Getting revenge on Google’s algorithm update

Last year, Google released an update which killed the niche site and my business model along with it. It felt like all the useful content I’d written had been replaced with posts from Reddit and Quora.
I was pissed.
And what better way to cathart than trying to get your own back at the media giant that screwed you over.
That’s why I decided to try and cheat my way to page 1 of a difficult keyword using Reddit, since they decided that a random person on Reddit is more reliable than someone who has created an entire blog around a topic.
I succeeded.
How to start a podcast has a keyword difficulty on SEMRUSH of 71%, and my Reddit post appears on page 1.
There are articles that appear on that search result that have been holding strong for almost 10 years at this point.
I’d have to come up with a pretty cunning plan to try to outsmart the Google algorithm, right?
Not really. They’ve shown their hand, so let’s abuse it.
The plan was this:
- Make a keyword-heavy title for a Reddit post
- Write a helpful guide on starting a podcast
- Insert affiliate links to a podcast hosting company and links to my podcast marketing newsletter
Let’s dive in.
Finding the right subreddit
First off, how am I going to get a keyword heavy post past the tyrannical gatekeepers also known as subreddit moderators.
I’m not.
There’s a great subreddit on podcasting already and frankly I didn’t want to sully it with my spam post. So instead, I decided to create my own subreddit, r/podcasting_tools.
Over the years and across my many projects I’ve ended up creating about a half dozen different reddit accounts. So I was able to populate my subreddit from day 1 and do as they suggested trying to get 10 posts live so the subreddit didn’t get immediately deleted.
It seems to have worked, and I’m happy to have kept my reputation safe from the core podcasting subreddit.
Coming up with the post
I had grand plans to write a completely unique post about starting a podcast. But I’ll level with you, I couldn’t be arsed…
Instead, I took the post I published on Medium and copied and pasted it over to Reddit. Was this lazy? Yes. But I didn’t want to spend more than a few hours on this project since I started it to blow off some steam.
I was so lazy doing this that I didn’t actually update the formatting properly, so when I copied the images, they didn’t get reuploaded to Reddit, and it’s just the bare HTML.
Not the most professional looking post but I only noticed my error when I began writing this article. Ooops. Guess I’ll take attention to detail off my resume. Once I write one…
Getting upvotes
I’m not sure how Google decides which Reddit post appear in it’s search results. But I figured getting a few upvotes wouldn’t hurt.
Initially, I tried to upvote my own posts with my different accounts, but Reddit caught me, and the upvotes were removed, so I was still stuck with one measly upvote. I asked a couple of friends to look up the post and give me an upvote, which took me to three.
In the end, I paid for them.
I won’t share where I bought them but I found it via Google if you’re inclined to do the same thing. I opted for 10 upvotes which cost me less than 10 dollars and I left it at that.
The results
It worked!
I am officially on page 1 of Google for how to start a podcast.

The post has been live on Reddit for the last six months. It’s been viewed 3,100 times and has actually received more upvotes.
Despite the formatting errors it is a genuinely useful post about starting a podcast so I’m glad to see it’s resonating with people. I’m not sure where the shares are but I’m happy that someone commented a genuine question underneath the post.
I made $14.25 in commission through an affiliate link to my preferred hosting company. Not bad. But not really worth the time it took.
I also linked to my own podcast to and to my podcast marketing newsletter. I can’t get the details but it seems around 20 people came to my newsletter and 2 to my podcast website. Not the most exciting and I can’t see if any of them converted to listeners/subscribers.
Views are great, but without conversions into something useful, they’re basically just vanity metrics. Perhaps it would have been more worthwhile if I’d gone with a more lucrative affiliate program.
But hey ho. It worked. My aim was to show that it was possible, not try and make any real money from doing this.
Don’t copy this strategy
Let’s not beat around the bush and call this what it is. Spam.
I did it out of anger and frustration at Google’s algorithm, but it’s not a strategy worth following. It definitely won’t be more lucrative than hard work to build a genuine business.
That’s why I’m building the Slow Writers Club, a paid online community of writers, podcasters, and solopreneurs who are dedicated to craft, quality, and long-term projects.
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