October 2023 Google Search Observations

[Cyril TechWebsites]

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System: The following 3 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5093320.htm [webmasterworld.com] by not2easy - 11:10 am on Oct 1, 2023 (atl -4)

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Seeing further drastical drop on Saturday. I stopped producing new content and updating the old content. There is no sense anymore for me, feeling awful to say that, but my website was fully destroyed with the "helpful" update.

[christianz]

It already looks like big further traffic drops are already happening.

[Soulofmonk]

What's even left? Are they going for a kill now? A critical hit has already been done to my site. One basic hit, and my site is done.

[RedBar]

And the next core update has just been announced by Google

Would this be the old Xmas update they used to perform?

[oldog]

bric-a-brac advisor renewed their wedding vows with google
two positions ! in top ten results in the travel sector ! :-)

[mhansen]

Google is quickly going from a search engine, to a single-entity answers engine with ads and widgetry that keep users in it's own system. With AI and all of the content and knowledge they have harvested over the last 25 years, they are proving to us in real-time that they do not need websites to maintain their profitability. I believe we're well past the days of relying on Google to help market our businesses and hope for them to reward our great products, services and information with users from them.

Last weekend I was searching (on a mobile device) for a specific product that I had the manufacturer, product name and part number for. They are a company that does not sell to Amazon and only sell through their distribution network, thus you have to find a local distributor. Ads for Amazon were everywhere. Links to the company were not in the first several organic results, but videos were abundant on how to install, how to measure for them, etc. I scrolled through roughly 20-30 results and then it was literally nothing but youtube video links and ads to any and all kinds of content related to the product search.

They've lost their way.

[BigKat]

They are a company that does not sell to Amazon and only sell through their distribution network, thus you have to find a local distributor. Ads for Amazon were everywhere.

This describes us where our products, not sold on Amazon, are difficult to impossible to be found in Google. We still do rank #1 for some searches, but can't be found because of all the ads. Fortunately shoppers are still finding us using other search engines, and that continues to improve as Google doubles down on their sole focus to drive revenue via ads.

[Fluff_Nutz]

Nooo. I know it was perhaps long overdue but today the UA analytics for my main site has stopped processing new data. Forcing me to switch over to GA4. Gutted. My personal favourite feature in UA was the hourly graph. Telling you at an hourly rate how your traffic was coping compared to the same time yesterday. The whole real time data knowledge was great. Made it interesting to keep up to date with. Alas though, GA4 does not support this. I have played with GA4 a few times and it sucks. This graph no longer exists. Instead it is a dumbed down and terrible version of collecting traffic data. Without the ability to run real time. Not useful and not helpful.

On the other hand, though I still enjoyed keeping that graph around. With Google and their consistent updates and website destruction I guess its not needed anyway. I already know where my traffic is headed. Down a ditch. I wouldn't be surprised if one morning I wake up and somehow find out that the traffic is at zer0. A complete flatline.

I'm once again loosing interest in G's game. I really hope that one day these updates, court cases, fines and everything really bites them. Oh it would be so fun to finally watch them squirm.

On the topic of Google's bad search engine. My father who is forced to look for work keeps arriving at websites that take him nowhere but in an infinite loop. Jobs that look interesting but, once clicked on, just bring him nowhere. Also there is no filtering system implemented. So he gets told about foreign jobs that he, obviously, has no interest in. Yet I bet these type of websites never get hit. Pfft.

[Razorllama]

^ Same here! I knew it was coming, but it still hit me hard. Goodbye Universal Analytics, old friend. You were the best :_;

So what do we think? Google just released another core update, less than a month after the previous one. Are things at Google HQ in hysteric damage control mode, or what? I don't remember two back-to-back core updates with two 'lesser' algorithm updates going between them in the span of a month.

[christianz]

Same as above. GA3 is gone and I can't tell what's going on traffic wise.

[Soulofmonk]

[status.search.google.com ]

Google Search is experiencing an indexing issue

There's an ongoing issue that's delaying the indexing of newly published content. We're working on identifying the root cause.

[Conro]

For visits in real time i suggest "histats". Work fine and is free

[RedBar]

This week week will be my lowest-ever, period. With 4.5 days gone I have just achieved 50% of my weekly average page views and with my usual lower Saturday and Sunday traffic levels I'm guesstimating around the 60-65% mark. My rankings are still fine however talking with many of my trade last week in Italy every one of them confirmed their traffic was also down.

So, if I end up 35% down in one week yet my SERPs are unchanged, where to by the end of the year?

Bear in mind this is for my main global bulk B2B site, our hotel venue seems to be holding steady which, I assume, means their localisation plans are "workimg" as planned.

[ins3rt]

Anyone seeing any changes from the core update?

[Helix Online]

One of my posts that stayed #1 in Google even during the HCU, has now disappeared from the results completely! And my competitor who was #2 has now taken my place. I'm not even on page #2, I'm nowhere! But according to Google Search Console, the post is indexed and ranked.

SEMrush still shows I'm losing hundreds of keywords per day while only gaining dozens.

I'm starting to lose motivation to do anything anymore. Maybe better to close the internet and stop working for the rest of the year. And why check rankings when you just find out horrible things day after day?

Edit. Apparently, there was some technical issue with the blog post. Or not with the blog post because it was normal all along. Google Search Console just detected some issues so the post disappeared from the index. I don't know what I'm supposed to do because there is no error and even if there was, I'm not techy and have no idea how to fix stuff like that.

[Bewenched]

This week so far has been the lowest traffic our 20+ year old ecommerce domain. We even doubled our marketing budget with no effect on sales or traffic.
This core "update" has had such dramatic for the first time in 20yrs I'm really considering just giving up, we had better traffic the first week we went live. No joke.

Blood, sweat and tears being laughed at by some AI Google overlord.
I'm praying that this update will roll back some once they realize all their spam has floated to the top.

[Soulofmonk]

@Helix, I am also facing the same problem. Even my competitors' pages are disappearing from the SERPS.

[ichthyous]

Traffic is all over thr place, but basically:

Update #1 late August - traffic skyrocketed across the board. Weird drops in traffic to landing pages vanish. Lots of conversions and sales

Update #2 - late Sept - all conversions stop dead for ten days. Traffic not seemingly affected top badly but definitely more sudden drops and USA and Canada traffic becomes very up and down again

Update #3 - last week? Traffic surges and conversions for two days. Then traffic drops like a stone to important landing pages. Traffic to home page suddenly vanishes too. Higher traffic to low level and arcane topic pages that dont convert. No calls, few inquiries no sales going on almost 2 weeks now

Update #4 - yesterday - No major changes yet, still suppressed USA CA and AU traffic.

So, as predicted last month...the steady traffic didn't last long. 2.5 weeks maybe. This week I have had two inquiries the entire week

[Helix Online]

@Soulofmonk Did you check the disppeared pages with the Google Search Console live test? Did it show any errors? Or pages just disappear without any reason?

I don't even know if the disappearing of my post had anything to do with the "error" because normally Google doesn't instantly remove pages from the index. Even if you delete a page it can still show up on Google search for a while.

[Soulofmonk]

@Helix There are no errors in the console. It says the URL is indexed. But when I check the SERP, I don't see it. These are not even new URLs; these are +1 year-old pages with thousands of comments. I checked on Bing and other search engines, no issue there. It's just Google. My competitor URLs have started to disappear as well.

[mhansen]

I'm praying that this update will roll back some once they realize all their spam has floated to the top.

This likely by design, so users get frustrated and click the ads, or a subpar search result loaded with further Google ads. I honestly can't see it any other way any longer. The results are abysmal, with the only common feature being Google getting itself more page-views on it's own properties, or through its own controlled ad ecosystem.

for the first time in 20yrs I'm really considering just giving up

They already have all your content (with express permission, due to following their rules/guidelines for all this time about schema, sitemaps, etc) in their index and will use in perpetuity to deliver AI generated answers and snippets across every platform they control, forever.

This has been a very disruptive few weeks for any business/website owner. Myself included. The uptick in the US Jobs report is probably from many in the community who had done good business on Google, going out to find work.

[Helix Online]

@Soulofmonk For me Google Search Console also showed the post was indexed. But when I clicked the live test, I saw an error. And when I tested again, there was no error, but in five minutes, the error showed again. Like, every two minutes the error is on and off. Yet the post looks completely normal.

This is also not a new URL, it's been #1 on Google for a while. I don't know if other URLs are disappearing too, maybe better not to know.

Edit. I searched with the target keyword on Bing and DuckDuckGo, and the post showed up on page one. So it's just Google gone crazy.

[edited by: Helix_Online at 7:56 pm (utc) on Oct 6, 2023]

[Soulofmonk]

[support.google.com ]
[twitter.com ]

A few other people with the same problem. I am having a headache now because of all this.

[Helix Online]

Me too! Maximal migraine here because of this. Well, it looks like it's definitely a Google problem then. Since others are experiencing this too.

[alexmoralez]

@Helix_Online, The main page of the site and its French version have just disappeared from the search.

At the same time, the Italian and Spanish versions are in the top 1-2 in Google.

The problem is the same but I think my site got banned? How can the main page disappear from the search, and its versions further ranked in google)

[Helix Online]

@alexmoralez Oh no, home page disappeared? Are some of your other pages still on Google?

[alexmoralez]

@Helix Online, That's the thing, Italian version (/it/) is in the top 1-2 right now and is driving traffic

And the home page just disappeared :(

[Helix Online]

When I search for site:mywebsitename.com the disappeared post shows up. But it no longer ranks for any keywords.

[Helix Online]

@alexmorales Surely your site can't be banned since some pages still rank.

[alexmoralez]

@Helix_Online, That's right, same situation.

[ins3rt]

Guys, are you already seeing any effects from the core update? If not, when do you think that they will take place?