In November and December 2024, Google rolled out two core updates and a spam update. These updates sent shockwaves through many websites, and unfortunately, one of my own content sites was hit hard.
The traffic dropped drastically.
As someone who lives and breathes SEO, I immediately started troubleshooting. My first instinct was to check if the noindex tag had been accidentally turned on. It hadn’t. So, I moved on to a full audit.
- The technical health of the site looked fine.
- The on-page SEO elements were all properly optimised.
- Mobile responsiveness was solid.
- There were no spammy backlinks, and I had even earned a few naturally.
Still, the site’s organic visibility was slipping.
After spending an entire day combing through everything, I paused and asked myself: Why would anyone trust this site? Who is behind it?
That’s when I realised the issue.
The About Us page was generic. No personality. No story. No context. There was nothing to connect the reader to the creator. And more importantly, there was nothing that gave Google a reason to trust the site.
The Fix That Changed Everything
So, I took a step back and rewrote the About Us page from scratch. I included:
- A short story about why I started the site
- How the idea turned into a project
- My personal background and experience
- A few real pictures of me with short captions that aligned with the website’s niche
- The goal was simple: make the site feel human and credible.
Once done, I submitted the updated page for indexing through Google Search Console.
The Result
Within just two days, I started seeing signs of recovery. Traffic began to return. The site that had been on life support was now growing again.
And this isn’t even a full-time project. It’s a side content site that I work on occasionally. Interestingly, despite all the talk around LLMs replacing traditional content sites, I’ve noticed that AI tools are actually complementing the traffic instead of replacing it — at least for now.
What This Taught Me
Sometimes, SEO is not just about keywords, links, or crawl errors. It’s about trust.
Search engines are getting smarter. They want to connect signals of authenticity with the content they serve. A faceless website without a story is far less likely to build that trust — whether it’s with users or algorithms.
If your site is struggling and nothing seems technically wrong, take a closer look at your About page.
Ask yourself:
- Does it feel real?
- Is there a reason for someone to believe in this content?
- Can people understand who you are and why you created the site?
The fix might be simpler than you think.
