April 2023 Google Search Observations

[RedBar]

I'll kick it off ... Early this morning I had a genuine trade visitor view 500+ pages on their phone ... I guess they were bored:-)

I know they were genuine since they actually sent me an enquiry and told me they'd spent 2 hours on the site.

[ichthyous]

As much as many of us are "blaming" G's ad placements, I find it difficult to accept that this is the answer to recent massive traffic drops

I am not seeing more ads than usual...the issue of an increased number of ads has been the case since early 2002. I am seeing a huge divergence between impressions and clicks in GSC and in one case both dropped and clicks went to zero for the last ten days. Losing one term would not produce an 80%+ loss of traffic. It seems to be hitting some of my other landing pages to a lesser extent...20%-40% losses instead of 80%.

I just checked these terms on the phone and there is a ton on the page...a block of six site links with images, then related questions, then videos, then 1st organic link, then ANOTHER block of visual site links, then organic positions 2-6, another block of visual sitelinks and a block of related searches. There was not one ad and no Google image there is so much on the page that the traffic is being distributed across many more sites. My site now has the image carousel back...but traffic has not returned...after ten days it's usually permanent.

[RedBar]

Without doubt I have been experiencing different ad layouts and especially so image blocks of between 1 x 5 images up to 5 x 5 image ads interspersed by a couple of traditional SERPs' links. The thing is some of these image ad blocks on scrolloing pages continue scroll after scroll such as:

4 x 4-5 ads
2 x SERPs
5 x 4-5 ads
1 x SERPs
etc etc ... I have seen more than 60-70 image ads before giving up.

.after ten days it's usually permanent.

My last 15 days now indicate a -43% Page Views fall, this is also -66% v 2021 only 2 years ago.

[intersect]

I fixed my problem, apparently my site was hacked and there was a command specifically for the Google Bot in my HTACCESS-file to redirect all traffic to some spam-site about watches. Something that wasn't visible if I just visit the site.

So if you see a spontanious gigantic decline in traffic, definitely check that out.

I found out by doing the url-checker in Search Console. It told me the pages were not indexed.

[engine]

Well spotted, intersect.
I hope you've also been able to close that backdoor.

[BigKat]

Without doubt I have been experiencing different ad layouts

At this point, the layout Google is using has more of an impact on traffic then where a page ranks. As I witness myself, top ranks get very little traffic with these ad heavy layouts. It seems like a mafia type tactic by Google where they have poured cement around our feet, let it harden over the past few months and tossed us in the sea to drown. IMO, I am fine with this. While Google may control a lot of search traffic, they don't control consumer spending. What I am seeing is total upheaval in where orders are originating from, leading me to believe Google has and continues to shed a lot of users who intend on shopping. Of all days, today (Sunday) we are having a solid run on orders coming from sources other then Google. I don't normally work Sunday's, but the momentum in the shift in where sales come from requires constant monitoring. I'm liking what I'm seeing - that is shoppers leaving Google to find what Google has hidden from them with so many ads.

[ichthyous]

I'm not seeing an increase in the number of ads, yet traffic has dropped for some of my most important pages by 30-90%. The issue is not the ads, the issue is all of the added widgets, and in particular the thumbnail links to sites/articles that appear 2-3x throughout the page...not sure what the official name for these boxes is, but they are diluting traffic, especially when all the other widgets on the page, related searches, and ads are taken into account.

IMO, I am fine with this. While Google may control a lot of search traffic, they don't control consumer spending.

Glad you're so nonchalant about it...I'm not. I was JUST recovering from an atrocious 2022 and now this. Other than one suspicious eve when Google must have been updating and I got inquiry after inquiry in a short span...I have had ZERO new inquiries in the last week. Two of the three most important pages of my site have lost all their traffic, and my home page is also way down, and individual pages that were bringing in tons of traffic are totally blitzed. This has nothing to due with rank...my rank is still holding strong. It has to do with the removal of images from organic search so that these links get lost and de-emphasized. In some cases the rank has dropped one or two spots, but the traffic has dropped 90%.

[BigKat]

Glad you're so nonchalant about it...I'm not.

Not nonchalant, but accepting there is nothing within my control that will impact the SERP layout. No amount of SEO, new design on our site, better images/video, links, etc. will allow us to rank above the ads and boxes that have decimated organic traffic. Shoppers are moving to different search engines and sources to find what they are looking for, which I find positive and will likely also carryover to other sellers and those who run informational sites down the road. IMO Google violated their users trust, in prioritizing ad revenue above answering queries, and this will continue to push users to leave Google so long as Google continues down this path.

[Soulofmonk]

Is Google Analytics down?
Edit/Update: now it's back

[superclown2]

IMO Google violated their users trust, in prioritizing ad revenue above answering queries, and this will continue to push users to leave Google so long as Google continues down this path.

I have posted several times that, because of the massive amounts of lawsuits they are facing, I believe that Google will go all out to maximise profits even if it means destroying their future as a 'search engine' (if you can call them that).

Since all their 'other bets' have, collectively, been a mega expensive failure I suggest that those of us who can afford to do so sit this out until they fall, or accept the inevitable and try a different business. Sorry but this is the reality of the situation.

[ichthyous]

Shoppers are moving to different search engines and sources to find what they are looking for, which I find positive and will likely also carryover to other sellers and those who run informational sites down the road.

This is entirely dependent on the product and the price point. This may be the case for some items, perhaps lower priced ones or ones that are easily found elsewhere. What I sell is unique and a high price-point. My customers come from Google...about 80% of them. My traffic from other search engines is so negligible that I don't focus on whether customers come from there. Social media does not send actual customers with decent budgets. Email and my own network of contacts built over the last 20 years is the rest. Real world bricks and mortar partnerships have left me flat and wasted a lot of time and money...they aren't nearly as profitable.

IMO Google violated their users trust, in prioritizing ad revenue above answering queries, and this will continue to push users to leave Google so long as Google continues down this path.

That is self-evident and has been the case since 2010...it has just gotten a lot worse since about 2020. Sundar Pichai's compensation as CEO this year is $200,000,000. Compensation for Google's highly overpaid employees is being extracted from small and medium sized businesses around the world...they are literally killing us off to pay themselves higher and higher amounts. That is the problem with the total dominance of a few tech monopolies. They will need to be cracked up sooner or later for the good of society. That is coming with AI, which is going to kill off highly paid upper level jobs so fast that it will cause a massive backlash.

I also read a recent NY Times article about Google and the comments were a surprise...they were just scathing...hundreds of them. So people are noticing the decline in Google's search quality...but are they adopting other search engines? Not really. Google's market share actually inched up since MS announced Bing was integrating AI. Without Google, I am out of business...as are most of us here.

[ErrlyBird]

Seeing big drops again. We recovered to the same levels as before the March core update now taking big swings again. Our mobile traffic is up a bit and desktop traffic is way down. Conversions seem to be steady but much less impressions and clicks shown in GSC. Not sure what's going on but I could really use some stability for a while. Our company is going through a lot at the moment and this is certainly not helping.

[ichthyous]

The entire extent of my traffic loss is USA / Canada, and concentrated in a few high traffic parts of the site. USA is -45% this morning, and my most important landing page is -88% today. The home page seems to be recovering, as are a couple of other landing pages...but it's up and down. I do not understand why such steep losses...I search and find myself right where I always was, no ranking changes reported...but GSC shows a big divergence between clicks (way down) and impressions (increasing).

[BigKat]

This is entirely dependent on the product and the price point.

Not entirely. If one is strictly in B2C sales, then they are more likely to be highly dependent on search engines for sales. Additionally, are comparable products sold on Amazon/advertised on Google not so dissimilar from what you sell that it would compel shoppers to look elsewhere?

My customers come from Google...about 80% of them.
That is self-evident and has been the case since 2010

Not being disrespectful, but knowing Google has been increasingly monetizing their users and SERPS with ads since 2010 has given us the time to adjust to Google's increasing greed. I concede, not all businesses will be able to adjust in the current environment and where it appears to be going. Regardless, this is more of a business model concern for all of us knowing that between Amazon and Google it is very difficult to be found without appearing in at least one of those properties. Either we adapt our business models, and diversify the products we sell, or we succumb to the abused dominance Amazon and Google inflict on economies. I'm with you in the belief that these companies need to be broken up/regulated for the good of free markets, though I'm not sure if it will ever happen because of massive lobbying efforts that help provide the funding to keep dysfunctional politicians in power.

[ichthyous]

Either we adapt our business models, and diversify the products we sell, or we succumb to the abused dominance Amazon and Google inflict on economies.

Unfortunately it is not so easy for some businesses. Amazon does not carry what I sell, which is basically a luxury item for upscale / wealthy customers. Amazon tried several years back, but nobidy used it and it was the only class of items that failed miserably on their platform. Buyers want exclusivity and cachet in my niche. It's not mass market at all. Things like journalists and publications writing about me and my items are gold, search is gold, but Amazon, eBay, etsy occupy a different universe. Businesses in my niche don't typically concern themselves with search too much as they have networks of wealthy patrons and collectors...they sell via retail locations, foot traffic, and trade fairs. I dont have that so i pick up the ones who want to browse online. Of course, the pandemic murdered a lot of the retail locations and the fairs for several years.

I totally agree that diversification is key, but my partnerships thus far have not panned out as much as I would have liked at all...and have cost a small fortune. So after years of trying desperately to diversify away from search here I remain...still dependent on Google. I'm hammering away at social as a way to gain visibility, but instagram for example has made visibility almost impossible unless you pay. And also they have converted to a tiktok clone so you need to pump videos all day long.

[edited by: ichthyous at 4:47 pm (utc) on Apr 24, 2023]

[superclown2]

I'm not sure if it will ever happen because of massive lobbying efforts that help provide the funding to keep dysfunctional politicians in power.

Absolutely: and in many parts of the world this would be illegal. However it doesn't work the same in Europe and when (and I stress WHEN) change comes it is far more likely to come from this side of the pond. Our Competition and Markets Authority is sharpening pencils at this very moment; Google will be regulated whether they like it or not.

[BigKat]

@ichthyous

I am 110% empathetic of your situation which many find themselves in, including the company I work for to some degree. Though all businesses are different, most of us see Google SEO dying (or dead already) and along with it their livelihoods. There are no words I can use to describe the suffering many are now experiencing for having poured so much money and effort into creating and maintaining their businesses only to have a dominant search engine take it away. It's not fair, likely unlawful in many countries and will have a major negative impact in most industries. And with Google setting the pay to play bar so high, it's the example other search engines and social media sites are following which limits new entrants from succeeding and existing businesses from thriving.

I will say what has bought us some time, and not without a decline in sales/pain, is that I work for a specialized manufacturer. We largely control distribution which keeps our items off of Amazon, other marketplaces and from distributors who would sell our items using Google Ads. We sell B2C, B2B and B2G which gives us some diversity in what customers are looking for and where they find us at. Some of the items we sell directly competes with what the Chinese are selling on Amazon and Google is heavily advertising in their ads. And what these Chinese sellers are dumping on consumers fails to meet current safety standards. Neither Amazon or Google seem to care about the safety of the products they present to their customers/users, but professionals do and continue their search elsewhere (beyond Amazon and Google). At least from my perspective, I'm happy that my company has not given in to jump back into Google Ads or sell on Amazon again. In a sense, my company is doing their part in holding their ground against the abuse of these market leaders. In doing so, my company is helping to educate shoppers to look beyond Amazon and Google which I hope helps train shoppers they are best avoiding Amazon and Google entirely. Still, I know our sales are down and what my company is doing right now could change tomorrow.

@superclown2

I fully agree Europe is far more likely to demand Amazon and Google make changes to protect their markets. But I am doubtful such changes will carry over to the USA. Simply put, USA politicians appear bought and paid for. Just today I saw a pic of Schumer (Senate majority leader) and Adams (NYC mayor) photographed with the Chinese including one person who has been accused of operating Chinese police stations on USA soil. It's hard to believe such politicians would demand less ads in search and/or more diversity in the products or information displayed. If anything, these pictures illustrate how blind these politicians have become in their own personal quests for power/money.

[mhansen]

One thing that always centers me, is that I KNOW where Google stands - and also where I stand in their system. Their mission, and subsequently their legal fiduciary responsibility, is to make money for their shareholders. To do that, they have gathered and stored so much data about every person, every website, every app, and every transaction that occurs across the web. ALL of this, with not only our (Webmasters/Site owners) explicit permission, but encouragement and helpful training with bot exclusions, sitemaps, GA/GSC data, defined goals, conversion metrics with $$ values, gmail use, Chrome usage, metadata, JSON, AMP, etc. The powerplay in their pocket is when they have a website owner using email, GA, GSC, Ads, YT, and basically all of their measurement tools, to run their business. Now, they just need to parse through that data to return the zero-click results as close to 100% as possible, and keep their billions of daily users within the Google ecosystem as much as possible. (Ads, video, PAA, maps, widgets, etc).

In simple terms, If you have a website with a defined goal and a monetary value associated to it in GA, you can bet your last dollar, Google is hyper-suggesting every keyphrase that gets to that conversion page, as an Ad to its ad partners. That is, if they don't already add it to the Ad campaigns automatically. Your 1,500 monthly visitor, long-tail query that was doing so well, is now not only seeing ads in front it, but the smart Advertiser is also adding content to get those visitors as well. In reality, Google likely no longer even needs this data, since it scrapes it from the Chrome users as they browse the web.

A few years ago, people were shocked when Amazon took the highest value products selling on their platform, sourced manufacturers, and started selling those exact products that were not protected by Trademarks for less money. It's basically the same thing Google is doing, but they still get to use OUR data and content, wrap it in ads and reap the rewards, cutting us out of the picture and claiming fair use. THAT practice needs to end, but it's going to get worse with the use of AI.

If you are in a market that has little to no ad demand, instead they show pictures, videos, widgetry and basically anything else they can, to keep the user in their walled garden. I'm confident (no proof) that Amazon and a few other +$10B/year spenders have ad accounts that allow Google to show their ads on all queries, even though the query does not match a product, just to keep an advertiser top and center.

If the user does manage to get out of the loop and click on an organic result, 99/100 times today, it is to a website that is running some form of ads linked to Google. You only need to go through the data of a handful of websites using Cafemedia, Adthrive or some other major "Google Ad Partner" to compare their SEMRush history and see that Google quickly whitelists many of these websites after major updates when they lose a substantial amount of their traffic. (And Goog loses the ad revenue) They may not get all of their traffic back, but they get a lot of it and Google goes right back to feeding them with the crumbs from those zero-click searches, so they can display their high value ads.

It's not Googles fault that we are all in this mess, it's ours. Trademark what you can, then sue the hell out of them when they violate it, like Getty images did for so long.

[RubicCubed]

Umpteenth review update is finished: [status.search.google.com...]

Nothing positive to say, so I won't for now.

[ichthyous]

It's not Googles fault that we are all in this mess, it's ours. Trademark what you can, then sue the hell out of them when they violate it, like Getty images did for so long

Copyright, not trademark. Copyright is automatic for creative works, but they have to be registered in a timely fashion in order to get any damages. And that takes time and effort and if the content isn't unique the copyright can be invalidated. I do it, and have for twenty years and it brings me in a separate six figure revenue stream. But, not as easy as it sounds...you have to get an attorney in each jurisdiction in the US to pursue a wide range of infringements...i have 6 separate firms working my cases. That's not easy and the attorneys don't always want small infringement cases. On top of that if the infringer is overseas you can pretty much kiss it goodbye. UK, Europe have much lower compensation than us and you have to pay the attorney up front, not on contingency. Still, if you have a lot of unique content that you can prove is yours then it's worth the investment in time and money to register your works and pursue infringements.

[RedBar]

18 days consistently now at my new lower average level. My first week of April was fine and then off a cliff edge. I very much doubt there may be any improvement for me without a radical Google alteration.

And as if to prove my point that G is selecting specific types of business sites in my widget sector and especially so in the USA, my UK-focussed hotel venue so far this month is at 156.5%.

That's localisation for you.

[BigKat]

I'm seeing a new desktop layout for buyer queries that has 0 organic results without scrolling. What I see is a single expanded text ad at the top, block of 9 products in the right sidebar and a block of 8 products below. After scrolling, there is one organic result and then immediately followed by the people also ask box. This layout explains why our #1 listings are generating so little traffic - because #1 is hidden. Once we get beyond the people also ask box, organic results #2-10 are grouped together. I believe #2-10 is where we want to rank as we stand a better chance of getting some traffic from those searchers who jump beyond ads. Still, we have ranks within the #2-10 positions and those aren't producing much traffic either. It's sad watching SEO and organic Google die, but that's what's happening. I doubt Google will let searchers get too comfortable with this layout so they don't learn to quickly jump beyond the ads.

I can't say other search engines are much better. I think organic search is nearing its end of life and already dead for some of us. I can only hope a new player will step up and provide consumers a product that helps them find what they are looking for instead of turning them into mad ad clickers.

[RedBar]

I think organic search is nearing its end of life and already dead for some of us.

I've been of that opinion since 2016 which was the year many of my competitors and trade friends actually stopped updating their global supply sites and these days most of them only have a simple single info and contact page.

Honestly, and this may sound crazy, if one does not know the url of a potential global widget supplier it's very unlikely one would find it by searching.

[ichthyous]

Google is definitely loading up on ads at the top of both mobile and desktop, and the number of widget boxes is incredible. I have started to lose top 3 ranking terms...10 yesterday alone. What I am seeing is the formerly ranking sites moving back to the top and crowding everyone else out. These are the same two or three large sites at the top of every single search now. One was at #1 last year for everything and then vanished, now back again. Another one is making its debut at #2 for all of the same searches. Google is very much pushing the largest sites to the top so perhaps its the ones that spend on ads, or the ones that have highest trust factor.

USA traffic has been affected badly, but UK, Europe and rest of world are still zooming for me. My UK traffic is double my US traffic this morning...crazy. The USA serps are being gamed very badly and Google knows nobody is prepared to stop them here.

I think organic search is nearing its end of life and already dead for some of us.

I would not agree since about 70% of my traffic is from organic search on any given day (Google, Bing, Yahoo, DDG combined). Depending on search for conversions and sales is what is going bye-bye. People will not start using AI chat for searches that quickly, and they may never abandon the current search model at all.

[mhansen]

I think organic search is nearing its end of life and already dead for some of us.

I feel you are very correct. If a query has any monetary value, the search engines are doing all they can to monetize it for themselves, or at best, their largest ad partners who spend the most with them. (Likely the most relevant EAT branding signal) The higher the value, the more obfuscation of organics you'll find in the various SERP layouts.

Branding or trademark does not seem to matter to search either. We created a brand and service around a portmanteau word and trademarked it with the USPTO. Google simply breaks the brand-name word into what the 2-word combination means and shows its high CPC ads, regardless of our efforts.

[BigKat]

I've been of that opinion since 2016

Surely some sectors have fallen quicker then others. I don't think there is much ad revenue left for Google to extract out of my industry as Google has driven all the non-marketplace sellers out of their ads. I expect Google to load up info searches with ad spam next.

With all of these recent updates, our ranks haven't changed that much but SERP layouts most certainly have. As I noted with the new desktop layout above, during this review update Google removed the single organic result that once appeared in the desktop SERPS without scrolling. I think these updates are more about Google trying to hide the fact they are killing off organic results with layout changes. This is why I look for and expect subtle SERP layout changes with every Google update these days. IMO, Google is solely focused on revenue.

Honestly, and this may sound crazy, if one does not know the url of a potential global widget supplier it's very unlikely one would find it by searching.

Not crazy at all. My company sells B2G and I've seen a good number of B2C sales originate from the backend systems of Government agencies we sell to. Finding anything with a public search engine anymore is difficult for the majority of consumers who lack the patience and determination to find something outside of what they are being fed in ads.

Edit:

@ichthyous

I would not agree since about 70% of my traffic is from organic search on any given day (Google, Bing, Yahoo, DDG combined). Depending on search for conversions and sales is what is going bye-bye.

As it relates to traffic, we still get a lot of "traffic" from Google. Look at the last hit we received from Google search:

IP: 72.14.201.205 Hostname: 72-14-201-205.v4.fetch.tunnel.googlezip.net
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/112.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36

These are prefetches, and we get a lot of them because we have good ranks. The problem is all the ads appearing above our good ranks have siphoned off all the actual human visits and sales from organic traffic. Real human visitors, with real ISP IP addresses and credit cards, is what is in short supply from Google.

[ichthyous]

I think these updates are more about Google trying to hide the fact they are killing off organic results with layout changes.

Absolutely...they are trying every method at their disposal to make sure organic loses out while ads win. But they can never get around the most important issue: almost everyone in the world prefers organic results to sponsored ones. Hence all the angry chatter about Google's debased index these days. Google is working at cross purposes, and more than any tech giant its model is vulnerable to a better way/model/paradigm to replace it...and they know it.

[BigKat]

But they can never get around the most important issue: almost everyone in the world prefers organic results to sponsored ones.

Exactly. The excessive number of ads has become a substantial impediment for searchers who want to find what they are looking for quickly.

Google is working at cross purposes, and more than any tech giant its model is vulnerable to a better way/model/paradigm to replace it...and they know it.

Agreed, and I can only hope it happens soon because there is so much pain going around. Apple has been crawling all our pages and I see them crawling everyday. Come on Apple, get off your behind!

[EditorialGuy]

Exactly. The excessive number of ads has become a substantial impediment for searchers who want to find what they are looking for quickly.

For those of us who are informational (a.k.a. editorial) publishers, ads aren't the issue--at least, not most of the time. Many of our SERPs don't even have ads, so we're more concerned with answer boxes, "People also ask," and all the other visual clutter that distracts search users from the traditional ten blue links.

If Google were concerned solely with monetization, it would run ads--such as behaviorally targeted display ads--on SERPs that don't involve the sale of goods and services.

[yollo03]

Im not sure is this was posted already, google is making changes to the page experience:

[developers.google.com...]

The last parts are the most important:

'The helpful content system is primarily focused on signals related to content, rather than presentation and page experience. However, just as our core ranking systems consider signals that align with good page experience, so does the helpful content system, to a degree.'

Google Search always seeks to show the most relevant content, even if the page experience is sub-par. But for many queries, there is lots of helpful content available. Having a great page experience can contribute to success in Search, in such cases.'

[superclown2]

If Google were concerned solely with monetization, it would run ads--such as behaviorally targeted display ads--on SERPs that don't involve the sale of goods and services.

Would you pay for an ad on SERPs like these?

[ichthyous]

I am trying to determine what happened ~April 15th to cause such a massive drop in clicks for my most important term and all 4 of its semantically similar variants. They all vanished overnight at the same time:
[ibb.co ]

The image above shows the decline in web clicks, while impressions hold relatively steady. Image clicks for the same term have a similar drop, but impressions also drop. Apply the same pattern across all the similar terms and my traffic is now -75% to the landing page those terms sent traffic to. If I search for myself I am still there on page one...I float up and down a spot from day to day so no major changes in rank, but the clicks have just gone POOF! Almost all of that decline in clicks seems to be localized in the USA/Canada market.

This is my single most important set of terms regarding conversions and sales, so Google just sent a precision-guided missile to hurt my business in the most finely targeted way possible. Has anyone else seen this for a set of semantically similar terms in April?

[yollo03]

Start checking if anything new you added or updated is causing a heavier page load for certain countries (maybe you cdn?).

Look into what countries you stopped getting clicks from. It's possible you were downranked in one country but raised in another?

If thats not the case, certain keywords are reserved for the big boys, at least in my niche. If the same is in your case, work your way on new keywords until the next core update (which gives nothing but hope but its your only chance).

Edit: Its possible there were fluctuations during that big update rollout and that it will balance itself out (if it hasnt already) later today or in a few days. GSC is not updated for me.

[Martin Ice Web]

This is my single most important set of terms regarding conversions and sales, so Google just sent a precision-guided missile to hurt my business in the most finely targeted way possible. Has anyone else seen this for a set of semantically similar terms in April?

Yes, we saw it and it is still in progress.
And the sales that come in are items that we never sold for years.

[superclown2]

The excessive number of ads has become a substantial impediment for searchers who want to find what they are looking for quickly.

Despite the increased number of ads Google's income from them dropped again in Q1 for the second time in succession. The golden goose may not be dead but it is certainly being slowly strangled.

[ichthyous]

@MartinIceWeb Yes! I have had a lot of small sales for obscure older items this year too!

Start checking if anything new you added or updated is causing a heavier page load for certain countries (maybe you cdn?).

No, and all my pages are green Core Web Vitals and 100% good page experience

Look into what countries you stopped getting clicks from. It's possible you were downranked in one country but raised in another?

So I checked country by country...here's what I found:
1) Loss in clicks mostly concentrated in USA
2) USA impressions did not go down at all for half of the semantically related terms, only clicks declined
3) For other terms where impressions did drop I checked USA/UK/CA/AU/DE/FR and the impressions all dropped to almost zero, then shot back up and recovered about half. Clicks are not recovering with impressions at all...clicks are still essentially 0
4) Clicks for all of these semantically related terms did not increase in any country, only dropped or stayed the same

If thats not the case, certain keywords are reserved for the big boys, at least in my niche. If the same is in your case, work your way on new keywords until the next core update (which gives nothing but hope but its your only chance).

There are no other keywords...Google dropped every possible variation at the same time, and this set of keywords is what drives about 1/3 of my sales in reality. All I can do is hope for a recovery and try to get new links to these pages.

Edit: Its possible there were fluctuations during that big update rollout and that it will balance itself out (if it hasnt already) later today or in a few days. GSC is not updated for me.

It appears that this also affected a few other sets of terms early on, and those have recovered. This one set however is by far the largest source of traffic to my site and have not recovered in any way since they started to drop ~April 12th. No sign of any recovery

My USA traffic is around -28% every day now, but UK and much of Europe are strongly higher. Most days my UK traffic is 2/3 of my USA traffic, which is absurd for a country 1/6th the population.

Now, I happen to be adding o sh!tload of new content related to London/UK steadily since last fall. What I theorize is happening is not only is that getting indexed and bringing in more traffic because of the content, but Google is counting the overall composition of my site's words / phrases and references to things in the UK has gone way up as percentage of the total. It is also more current, so now it's dropping me for the previous terms, which are no longer as dominant nor are they as current. So clearly the algo places a strong emphasis on the trend in content on your site in what you will rank for.

[renatovieira]

@ichthyous - April last year was a terrible month. Now in 2023 the month of april repeats itself, but much worse. Since april 1st, everything is in full drop.

The 2022 december update launched my website in the top positions in dozens of terms and keywords. It's been an incredible 4 months. But it seems to me that Google reversed this update and those who benefited, went back.

And along with that, AdSense with the worst earnings since I started monetizing.

I don't see coincidences, but an rollback update, clearly.

Just an opinion.

[ichthyous]

@renatovieira I am seeing similar in terms of which sites are once again occupying the top few spots. But I have not lost much ranking yet...what I have lot are clicks and in some cases impressions are heading down. I just checked term by term and it is much more widespread than I thought...many landing pages have lost 25%-40% of their traffic. It's USA, Canada that has dropped like a stone, but France and a few other countries are also down. In the meantime, traffic to my homepage has doubled in the last week...

[anubitez]

I just cannot get over how Bollywood-named and themed websites are beating legit websites in my niche........ Even if it is the hardware manufacturer themselves... Has anyone else noticed Indian spam sites going nuts? half of them appear to be news, but in my niche that is tech info related, its now Bollywood sites ranking in the spots. I've seen it all now.

[Martin Ice Web]

Today: full zombie attack

[SakshamSingh]

Site was hit by March update but is gradually reaching to that level till yesterday. But today Rankings are fluctuating a lot and keywords that were high up yesterday are dropping with every hour passing.

[ubound]

I was hit so hard by the March core update. I went from a very comfortable life to not being able to pay my son's university tuition fees. I only do Adsense, just an informational website. A couple of days ago, I noticed spikes in traffic from Singapore and the Philippines at times when the traffic is at its lowest level. It would last for a few hours and then go back to my new normal after the March update. But today's Philippines traffic is on another level, and it has been going on much longer than the previous days. If this goes on, I might reach the numbers before the hit, only number-wise, of course, not money-wise.

[Micha]

Well, I can unfortunately confirm what is reported here. Ranking is falling, Google results are a disaster in my niche (completely outdated info dominates). But it was clear that something like this happens, because after a recovery by a core update, as we know, does not last long.

I'm really glad that we don't depend on Adsene or something, otherwise we wouldn't be able to finance the website for a long time.

[RedBar]

Obviously I don't know for how long however I am seeing what I would describe as normal traffic levels and visitor patterns plus thoughout a couple of 24 hour periods.

Today: full zombie attack

And today is my regular monthly email spam attack from France ... It's as regular as clockwork.

[ichthyous]

This is insane...I am ranking #1 for the entire set of terms that Google is somehow managing to refer up to 90% less traffic for depending on the term. In some cases I have both the #1 organic spot AND the #1 local spot, but the traffic is still down 75%! I am seeing a set of 3 large ads at top of page...but those were always there. How is Google managing to steal ALL of the traffic if I am ranking #1 for these terms? I had more traffic from Italy this morning than from the USA...that is just insane. Google has turned into a straight up mafia syndicate now.

[mosxu]

“Today: full zombie attack”

Same here and for paid traffic…

[yollo03]

My gsc was finally updated, Most impressions yesterday per country were slashed by 50%. I dont know how its today but I can tell its not that good either. The impact is greater than I thought,,, I hope it is temporary.

I am going to increase my focus on other platforms more than I have so far. I did a quick check on a few keywords and noticed something interesting. If I were to search for work tools and then best work tools, usually a lot of the sites that would appear under work tools would also appear under best work tools. What I noticed is that some sites do not appear at all, at least not in the top 4 pages (only looked up US).

Whether it was intentional or not, I think it will be modified in another update.

Edit; Another thing I am starting to notice and this is new for me. When you scroll down (used desktop) and stall, google figures what website you are focusing on with great accuracy. It will then continue showing you that site in different rankings a few times. If you dont click on it, it disappears and replaced with a different site.

This was only 1 website, tested in incognito. It's a great way to kill traffic and why the description must be really attractive.

I am certain it is more sophisticated than I described and many other factors are involved.

[RedBar]

Obviously I don't know for how long

Right on cue, mid-day and since then traffic has consistently halved ... No surprise there, obviously no one is up at 07.00 US time!

[anubitez]

Is it me or are the serps getting so bad you see the "GOOD" competitors you know are good even getting bombed out and now random obsolete articles or spam ranking?

I see so many articles from 2019 that are poorly done or from random sites ranking, Google can keep playing dumb I do not care, my DDG and Bing traffic is surging amongst other randoms I never heard of and starting to gain traction. While most here pray for Google to turn around, I do not I want them to continue doing the bad updates and not reverse anything! The only way for Google to get taken out is what they are doing right now, destroying themselves as no one can put up the capital to take them out :)

[yollo03]

I think there is regular ranking as we know it and there is dynamic ranking (at least this is what I am thinking). The mess you are seeing is perhaps due to this dynamic ranking, which is personalized.

[superclown2]

The mess you are seeing is perhaps due to this dynamic ranking, which is personalized.

I delete cookies and change my IP address several times a day but I still see the same appalling results. Sites that don't load, old outdated content, missing CSS files, you name it. I seriously wonder if Google is gradually abandoning search quality in favour of AI; which *could* be a great money spinner in the future. Having sacked many of their staff (and it is rumoured more may be on their way out) they have still switched a lot of them to try to improve their Bard product; that speaks volumes.

Their attempt to get the US antitrust case kicked out has just failed and they must know that the writing is on the wall, so it sounds logical to accept the inevitable and concentrate on yet another 'other bet'. Maybe, unlike so many others, they can make a success of this one.