September 2023 Google Search Observations

[mosxu]

So you guys you don’t spend in ads much? The cheese is moving even more if you spend on ads!

[edited by: not2easy at 6:49 pm (utc) on Sep 1, 2023]
[edit reason] New month, new thread [/edit]

[RareBit]

I am seeing 4 ads today...It has always been 3 on my terms

[christianz]

The team of google is very stupid

I wish they just were stupid, but it's much worse than stupidity.

[BigKat]

I am seeing 4 ads today...

It's been four text ads at the top for us since late January. Shall I say welcome to the club? As I and others have noted, Google has no choice but to roll out these ad spam layouts to more types of searches and countries to grow their profits. The end of the third quarter is this month...

[Martin Ice Web]

Worst drop over night ever. We are at 33% of normal level.

[Conro]

Google is a roulette now

[Micha]

Today, very many report that websites with original content are rising. In Germany, however, it seems to be different, with advertising and crap on the rise.

[Martin Ice Web]

@Micha,

confirmed. Sites with copied manufacturer description and very less content are at the top. Never seen this before.
and:
-pictures in serps doens´t match the picture on the site.
-totaly mismatch from query and serps
-sites with helpfull content ( extra text, pictures, PDFs a.s.o.) are burried way down
-shops are on page #1 that from pure look i wouldn´t trust

First time i am seeing that amazon is not at #1 for some queries.

[mosxu]

The boat is sinking, buyers using a search engine to buy things are disappearing at very fast pace and many of us are thrown overboard!

All profiled buyers using their credit card quick are sent to a few websites and not spread based how high the bid is or how good content is!

We even made products no one has and started well then the hate algo decided not show them!

70% of us will probably go for good and the algo will not stop until the last cent is being squeezed!

[Micha]

@Martin Ice Web I agree with you, and it's no different in the news sector. Above all, articles whose texts come from news agencies are at the top. Websites that do their own research have almost completely disappeared. This is not new, but I have never seen it as bad as it is now. It is a pathetic picture what Google delivers with the Core Update.

[Conro]

@mosxu this is normal. From Google Chrome for mobile if i search a poduct the result is:

Google Shopping images
Ads
Ads
1 position with images
2 position with images
Google Shopping images
3 position with images
4 position with images
Google Shopping images
5 position with images
6 position with images
Google Shopping images
etc.
The images for the article is for create the confusion in the user and receive clic Google shopping images

[RubicCubed]

buyers using a search engine to buy things are disappearing

Very true. Google does not help shoppers find what they are looking for but instead places them in a serp trap so they click ads. People and businesses have no use for this spammed ad garbage in Google.

[Cyril TechWebsites]

I hope Googlers are reading this thread. It let's them not to forget what people are thinking about them.

[BigKat]

Google is really a marketplace aggregator in how the SERPS contain nothing but ads from marketplaces. We see the same China made products in Google Ads, sold in different marketplaces with some being rebranded. Such shallow and superficial search results fail to serve consumers by limiting their choice but does underscore Google's desperate attempt to build a wall of ads around users so the only way out is a paid click.

I hope Googlers are reading this thread.

I do wonder how those working on organic results within Google feel about ads overtaking their work. It would appear to me Googlers working on organic results, in ecommerce anyway, see their employment with Google being on borrowed time. #1 ranks generate so little traffic the quality of organic results doesn't really matter. Should these ad spam layouts rollout to other types of searches, I could see Google substantially reducing the number of workers that are responsible for organic results. If nothing else, right now I could see employee morale being very low in Google which conicides with the poor user and advertiser experience seen in the SERPS.

[Dooku]

Finally...the new DMA law has arrived in the European Union.
All companies acting as gatekeepers according to certain technical and economic characteristics are now subject to this law.

Some say it won't make much difference (guess who?), but business analists say this is the beginning of the end of the monopolists.
The monopolists knew this law was coming and therefore also made preparations....meaning a big as possible money grab through all means possible before they are stopped. Now this behavior of G in last 2 years really makes sense.... :-)

[ichthyous]

Finally...the new DMA law has arrived in the European Union.
All companies acting as gatekeepers according to certain technical and economic characteristics are now subject to this law.

Some say it won't make much difference (guess who?), but business analists say this is the beginning of the end of the monopolists.

Wishful thinking...this will make little effective difference as these are US-based companies and nothing has changed in the US. The Justice Dept. here has launched a case against Google for bundling its browser on iPhones...big deal, what is this 1998? The state cases against Google for unfair advantage in search ads were mostly thrown out by the judge.

None of these cases gets at the heart of the matter for us, which is that Google has #*$!ized its own search product and turned it into a place where one might be able to find something that doesn't put money in Google's pocket IF they can get past all the roadblocks Google puts up now to force them to click on an ad. The truth is that all of these companies have grown too large and need real competition. Perhaps AI is that competition, but all these companies will monetize that too so I don't see how it will change a thing. I doubt any company will pour billions into building a competing search engine now since they are all chasing AI.

[christianz]

Today and yesterday big drop. The wonderful August update seems to be kicking in for me. Apparently my site is not legit enough.

Meanwhile...

[reddit.com...]

[ichthyous]

Definitely the old patterns are back. I had the exact same number of visits for 5 hours in a row early this morning...a total flat line. USA/Canada traffic is way off yesterday and today, while every other territory is very strong. The same set of terms that were constantly dropping off a cliff before are dropping again...we got a 9-10 day reprieve and now the vice is being tightened again. Also, no new inquiries or calls since Monday...interesting how that works.

[EditorialGuy]

For the first time in quite a while, our travel-planning site has had a week of consistent daily gains. (Only in the single digits, mind you, but up is still better than down.) That's a pleasant surprise at time of year when our traffic normally is in decline.

Mind you, I'm not expecting the improvements to stick, especially when Generative AI pushes "10 blue links" deeper into irrelevancy.

[NicolasSEO]

The best advice I can give you, index in other search browsers, it helps to reduce the impact a bit like Bing, etc…

[renatovieira]

Huge drop today....

[mhansen]

Not a rant, just an observation.

I truly don't think anything changes significantly in the SERP positioning as I have checked myself, and had others across town or across the country check to see the results. The positioning is generally within 1 spot of what I see it is as.

What does change though, is the SERP layout and infusion of ads, widgets, video, spacing so ads take up full-screen, and so much more. One day, we'll see highly targeted, high conversion visitors to a specific page that shows in organic P1 (FS) or P2 of serps, and the next day, there will be none of these same visitors. The ranked position is not different, it's just the way Google injects the SERP layout with ads, ads with sitelinks, PAA, and who knows what new widget they put in place as they measure how to squeeze every cent out of the search page visitors. ONLY when they have no other option, no answer, etc, do they send a scrap to a website owner.

Have you tried to find an organic listing on a mobile device since 2021? What used to be bad then, is absolutely gone now. 3-4 swipes to find anything outside of the Google garden. I imagine zero-click search is in the +90% range by now.

[Fluff_Nutz]

@mhansen

Yes, exactly. None of these updates are what they are announced for. This ''core update'' is meant to change and sort rankings. Apparently. Rankings for the G ads maybe but not for actual websites. Same for their October 2022 ''spam'' update. Intended to get rid of ''spam''. No, actually it was all meant to be placed into Bard. So, in a way, if your article is chosen for Bard then it's good enough for G. Meaning it must be the opposite of ''spam''.

Most of these updates, if not all, are just to line G's pockets. Why are they so consistent? They are very rarely intended to fix the SERP, just make a mess of it. They are hurting and its great!

They have law suits and fees coming out of their butt cheeks but they put themselves into this position. It's just frustrating that their way of getting the money back to pay for all of this involves the SERP. It is where most of their income comes from. Just wish it did not involve websites and businesses as much as it does... They and, mostly, we need to see them have some kind of competition. Somehow. At least then views from other sources would feel like it can make up for the damage that G does. Alas, no one and nothing else is as big. We get views from other sources, yes, but mostly its a trickle in comparison. At least for me it is anyway.. Sucks..

More Edits:
In fact I would be surprised if any of their updates were properly controlled. For example and what I mean is, sometimes, not always. I see small websites, often a year or less old. Suddenly go from a few hundred $ to suddenly $10K a month. How is that even possible? They sometimes even have graphs to prove it too. Meanwhile, other sites, older than 1 year are still struggling. Makes zero sense.

[edited by: Fluff_Nutz at 5:18 pm (utc) on Sep 6, 2023]

[superclown2]

The state cases against Google for unfair advantage in search ads were mostly thrown out by the judge.

This is the problem when decisions this important can be made by a single person who may, or may not, have a bias one way or the other. These matters should be settled by governments coming to well thought out and thoroughly argued decisions, and then creating clear and unambiguous litigation. Unfortunately it seems that is not the American way.

I confess that like you I have little faith in the USA attempts to reign Google in. However the DMA and the UK CMA rules are a different matter. 'Lobbying' has little influence over here and possible fines could shock even Google. OK these are still American companies but Europe and The UK are a huge market so G will have to sit up and take notice.

[BigKat]

What does change though, is the SERP layout and infusion of ads, widgets, video, spacing so ads take up full-screen, and so much more.

It does seem the purpose behind recent algo updates by Google is to mask more ads and organic killing features. As if we can't tell with our own eyes and concrete data backed up by the loss in traffic and sales. I don't know who Google thinks they are fooling with this...

[mhansen]

I don't know who Google thinks they are fooling with this...

I'm really not complaining here. My business is still growing and does fairly well from search traffic and other sources, but it could be doing extremely well if it weren't for the Gorilla in the room controlling the switches and diverting traffic as often as they do. (Their platform, their rules, I know....)

They fool us business owners into thinking we can build a business that has a reliable source of foot traffic (search), while at the same time, using our hard work, images, and expertise via content, to increase their earnings and slowly bleeding the non-ad buying businesses out of the loop. They fool users of Google by telling them they know what is best for them, summarizing their query into an answer. Both of these are done under the guise of fair use.

Neither of these are healthy to the digital or B&M economy, when you have employees/contractors who are hired during periods of growth and have to endure "seasonal" layoffs every 6-9 months due to Google farting in the wind and changing things up... <again>

[badctrl]

One of my pages lost about 15—20% visitors in last two or so weeks. Ad revenue also is jumping from 10% to 140%. I was thinking about start digging what's wrong but when I saw my competitors outranking me with 200 word content and 15 links i was shocked. Pages are old, not optimized page and if I turn off ad blocker my eyes cant find content because ads are everywhere, literally full layout every single block contains ads. I was curious about their backlink profile and of course its contains 90% #*$! links. This is just one example, i did research for multiple keywords and it's same shi* everywhere.


Then I realized that I have an old subdomain page with shi* content. It doesn't contain 99 links, but it's bad, texts contains straight facts, no required word counts, some links here and there. Before update i was pushed down to 10-15 place and even updating few posts with a bit of information didn't make any changes. Now without even touching those shi* pages, back in top 3 for kw with 6k – 15k vol.

Honestly, I really hope one day somebody will kick out google from the game, this is ridiculous. Seems like nobody cares about content for people.

[ichthyous]

Ok, strange...looked like a drop in the morning when USA was down 53%. Instead traffic surged the entire day with search up 34% and direct traffic up 43%!

[Treud]

I see from the 4th a constant loss of traffic after 2 weeks of ok traffic, They might have roll out another layout shift in the SERPs

[ErrlyBird]

Nosedive in conversion rate for our site. Same clicks and impressions but no conversions, wtf is this?

[StupidIntelligent]

@ErrlyBird

That's not new. It's been reported by thousands of webmasters since the early 2000.

It happens because Google has become near perfect determining "Ready to buy" or transact traffic, and gives "impressions' and "rank" for pages that its algorithms deem have the highest points.

For example, you could have a X keyword with 1000 searches daily, but only 20 "ready to buy/transact/highly interested" searches per day.

Google knows that, and may not give you these "20 critical search impressions."

Sites can get nearly identical impressions and clicks, but no conversions, simply because Google will NOT show your site during those FEW SESSIONS where it really matters.