June 2023 Google Search Observations

[Broaster]

I decided not to post any articles on my niche blog for a few days and on my stat counter I get 3 to 5 visits an hour on average. its hopeless.

[edited by: not2easy at 3:52 pm (utc) on Jun 1, 2023]
[edit reason] _{New month, new thread} [/edit]

[ErrlyBird]

One of my competitors, actually, one of the only competitors that is gaining traffic right now, is using PAA FAQ on their site to a large degree. There is no category description, just PAA FAQ at the bottom of their category pages. They have gained tremendously since the March update. I need approval but I will hopefully be testing this on our site and seeing what comes of it. It is very time consuming, not as badly with AI, but still worth trying. I will not be removing the cat description, but adding in the FAQ to the bottom like they do. Just another feeble attempt to scrape up any traffic we have been losing, which has been a lot.

And again, ads are not included in our niche, so something else is going on other than just that. I know ads are horrible right now, and for people in niches that allow it, I can see decimating traffic even more. But even in our industry the shifts are insane. All competitors minus maybe 3 that I have looked at are going downhill and fast. And out of those 3 only one is making any real gains, the other 2 are flatlined, which good for them I guess, ours is a slippery slope down.

[christianz]

PAA FAQ

If you do it just keep in mind that what you are doing is super spammy. It's exactly the same as keyword stuffing. Just more up to date version of it.

[Rlilly]

"PAA FAQ"

Surely if you create your own PAA with unique content, not AI created or copied. It should be beneficial..

[headspace]

I think we will see a major change in how G operates after the July deadline expires for GA4. I have resisted updating to GA4 because I believe GA4 is designed to give G as much information as possible about how sites are doing in terms of online sales/revenue. Once GA4 becomes compulsory after July, I believe the algorithms will be able to more precisely target websites which they believe have some scope for culling and pushing in the direction of adwords. I am hoping that the upside to this is that it might provide some relief for smaller sites once the algorithms can determine whether you're making any money online or not, versus the value you provide to online searchers.

[mosxu]

@headspace

G has access to your bank account! Banks send the information to G, they do no need G4 but if your bank account is empty there will be no converting traffic!

[christianz]

Surely if you create your own PAA with unique content, not AI created or copied. It should be beneficial..

There are cases where PAA type content and PAA schema is legitimate and helpful. But mostly it is abused. PAA questions are added in small print somewhere below main content, only to comply with PAA schema requirements and they are only there for Googlebot, not humans.

[headspace]

@mosxu

i don't think G has access to my bank account, although they will certanly know that one exists. :-)
What I was alluding to is the fact that with the the old analytics G used to rely on users setting up converision tracking pixels and the like in order to produce conversion reports which you could use to see how well you were doing financially online. After decades of data from this landscape, they now know what shopping carts, payment pages, paypal buttons and other online payment elements are set up on millions of websites. Call it conspiracy, but I believe with GA4 installed they can now read your conversions without you having to take any explicit action to set them up at all. I suspect this will begin to inform the algorithms more precisely after the July deadline when all websites need to be using GA4. I hope as a consequence this may provide some relief for smaller websites.

[RubicCubed]

I am hoping that the upside to this is that it might provide some relief for smaller sites once the algorithms can determine whether you're making any money online or not, versus the value you provide to online searchers.

I can't see relief for smaller sites and expect it to get worse with many smaller sites collapsing. All the ads pushing organic results very far under the fold tells me Google is concerned about how much money they are making and nothing else - not what we are earning and not in displaying results to satisfy their users.

If we had nothing but ads above the fold it would violate Google's guidelines, but to spam their own users with ads Google finds acceptable. IMO, we should not hold our breath that a highly hypocritical Google will do anything to benefit anyone other than themselves.

[ichthyous]

I am hoping that the upside to this is that it might provide some relief for smaller sites once the algorithms can determine whether you're making any money online or not, versus the value you provide to online searchers.

Wishful thinking seems to abound here. First of all, get rid of GA from your site completely. Don't give Google any access at all, it is using that info against you. I removed GA two years ago and my ranking is higher. I'm not saying there is a correlation but it certainly hasn't hurt.

Thinking that Google will somehow take pity on small businesses once it analyzes the data and realizes that the site can't pay for ads is pure delusion, sorry. Google is out to maximize profit, period. That means getting rid of any pesky organic traffic that might lower the chance of a user clicking on ads. Organic is now a hindrance to Google...there will be no mercy shown to anyone that is already crystal clear.

[mosxu]

Yes, it was in the news banks report companies account balance to G!

G has chrome no need for any analytics on your website!

The information gathering is not their struggle, the way they are personalising traffic is what we don’t understand nor relevant authorities want to understand!

[Martin Ice Web]

last weekend was worse but this weekend was even worse. All time low. And we started today with 30% of normal traffic.
Sales from google traffic is complete cut off. ( Amazon doing very, very well ).
Meanwhile our nich is dominated by shops with very, very little content. Not more thant 1 or 2 sentences. No deep background. No helpfull content. 1 picture. No technical details.

So last friday must have been an update or maybe HCU ( what a laugh) was tightend.

[headspace]

@rubiccubed, @ichthyous

You both have a point. But I look at it this way. The ultimate aim of G is to increase its ad revenue from online search. I can't see a better way of doing that other than determining via GA4 which sites are making money online and muscling in on them to take a cut by choking off traffic and pushing them towards adwords.
Why I believe smaller sites with valuable content may benefit from this more precise GA4 targeting, is the very same reasons you have both highlighted. Search is currently degraded with all of these ads above the fold, but the ads are only there because of falling ad revenue. If that can be eased by utlising GA4 then we may see a return to a semblance of normality by letting those organisations who can ideally afford to pay for traffic do so since these are the organisations which have the resources to game the system.

[ichthyous]

Traffic this weekend was actually stable and above average. Today has also started strong but appears to be dropping a bit. Now ask me about the conversions. Not one since the last burst of activity one week ago.

[superclown2]

Organic is now a hindrance to Google...there will be no mercy shown to anyone that is already crystal clear.

Google began all this ages ago by employing human reviewers to track down affiliate sites; which of course took money from the web which Google thought was rightfully theirs. These sites were labelled as spam (even though some of them were superb, packed with lelpful content, even if they were competing with mine!) and given +25 or +50 penalties.

I had a site given a penalty, which was lifted provided that I removed all affiliate links and didn't put them back. So obviously it was a site that they considered valuable; but only as long as it didn't earn money! To me at least the message was crystal clear.

They then favoured high spending advertising sites in the SERPs, even when these sites were in effect affiliates themselves and they contained, in most cases, boilerplate content. The result? Original producers of products and services had to pay these high spenders for the enquiries that should have been theirs by rights, whilst the 'authority' sites paid Google for the clicks. A nice business model! Shame the public are the ones ultimately paying for all this.

The last major update wiped out just about all the remaining affiliate sites I used to watch; the only ones that survived were those that hid their affiliate links by various devious (to Google, at least) means. More of their competitors for the little bit of money still available from organic search removed.

I have predicted for some time now that, seeing the writing on the wall regarding their present search dominance, Google would go all out to make as money as they can, before the axes inevitably fall, even at the risk of destroying the publishers that made them in the first place. The term 'Google Ethics' is an oxymoron (strange that so many ethics staff resigned or were sacked isn't it?).

[ErrlyBird]

Surely if you create your own PAA with unique content, not AI created or copied. It should be beneficial..

I did use AI and rewrote in my own words. Its literally just a test to see how well it performs. Our only gaining traffic competitor does this and working well for them.

There are cases where PAA type content and PAA schema is legitimate and helpful. But mostly it is abused. PAA questions are added in small print somewhere below main content, only to comply with PAA schema requirements and they are only there for Googlebot, not humans.

I agree. I am doing this to try and gain traffic and not necessarily to help humans. But at the same time, the information is pretty useful especially for first time buyers. So in a way, it is user friendly.

If you do it just keep in mind that what you are doing is super spammy. It's exactly the same as keyword stuffing. Just more up to date version of it.

This is my biggest fear and why I am running it as a test on one category vs going all in on it right away.

I have gotten the green light and have implemented it this morning. Now to keep track of my keywords and see what happens.

[Treud]

My Impression is on the rise since months. Not crazy increase but it’s steady. But the CTR is really going down and still after the early May huge drop.
Conversion not at the previous level though.

[superclown2]

If you do it just keep in mind that what you are doing is super spammy. It's exactly the same as keyword stuffing. Just more up to date version of it.

Perhaps I've misunderstood how this is being implemented, but isn't it just similar to having an FAQ on the page? I'd have thought that was useful for visitors.

[ichthyous]

My Impression is on the rise since months. Not crazy increase but it’s steady. But the CTR is really going down and still after the early May huge drop.
Conversion not at the previous level though.

My impressions and CTR also started to diverge around April 2nd and have not stopped since...clicks keep heading lower while impressions are relatively stable. Conversions are nil, except for the odd 18-24 hour period every two weeks. The inquiries I do get outside of this time are usually quite low quality and for older lower-priced items that I haven't sold in years and which I practically have hidden on my site. I assume that's because they are finding these items through image search with very specific search terms.

[RedBar]

What switch was flicked on Monday? I had a completely old-school traffic day with 200% of my recent average, today, Tuesday, it's returned to its former level ... utter madness.

[Rlilly]

I would not be shocked to see one day in the future, BUY buttons right there in the SERPS and eventually you will never have to leave Google to buy online...

[Treud]

Yes they ask so many questions on return policy, shipping costs etc etc.
They will soon integrate this function I’m sure.
And that will be worst, small shops selling for example Under Armor running shoes will get buried so deep they will have no chance to even been seen by a customer.
At the moment for organic results I did search on my nich, and first result was Amazon, with a super click bait description, and the products were totally not the ones from the title !
Imagine with a huge Google Online Store, you can buy everything from Amazon without leaving Google !

[christianz]

Traffic is terrible last couple of days.

[christianz]

Imagine with a huge Google Online Store, you can buy everything from Amazon without leaving Google !

I don't mind that. I have high social credit score, I will probably get some % off. And naughty ppl won't be able to buy anything online. Win-win-win!

Joking aside, I am sure its not just buying stuff that will be Google-only experience (powered by Amazon and some other equally evil partnering corpos), all the information and entertainment will be Google-only too. It's getting close to that already.

[Atomic]

I would not be shocked to see one day in the future, BUY buttons right there in the SERPS and eventually you will never have to leave Google to buy online.

Isn't that the status quo for some SERPs already?

[mosxu]

Elon Musk and his partner at OpenAI should offer Chat GBT to Apple, Twitter, TickTock and we buy ads / rank in more places.

In order to have competition we should have 20-100 search engines!

[tangor]

We already have 20-100 search engines, and new ones starting all the time.

What we DON'T have is g in the early years when they dealt fair, kept their cut reasonable, and paid participants a "living wage".

And all the other search engines out there already know that, so skip that part and remain "lean and mean".

[RubicCubed]

And all the other search engines out there already know that, so skip that part and remain "lean and mean".

So very true tangor. Google has set the standard for over-monetization with so many ads that I feel Google is no longer useful for some types of searches. If Google's ad-filled search results model is what other search engines will display to their users, then search itself will likely be extinct in 5-10 years.

[Micha]

Well, there is also the question of whether search is still important to Google at all? Google is everywhere, on the smartphone for example, they dominate news consumption, many websites generate revenue for them through Adsense, etc. It wouldn't surprise me if search doesn't play a big role for Google anymore in the long run.

[RubicCubed]

It wouldn't surprise me if search doesn't play a big role for Google anymore in the long run

Google had $282 billion in revenue in 2022 with $162 billion coming from search and $29 billion from YouTube. Search will likely remain a very important revenue generator for Google, though helping people get answers to their searches doesn't appear to be a big factor Google considers anymore with all the ads.

[Dalnoon]

Here's a visual representation of how my traffic is going down. 2 weeks down, 2 days up, and then lower again and repeat. It's sooo weird.

[imgur.com...]

[yollo03]

I cautiously write that another update is being rolled out... I am labeling it as 'the last nail in the coffin update.'

[Micha]

@RubicCubed TThe question is how the money was made with search, because Discover etc. also falls under it. The "normal" search is already plastered with advertising and in the long run the AI thing will change everything anyway (if AI doesn't turn out to be Hypetrain).

p.s. Stupid question, but how do you actually quote here?

[RedBar]

p.s. Stupid question, but how do you actually quote here?

[*quote*]p.s. Stupid question, but how do you actually quote here?[*/*quote*]

Remove the *

[RedBar]

[*quote]p.s. Stupid question, but how do you actually quote here?[*/quote]

Remove the * :-)

[not2easy]

how do you actually quote here?

Or you might compose your post and click the "Preview" link where all the formatting tools are found. ;)

[BigKat]

another update is being rolled out... I am labeling it as 'the last nail in the coffin update.'

I wouldn't have known there was an update judging by Google's traffic which has been flat-lined dead for months. Nothing but ads above the fold had and continues to have that effect.

In our case, and for many other USA based ecommerce sites, I think Google ran out of nails for the coffin and used screws instead. Google already put us in the ground and has been tossing shovels full of dirt on us for months. Next up is for Google to place the headstone. Trying to be optimistic, we're still here and our sales continue to rise from other sources.

[superclown2]

It wouldn't surprise me if search doesn't play a big role for Google anymore in the long run.

Advertising via search brings in around 80% of Google's income and, since the 'other bets' collectively make a huge loss, 100% of their profits.

Without it they would soon be toast.

[renatovieira]

Huge drop today.... :-/

[BigKat]

Without it they would soon be toast.

I admit, I hope Google does start toasting so that some organic results in our industry can start being seen again. I mean the full page of ads is utterly ridiculous and many of the ads are loosely related. I feel what Google is doing with all the ads is nothing less then a gross abuse of their market dominance.

Looks like the EU, once again, is many steps ahead of the USA:

EU Says Google Should Break Up Digital Ad Business
[webmasterworld.com...]

[superclown2]

Looks like the EU, once again, is many steps ahead of the USA:

'Lobbying' is not such a well honed art in Europe. The fact is, many of the practices that are common in the USA would be illegal over here.

However, at least the good people of Texas appear to be immune to it so there are interesting days ahead.

[ichthyous]

@renatovieira Right on schedule...I am also seeing a big drop today. USA is -28% at -6pm. Australia and UAE have been -48% for two days. Search is -11%

[renatovieira]

@ichthyous - As always, on schedule! Different niches, but the impacts of updates are very similar. USA is my biggest audience, here too -30% drop.

[EditorialGuy]

Our information site's Google traffic has been creeping upward for the last week or so. Nothing to write home about, but every bit helps!

[ichthyous]

USA traffic -46% at noon...nice! UAE is the other big drop at -42%. Germany -33%

[renatovieira]

@ichthyous... Same here

[RedBar]

Really wild ups and downs this past week, low to high 281% on weekdays!

[Mestrick]

@itchyous I am in working in UAE, from Tuesday to Thursday, traffic was dead. Today I am seeing getting back to normal now don't know about the afternoon.

[ViktorN]

Finance/blockchain news - terrible few days after a very good first two weeks in June. Reminds me of the kind of destroying updates that punishes mid-tier sites and give advantage to top tier sites like Forbes

[J_Abhi]

Even the website I am working on has seen falling down for many keywords, and organic search traffic is so low. Is it due to the any update just happened and I am not aware of ?

[Dalnoon]

Is it due to the any update just happened and I am not aware of ?

Google hasn't announced anything, but SERPs have been acting weirdly lately, so possibly a silent update.

I'm starting to believe the throttling theory is in fact true. My hourly traffic has been stuck on a number for days now, even during peak hours. I used to see a lot more up and downs.