In fact, Google would crack down on “low-quality sites” just a month later, but Demand Media’s properties were largely spared of negative traffic effects. When Google released an update to its algorithm in April 2011, though, traffic to Demand’s eHow fell sharply. By the end of the year, the company’s stock had dropped sharply, and it was losing money. In 2013, Demand also attributed its first revenue decline since it went public to Google search changes. The only healthy component of its business was reported to be its domain registration, which it was attempting to spin off. By 2014, Demand had begun creating its search-oriented how-to content for marketers.

Demand has made efforts to battle its reputation for cheap content. In May 2011, it announced it was seeking to add longer, feature-length articles to its sites, for which writers could be paid up to $350 for stories of 850 words or longer. It also said it was looking to try new story formats and curatorial methods to increase quality.

Demand Media was founded by Rosenblatt, former chairman of MySpace, and Shawn Colo, a former private equity investor. Rosenblatt abruptly left the company and his position as chairman and CEO in 2013. The company also owns eNom, the world’s second-largest domain registrar, and in 2011 bought blog ad network IndieClick and social media developer RSS Graffiti. It owned the liveblogging software CoverItLive from 2011 to 2014, when it was sold to ScribbleLive. In 2013, it announced that it plans to split off its domain registrar division into a separate company and later bought paid craft site CreativeBug.