From 4,500 to 12 Clicks: A Raw Look at One Site’s HCU Recovery Journey
Hey! Matthew here, co-founder of SEO Gets.
I recently sat down with Jamie, who runs 630 Digital, to talk about his experience with the Helpful Content Update (HCU). His story offers some interesting insights into what worked, what didn’t, and how sometimes the simplest solutions can be surprisingly effective.
Quick note before we dive in - this interview was recorded in November, and there have been some significant changes since then. I’ll share those updates at the end.
The Site Before HCU
Jamie had built a solid parenting website that was doing well:
- Around 150,000 page views monthly
- $6,000-7,000 monthly revenue
- Eight mom writers and a full-time editor
- Medical content reviewed by actual doctors and nurses
- 100% human-written content
It was a legitimate operation focused on providing reliable parenting information. Nothing fancy or revolutionary - just good, solid content that people found useful.
Important Context: Google’s own guidelines for the Helpful Content Update emphasize the importance of “people-first content” and expertise. This site aligned perfectly with Google’s stated preferences according to their Search Quality Rater Guidelines (source: Google Search Central Blog, Aug 2022).
The HCU Impact
In September, the site was getting about 4,500 clicks per day. Three days after HCU hit, traffic dropped by 70%. By March, after another update, they were down to 12 daily clicks.
That’s a 99.8% traffic loss - the kind of drop that makes you question whether your analytics are broken.
Industry Context: Many sites reported similar dramatic drops during this period. According to data from Sistrix, some niches saw up to 90% of sites affected by HCU (source: Sistrix HCU Analysis, 2023).
The Standard Recovery Playbook
Jamie tried all the usual fixes:
- Reduced ad density
- Made content more concise
- Added quick-answer boxes
- Added ecommerce elements
- Posted full business contact details
- Removed underperforming content
None of these changes made any difference. The site stayed at rock bottom.
Expert Input: These recovery attempts aligned with recommendations from Google’s John Mueller and other SEO experts. Danny Sullivan specifically suggested focusing on user experience and content quality (source: Search Engine Journal Interview, 2023).
An Unusual Solution
After months of no improvement, we decided to try something different. There was a theory floating around that HCU might be applying domain-level filters rather than page-level ones.
The test was simple: move the exact same site to a slightly different domain (like changing from .com to .net) and set up a 301 redirect.
The Results
Within a week, the site went from 12 daily clicks to over 500. No content changes, no design changes - just a domain switch.
The site kept climbing, eventually reaching around 700 daily clicks. While this wasn’t close to the previous peak of 4,500, it was a significant improvement from where they were.
The December Update
Here’s where I need to update you on what’s happened since the interview. The December core update hit, and Google apparently caught on to what was happening. The site took two significant drops, effectively ending our experiment.
Timeline Context: The December 2023 core update rolled out between December 5th and December 22nd, affecting many sites that had previously attempted recovery from HCU (source: Google Search Status Dashboard).
What We Learned
A few key takeaways from this experience:
- Sometimes legitimate, quality sites get hit by algorithm updates.
- Traditional recovery methods don’t always work.
- It’s worth testing different approaches when standard solutions fail.
- Any workarounds you find might be temporary, but also might work for a while.
Looking Forward
While the domain switch strategy didn’t end up being a long-term solution, it highlighted something important: there are still a lot of unknowns about how Google’s updates work, and sometimes the simplest solutions can yield unexpected results.
If you’ve dealt with similar HCU impacts or tried your own recovery experiments, I’d be interested in hearing about them. You can reach me at matt@seogets.com.
Until next time!
Matt
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