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Managing SEO in 2025. Are the Rewards Worth the Effort?
For many wannabe online entrepreneurs the answer is a resounding NO. For those with deep pockets and lots of time… maybe? But, even that is no guarantee of success. A 2024 Search Engine Journal survey noted that 42% of small businesses surveyed reduced SEO budgets, citing diminishing returns.
In 2022 after Google’s August helpful content update, HouseFresh reported a dramatic drop in search visibility, resulting in a steep decline in traffic and revenue.
This, despite doing things by the book:- Producing original, hands-on content and not relying on AI or content farms, they were outranked by the large media outlets and content aggregators.
HouseFresh is just one story among many, and shows that even legitimate, high-quality niche sites can be negatively affected by algorithmic changes that favor more authoritative domains.
I’m phrasing authoritative domains nicely, because I’ve seen sites with a DA (domain authority) of 19 above authoritative sites with DA’s in the 60’s and 70's.
The reality is, the deeper the pockets you have the more PPC (pay per click) ads you can run, and that means your thin content site can jump genuine authority sites on Google first pages.
