1.0BuzzStreamhttps://www.buzzstream.comVince Nerohttps://www.buzzstream.com/blog/author/vincenero/rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="HonWno9Zea"><a href="https://www.buzzstream.com/blog/forbes-advisor-analysis/">The Rise, Fall, and Recovery of Forbes Advisor (Study)</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://www.buzzstream.com/blog/forbes-advisor-analysis/embed/#?secret=HonWno9Zea" width="600" height="338" title="“The Rise, Fall, and Recovery of Forbes Advisor (Study)” — BuzzStream" data-secret="HonWno9Zea" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); /* ]]> */ </script> https://www.buzzstream.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/rocketman.png500500In September 2024, Google took a rare manual action against Forbes Advisor, wiping out nearly 20 million monthly visits. Forbes Advisor’s digital PR team drove over 70,000 referring domains before the penalty. As of May 2025, the site had regained nearly 4 million in traffic (~17%) of its original 24 million monthly visits. Traffic recovery correlated strongly with category-level links (0.77), versus just 0.14 at the individual page level. Recovery seemed tied to creating Helpful content more than simply cutting ties with freelance writers. In September 2024, Google took manual action against Forbes Advisor for site reputation abuse, rocking the SEO world. This drop led to rampant theories and posts about their actions, why, and how. Unfortunately, around 25 great digital PRs on the Forbes Advisor team who were doing great work were also let go (as were many editors and SEOs). Fast forward to May 2025, and it looks as though they are beginning to recover. So, in this post, I want to take a deeper look at what dropped, what came back, and lastly, what digital PR may have to do with its resurgence. Methodology: Using Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, I compared the Top Pages and Best By Links reports. I also excluded regional subfolders like /it/ in this analysis. Quick Background The former Director of PR & Communications, Mark LoCastro, told me that since 2022, the Forbes Advisor section of the site has generated over 70K Referring Domains (RD). At their peak, his team of 29 digital PRs was churning out a few hundred articles yearly. Then, in March 2024, Google’s March 2024 core update hit the Forbes Advisor section and lost about 8 million in traffic. Many sites were hit during this time, but this was only the beginning. They recovered some of their traffic, but in mid-September 2024, Forbes Advisor was seemingly hit […]