December 2023 Google Search Observations

[Martin Ice Web]

After 3 very good weeks we see a 50% drop for all sites we manage started right at midnight. Seems google started Xmas shopping revenue season.

[edited by: not2easy at 11:39 am (utc) on Dec 1, 2023]
[edit reason] split cleanup - New month, new thread [/edit]

[mhansen]

@Micha - Examples being shared on Twitter are completely embarrassing to Google for sure.

[ichthyous]

Huge drop on all my sites. Something going on...

I finally am seeing a recover in US traffic, however, UK, Australia, UAE, and much EU traffic started to drop like a stone around 3pm. UK is -21% today. European countries are down 21-65%. UAE is -77% and has been far below average since mid-November. German traffic first skyrocketed for about ten days, then it dropped down to nothing.

[watesh]

Another huge drop today. 6,000 articles and 5 years of work have gone down the drain in a year. I have gone 70% down in traffic in 12 months after 5 years of steady growth. With each update Google pushes out, it chips away 15 - 25% of what is remaining.

[Treud]

I see quite a drop today as well, probably something is coming again for Christmas.

[renatovieira]

Third day of huge drops... Here we go...

[rdscx]

I'm just waiting for the total annihilation. From 120k/month in the spring to 19k/month in November (google organic only). Three years of work and lots of money invested. We did nothing wrong, it was quite the opposite, we did nothing really. I did not want to pump my branded traffic with shady black hat techniques, even though there are many options available.

The sad thing is, spam is getting pushed up. All my competitors are losing, but parasite spam is gaining. This is either a silly childish mistake from a team of devs (at Google) that we thing are top notch (but they aren't), or deliberate. Either way, Google's gain from this strategy is only going to help them in the short run (and only financially).

And the other sad thing is, absolutely nobody dares to make a move against this huge brand that is Google. With all the LLMs and AIs and everything...

[Conro]

In first 10 results
1 people also ask
2 site web (google)
3 people also search
4 site
5 site
6 site
7 site
8 site
9 People also search (again)
10 site

[mysitegothithard]

Its over for me I guess. Trying to work some side projects but I can say that for me its over. Never seen nothing like that in 14 years working with blogs/seo/adsense

[Conro]

Even Adsense has very low CPC. ;y earnings are down by 70% compared to the same period last year. Today, I made just over 3 euros because the CPC is very low, yet the SERP is full of ads. Something doesn't add up, especially because typically, during this period, Adsense revenues are higher, but instead, it's worse than other months.

[ichthyous]

Too early to tell here today...traffic is definitely lower than trend, but not far below trend like most of November. Google has managed to completely destroy my sales since early Nov, though. There are prolonged gaps with no inquiries at all...there was a 10 day gap in early November with zero new inquiries. And several more 2-5 day gaps since then. People can't inquire if Google is making your traffic disappear every other day.

[mhansen]

Re: Adsense - You have to wonder what kind of effect the changes in their new payout policy is going to have on publishers as well. I doubt they'd switch from CPC to RPM if it was going to be beneficial to anyone but themselves.

[BigKat]

I doubt they'd switch from CPC to RPM if it was going to be beneficial to anyone but themselves.

Just like Google's current search results that fails everyone (users and advertisers) but themselves. I totally agree the payout structure change in Adsense would never have been approved if it didn't benefit Google in some way. For Google to benefit, that means publishers will have to lose. It's really hard to have one shred of belief/confidence in anything Google says, especially after reading through the document evidence submitted in court. Those trial documents should be required reading for anyone joining a SEO or web design company as a new hire.

[Conro]

Is RPM not used by major advertising agencies? Do companies like Mediavine and Raptive not use RPM? It seems that earnings are higher than Adsense, but what I haven't understood is whether this change is intended to reduce the earnings of these advertising agencies that, even though they use Adsense, are still in competition with Google.

[Fluff_Nutz]

I would not be at all surprised if they do intend to ruin revenue companies such as Mediavine and Raptive in truth. They did a good job of destroying those type of companies over on Youtube. So why not the SERPs too? But if they did manage to pull it off I can see a huge chunk of publishers leaving. I would be one of them. I'm only keeping it up to keep my status with these companies, which I was happily accepted into last year. Most publishers now create sites with a goal of joining one of them because Adsense is so low.

So destroy them and yeah that would wipe out a good chunk of publishers. Is that their goal? It would make sense since they only enjoy a small quantity of websites. Limiting the vast majority to either quit or accept Adsense pennies. Logical and, again, would benefit G.

It really isn't worth it any more. It is OVER!

[mhansen]

I don't use Adsense so I don't know a lot about the model any longer but have noticed that a large number of sites recently downgraded after the HCU were partnered with Mediavine, Raptive, etc.

[Conro]

@mhansen In my opinion, it's a coincidence. All the websites receiving traffic from Google have started experiencing a decline in visits since March

[mhansen]

@Conro - The thing I see most is that sites that were affected since Sept had large intrusive ads, pop-unders, etc all over them, but they ALSO had a large percentage of their traffic coming directly from search and keywords (versus brand) and very few other sources like social media, email marketing, etc.

I do still see plenty of sites thriving/growing still while using excessive ads as well.

[BigKat]

In my opinion, it's a coincidence. All the websites receiving traffic from Google have started experiencing a decline in visits since March

May be coincidental, but possibly a component of Google's larger goal to choke off anyone making a dollar they feel should be their wallet instead.

[Conro]

I am looking at ads on Google Shopping, and I always see the same big names like Amazon, Ebay, Temu, Etsy, but few small ecommerce sites that used to invest in Google. Do you also notice this?

[Micha]

And it continues to fall, -32% compared to yesterday. It's not much more and my website has reached 0 Google traffic.
But the spam in the search results is increasing significantly ... Well, now Google is celebrating its new language model, so the current search engine can apparently fall apart.

@Bigkat So you mean everything you find on the web that has nothing to do with Google?

[BigKat]

@Micha
Google has been tightening the screws for the entire year IMO. It would appear Google is turning over every stone, and bulldozing anyone in their way, to get at every dollar they can.

I am looking at ads on Google Shopping, and I always see the same big names like Amazon, Ebay, Temu, Etsy, but few small ecommerce sites that used to invest in Google. Do you also notice this?

@Conro
Google drove us small businesses out of their ads a long time ago. My guess is the big marketplaces have special pricing or at least a dedicated account representative that can quickly issue refunds for invalid/questionable clicks. Us smaller advertisers were getting denied refunds for a lot of invalid clicks, including those that have been in our IP exclusion settings for years.

[Micha]

The question arises as to why Google is killing off small companies by the dozen; they have nothing to do with Google wanting to satisfy its lust for money.

In my eyes, Google is currently destroying the diversity of the web and no longer seems to have its search engine under control. But we can continue to listen to the excuse that we should write helpful content, etc. The only question is for whom.... I'm beginning to think that we're only supposed to do this so that their AI can use our content for themselves.
We desperately need some serious competition because this is a sad example of what happens when one company has too much power. But that's not going to happen anytime soon, if ever.
Well, let's keep watching, there's nothing we can do anyway. I just hope that someone else from this forum doesn't get hit so hard that they have to give up their project.

[ichthyous]

Us smaller advertisers were getting denied refunds for a lot of invalid clicks, including those that have been in our IP exclusion settings for years.

That's for sure...that's why I will never even attempt to run another Google ad. The clicks were so fraudulent it was a joke. Eventually they would get sick of me and offer a $50 credit or something. Meta is no better...run their useless ads and watch the clicks roll in from places totally outside of any target market. With Meta there is no way to complain, nor to get a refund...they just steal it. I have said it many times over the years, I would prefer to be able to pay for ads to supplement my organic traffic, but I won't be defrauded. Apparently the large corps have the funds to burn on Google and Meta ads in order to muscle everyone else out completely. We have an internet owned top to bottom by a few enormous companies now. They are so large and so rich that they can effectively defang the US government.

[BigKat]

The question arises as to why Google is killing off small companies by the dozen; they have nothing to do with Google wanting to satisfy its lust for money.

@Micha
We don't advertise on Google and don't sell on Amazon. In our industry it's mostly Amazon paying Google for ads. If we were to disappear, that would be more money going to those who remain (mostly Amazon) and more money they would have to feed Google. These two companies have their own economy. I wouldn't be surprised if both Amazon and Google were working together to accomplish the shared goal of capturing more money, but I doubt we will ever know. What we do know is both Amazon and Google are being sued by the DOJ for antitrust violations, so at least both companies share similar values in using their dominance to push self-serving policies that reach the threshold of reaching a courtroom.

@ichthyous
Unfortunately these big tech companies are so powerful they have no accountability - not even to their paying customers (advertisers). Having no recourse for invalid/fraud clicks, we too have been sidelined and it doesn't look like we will be returning to Google.

[DTP_Rodan]

What I've noticed are SERIOUS errors in Google's crawler, or they are deliberate "errors", depending upon how much of a conspiracy theorist you are. Our travel site features maps for the states and their toll roads, but Google is showing all the pages as "duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user". This is a real problem, because clearly NONE of our maps pages is like the other ... you just can't make Indiana look like Massachusetts. However, we are in DIRECT competition with Google maps. Suddenly, following repeated algo updates from the end of summer through November, our maps, online since 2009, are suddenly ALL DUPLICATES? #*$!.

[Conro]

New important traffic drop today -23%

[Jez123]

It doesn't matter what way you look at it. Search is finished.

This also ultimately means that a big part of google is also finished.

[superclown2]

Us smaller advertisers were getting denied refunds for a lot of invalid clicks, including those that have been in our IP exclusion settings for years.

This has been going on since forever. Over a decade ago I sent them a long list of fraudulent clicks they were charging me for together with supporting evidence - it added up to almost 70% of the total clicks I was paying for. This was apart from the mysterious clicks in which the 'visitor' (human? or bot?) stayed for only a split second then bounced straight out. Despite several reminders I never got a reply.

I have not spent a penny with them since and never will again.

[engine]

Mods note:

Please, let's keep the focus of this discussion on organic, and not on advertising, or business practices as we have a forum for each of those topics.
As a reminder, here is the long standing Charter for this forum: [webmasterworld.com...]

Thank you.

Google Ads - AdWords [webmasterworld.com]
Search Engine Govt, Policy, and Business Issues [webmasterworld.com]
Google AdSense - Display Ads [webmasterworld.com]

[superclown2]

I don't use Adsense so I don't know a lot about the model any longer but have noticed that a large number of sites recently downgraded after the HCU were partnered with Mediavine, Raptive, etc.

A good friend of mine had a very successful website that was destroyed by a manual penalty because of alleged 'thin' content (it was actually full of research data that was linked to by major companies in his vertical).

The penalty was lifted when he agreed to delete affiliate links. All of a sudden it wasn't 'thin content' any more.

To me that spoke volumes.

[KaseyM]

Google Groups out of control. Illegal substances for sale in the open and piracy sites rank for high volume search terms.

Syndicated content on Yahoo, IMDb, and MSN dominate the rankings, too.

Google, how can you be moving onto AI when you can't get your bread and butter right?

[Conro]

The future is spam? Sure not the White seo

[BigKat]

The future is spam?

Appears to be that way. Ad spam at the top (four text ads), followed by one organic result (Amazon, Reddit, Quora, Google Groups, etc.) then the People Also Ask box and after that a block of product ad spam. To be fair, we still hold some #1 organic positions but they don't get much traffic anymore because they're squished between ads and the PAA box.

[Micha]

The review update is now ready. It's time for a new core update ;) [status.search.google.com ]

[Fluff_Nutz]

Oh how exciting. I have never seen a Google update before. Does it give you good traffic? ... No. no it does not. Usually, in my case, its quite the opposite. Embrace yourselves once again..
Sheesh these are non-stop. Hope G are enjoying their stolen money this year! Makes me hate their ads. Oh look a lovely Google Pixel. Takes good photos. Great text and phone apps. All stolen from publisher revenue, of course.

[engine]

Let's turn this around a bit: What's working for you?

Here's my suggestion: Links with anchor text still work well.

[RedBar]

Nothing new for me to report, traffic down across all sites, including the hotel, however potential serious buyers are obviously getting used to hunting now since they're still finding my global supply site. If this continues then come next weekend I'll be on Xmas Day levels of traffic!

[ichthyous]

Big drops starting at 8am - 11am and again 2pm - 6pm. Traffic is swinging much more widely than normal and there are no new inquiries of any kind...neither emails nor calls. Google has just killed business off for a month now.

[watesh]

I have never been wrecked by an update like this one. At this point, I don't think I can afford the servers. Lost 40% of the remaining traffic in two days. overall down 70% and down 93% in two years. 8-year-old site with 8,000 posts and less than half of them are getting a single view a day. 90% of the sites outranking my site did not exist in the last 2 years.

[Conro]

Semrush sensor exploded today. High fluttuation everywhere. Now for many query "people also ask" are follow by "people also search". The traffic drop for all

[renatovieira]

Huge drop today... It seems to me that these updates are eternal. We will never have stability in the SERPs.

[RubicCubed]

It seems to me that these updates are eternal. We will never have stability in the SERPs.

It appears these updates are a continuation of Google's pursuit to drain the organic well dry.

[Conro]

The beauty is that Google has been creating this chaos for months, with the result that the user finds less and less what he is looking for, those who have a website are now demotivated. How long can Google last? Will it survive 2024? No one is happy anymore

[rdscx]

next time you tell someone to "google it", remember that you're branding these a**holes...

[Conro]

I have an idea to give you for the next post to write in all your sites: 10 reasons to switch from Google to "name of search engine you like"

[Micha]

@conro Honestly, that's not a bad idea.

so update on the state of my website: Clinically dead, thanks Google.

[ami3810]

@Micha we are all dead around here :)

The SERPs are getting worse and worse by the day. Was playing with some terms today and the results are woah, are they bad!

On the top are:
1. sponsored
2. sponsored
3. sponsored
4. Youtube
5. Youtube
6. Youtube
7. People also ask
8 The first real website to appear
9. Website
10. Website
11. Places with a map (?)
12. Website
13. Website
14. Images
15. Website
16. Places without a map
17. Sponsored
18. Related searches
19. Sponsored
20. Sponsored
21. Website
etc.

So essentially, if you aren't in the first 3 sponsored - no chance.

Google has killed Google - Amen. That, or some lawsuits need to come... and come fast.

[Fluff_Nutz]

They should stick some more Youtube videos in there :P

I'm surprised publishers still fight against Google. I doubt anything will change. America laws are terrible. I also don't think that lawsuits will ever work neither. All anyone does is demand money from Google if a court claim is won and thus G just takes yet more revenue from publishers to help pay for it. This could be another reason why the SERPs are a mess. For Google to profit more to fix the lawsuit and court cases.
We need proper action. Which will likely never arrive.

It's time to divert or give up. What other option is there? So many people are used to using Google now that it will take a miracle for them to stop. Do they even care enough to look elsewhere? People are too used to their methods now. No one ever says I'll search the internet any more, its simply 'I'll Google it'. If something was ever going to be done it should have years ago. Before it got out of hand.
Now its too late.

Not even Bing can fight Google. No search can. A possible solution and perhaps our only life line is for something like Reddit or TikTok to take over. Though, this is unlikely. Google get majority of their profits from search so they play with that the most. Hence why its so unstable. They used it to fund everything. From making profits, paying fines, hiring staff etc..

Its sad really because every day for god knows how many months this forum has always had the same messages posted. Traffic loss and Google disappointment. Are our cries even worth it when nothing is being done? Game Over, sorry..

[honestman]

Search engines want you to miss the forest for the trees. With so many factors, unless your AI invention can outsmart its hundreds of factors with a daily doses of injections from teams on many different projects, often with competing goals and thumbs on scales, focusing on Discovery of any given update is a Sidiphysian task, IMO.

[christianz]

1. sponsored
2. sponsored
3. sponsored
4. Youtube
5. Youtube
6. Youtube
7. People also ask

When the average searcher goes to search engine to look up things, what they want to see (in this particular order) are:

1. Ads. Lots of ads.
2. Grifters and clickbaiters on youtube
3. What other people search for

There is no such thing as perfect search engine, but they are really damn close.