November 2023 Google Search Observations

[RedBar]

Global site Monday and Tuesday USA traffic -40%

So far today, Wednesday, 40% of my traffic is from the Russian Federation, not bots.

[edited by: not2easy at 12:49 pm (utc) on Nov 1, 2023]
[edit reason] split cleanup - New month, new thread [/edit]

[oldog]

IMHO There is something very seriously wrong going on with Google
Have you ever seen so many updates in a period of about 40 days in the last 20 years ?
September October November...

[Martin Ice Web]

increased traffic +15% but all Zombies (FZM).
google doesn´t care about quality anymore.Its just a weightning where is the negative break even point that "normal" poeple are
overwrought with ads.

[morpheus83]

Crazy drop today, I hope they undo the mess they did with the Oct update.

[oldog]

RANK SEARCH RESULTS, AND LIKE ANYTHING , THESE AREN'T PERFECT....

"What do updates do? Google said, “We use automated systems to rank search results, and like anything, these aren’t perfect. We’re always looking at ways to improve these systems to show better results.”

What are your opinions?

[Micha]

What are your opinions?

Complete nonsense, as you can see, but if Google thinks we can't do anything anyway.

@morpheus83

I hope they undo the mess they did with the Oct update.

Google has already contradicted this, as the update is for a different area.

[christianz]

The very early initial impressions of this November Core are positive. But its too early to tell what is going on.

October Core was also positive for my main site, the "Oct 27th" update was slightly negative and I hope this November one will be more like the October Core.

[Fluff_Nutz]

So far site +13% and Youtube +15% not a bad start to the month. How long will it last is anyone's guess.

[ichthyous]

Yesterday's surge, as suspected, was brief...this morning USA traffic is -52% and Australia is -27%. Fridays are typically a low traffic day these days. Conversions have literally been NIL for the entire month of October and so far in november...so these constant updates on top of the war, etc have killed off the brief steady period in late August and Sept. It lasted perhaps two weeks and back to the crapper for google.

[BigKat]

“We use automated systems to rank search results, and like anything, these aren’t perfect. We’re always looking at ways to improve these systems to show better results.”

What are your opinions?

My opinion is Google also needs to look at how imperfect (flawed) their communication has been to us, and quit the pontificating nonsense, knowing how bad the SERPS are. Sullivan, Mueller, etc. need to quit treating us like we are fools, in their defense of the garbage that has littered Google's SERPS, because it only makes them look like idiots.

[swdcreative]

I do see some SERP rankings up today, but still very volatile. Guess we will find out more once this update is done rolling out. I'm pretty sure once it is done rolling out, that another is just going to come out haha

[MayankParmar]

Some examples of how Danny communicates with the search team: [twitter.com...]

I have responded to the tweet calling the "people-first" a PR move.

[EditorialGuy]

I'm pretty sure once it is done rolling out, that another is just going to come out haha

Google did announce that another "Reviews" (formerly "Product Reviews") update will begin next week.

[Conro]

Instead of complaining here, it would be advisable to engage in a constructive manner on Danny's Twitter profile, provide suggestions, and showcase practical examples of the failed outcomes of their updates. If no one speaks up, Google will continue down the same path, thinking they're doing well. This is the Twitter profile
[twitter.com...]

[Micha]

@Conro As long as Google does not see us website operators as equal partners, but only as something to be used, they will not change anything. Many people have already pointed out on Twitter and in the Google forums what's going wrong and yet it's always just "don't write for the search engine", "helbful content" etc. Only the problems that we see every day are not mentioned.

[Conro]

@Micha Yes, but if one must complain, at least complain in front of their face. Just staying here won't solve anything

[Micha]

@Conro You're right, of course.

[MayankParmar]

Just complained on Twitter and I have been complaining for about three years now. Nothing changed btw

[edited by: not2easy at 12:26 pm (utc) on Dec 16, 2023]
[edit reason] Please see TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[superclown2]

Their goal is not to "deliver the most relevant answers to their users' search queries", it is to "maximize the investment value to their shareholders", which is their fiduciary responsibility by law.

You are absolutely right, they are obliged to put shareholder interests first.

However, in the long term, their actions threaten to destroy their company completely. The feelings about Google are illustrated by the massive number of legal cases worldwide. Leaving aside the current USA action Europe, for example, is determined to see them broken up, Britain is tightening the regulatory screw, Android faces a legal crunch in India in January and Japan has just jumped into the fray with it's own antitrust case.

I have long suspected that Google recognise that their dominance of search will end eventually and that they would go for broke whilst 'other bets' became profitable. Overall these have been a dismal failure and even with AI they are currently just an 'also ran'; and having sacked or otherwise lost a lot of their top brains (who were soon snapped up by rivals) this could be difficult to reverse. Their cloud project? Still at number three.

Google is still a one-trick pony that is capable of creating excellent search results but which prefers to risk the lot for short term gains.

[christianz]

Huge boost yesterday for my oldest biggest best site. Traffic at levels I have never seen (in 17 years).

My other sites are super dead and more dead than before. I wouldn't care if the big site remained at these levels.

Unfortunately, most likely part of this boost may be related to temporary shuffling and technicalities in the way this new update is being rolled out.

[ichthyous]

Huge drop today, after a big increase yesterday. USA -41% at 3pm. CA -46%, AU -46%. S.O.S. with Google I guess...we can't even expect 48 hours of normal traffic anymore. Interesting how the drops are all so similar percentagewise...

[christianz]

Huge drop today, after a big increase yesterday.

Yes, today is a lot weaker than yesterday.

[Micha]

I'll join in: Today it's very weak again...

[edited by: Micha at 9:09 pm (utc) on Nov 4, 2023]

[ami3810]

Our websites are going through a disaster. Traffic is as close to 0 as it gets. Websites that got a boost from the October Update crashed really badly with this November Update.

Funny enough, one of our websites dropped for a page that was original content today but (!) a website scrapping content now ranks for it. It is not even a larger publisher that took the content. It is a scrapper. A scrapping website is outranking us. Google is doing great.

[Treud]

after a few days, my traffic is now "stable" at -10%, but no conversion at all and no inquiry. My biggest supplier also saying it's rather low business.
My impression remains the same, but my CTR tanked. Maybe another Box results changed (after removing all the product's rich snippets), they probably only want items from GoogleShopping to standout and obviously the paid ones.

[Micha]

When I look at the current data from Xovi today, Google is simply winding up my site. Visibility has dropped even further, almost all the top 10 keywords have been lost, etc. (my direct competitor's site is doing the same). I'm particularly annoyed that copies of our articles are ranking well.

Other sites that I monitor have also suffered massive losses. My conclusion that Google no longer sees any point in niche sites/blogs and is weeding them out unfortunately remains.

[Conro]

It's really true, there's no limit to the worst. In addition to the constant Google updates, a negative SEO attack has been added to my website, targeting one of my articles with hundreds of thousands of links. Of course, Google didn't recognize the attack and took away 30% of my traffic overnight. What a sadness, I only wish that whoever did this may die very slowly with the most painful cancer ever.

[christianz]

Big drop for my main site today. All of the Nov 3 gains are reverted. My not-so-great smaller sites (competing for same keywords) that were down are now up. It looks like a "reversal" but in reality I think its just the nature of the rollout. As I expected:

Unfortunately, most likely part of this boost may be related to temporary shuffling and technicalities in the way this new update is being rolled out.

[RedBar]

Extremely low traffic levels, Saturday at 52.5% and si far today coming up to 16 hours of my Googleday 27%!

This is not a ranking issue insofar as I am concerned, the sheer huge volume of image ads for my popular keyword products is incredulous.

[ichthyous]

Traffic is swinging widely today...first a drop to zero, then a big surge, then a drop...all before 11am. USA is at average but UK traffic down 32% today. Overall search traffic is -3%. I'm noticing that weekends tend to deliver traffic later in the day from the afternoon onward. I suspect another bust of a holiday season is coming if this keeps up...

[ami3810]

Interesting observation from today: Our newest website (about 2-3 weeks old) outranked like a pro its bigger brothers (9 and 2 years old). Should we just let the old horses die and all start a bunch of new pages? Surely something is going wrong?