are from my own experiences, my clients, and some of my peers.

Case Study 1

Meet Avik (a pseudonym), a well-known Amazon Affiliate Bangladesh group figure. He used to work for a multinational company but lost his job at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside his job, he had been casually working on niche sites.

After losing his job, he was initially confused and anxious, but he quickly pulled himself together. With a calm mindset, he focused on his niche sites. Following advice from another group member, he concentrated on just one site. Sticking to a solid plan within a few months, he grew the earnings from $250–$300 to over $1,700–$2,000.

Then came December 2020. Overnight, things went back to square one. The site that had earned nearly $3,000 in November dropped to just $1,100 in commissions by December. By January 24, the earnings were a mere $813.

It’s understandable that Avik felt lost. What could he do now? He devoted his time day and night to the site, meticulously searching for the issues that caused this downfall. Where he used to get about 2,000 visitors daily, the traffic had dropped to just 300–400, decreasing even further by the day.

Now, what will happen to Avik this time?

Case Study 2

This time, the story is about a student named Habibur Rahman (pseudonym). Previously, he had flipped a small site and used that experience, guidance from a skilled mentor, and one-on-one coaching from another peer to start a new site with proper preparation.

His goal was clear: once the site earned $1,000 per month, he would sell it. He worked diligently towards this goal, and the site was progressing well. In November, he proudly earned almost $800 from the site. But then disaster struck. In just two months, his earnings plummeted to below $100.

Previously, SEMrush showed traffic at around 6,000 visitors per month, but now it has dropped below 1,000.

In such a situation, it’s natural to feel hopeless. With no clear solution, even his mentor couldn’t pinpoint any specific problem. And there wasn’t any obvious issue. Everything seemed fine. On-page and off-page SEO were done completely naturally, yet things fell apart. Keyword rankings were dropping, traffic steadily decreased, and Amazon sales and earnings dwindled.

On January 15, Habibur showed me his site. I spent 7–8 hours researching it thoroughly. Everything seemed in order. However, I did notice two things:

1. He had built the site by closely following another site.
2. He hadn’t updated the site in a long time, and no new articles had been added.

Additionally, I spotted a third issue, but I deliberately chose not to mention it to Habibur. It could have led to a conflict between him and his mentor, and I wanted to avoid that.

Case Study 3

This time, the person I’m talking about is Md. Billal Hossain Sarker (not a pseudonym). He is a full-time newbie digital/affiliate marketer, working on several niche sites, some of his own and others for foreign clients. He learned a valuable lesson from the Google Core Update in September 2019. Although that update wasn’t too significant, a small mistake caused him significant damage.

This time, however, he was prepared in advance. He decided to run some experiments. To fully focus on his work, he distanced himself from social media. Though he faced a few setbacks during his experiments, the overall results were fairly positive. I hope he will share some of these findings in this post.

It’s worth mentioning that I’ve never really discussed my own niche sites in any of my previous posts. But in this one, I’ll try to give a brief overview.

Most of my sites are based on the home niche, which many of you know. Beyond that, I have a few other sites that aren’t really worth discussing. Even the services I provide to my clients are mainly within this same niche. So, I’ll be talking primarily about the home niche sites that I’ve built. I won’t explain why I chose this niche, at least for now. I might also touch on one site outside this niche.

The second thing I should mention is that I always follow my own niche site plan when building both my and my client’s sites.

Want to Protect Your Site from Google’s Updates?

Of course you do. Who wouldn’t, right?

I feel the same way, and that’s the inspiration behind today’s post.

In this article, I will discuss a few key strategies that, if followed, can safeguard your niche site from being harmed, no matter how many updates Google rolls out. I will draw comparisons with my niche site experiences, and, Insha’Allah, these insights will be helpful for you.

Domain Selection

Some sites were mildly penalized during the December 2020 Google update due to their domain names. Painful as it is, it’s true. Exact Match Domains (EMDs) performed well during this update, and yes, they were the ones with niche-specific keywords in their domain names.

For instance, let’s say you’re working in the home niche. Check whether the word “home” is in your domain name. Based on my experience, if it is, your site likely didn’t suffer much from this update. As I observed, Case Study 1 and Case Study 2 were affected by this very issue.

You can take a look at my personal opinion on domain selection from here:

Regular Updates

My first successful niche site was sold on Empire Flippers. It had just 17 articles, which likely contributed to the quick sale of the site.

However, sadly, that strategy would be foolish to apply today. In fact, almost every strategy is continuously evolving. If you don’t keep yourself updated with the times, there’s no way to succeed in this field.

Absolutely not.

Especially after Amazon changed its commission structure, the chances of achieving success with only a few articles are almost zero. You need to stay updated in various areas if you want to do well in this sector.

Case Study 1, Case Study 2, and even some of my own sites experienced traffic drops due to a lack of regular updates. Thankfully, I was prepared for this, and by quickly publishing some new articles, I started seeing positive results by the end of January.

It’s worth noting that in my entire affiliate career, I’ve spent the most time and money on content creation during December 2020 and January 2021.

Sites that regularly publish articles on their niche were among the least affected by this update. You’ve probably already noticed this if you’ve faced a similar situation.

On-Page Updates

Proper on-page SEO is essential for niche sites. But it’s not enough to just set it up once and forget about it; you must keep updating it regularly. Especially when it comes to older articles, it’s important to keep them up-to-date. Many marketers are lazy about this, but that’s a big mistake. You can use third-party AI tools to help with these updates, such as Frase, SurferSEO, or MarketMuse. Personally, I prefer SurferSEO, but you can choose whichever tool suits you best.

Off-Page Updates

When publishing new articles or updating old ones, always share them on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Sharing is beneficial for driving traffic and keeping your content circulating.

Understand Google

This is the most critical point. How well do you know Google’s 200+ ranking factors? Let’s assume you’ve read about them. Now, read them again, and you’ll likely discover something new. Especially whenever Google rolls out a core update, cross-check these factors with your site. See if there’s any gap or weakness.

Never underestimate Google. Whatever you’re thinking today, Google thought about it 5 to 7 years ago. So, if you think you can trick Google or get away with shortcuts, you’re living in a fool’s paradise. Face reality and learn to understand it. Instead of trying to fool Google, study its ranking factors.

No Backlinking

For guest posts, niche edits, sponsored links, authority links, Google News-approved links, high DA links, and high-traffic links, now is the best time to move away from these practices. However, I do believe basic link-building is still necessary for a site. Specifically, social profiles, blog comments, and social shares these types of links can help build a site’s authority.

That said, it’s safe to say that the heavier your backlink profile, the riskier your niche site will appear to Google.

Yes, it’s true that updates have also hit some niche sites with minimal backlinks, but that’s usually temporary. It could be due to increased competition, but definitely not because of backlinks.

When competition increases, ranking drops are common. However, there are other ways to address this issue. Let’s explore how to counteract these drops.

Compete with Competitors

Let’s say you’re working with the keyword “best gol alu.” When you started, there were no competitors for this keyword, so within a month, your article ranked well, and you were getting regular sales. But one day, out of the blue, the sales stopped. When you investigated, you found your ranking had dropped, and you couldn’t figure out why. You hadn’t done any backlinking since there were no competitors. Your article quality was good, and the product selection was solid because it had been generating sales. So, where’s the problem?

The problem is that although there were no competitors six months ago when you started, over time, competition has emerged.

So, what should you do now?

Should you try to prevent competitors from entering the market?

No, you can’t do that. And it’s not even possible.

What you should do is regularly check your competitors. Make sure they don’t outperform you. Research their articles, compare them to yours, and identify gaps that you can fill to improve your content.

Another important step is to find similar long-tail keywords related to your main keyword and continuously publish articles on those. Use a silo structure for internal linking.

For example, if your main keyword was “best gol alu,” you can write articles on related keywords like:

• Best red gol alu
• Best tall goal alu
• Best gol alu for vorta
• Best alu paratha
• Best recipes for Alu Gobi
• Best natural fertilizer for alu

And you’ll find plenty more if you search.

Doing this will likely make your articles rank quickly because long-tail keywords usually have less competition. More importantly, you’ll be able to interlink similar articles using a silo structure, which increases your site’s authority. Sites structured this way are less likely to be negatively affected by Google updates.

Regularly adding content to your niche site like this makes it harder for competitors to surpass you. Your site remains consistently up-to-date in Google’s eyes, which helps maintain your rankings.

My Niche Sites

Let’s talk about some of my own niche sites. I won’t be sharing screenshots, so you can read this or ignore it—it is entirely up to you.

However, I believe it’ll be worth your time, as I’ve structured this like case studies.

My Ready-Made Niche Sites

Last year, I purchased several ready-made sites—mini startup types. The monthly earnings of these sites ranged from $20 to $150, and I bought them with a budget between $700 and $6,000.

Among them, I bought three sites from members of this group. Let’s talk about those three.

First Site

I purchased this one for $700, earning an average of $20+ monthly. After buying it, I added around 50 articles and invested about $1,200. Currently, it’s generating $60–$70 per month. I plan to publish 50 more articles by June this year, and I’m targeting monthly earnings of $300+ by the end of the year. I’m optimistic it will happen, Insha’Allah.

Second Site

I bought this site for $1,900. Initially, I had plans to work on it aggressively, but I couldn’t make much progress due to my existing projects.

I’ve put the site on hold for now, though I’m confident I can turn it into a profitable project whenever I pick it up again. Insha’Allah, I’ll get there.

Due to the lack of updates for almost a year, this site has been hit hard by recent Google updates. I mentioned this site because it serves as an example of how sites that remain stagnant are often the ones that get affected the most.

Third Site

I’m quite hopeful about this one. I was earning $150 monthly when I bought it for $6,000. After eight months of work, it now earns over $350 monthly. I expect it to cross $1,000 per month by the end of the year.

The site has a total of 33 money articles, but only 9 or 10 are generating revenue. Around 10 more are ranking on the first page, and I plan to bring them to the top position within the next six months. That’s the current plan for this site.

My Scratch-Built Niche Sites

Now, let’s talk about two other sites that I built completely from scratch. These two sites are quite different from each other, and I hope sharing my experiences will be helpful to you.

Scratch Site 1

This is the most revenue-generating site in my pipeline, and I plan to flip it within the next 3 to 4 months. Insha’Allah, that will happen. It was slightly affected by the December Google update, but I’m recovering from it gradually. This has been a major learning experience for me, as none of my sites had faced such issues before I planned to flip them.

I couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason for why it was hit. I didn’t find any obvious problems. The only issue I can think of is that I haven’t added new articles to the site for a long time. Over the last two months, I’ve added several articles and updated the old ones. I didn’t build any new backlinks or make any guest posts, but I did share updates and new articles on social media. Slowly, the traffic has returned to its previous levels, but I’ve taken my time—no rush.

Scratch Site 2

This site is a bit different. It’s more of an experimental project. First, it’s in the gardening niche, which is new territory for me. I built this site with careful planning and calculation. It currently has 14 articles. The second reason it’s unique is that it’s the only site where traffic and sales have unexpectedly increased despite not working on it for a while. The only reason I can attribute to this is the keyword research. I found keywords likely to remain low-competition for the next couple of years.

Another reason for its success could be the clean design and well-organized article structure. In the future, I plan to follow this structure for new sites, Insha’Allah. I don’t have any major plans for this site, but I’ll keep adding 6-8 articles per month, following a specific structure.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, there’s no such thing as a “final thought.” What I considered the end two years ago now feels unnecessary. It makes me realize how little I knew back then. And who knows what I’ll think two years from now? I might have moved far beyond where I stand today.

I only work 7 days a week, 14-15 hours a day, sometimes even 17-18 hours. About 80% of that time is spent reading and browsing the web. This is essential for my success, so I dedicate much time to it.

What the future holds, I don’t know. I can’t predict whether Google will still be around in five or seven years or how sustainable Amazon will remain. Can any of you offer a guarantee on that?

But I can guarantee this: the online world will continue to exist. People’s needs will remain, and so will shopping. The form may change. AI will dominate, and AI might become a reality, but human desires and consumer behavior will persist.

We need to focus on that. We should be prepared for a future where we’ll thrive even if Amazon or Google no longer exists. And if they do remain, we need to align ourselves with their evolving landscape. That should be our goal.

Take care, everyone. Happy Affiliate Marketing!