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]

[ichthyous]

Let us promote Bing as an alternative!
Join your friends, family and followers to use Bing as a primary search engine.

MS hasn't been able to successfully promote Bing as a search engine for 15 years now. A better use of our time is to diversify away from search entirely into new areas. It's very hard...I have not seen success at it yet, but the existing search models won't be around forever.

[Conro]

A few days ago, it seems I read that even Meta chose Bing for search. Google is treating us like disposable puppets now

[BlueEyes82]

On our pages that crashed, Google only accounts for 60% and Bing now accounts for 30% of search engine traffic. Before that the ratio was 90% to 6%. The same is true for the pages that were not affected by the update.

[HUnch]

MS hasn't been able to successfully promote Bing as a search engine for 15 years now.

Yes, because Bing came late to this game and G was way bigger at that time to compete with.

If more & more people will start using the Bing I think they will improve their results against the search intent.

Only we people have make this change for our own good.. So lets start promoting Bing and put the end of G’s monopoly.

Sure, for complex search queries we have to use other search engines (even google) for better results. But for day to day simple searches Bing gives satisfactory results. Bing offer a lot of features including Bing chat bot (powered by Chat GPT) which is way better than Bard up till now.

[not2easy]

This is not the place to promote bing, sorry. This discussion is about the Google September update.

The Bing forum is here: [webmasterworld.com...]

[Conro]

The last change I noticed on Google when using it on mobile: when I search for 'best product,' among the top 10 results, I no longer find the usual affiliated websites in order, but instead, most of them are stores selling that product. Furthermore, it's now filled with shopping ads and images of websites to confuse the user about where to click. It's incredible how much Google has declined in search quality. On the other hand, Bing provides accurate search results, and you find what you're looking for.

[Martin Ice Web]

since yesterday we see a big drop again. Seems with ending the update a filter has been applied again. Traffic dropped sharp from 1 minute to next. Since traffic is mostly rubbish again.

[engine]

So, it took 13 days, 11 hours to complete the Google September 2023 helpful content update, and, this looked like a real roller-coaster ride.

1. Check ranking, good.
2. Check traffic, poor.
3. Analyse reasons for poor traffic and take appropriate action.

[Conro]

@engine I'm sorry to say it, but the way Google is directed right now no one can do anything to recover. Just look at the chaos in the SERP with all the things that Google has inserted to prevent continuous visits to the sites. You can do what you want and nothing will change, today is fine and tomorrow we don't know.

[superclown2]

The conversion rate I am now getting from Google organic clicks is the worst I have seen in two decades of working on the Web. Perhaps Google are filtering out the better converting traffic via their cookies, or is this is a general problem caused by excessive ads? Certainly some regular advertisers I have spoken to are quite upset by the fall in quality of the clicks they are paying for. My conversion rate from Bing DDG and even the odd clicks I get from Yahoo are far higher.

It isn't just the SERPs; Google ads that sit at the top or bottom of the page in websites I visit, and which I can't delete, are so irritating and must be causing huge visitor frustration. The whole internet is becoming one huge mess of Google ads to be avoided, deleted or scrolled past.

Now this update is over (is it really?) I am seeing huge swings in traffic from Google; floods of it for a while then back to the depths. I wonder if it's still spreading across different data centres perhaps?

[RubicCubed]

the way Google is directed right now no one can do anything to recover.

I feel the same. Even ranking in the top 3 is rarely seen because Google is displaying so many ads that being in even the top spot requires too much scrolling to be seen. We will never rank above so much of Google's spammy ads.

The conversion rate I am now getting from Google organic clicks is the worst I have seen

I agree and can't believe how poor Google's traffic has become. If these updates are really designed to improve quality, I sure don't see it in conversions. But how will we get sales when all Google does is spam ads? This shady stuff going on at Google only gets worse and is getting to the point where it's not even worth our time.

[Conro]

These Google folks are just messing with us. I see many well-made websites that have now collapsed due to SERP updates and nonsensical updates like this useful content one (maybe they are useful to Google to make money, or I can't explain it). If you ask for explanations, they say your content is also on other sites, if you have unique content, they say it's not interesting, then it's too long, then too short, basically, nothing is ever right. Google doesn't care because they could randomly publish sites in the SERP and still make a profit. We're the ones losing out because we don't know what to do anymore; anything we do can penalize us. But Google's AI bots seem to love all websites from the first to the last to steal and rewrite our copyrighted work.

[engine]

Probably worth publishers being aware of this new control Google Crawler Control in Robots.txt For Bard Training [webmasterworld.com]

[Conro]

@engine i don't have understand, is possible Block the bot of Bard how the bot of ChatGPT? And how? I don't want google use my content for the ai

[engine]

Conro, I assume you are familiar with robots.txt.
It's worth reading an employing directions indicated here for GPTBot and ChatGPT-User Blocking and Control Using robots.txt [webmasterworld.com]
Read the whole documents published by OpenAI, and, similarly, for Google with its Google-Extended bot (link above).

[Fluff_Nutz]

It's ironic. I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad. I lost roughly around 45-50% of my traffic during the update. Enough to have to remove my writers and put the site on hold. I have only ever been hit by two updates (only a 2yr old site) and I never recovered from the first. So, naturally, I expected the same with this one too.

Now the update is apparently ''over'' my traffic is back to where it was before the update. In fact it sits very nicely. Meaning I somehow got it all back again. It's nice to see those numbers return but really? After making the decision to place the site on hold?

In truth its too inconsistent. As many have said before you can never tell where you are. What revenue or traffic to expect. When to expect huge drops. If this drops will be permanent or, in this case, return back to its original traffic levels. So, really don't know how to feel. What I do know is though, I really dislike these Google games. We need consistency.

So with that being said, I'm still sticking to the site being placed on hold. Let it generate whatever income it can. I'm just not in the mood for these inconsistencies. It doesn't do businesses any favours and it just show how desperate Google are. So, I have taken one of my writers and we are creating content on a different platform. One that has been consistent for many years. I'm hoping to return to the site one day but that really does depend on if G ever change. If ever. If the SERPs don't change or become consistent then it's unfortunate but I refuse to play these games.

A lot of my hopes, dreams, ambitions for the future rested on this website and to begin with, it was fun. Now not so much.

[Micha]

By the way, an internal email shows that Google only wants to play out advertising and they don't care about the rest. It is also about a worse search experience for the users.

[twitter.com ]

[Conro]

Content is King? No. ads is King. Hcu is the last example

[BigKat]

is possible Block the bot of Bard how the bot of ChatGPT? And how? I don't want google use my content for the ai

We had the discussion of blocking AI in our company and opted not to do it. Even if we were to block AI, there's nothing stopping a scraper from copying the content and posting it on their website where AI can grab it for their use and profit. Better us to at least get the credit for our work then a scraper. I bet scrapers are already looking for these entries in robots.txt files then crawling sitemaps to find new pages that may be ripe for the taking.

In truth its too inconsistent.

It's definitely hard for legitimate businesses with workers to plan for. In manufacturing the problem is worsened by forecasting sales and sourcing the materials needed for workers to produce. Some of the materials we use take a minimum of 8+ weeks to receive from the day we place an order. Without big margins to work with, we can't afford materials sitting on the shop floor collecting dust with production level workers all given brooms for busy work. Like you're still keeping your site placed on hold, we too don't factor Google into our forecasting models anymore because Google is simply too unreliable. With each update Google releases, sales from Google erode further.

@Micha
Reading that email, while very enlightening, is very troubling and illustrates monopolistic abuse. The sheer number of businesses, jobs and lives Google has destroyed to pad their bottom line over the years is sickening.

[superclown2]

By the way, an internal email shows that Google only wants to play out advertising and they don't care about the rest. It is also about a worse search experience for the users.

I think most of us have been aware for a long time that Google's main focus is revenue at the expense of search quality. After all that is what 'The Street' demands.

This is the problem with something so vital as search, to economies all over the world, being controlled by a single commercial monopoly.

Looking at my results so far today: I have, generally, higher positions in the SERPs than before this update. However visits are way down. Adding this to the fact that the search terms my site is found for that Google show me in WMT don't seem logical, considering the position that my sites sit at in the search results for those queries, I am getting more convinced that those personalisation cookies have more effect on the business we get than many of us thought. After we may delete them regularly but the average visitor won't, so who knows what effect they have on which sites the public are led to?

Perhaps our obsession with being 'number one on Google' is misplaced, and we should be looking at ways to (ethically) influence those cookies instead?

[RedBar]

At first glance my global September traffic looks fine however this is only due to the third week being much, much higher than average, this week I have seen traffic levels go back to its July and August levels of -60% of 2 years ago.

My "feelings" are that this decline will continue even though good rankings may be maintained since, after discussing with many fellow widget suppliers this week in Italy, I was regularly told that my site was their default widget information source.

I certainly never expected our UK hotel venue site traffic to continue the same as July and August with this week showing a marked decline in visitors. The really interesting thing is that the venue itself has been doing really well and especially so beer sales with one of our busiest weeks of the year. The tills have been ringing well.

I do expect its traffic averages to decline since its a small venue in a small town and until next Spring will mostly be frequented by locals and regular business visitors.

[BigKat]

I think most of us have been aware for a long time that Google's main focus is revenue at the expense of search quality.

Not all. There are still some who want to separate paid and organic and treat them as if they are not inter-related.

Perhaps our obsession with being 'number one on Google' is misplaced, and we should be looking at ways to (ethically) influence those cookies instead?

We still have some #1 ranks in Google that now get very little traffic because they are buried under ads. Seeing how much traffic those #1 ranks lost because of Google's excessive ads is disheartening to say the least. With that in mind, I agree an effort to rank #1 on Google is a waste of time if there are even 3 text ads above the fold. 4 text ads is worse, but even with 3 text ads above the fold it's not worth the time/effort/money to manually create pages and provide unique/compelling content. The only ones who will get a ROI in this environment are those utilizing AI to churn out hundreds or thousands of pages with a click of the button - because it will take a mass quantity of pages to produce enough organic traffic worth monetizing.

I personally don't see influencing cookies as a viable option in our industry. Google is using different layouts, but I believe those layouts are designed to meet their hourly/daily profit targets to meet shareholder expectations. I believe the current upheaval with the recent HCU is an example of Google prioritizing profits over quality. And no matter how many changes or tweaks we make to improve quality signals, it will never be considered as influential for ranking as profits are to Google. De-commercializing pages, as to reduce buyer intent signals, may be the best path forward for those who still want to pursue ranking in Google under informational queries that don't return as many ads. But for my company, as a manufacturer/retailer, we have no use for more non-converting traffic then we already have and therefore won't waste our time pursuing it.

[ichthyous]

Big drops in USA, CA, and AU traffic today. It is clear that this was a reversion of the update end of August that caused higher traffic and much better conversions...now I am right back to where I was before...zero conversions for an entire week. Dubious amounts of visits to my contact us page every day with nobody actually inquiring about anything...in other words, bots looking for a way to spam me.

Despite ranking staying stable, traffic to my most important landing pages has dropped 70%+ in some cases. Google is linking to pages on my site that make no sense for the term that is ranking. But mostly, the loss in traffic is simply due to the look of the link...lose that big image carousel and you lose all the traffic

By the way, an internal email shows that Google only wants to play out advertising and they don't care about the rest. It is also about a worse search experience for the users.

This is news to anyone? This has been the case since the minute GOOG went public. This situation has been deteriorating for more than a decade.

[Conro]

I always say that updates are just an excuse for Google to make money, and in fact, many of them happen during specific times of the year, such as holidays or near gift-giving occasions, back-to-school, or the end of the school year. In 25 years, they couldn't manage to create a ranking algorithm without earthquakes in between. Their sole purpose is to make money; they know it, which is why they tell you to write for users and not for Google. This way, at least, you can find someone who returns directly to your site because they like it, while you can't rely on Google because it changes things based on the money they want to pocket

[BigKat]

I always say that updates are just an excuse for Google to make money, and in fact, many of them happen during specific times of the year, such as holidays or near gift-giving occasions, back-to-school, or the end of the school year.

Add the end of quarterly earnings to your list, which is tomorrow for the third quarter.

I also believe there is a psychological aspect to these updates as well. Updates typically run for two weeks. Many may see a substantial loss in traffic/sales initially for a period of time then Google returns a percentage of that lost traffic back when the update is over. In doing this Google shows us how bad it could be and leaves us relieved when most (but not all) of that traffic returns. It calms our outrage while at the same time chips away at more of our traffic. What happens between the start and end of these updates, IMO is mostly Google's profit gouging.

[Conro]

I have some free time, and I'm checking the SERP to see how other websites are doing with Google. For websites related to "technology," I notice that there are 7-8 out of 10 sites on the first page experiencing a noticeable drop in traffic. Then, I looked at websites related to "do-it-yourself" (here too, 7-8 out of 10 sites on the first page are in decline), and it almost makes me feel sorry for one particular site I saw: it explains how to build a table and has all the measurements and 3D drawings of the process. It's an excellent site that must have taken at least a week just to create all the drawings for this article, yet it's down by 40%.
The rising sites? Large and well-known sites, but they don't have articles that make me prefer them over the penalized ones. In fact, some are brief and not at all comprehensive. Then there are the forums, which are on the rise, almost all of the ones I've seen. Google should go back to working to satisfy users and not just its wallet.
I believe I won't make any changes to my website because my content is far superior and more in-depth compared to similar ones I've seen on some of the sites that Google instead has rewarded.

[EditorialGuy]

Our ad-supported travel information site was chugging along nicely during the update, with almost daily increases week over week and year over year. Then, a couple of days before the HCU ended, the increases were replaced by modest decreases from what I'd been hoping was the new normal.

I haven't seen an obvious reason for the changes, since our top pages are pretty much the same as always. (Granted, I'm not a forensic statistician.)

We're still doing better than we were before the update, but not by much, and it was disappointing to see the upward trend reverse itself.

[christianz]

HCU seems to be accelerating over the last to days. Further drops and steeper drops.

[engine]

I've spent some time researching a specific topic and Google's SERPs I see are very much mostly U.S.-based sites. Fine if you are in the U.S., or want sites from the region. Importantly, if you've not got a U.S. based site you're not going to get any traffic.

[Conro]

If I search for "the best product xxx" on Google, they have filled the SERP with shopping boxes that have nothing to do with my search, because I want a list of products advised from author of one site and/or a buying guide. It's truly incredible; it feels like looking at a product catalog, with shopping boxes on mobile displaying 4 - 6 products in a row and ads everywhere. I bet that these e-commerce stores that have been placed there, even though they're unrelated to the search, will make some extra sales (maybe or probably, they will see their budget vanish without any sales, and Google knows this). Then, come November, Google will release a new update to push these stores down. So, with the holiday season approaching, they'll have to spend the money they earned on advertising.