In March 2024, I woke up to find that Google had wiped out my website.
Not penalized. Not demoted. Completely deindexed. Gone.
One day, the site was receiving over 100,000 unique visitors daily from Google. It was one of the fastest-growing sites on the internet. The next day? Zero. As if it never existed.
I became the poster child for Google’s March 2024 update.
Here’s what happened, what I learned, and why I’m still building.
The Site That Google Killed
The site was doing everything right — or so I thought. The content was created using AI with human edits and oversight. Every article was reviewed, refined, and improved by real people before publishing. The site featured original photography licensed from real photographers. We weren’t scraping content or spinning articles. We were building something legitimate.
And Google crushed it anyway.
Their reasoning? “Spam content.”
Over 100,000 daily visitors, real photos from real photographers, human-edited articles — and Google labeled it spam. No warning. No opportunity to fix anything. Just gone.
I Wasn’t Alone — But That Didn’t Help
What made it worse was watching it happen to others in the months that followed. Site after site got hit. Legitimate businesses. Real brands. People who had built their livelihoods on organic search traffic watched it evaporate.
We were all just dust in the wind.
The March 2024 update wasn’t a surgical strike against bad actors. It was a carpet bombing that took out a lot of innocent sites along with whatever Google was actually targeting. And the appeals process? Basically non-existent. You submit a reconsideration request and hope someone at Google bothers to look at it.
Most don’t get a response. I didn’t.
The Brutal Math of Platform Dependence
Here’s the thing I already knew but learned the hard way: when you build on someone else’s platform, you’re playing by their rules. And they can change those rules whenever they want.
I’ve been making money online since 1997. I’ve watched platforms rise and fall. I’ve seen MySpace dominate and disappear. I’ve watched Facebook change its algorithm a hundred times. I’ve seen affiliate networks shut down overnight.
But Google felt different. It was the backbone of the internet. It was how people found things. It sent traffic to websites for 25 years. It felt stable.
It wasn’t.
Google’s value to website owners and bloggers has been declining for years. The March 2024 update just accelerated what was already happening. Featured snippets steal clicks. AI overviews keep people on Google. Zero-click searches are the norm. Even if you rank, you get less traffic than you would have five years ago.
And if Google decides they don’t like your site? You get nothing.
What I Did Next
After the initial shock wore off, I had a choice: give up or adapt.
I’ve been doing this too long to give up.
So I started rebuilding — but differently this time. The goal wasn’t to get back into Google’s good graces. The goal was to build something that didn’t depend on Google at all.
That meant diversifying traffic sources. That meant building on platforms that actually want content creators to succeed. That meant focusing on assets I could control — email lists, direct relationships, brand recognition.
It also meant accepting a hard truth: the golden age of free Google traffic is over. Whatever we build from here has to account for that reality.
Lessons From Losing Everything Overnight
Diversification isn’t optional anymore. If 80% of your traffic comes from one source, you don’t have a business — you have a liability. Spread your risk. Build multiple channels. Never let one platform have the power to destroy you.
Own your audience. Email lists, SMS subscribers, direct followers — these are assets you control. An algorithm change can’t take them away. A policy update can’t delete them. Build your list like your business depends on it, because it does.
Don’t trust platforms to be fair. Google doesn’t owe you traffic. Facebook doesn’t owe you reach. Amazon doesn’t owe you sales. They’re businesses optimizing for their own interests, not yours. Act accordingly.
Your reputation survives platform changes. I lost a site, but I didn’t lose my name. I didn’t lose the relationships I’d built. I didn’t lose the skills I’d developed over 25+ years. When you build a personal brand alongside your projects, you have something that transcends any single platform or site.
Setbacks are part of the game. This isn’t the first time I’ve had a project die. It won’t be the last. The internet is constantly changing, and some of those changes will hurt. The question isn’t whether you’ll get knocked down — it’s whether you’ll get back up.
Why I’m Still Here
People have asked me why I keep going. After 25+ years, after building and losing multiple projects, after watching Google wipe out six figures of monthly traffic overnight — why not just stop?
Because this is what I do. This is what I’ve always done.
I made my first dollar online in 1995. I’ve survived every algorithm update, every platform shift, every industry change since then. I’ve watched trends come and go. I’ve watched “guaranteed” traffic sources dry up. I’ve watched entire business models become obsolete.
And I’m still here.
The March 2024 update was brutal. It hurt. It forced me to rethink everything. But it also reminded me of something important: I’ve been through this before. Maybe not at this scale, but the pattern is the same. Something changes. Something breaks. You adapt. You rebuild. You keep going.
That’s the job. That’s always been the job.
What Comes Next
I’m building again. Different projects, different strategies, different assumptions about where traffic comes from and how to monetize it. I’m not waiting for Google to let me back in. I’m not hoping for an algorithm update to save me.
I’m building things that work regardless of what Google does.
If you’ve been hit by an algorithm update, if you’ve watched a platform destroy something you built, if you’re wondering whether it’s worth it to start over — I get it. I’ve been there. I’m there right now.
But here’s what I know: the internet isn’t going anywhere. People still need information. People still buy things online. Opportunities still exist. They just look different than they did a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago.
The game keeps changing. The players who survive are the ones who change with it.
I plan to keep playing.
