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  1. Thanks for this excellent summary of the HCU! I recently acquired a blog in a niche that I am an expert in. The site got hit by the HCU and I am struggling with the order in which I change things to allow recovery to occur. I’ve audited all the pages, and there are definitely posts that would qualify as “unhelpful content”; these would include reviews and roundup reviews of equipment that is done with information compiled elsewhere, and not with first hand experience. Should these pages be a) deleted or b) de-indexed ? We also have lots of quality first-hand reviews, and we are creating a complete series of ‘how-to’ articles written by subject matter experts. I hope that this will allow us to recover. Thoughts?

    1. Great to hear you found my article helpful! Are you planning to replace the reviews of equipment that is done with information compiled elsewhere with first hand reviews? If so, I would keep those pages indexed and replace them with the first hand / improved versions as soon as possible. That way you will have the best of both worlds – the benefit on an established URL and first hand reviews / truly helpful content. If not, then personally I would delete them as they are not benefiting your readers and hampering your recovery. You want every article on your website to be truly helpful and beneficial to your intended audience. I would also advise you to look at your UX and E-E-A-T, since improving UX and E-E-A-T will also help you recover from the HCU, as well as benefit your blog traffic long term. Here are a couple of articles to help with that >> https://www.productiveblogging.com/eat/ https://www.productiveblogging.com/improve-user-experience/ Wishing you a successful and speedy recovery! Eb 🙂

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