November 2022 Google Search Observations

[RedBar]

Insofar as my global site is concerned my numbers are holding-up to average.

UK hotel site has seen a small decrease this week however realworld takings are ok, in fact better than anticipated.

[Martin Ice Web]

Last three weeks we see some strange traffic patterns.
Traffic climbing over the week beginning with saturday and gets down sharply on thursday with even lower on friday.
Except sunday seems to be the worst day right now, with traffic lost to -75%.

Overall we see a light traffic gain. You immediatly see when google opens the gates. Real traffic is coming in, sales, inquiries....

We wonder that google change their mind in relation to sho searchpages from websites in search results.
Mostly big brands (or better to say big companies that put up a trading platform: like otto, kaufland a.s.o. ) are poaching in high tech verticals without any knowlage about what they are selling.

So much to about make a compelling website with deep information.

[RedBar]

Very low traffic levels until 06.00 UK time this morning, since then it's been looking much more like a Friday average for me.

[Neohippy]

About 10-20% below normal all day today (UK traffic)

[BigKat]

Our traffic is down about 12% and conversions (US Ecom) are down 50%+. In normal times we would see an increase in traffic and conversions with consumers who are in Black Friday spending mode. Inflation, recession, etc. all play a role in spending. However, our overall traffic drop is a combination of a substantial drop in buyer traffic to our product pages with a less substantial increase in traffic to our information pages. Taking a look at the SERPS it's evident big brands are being promoted more than ever with an increase in Amazon crowded SERPS for many buyer intent queries. This is more of the same we've seen from Google in prior years, though each year it gets worse.

I'd encourage other Ecom site owners to dig deeper in their data to see if Google has stripped them of buyer traffic and are attempting to offset it with an increase in info traffic.

[Tomwlsh]

My website is still down about 99% since the October spam update.

The funny thing is, over the last few weeks impressions continue to slowly drop but the number of clicks is remaining steady. The CTR for my top articles is through the roof, now approaching 20%, with some top pages as high as 40%.

I really have no idea what google is trying to do.

[Micha]

I'm starting to wonder what exactly Google is trying to do with this?
The spam update has cost my small news site a lot of traffic (40% on average), even though we publish self-researched articles every day. But, that's nothing new for us.

I can agree with the observation that traffic increases from Monday to Thursday and then drops off. Saturday is the worst day of the week.

But what generally amazes me is that Google's search results have become miserable. So much spam and links that have absolutely nothing to do with my search query, I find very strange. In particular, I'm surprised that for current topics in niche areas, big news sites often rank well, but with very old articles. It doesn't surprise me that many sites are losing traffic, but it does raise the question of where Google is actually going.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Observing search creates anxiety and depression. Writing articles about topics you enjoy is less stressful and more productive.

I recommend the later.

[christianz]

Observing search creates anxiety and depression. Writing articles about topics you enjoy is less stressful and more productive.

I recommend the later.

If only everyone was as lucky to be able to just do what they like, write articles about white they like, not worry about Google etc. Unfortunately many here are making a living from websites and it really does matter if Google decides to show irrelevant junk in the SERPs instead.

[RedBar]

Traffic to my global site is precisely where I expected it to be with USA -33% with PVs.

UK hotel site with 95.6% long-term UK traffic is seeing both traffic and realworld footfall and takings up considerably. So far the World Cup is beiing good to us and with some good live bands over the next few weeks plus lots of Xmas lunches etc we may end 2022 on a high note :-)))

[Atomic]

Unfortunately many here are making a living from websites and it really does matter if Google decides to show irrelevant junk in the SERPs instead.

It matters to everyone. But we can't do anything about that. But we can work on our websites.

[robzilla]

So much spam and links that have absolutely nothing to do with my search query

Report it when you see it. There's a feedback link at the bottom of the SERPs.

If it's clearly spam, report it here [developers.google.com].

[anubitez]

This weekend my traffic has gone down 90% overall, I am unsure if just a bad combo of world cup and post black friday on the weekend which can be unpredictable but this is nuts.

I have recovered well to a point from the October 19th spam update, since Thursday went downhill... Will see next week but this is concerning..

Hope Google pushes a new update soon a major core, hopefully this shambles ends or they put the final nail in my coffin.

Note to Google, i supply lots of high ranking manual and automatic copy cats you promote with my content... If I go they suffer so you may loose income with Adsense meaning you will loose... lol since those sites have on average 15 to 50 ads, yes some have 50+ and rank with my own content even over my competitors... Haha like they give a toss... Look at John M and his team, not a care in the world.. in 2022 that is not normal.

[ichthyous]

USA traffic has been down this weekend...-16% yesterday. Today it's starting the morning -53%. I don't think it's unusual for a holiday weekend when everyone is shopping for discounts, traveling or just not online. However, people have usually made their inquiries for Christmas purchases by now and it has been practically nil. The ones that did inquire in mid November had low budgets and no sales resulted. People are not spending freely, despite what news reports say about the well off spending...perhaps on food, travel and eating out yes but not on non-essential material goods. 2022 has been my lowest year for sales in memory...absolutely mind blowing. Even worse than the 2008 crash and worse than during the pandemic in 2020. I don't see 2023 changing that. Unfortunately I used to be able to depend on at least one foreign market to bring in sales at any time...this year the high dollar, UK economy plunging due to Brexit and the slow economy in Europe and Australia meant that there was no place to turn really.

[Jez123]

@ichthyous - your observations fit exactly with what I think. After 22 years in business this is by far the worst I have seen as well. The whole year - starting September-ish last year has been terrible.

[Micha]

@Atomar Right, we can only work on the web pages. But I have to admit that I don't feel like doing that. Of course you can always improve the content, but with all the updates from Google you can't keep up anyway. I think it's best to just move on and get away from Google as best you can. Oh, and of course to ask yourself what all the changes are actually for

Because it's not called for nothing, you write for the users, not for the search engine.

[Dooku]

Recently google is hitting their limits in what they can get away on page one regarding their money grab.
I have read a few interesting (new) articles about the fact that content is NOT king any more, with very good examples of their arguments.
Most interesting however is the fact that these articles are ranked very poorly, or not.

My personal observation is that google is now hitting what I call their soft limit for page 1 results, in that they can not fill it with even more of their silly widgets and ads. Because now people just skip that page 1 or even 2, or just leave for Reddit, Amazon or an alternative search engine.

Now google is not indexing a lot of new content AT ALL any more if they think it is not worth their resources, this is now their new hard limit. Now, you will not even get your new content in google that easily. This is their next type of squeeze for profit......start cutting parts of your enterprise that do not have a great ROI.

I am seeing the same as many other website owners. Write a bunch of new articles, a few maybe get indexed in worth wile ranking position so you at least can try to improve the article some more to try and rank even higher. Another few will rank in positions that are just hopeless to try and improve the content some more. But most articles are just nowhere to be found.

Basically google is saying, "we are not going to use our resources and save you some space on our servers unless we think we will have a reasonable chance of making some profit off of your content." Of course, if you are a BIG media/publisher website than your content will get published without any issue......even if its garbage or not related in any way to your business/industry.

[RedBar]

Understandably steady weekend traffic and then at UK time 07.00 my global site lit up and has stayed that way for 7 hours now, I wonder for how long?

[Atomic]

I think it's best to just move on and get away from Google as best you can.

Not sure how that's possible. Of course, one could just create websites for people and be agnostic as to which search engine they use and not worry about Google. That option is available to everyone. It's a good one.

[RedBar]

After this weekend's attempt to buy a specifi case of a limited availabilty spirit I simply wonder why some companies are bothering with websites!

Firstly, although several sites were ranked and listed it, they did not have any stock and did not expect to receive any more.

Secondly, of the two that did have it:

1. We don't deliver to your area ... WHAT? Have you never heard of a courier service? Ok, Ok I responded, this Friday I happen to be 20 miles from you, could you deliver to my hotel? Sorry no but you can collect ... FFS !

2. Yes we have it, this is the price etc but the order has to be place online ... All acceptable to me, went through the Express PayPal system and approved then diverted back to their site and FAIL ... For whatever reason their system could not cope with this one order ...

I have advised them and heard zilch, do these people not test sites, do they not think someone outside of their town may want to purchase?

Honestly I tried, in fact several hours of trying, now I'm wondering why on did I bother?

[renatovieira]

Today I have the biggest drop I've ever seen. Did anyone else notice anything big today?

[beaverman]

@renatovieira hello there. Nothing here, however some of our newish sites are still -90% after October 21 and the Spam Update. How have you been doing after the Spam Update overall? I remember you posting about a huge drop on October 21 on this forum.

[renatovieira]

@beaverman - Yes, october 21, I had a big drop. But today it's even bigger. SERP's are ok. I don't know what's going on today...

[ichthyous]

Today big increase in traffic across the board after a very quiet holiday. No sales on my part so I feel like I can kiss any customers goodbye until the sale season is over

[robzilla]

Today big increase in traffic across the board after a very quiet holiday

Cyber Monday probably. Up 20% today, already the best AdSense day of the year.

[EditorialGuy]

Since late September, our evergreen travel information site's Google traffic had been down 20 to 30 percent over the same period last year. (The drop coincided with the "Product Reviews Update," which never made sense because our site has very few product reviews.)

Starting on Thanksgiving Day (November 24), I began seeing a recovery in our Google traffic, and as of today we're almost at parity with the same day last year.

GSC average rankings are also up modestly.

Will the improvements in Google rankings and traffic stick or, better yet, continue? One can only hope.

[anubitez]

this is my day today...

1. made a test site, scrape some content and see it rank within the first day, one-day-old domain, no backlinks, using a highly known spam TLD.

2. made a legit post that took 2 hours unique and nothing else like it since its my passion and thoughts with correct notes and images, does not rank and gets stolen by someone else and ranks using my images, on my whitehat website with almost a 70DA built with genuine people liking my content.

Blackhat wins boys.... this is just stupid........... Yes John M.... I will stop spamming clearly... You shown me the light for all whitehats to move to blackhats! clearly.

sorry about my post seeming a bit toxic, but i am feed up as most people here and in many other places. yes, lot of scumbags are impacted atm, but so are so many legit people and the algos are 100% not working as they should if those 2 points occurred as I mentioned above.

[sofie77]

I can confirm an update over the weekend. Our website, which is now 24 years old and has been delivering new content every day since then, has fallen to its lowest level since wie started in 1999.

Google takes up the entire first page with advertising, suggestions, videos, content extracts, content suggestions. I dont think this could be more. But we've also lost some positions. We have no Spam or Vitals issues, we have a backlink profile 99% would dream of (edu, newspapers, goverment).

It's very frustrating and I wonder why after all these years of experience it still bothers me and keeps me awake. It's probably because we put so much work into this site. Every day, even on weekends.

I hope these positions don't stay.

[Markedd]

@anubitez It's not toxic, it's the truth. If you want to run a business and make money, going whitehat is going to take you nowhere. I have mentioned before that I have websites which are the entire niche. This is what my competitors are doing: take my content, rewrite it (the cost is somewhere between 10-25 dollars for real people), get a few backlinks from PBN (don't have to be great quality since it doesn't really matter, Google will still push the content at the top for at least half a year) and make profit. So, working for good content =< working a lot less for spun content. And you make more money since I often have been outranked by these websites.

[beaverman]

@anubitez agreed. Especially, if you are new to SEO in 202x. Seems like there is much more to gain money-wise from low-cost/high-skill blackhat SEO (e.g. spamming with loads of AI content generated in days from scraping data + myriads of spammy backlinks), than putting hundreds of hours after hundreds of hours into building an online project from scratch just to be thrashed by G to the extent of -90% to -100% in a year or two cause you are somehow "not helpful".

Having such an experience myself, I'm really pessimistic about whitehat-ish SEO for new projects after 2022, cause even with a #*$!load of money and skill you are still at a constant risk to be thrashed by another update. Honestly, there are better ways to spend money and time.

[edited by: beaverman at 2:01 pm (utc) on Nov 29, 2022]

[Tomwlsh]

My search traffic nearly doubled yesterday, it doubled from a very low base but it is a move in the right direction. Numbers have dropped back slightly today.

More of my articles are also gaining impressions again, the position is terrible but at least google is doing something with them.

Still down about 98% from before the spam update.