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]

[Nosuchthing]

@Conro
I guess it really depends on what you mean with "ecommerce website". It's not a shopify or anything like that, but it does qualify as ecommerce.

We have pages that cater to people who are specifically looking for pricing info for example. They are distinctive from our main landing pages with a more transactional intent. We update them regularly, and if we did not, they would be irrelevant for this very reason. So far so good on my side, and we changed nothing to our habits.

I manage other websites with non ecommerce pages that we update for various other reasons. For example, when outgoing links are no longer up to date (404, 301 etc) or when whatever we are talking about has changed in one way or the other. These are not dated though (aside from meta title), but I do see an uptake every single time I do it. Maybe every few months, like twice or three times a year, and as recently as last week.

[BigKat]

We're noticing more and more users are starting to move to other search engines.

Glad others are starting to see this too. With Google's SERPS being nothing but ads, and a whole lot of spam, I'm hopeful this trend will continue. It gives me hope that we can still be found online even though Google has buried us.

[Atomic]

We're noticing more and more users are starting to move to other search engines.

Wow! Amazing. There must be some data to support that.

[Helix Online]

Yes, this update has also negatively affected my mental health. Extreme anxiety, stress, and depression. I'm autistic and I can't work in a normal "day job" so I can't just "go get a job" instead of my online business. I've lost around 35% of traffic. Yesterday's stats showed almost -50%.

Since Google seems to love AI sites now, I actually started a new crappy AI site this week. I would rather have just focused on my main site, but this update makes it clear I can't just rely on one website for my income. Although having multiple websites may not solve the problem, at least I won't have all my eggs in one basket, so to speak.

[RedBar]

Wow! Amazing. There must be some data to support that.

Would Statcounter data do ?

[gs.statcounter.com...]

[christianz]

Would Statcounter data do ?

Still within the channel where it has been slowly oscillating for years. If it fell below 90% and stood below 90, that would start to be interesting.

[Atomic]

Would Statcounter data do ?

Hardly. I don't think those stats show what you think they do.

[ichthyous]

Oh here we go again...ranking is higher and more top 3 ranking terms than ever, but traffic for some of my main landing pages is down 53%-76% today. Here is what I have found is the culprit:

1 - If terms drop in rank and keep their big beautiful image carousel under the listing they retain a good amount of the traffic
2 - If a term loses the image carousel it will lose most of its traffic, even if it rises in ranking.

So the particular rank does affect the amount of traffic received, but not as much as how well the listing stands out from the page. I can tell exactly when I lose the images on my links these days as the drops are enormous. How and why Google decides to add and drop, add and drop is a mystery...

Does anyone have any insight here?

[RubicCubed]

Still within the channel where it has been slowly oscillating for years.

I think the desktop segment is the best indicator for me since that's where we get big orders from. Sales from Google fell off a cliff and other search engines are sending us more orders then they ever have. This I think is because shopping searches on Google returns results like an Amazon reprint of just ads. Shoppers who want to find something different then on Amazon have to use a different search engine.

The graph below currently shows the percentage of Google desktop searches at their lowest point (83.49%) and Bing at its highest point (9.19%) in 8 years.

[statista.com...]

[christianz]

The graph below currently shows the percentage of Google desktop searches at their lowest point (83.49%) and Bing at its highest point (9.19%) in 8 years.

The rabbid push of Reddit and Ticktock may be a sign of slight desperation in light of (maybe) somewhat falling market share. They want to be hip & cool :D

Yet how can they do that when they also have this mission to push "authoritative sources"... In YouTube if you want to see some first hand experience of some news event, you can't. You only get legacy media channels reporting on the event in a typical cable news sterile kind of way.

If you do the same on Ticktock I am sure you get bunch of actual first hand experiences from regular organic users.

Google wants to be "young again" and relevant to younger audiences. But at the same time they want to prioritize dead boring content from big media cartel.

[RubicCubed]

@christianz

I see some Reddit and Quora for info searches for us. It's very frustrating to use Google to go through those results and then have Google trying to push users to a page that is a long thread. As you pointed out, there is no authority, EEAT or anything. I think it's just a waste of time, and I'd rather use a different search engine. But our money searches are for products, and Google dishes out mainly Amaspam ads with organic nearly taken out of the field of play. This is where, as you say it, a sign of slight desperation is evident to me.

I'm not sure if Google wants to be young again with their promotion of Reddit and TikTok in the SERPS. Maybe the Reddit blackout, and Reddit offering to pay for posts, has something to do with Google's new found love for them? I also read TikTok has partnered with Google, so Google may be giving them the partner SERP boost as they've done with other partners - including those funded by Google Capital and Google Ventures.

[Brett_Tabke]

Some fascinating press is happening over this update:
[plagiarismtoday.com...]

[oldog]

Whatever ....fresh content and page trust is the key...
I publish travel articles within only 2 days rank at the top ten...( two words keyword)

[Conro]

Google doesn't recognize AI-generated content, but it knows exactly how many articles a website creates every day. If a site publishes 100-500 or even 1000 articles per day, suspicion arises that it's automated with artificial intelligence. I see that Google doesn't take any action even with some PAA sites that occupy multiple positions on the first page and in 'People Also Ask,' as well as in the 'Featured Snippet,' despite feedback. By using Bing, I still can't find these automated sites, which makes me think that Google is inferior to Bing or intentionally doing this to worsen the SERP. This way, one day, it can introduce its own AI to provide direct answers, justifying that it had to use it because it couldn't manage automated websites anymore. Perhaps they might think they won't be accused of something like abusing their dominant position

[Cyril TechWebsites]

The graph below currently shows the percentage of Google desktop searches at their lowest point (83.49%) and Bing at its highest point (9.19%) in 8 years.

That's the answer for Googlers. If you want to collect money from everything and everybody you see (forgetting about the quality), then you will loose in the long term. You won't be able to puck everybody for the long term, you will get a rough and devastating final result. Even Pablo Escobar didn't manage to do that for the long time. :)

Actually, my Bing traffic keeps greatly increasing since the drop related with the "helpful" update. Hope this trend will continue, I would love everybody around started using Bing, and started to use something at least looking like a search engine, but not ads machine.

[HUnch]

@ichthyous

Does anyone have any insight here?

I think they are testing our website with users again!?

I have seen a huge drop in my impressions and clicks (almost 90%).
What I have noticed is that my website visibility is down by 80-90%. When I'm searching for the keyword that I was ranking before the September update, my website is not visible at all on any of the pages till the end, even in the images section. Many old sites with posts from 2012-2019 rank high on the SERPs. All keyword's difficulty is very easy (0-3) according to Ahrefs.

For some keywords, my site ranks pretty well but not the same as before the September update.

It has a lot to do with the classifier which got updated. I have a strong feeling that the update is more focused on user search intent and they are scraping data of user intent from the past (when the keyword first started to appear in search) and ranking the website accordingly. Maybe that is why we are seeing irregularities in the search with older sites ranking high. The older the posts better the chance to rank for now. It might change later and newer sites will also start to rank well if it meets the search intent. I hope they just do not abandon newer niche sites.

These are my thoughts. Correct me if I'm wrong or it doesn't make sense.

[Dalnoon]

The update is finally over.

[anubitez]

October 2022 spam update that took 80 to 90% of my traffic has been 100% reversed, back to normal, and then some.

This also occurred 30 mins before they announced HCU ended lol, what timing.

Now to be re-spanked in October 2023 spam update... Maybe spank all the Russians, Indians, Indonesians, and Chinese translating my content 1 to 1 with my images first Google before hitting the legit source that's helpful.

[Micha]

The update is finally over.

And next week another one comes and the game starts all over again.

[christianz]

This update is like Apple updating App Store by deleting all apps and leaving only YouTube, Reddit and Ticktock, and calling it "helpful apps update".

[BlueEyes82]

A first analysis of characteristics of a German site:

1. On the homepage there are only links to the latest articles or to affiliate websites, with no information on the page about the context of the brand or information about what the website is for.
2. “Spray and pray” content strategy, i.e. lots of different topics in the hope that they achieve good rankings
3. Creating product reviews and product ratings based on statements made by others online - without ever testing the product yourself
The lack of branding. It is not possible to find information about the website in external sources.
4. There is a general lack of transparency
5. Missing information about who the content comes from. This doesn't just mean adding an author box, but also evidence that the authors actually have expertise on the topic. Such evidence is possible, for example, in the form of helpful content written in the first person.
6. Outdated website, template and design as well as poor user experience. If a website just looks like it has been neglected for a long time, then this can also pose a risk of incorrect evaluation by the algorithms.
7. Non-functioning and unoptimized navigation such as missing breadcrumbs, important category pages on “noindex” or packing all important links in the footer.

<snip>

With authority (EAT), Google is still on the wrong track. Why should your own information site be checked by experts if you know yourself better than other "experts" because you own a niche. The current problem is that Google gives such a high weighting to trust from large sites, even though the content there is far more superficial and helps far fewer visitors.

[edited by: not2easy at 11:11 am (utc) on Sep 28, 2023]
[edit reason] Please see Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[Conro]

@BlueEyes82 It's pointless to rack our brains; Google has rewarded forums where anyone can voice their opinions without any experience, and maybe even trolling. Where is the EEAT in quora, reddit, forum generally? I have a nickname in a forum

[christianz]

EAT is pure evil that leads to death of the Web and return to cable TV.

Rewarding forums is the ONLY good thing Google has done in past 15 years. But let's not forget it was Google who suppressed them in the first place. So nothing really is given, just part of what was taken is returned.

Other than forums, this HCU update is absolute and complete disaster. Candidate for worst update in past 5 years+.

As far as announcement of complete rollout - these hardly ever mean anything. Usually I see damage continue on the same trajectory for at least couple of weeks AFTER official announcement of completion.

[HUnch]

Lets wait and see if the rankings improve over time or not. Right now the search intent and the search results are hit or miss.

Looks like google is strating from square one and relying on users to give the search intent as if all the past data of user’s search intent is of no use or has been lost.

I have noticed a reduction of links in search results. G is not showing all the websites/post related to the keyword search.

Let us wait few days more and see what this update has in it sleeves.

[BigKat]

Actually, my Bing traffic keeps greatly increasing since the drop related with the "helpful" update.

Yet more confirmation that Google has stepped well over the line to the point of altering where people search. Nice to hear!

Bing and other search engine traffic converts so much better for us than Google. A few years back 1,000 visitors from Bing would generate about the same number of conversions (sales) as 4,000 visitors from Google. Over the years Bing's traffic quality has remained relatively stable while Google's has and continues to get worse. These days Google has to send us 12-15,000 visitors to generate the same number of sales as just 1,000 visitors from Bing. Bottom line is we don't need to see a massive spike in traffic from Bing to have a noticeable impact on conversions (sales).

[Dalnoon]

I am experiencing the same thing, more Bing traffic since the helpful update but I thought it might be a coincidence so ignored it.

[ichthyous]

The graph below currently shows the percentage of Google desktop searches at their lowest point (83.49%) and Bing at its highest point (9.19%) in 8 years.

No, actually Bing was at 9.92% in October 2022, then dropped all year to a low of 6.8% in May of this year, and now is rising again. Google hit a low in October 2022, rose all year and peaked in May of 2023 at 87.65%, now trending down. I don't think anyone should get excited over this chart or make inferences as it will just change again. For the last three months Google properties bring in 96.5% of my search traffic. Bing is an afterthought at 1.4%... I wish it were 9%!

[BigKat]

I am experiencing the same thing

@Dalnoon

I'm glad to see this as it tells me what we are experiencing ourselves is not just isolated to us. As I've noted in the past, we are a small manufacturing company and what we sell isn't available in the marketplaces. Our products, call them light industrial, meet current safety standards. What Google is serving their users are primarily Amazon ads and those Chinese made products fail to meet modern safety standards. So for us, shoppers being unable to find a "safe" product in Google could easily justify shoppers (especially educated shoppers and professionals) going elsewhere.

[ichthyous]

I find it interesting how after this 2nd 'helpful' update there have been ZERO new conversions on my site, after more than a month of steady conversions. It has been almost a week with no new inquiries at all, let alone a new sale. It could be a natural pause, but it seems awfully quiet and the timing coincides perfectly...

[HUnch]

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

Ask the influencers you know to join the cause.

Let us bring Google’s market share down to the limit that they start to realise that our hard work as content creator and seo is more important than their ego.

Let us promote Bing for free for our own good.. so atleast we have an alternative in the maketing industry and destroy Google’s monopoly in search & ads network.

We people collectively can make a change. How long we have to suffer because of G and their updates?