Google Update: September 2023

[Micha]

https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5092521.htm [webmasterworld.com] by brett_tabke - 7:25 pm on Sep 14, 2023 (cst -5)

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And the next update is running ... [status.search.google.com ]

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 12:27 am (utc) on Sep 15, 2023]
[edit reason] Update deserved it's own thread [/edit]

[Fluff_Nutz]

Are you serious? Didn't we already have a September update? I think I'm loosing it.

[Brett_Tabke]

G: [status.search.google.com...]
X: [twitter.com...]

[ichthyous]

Another one? I knew the traffic was too good to be true this September. This update is to make sure they undo that mistake

[Shepherd]

Was just remembering how much fun the last helpful content was...
Seems to be some clear "guest post" shot across the bow (third party content) in this one

[Micha]

By the way, Google seems to be clearing the way for AI content. The documentation for helpful content no longer says "helpful content written by humans for humans", but only "helpful content written for humans".

[Mark_A]

@Micha G is already prepared to write its own Ads based on your web pages, then bid on them and charge you.
AI is already active in "Dynamic Ads".

[Senechal]

Search results are now JAMMED full of sites using AI generated content.

This is a joke. I've got long-form content, well written, well researched, filled with original image content LOSING to 500 word AI generated crap (It tests 100% positive for AI generated text) — produced by so-called "reputable" publications.

Google is apparently forcing publishers to generate AI spam or die.

IMHO they're intentionally killing the web. They're going to turn it into a crapfest of AI generated spam sites, and then roll out generative AI for everything to "solve" the problem.

[engine]

This new "Helpful Content Update" from Google is a refresh from last December's Helpful Content Update, and it lasted 28 days in total.
I wouldn't read too much into 24-hours of an update, but will watch the progress over the period of time between now and when the update completes, and that's indicated to be about two weeks.

In addition, the "improved classifier" google indicated will be interesting to monitor.

[Mark_A]

@Senechal "Search results are now JAMMED full of sites using AI generated content."

My understanding was Google could identify AI content and would penalise it.
Perhaps not if it was Bard, but definitely if it was ChatGPT.

[Martin Ice Web]

I thought core update was worse but this one hits rock bottom. I would say: bye bye internet, it was a great time and hello to adsnet the new non informational money driven net.

[ichthyous]

Has anyone stopped to think how ludicrous it is for Google to claim to be an AI-driven company now (BARD), and at the same time to threaten to penalize AI content in the SERPS? They cannot hold two diametrically opposed goals, and they don't.

[Brett_Tabke]

>The documentation for helpful content no longer says
>"helpful content written by humans for humans", but only "helpful content written for humans".

Nice spot Micha. That is indeed a course correction.

> threaten to penalize AI content

Where have they ever said that?

The only thing they have been specific about is Auto Generated mass pages of low value. Given the ease with which you can do that now with AI, they have to stem-the-tide - or flood- of low quality autogenerated ai sites.

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 2:06 pm (utc) on Sep 15, 2023]

[Brett_Tabke]

>My understanding was Google could identify AI content and would
> penalise it. Perhaps not if it was Bard, but definitely if it was ChatGPT.

A test of 10 AI content detectors recently flagged the Constitution of the US as AI Generated.
[arstechnica.com...]

None of the content detectors can get better than about 75% accuracy right now. No reason to think Google's internal tools are any better.

[Micha]

The only thing they have been specific about is Auto Generated mass pages of low value. Given the ease with which you can do that now with AI, they have to stem-the-tide - or flood- of low quality autogenerated ai sites.

However, this does not work so well, as you can currently see

[spad91]

That is a good update actually. It will reorder the contents, what was #1 before, may not be #1 now, and the opposite. It will be interesting!

[RedBar]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld spad91

Are you sitting there with your fingers crossed?

[ichthyous]

Huge drop 10am sharp...traffic was very high this morning then right off the cliff. Hopefully temporary...

[anubitez]

well after being put on the bottom for nearly 12 months since October 2022 spam update, the previous august core and September hcu is seeing a rival in my website. I mainly just update content these days, as we all know parasite SEO steal whitehat websites content in the informational niches, but looks like Google is either promoting mine, or now realized or the parasite in my niche at least and demoting them.

I take this all as a grain of salt, but if this continues its good for me at least.

[christianz]

Let's not forget - none of the AI generated content was originally generated by AI. It was derived from decades of human work writing content and publishing it on the web. These humans are still around but they won't be compensated.

Content generated by LLMs which are trained on web data without publisher's consent are just another form of content theft and plagiary. This is glorified scraping and spinning.

I also sense that Google is losing to AI spam so badly they basically decided to roll over and give up, especially considering their SGE is also a form of AI spam/plagiary.

Removal of "written by humans" probably was the turning point. A white flag :D

[Fluff_Nutz]

I love Google. I am now -30%. Destroy my site more G! Keep those downward spirals coming! They have a monopoly going but want to destroy their SERPS instead. Really hope this is temporary.

[RedBar]

Huge drop 10am sharp...traffic was very high this morning then right off the cliff.

Mine was UK 19.00, exactly the same and has continued into today. It is now 12.30 UK time and in the last 17.5 hours I have had only ONE multiple page view visitor, in fact so far today I have had only 15% of my average traffic, yes 15%.

What on earth are they doing, quite simply Internet traffic does not switch on and off like this, it is blatantly being manipulated.

[spad91]

Thank you for the warm welcoming RedBar +

Actually yes, I am hoping that this update will bring something to one of my little blogs that I started dec 2022, I can tell that that blog just came out of the sandbox and I am waiting the skyrocketing :D I know that I may be too optimistic, but why not. The blog has literally smashed in the wall with 200 km/h after the august core update, because it just started to get some traffic, and this quality update is the stick that I need to hang on over the crevices to survive. I hope it brings something good rather than bad for me and for many other seo spellcasters that are strugling after these recent events with the big G :D

[RubicCubed]

hello to adsnet the new non informational money driven net.

^ This. Unless we see a reduction in ads, even our current #1 ranks bring so little traffic we find Google to be useless.

[ichthyous]

Mine was UK 19.00, exactly the same and has continued into today. It is now 12.30 UK time and in the last 17.5 hours I have had only ONE multiple page view visitor, in fact so far today I have had only 15% of my average traffic, yes 15%.

My traffic jumped up considerably from August 26th onward, and has been especially high in the last week. Interestingly, this past week there weren't many new customers inquiring at all. Now with this 2nd update we are back to big drops and peaks, and as usual it's USA traffic that is dropping, every other country is still high. It's too early to tell whether this will hold...I'm thinking that this is the dialing back of the previous update.

[Fluff_Nutz]

I often wonder why the original owners of Google left. I mean no one really hears about Alphabet. I also wonder what they, deep down, think of the G CEO. The fact that they are making a mess of their years of hard work. Destroying their search engine. Forcing people and businesses to dislike their actions. This said action bringing them lawsuits and fines. It's a joke, a rather frustrating joke.

Everything I have worked up to these past two months. Almost catching back to my losses of last October. Then BAM. Now all gone. I think I put too much effort into my site, especially when the rewards are so little and inconsistent. Last year the site was on a high, this year the worst it has ever been. I really hope this stops soon. Give us consistency or allow competition in. Such as Apple. G are terrified of competition.

[RubicCubed]

I mean no one really hears about Alphabet. I also wonder what they, deep down, think of the G CEO.

Sundar Pichai is the CEO of both Alphabet and Google. The Board of Directors would have to remove Pichai as CEO from one or both companies. I do believe both original founders Page and Brin still could oust Pichai with their combined voting shares, but there would have to be good cause for this such as declining shareholder value. How our sites rank, and how useless Google has become to users, advertisers and us, don't really matter when the BOD and shareholders are only concerned about money.

[Fluff_Nutz]

Ah my bad. I was always under the assumption that the founders of Google were in charge of Alphabet and for some reason switched. No wonder Alphabet is struggling then, having the same CEO. Still doesn't look good, does it. Do our sites even rank though? With all these ads? Ranking should mean something but does it? Google is useless to users. Advertisers I'm sure are having their issues too. Should this not mean something? Regardless we need the competition. Its been long overdue

[renatovieira]

Is anyone noticing a huge fluctuation today? Both up and down. My website moved up to the first 5 positions on the first page for the most used term in my niche. It stayed there for 2 hours.

Then returned to the 3rd page. But it's fluctuating a lot today. My website has never come so close to the big competing companies in my niche.

I had a small drop when the useful content update started in december/22. I notice that several pages are recovering positions since yesterday.

Nothing more just. It seems like a kind of "fix" for G, after its disastrous update.

[ichthyous]

Is anyone noticing a huge fluctuation today?

Yes, large drops with plateaus throughout the day starting at 10am yesterday and continuing through today. All of it is drops in USA traffic. It seems that around 9am this morning it jumped up a bit. but both Fridays and Saturdays are generally low traffic days so hard to tell. Interestingly, all the conversions stopped already while the traffic was very high. I do think GOOG is probably dialing back the previous update...they made a terrible mistake and allowed people to get decent traffic for far too long. That simply cannot be allowed to continue.

[ibb.co ]

[superclown2]

What on earth are they doing, quite simply Internet traffic does not switch on and off like this, it is blatantly being manipulated.

Here is how it's manipulated. The example is a reasonably popular search term;

1st four places: extended ads. These take up 2 full scrolls of my Samsung Note 9.
3 organic listings, all heavy ad spenders with questionable relevance to the search term
PAA
1 organic
Another sponsored ad
2 organic
People also search
2 organic
Find results on
3 Youtube videos (packed with ads of course)
1 organic
Related searches
3 sponsored ads

We are not getting business because nobody can find our sites, which are buried under ads and junk. Simple.

Google are claiming that they are the default 'search engine' on so many phones and browsers because they are the best. Yes they probably were then, back in the days of Sergey and Bryn. Now they are beyond awful and the sooner consumers no longer have to pay the Google Tax the better for everyone, not just us.

[martinibuster]

Google made a lot of changes with the Helpful Content Update which were reflected in changes to several pages of documentation related to the Helpful Content System.

1. Changed guidance on machine generated content
   
   
2. Warning about third party content on subdomains and on the main website
   
   
3. Warning about making fake webpage updates
   
   
4. Warning about changes to a webpage designed to trick Google into thinking the webpage is fresh
   
   
5. Google's Gary Illyes gives feedback on HCU sitewide signals
   
   
6. New information on how to bounce back from a Helpful Content Update

Good luck!
:)
Roger Montti

[searchenginejournal.com...]

[Conro]

@superclown2 So those from Google are even more foolish, because if they think people choose them because they are the best, they wouldn't have a reason to pay to be the default search engine on some browsers

[tom_010101]

I don't understand. I published a post, the first two sentences of which are (Das Rocket Bunny Bodykit für den Scion FRS ist eines der beliebtesten und auffälligsten Aero-Kits auf dem Markt. Es wurde von Kei Miura, dem mittlerweile weltberühmten Designer von TRA Kyoto, Japan, entworfen und wird beispielsweise von GReddy exklusiv importiert.). When I enter these two sentences into the Google search, it doesn't find my page, but another page that simply copied my content and much more.

[superclown2]

if they think people choose them because they are the best, they wouldn't have a reason to pay to be the default search engine on some browsers

If they didn't pay someone else would. That's the way the world works unfortunately %-)

[Fluff_Nutz]

It's funny if they are using this update to fix their mistakes of the previous update. I mean just leave it alone. I have never seen so much fluctuations in any media. Like ever. Be it Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc.. Most platforms that I have ever used in my entire life. People are right in saying you should not rely on our websites for passive income. Granted the revenue is good but its all over the place. G forever change the goal posts.

Also, people only pay Google because they have no choice. In order to get recognised they need to. There is zer0 competition. Google own the internet, or think they do, They are not far off it too. That is the problem. I would love to get similar traffic figures from other search engines. Then I wouldn't be on here complaining so much.

[Micha]

Actually, you might think that this is a trick of Google to keep the user on the search page by displaying bad content and making you search longer to find a useful result.

There's nothing we can do about it anyway. And continuing to let Google make us feel insecure and waiting for us to rank well is pointless in my eyes. I think it's better to focus on getting users to come back to buy/read something even without Google. Because the company has no influence on that.

[RubicCubed]

you might think that this is a trick of Google to keep the user on the search page by displaying bad content and making you search longer to find a useful result.

That is the sole purpose, IMO, of the PAA feature. If a user has scrolled beyond the full screen of nothing but ads to see the PAA feature, they are now into organic results. Google uses the PAA feature as a one-click solution to reload a new set of search results where only ads are on display without scrolling.

I think it's better to focus on getting users to come back to buy/read something even without Google. Because the company has no influence on that.

I very much agree with your statement. We have no control over Google and their endless greed. No matter how hard we try, we can't rank above ads. Google may try to muddle the traffic data for organic results, by allowing bots into organic results, but the conversion data does not lie. Our conversion data from Google paints a very depressing picture of how Google's greed has destroyed organic search. Very few users will ever scroll far enough to see even the first organic result. Even if they do, Google baits them into searching again with the one-click PAA feature. We run a business selling items, have invested a lot into our capabilities, maintain good stock on quality items and have employees - meaning we have no time to waste with Google's games and haven't. Our conversion rate is excellent with other search engines and those other search engines is where we put our effort and money into. We consider Google to have crossed the line many months ago and see them as a bad and unreliable company existing to only serve themselves at our and users expense.

[ichthyous]

Our conversion rate is excellent with other search engines and those other search engines is where we put our effort and money into. We consider Google to have crossed the line many months ago and see them as a bad and unreliable company existing to only serve themselves at our and users expense.

In the last month, 97% of my search visits originated from a Google property. All of the other search engines combined bring in 3% of my search. That includes Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Baidu, Yandex, and whatever other stragglers are out there. Despite Bing's vaunted push into AI, it's share is dropping.

[ichthyous]

USA traffic -62% at 1pm on Sunday...Canada is -40% and Australia is -30%. USA was also down most of the day yesterday, but ended up +4% after a late night spike. Every other location is still strong. So this latest update is simply a rehash of the previous trends where USA/Canada and other English language searches drop off a cliff on a regular basis. This has nothing to do with "Helpful Content", it's really a "We're Helping Ourselves to Your Income" update.

[edited by: ichthyous at 4:53 pm (utc) on Sep 17, 2023]

[RedBar]

Saturday struggled to a 63% with today being even lower coming up to 17 hours and 32% ... This is looking extremely pear-shaped !

[superclown2]

This has nothing to do with "Helpful Content", it's really a "We're Helping Ourselves to Your Income" update.

It would be more helpful if visitors could actually find the content.

[EditorialGuy]

if they think people choose them because they are the best, they wouldn't have a reason to pay to be the default search engine on some browsers

"Pay to play" (or "pay to display," in this case) isn't a Google invention, and bribery or extortion (take your pick) isn't exclusive to search engines. Look up "slotting fees" or "slotting allowances."

[EditorialGuy]

I have one beef with Google's guidance regarding the Helpful Content Update:

“Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?”

What exactly is meant by "when the content has not substantially changed?" In some cases, a change of one character might represent a substantial change.

Take a page about bus fares in Widgetville: If the standard fare goes from $1.00 to $2.00, that's a substantial change from a transit user's point of view, but how is an algorithm going to judge that?

[christianz]

how is an algorithm going to judge that?

It's not. It's a dumb algorithm that doesn't understand anything.

If you had a page dedicated to bus fare prices it would most likely mark it all as "thin content", "unhelpful content", "made for search, not humans", "fake modified dates" etc. I have written about this ad nauseam.

All these algorithmic content usefulness and quality rating systems don't work and will never work unless there is artificial general intelligence that is at least as smart as human experts in all possible fields of expertise. But at that point we will have bigger problems than deciding how to rank websites in search results pages.

[superclown2]

“Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?”

This could be read in several different ways. As usual Google's statement has been vague.

A decade or so ago many websites carried a prominent statement such as "This website was updated on (display yesterday's date) and a cron type script was used to change this daily. Whether this was to con search engines or visitors is debateable but it was pretty widespread.

There is a world of difference between this and someone changing prices or even the odd spelling mistake. I would like to think that Google could clarify this, otherwise some people may be put off from maintaining their sites in fear of triggering a penalty, but I shan't hold my breath.

[rustybrick]

Anyone else seeing big movement yet related to this update?

[renatovieira]

@rusty, Yes, I have noticed big movements all day since sep/15. Overall, I notice an increase in my traffic.

[tom_010101]

Yes, things have been going downhill for a total of 4 weeks. Approximately -70% traffic and zero more impressions in Google Discover.

[Fluff_Nutz]

I'd like to think that my traffic is starting to increase a bit. However, I am still -15% over the same period last week. Also Monday is off to a slow start, so I really don't know. As is usually the case with G and their inconsistent traffic.