Google Responds to Controversial SEO Tweet, Reddit Blocking Google, and 2 Weird Niche Sites

<p><!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Welcome back to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News podcast! You definitely don’t want to miss this one as it’s packed with interesting insights and thoughts about events over the last week in SEO.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>After Spencer talks briefly about his positive experience promoting <a href="https://linkwhisper.com/">Link Whisper</a> at FinCon, he and Jared dive headfirst into the big news of the week: Spencer’s unexpectedly controversial <a href= "https://twitter.com/nichepursuits/status/1716857658920280151" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post on X</a> about how Google is slowly killing blogging. </p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Much to his (and everyone’s) surprise, Danny Sullivan, from Google, responded to his post and offered a few helpful tips and takeaways from the HCU. This exchange generated <em>a lot</em> of debate about the topic—over 130 threads on Spencer’s original post. </p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Spencer and Jared talk about the general confusion among site owners and content creators over the HCU and their efforts to understand what Google wants, and although Danny references <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">this document</a> to help people, people remain very confused and frustrated.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>They also talk about the difference between the HCU and previous updates like Panda and Penguin, and encourage everyone to check out the original post on X.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Moving on, Spencer and Jared talk about the latest news about Reddit, as the platform is <a href= "https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/20/23925504/reddit-deny-force-log-in-see-posts-ai-companies-deals" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">threatening to block Google</a>. This decision hinges on Reddit