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]

[insideout]

Complete destruction. My main website lost 80% of its traffic in a matter of days. I have no clue what to do to recover from this massacre :(

[superclown2]

Complete destruction. My main website lost 80% of its traffic in a matter of days.

Here is an example to show how it has happened:

For my main search term this morning on mobile the first organic result effectively comes in 8th position thanks to multi slot ads, 'normal' ads, PAA, ASF, PASF. The results were:

sponsored + 3 links under, each in their own slot and looking like separate results
sponsored
sponsored
sponsored
generic
PAA
generic
generic
sponsored
generic
Also Searched For
generic
generic
generic
Youtube (full of ads of course)
Youtube (full of ads of course)
Youtube (full of ads of course)
Also Searched For
Sponsored Plus Five Links Under, each in their own slot and looking like separate results
People Also Search For
Sponsored
Sponsored

So: out of 30 slots (I am being generous in calling the PAA, ASF, and PASF just single slots) there are just seven organic results; less than a quarter of the total.

I should also point out that YouTube results are completely useless for the type of query that I typed in so it is obvious why they were included: to show more ads, and hide the organics better.

How much longer can this go on until legislators and the public realise that, as we keep pointing out, Google is no longer a search engine?

[System]

The following message was cut out to new thread by engine. New thread at: goog/5098667.htm [webmasterworld.com]
9:11 am on Dec 12, 2023 (utc 0)

[Martin Ice Web]

We are still stable in traffic, Yesterday eas in fact the best (traffic) day. Traffic quality on the other side is a rolercoaster. Periods of engaged traffic following periods of rubbish traffic. Sales are quiet ok for this time ( we are not in Xmax shopping).
I hope that the sitewide changes we started last year are now start to carrying fruits.

We noticed that we got many direct hits from google 66.249.88 with Lighthouse engine. Anybody else seeing direct hits from this IP. We are not sure if it is a scraper using google proxy or if it is google itself. But one could say that google should reconigze proxy abuse?

[saladtosser]

Hoping for a new serp feature 2024 PAHFB (People also had for breakfast)!

[RubicCubed]

Hoping for a new serp feature 2024

The new feature will likely be "Ads people also clicked."

[RedBar]

After 12 hours of my Googleday both my global site and main UK site were at 20% traffic levels, I have some sites getting hardly any traffic whatsoever, the bots I can see, realworld visitors are simply not there, all rankings appear to be ok therefore what are realworld traffic levels insofar as my "stuff" is concerned?

How come no one is reporting a massive increase in traffic / rankings / everything?

Does Google actually believe that it is going to convert so many of us into advertisers with all its attempted manipulation?

[Micha]

I bet soon a popup will appear asking you to click on two ads before you get the search results.

[renatovieira]

Huge drop today...

[Fluff_Nutz]

Can only echo everyone else. Despite having my writer post new content I am now -30% over last week. Meaning I gained zer0 growth from these new articles and wasted more time and effort into the site. Let alone money too. It really is pointless..

[RedBar]

It really is pointless..

And here is the conundrum ... If G pi$$es-off so many creators and they stop uploading, from where will its AI get to "learn / steal / thieve / scrape"?

Or has G gone completely past this point now and is solely a dedicated advertising platform? Yes, we know it's been like this for ages however has G decided that "organising the world's information" is no longer a prerequisite to exist?

[mhansen]

It really is pointless..

On my site, I have 300+ pages of technical, long form content that did very well until the HCU. (+200k monthly users) I also have 50 or so pages of technical "tools" that have increased in exposure exponentially since HCU, where they were not as popular before. These are my focus now and the long form content is all but forgotten since it continues to drop in G every day.

I'm considering leaving the long form content, leaving all links to it on the site, etc - but adding a "noindex, follow" clause to that /directory/ only for Googlebot. I want this content removed from their index if they don't feel it's worthy of visitors, and mainly because I also don't want it used to train the AI tools any longer and be presented as SGE content. I do still get good traffic from other engines to these long form content pages, so I'll leave it open for them to index.

Outside of the obvious, what are my risks?

[ichthyous]

I bet soon a popup will appear asking you to click on two ads before you get the search results.

@micha don't give them any smart ideas!

[ichthyous]

And here is the conundrum ... If G pi$$es-off so many creators and they stop uploading, from where will its AI get to "learn / steal / thieve / scrape"?

This was discussed here over the past couple of months. Many of us are already blocking all of the AI bots from scraping. I see no benefit to myself in letting any AI platform rake in the profits by including my work in the dataset. In fact I see a much much more profitable path suing the platforms for having scraped my content already without my permission. Even if they settle its bound to be a lot more money than they will ever pay out through any kind of royalty / payment scheme, which will inevitably pay the legal copyright holders a pittance just to shut them up.

I have already spoken with my attorney about it and we are just waiting to see how the first lawsuits pan out...if the courts are favorable to creator rights I intend to pile right on. They will be forced to share the profits one way or another or be buried in lawsuits. That is what is coming, at least for any platform based in any country party to the Berne Convention.

[BlueEyes82]

All sites that have hit me since the "helpful" update in September have been lost with every update since then. The situation is similar for the competitors who were also affected in September. Neither side has been able to recover so far, although one or two have made major changes.

I also rebuilt one of the pages a lot, initially there were no more losses since September, but with this update -30%.

Unfortunately, I don't know what to do - I haven't experienced anything like this in 15 years. Does anyone feel the same way?

[mhansen]

This was discussed here over the past couple of months. Many of us are already blocking all of the AI bots from scraping. I see no benefit to myself in letting any AI platform rake in the profits by including my work in the dataset.

The bad part of this, is Google stated that unless you block Googlebot completely, SGE will continue to digest your content and use it in SGE results whether we like it or not.

Search engine land [searchengineland.com]

searchengineland.com Google-Extended does not stop Google Search Generative Experience from using your site's content Instead, you need to block SGE by blocking Googlebot completely.

[Conro]

Googlebot can ignore robots.txt. A class Action is the solution

[mosxu]

Anyone, the mascarade at Capitol Hill is going to bring no hope!

There is no evidence that what I see on a device someone else also sees on his/her device when searching for the same keyword and provided behind there is a high enough bid or a long ranked established ranking!

Forget the ranking tools for one second…

[superclown2]

That is what is coming, at least for any platform based in any country party to the Berne Convention.

Right from the very start Google trampled over copyright and privacy laws. They have continued pushing the envelope since then.

I suppose there are good reasons why law enforcement agencies in the USA have ignored this but the term 'lobbying' keeps coming to mind. Hopefully it can, at long last, be challenged. Having lost their first major case in the USA courts there is hope that others will be successful too.

In the meanwhile; yesterday we had one of the best days for years, for a particular product, despite the worst one for years the day before! The reason; very little Googlespam on Chrome for the second half of the day (we've pretty well given up on Android) whereas the day before our site was buried under the usual junk. It's still very early morning here today but the Chrome SERPs are looking fairly uncluttered so here's hoping.

If only they would go back to being a search engine again! They could then deserve a monopoly on merit and look forward to a long term future instead of the risk of being crushed by lawsuits and legislation (ah well, back to the real world).

[RubicCubed]

I see no benefit to myself in letting any AI platform rake in the profits by including my work in the dataset.

We see the same lack of benefits (hardly any traffic) from appearing in Google search now, which is getting worse every month. So long as there are a couple competing pages for the same query, Google doesn't need anyone else's content because Google is going to surround it in ads anyway to direct clicks to the ads and not non-paying sites.

[RedBar]

OMG, I had the greatest misfortune cum eye-opener last night!

I was given a new Android tablet to try-out therefore went straight to Chrome and tried some of my keyword phrases ... What an utter mess of garbage was attempted to be displayed. Is this what Joe Public, bearing in mind it's Android, is seeing on an everyday basis on all their Android devices?

As a website experience the search results were an horrendous mess. Does anyone at The Plex even check its own product. I guess not since if they were to then heads rightly would roll.

BTW, otherwise the tablet was quite impressive.

[ichthyous]

A sad example of how Google can make all your traffic vanish almost overnight, even when you are still ranking at the top! My ranking for this category is basically the same as before (up/down one spot on a daily basis). Yet from ~ Nov. 6th onward most of the traffic has vanished from the highest converting category on my website. I haven't used Google analytics for the last couple of years, but I do think that Google can still analyze and see which traffic will cause maximum pain if the traffic is removed. It is psychological warfare, plain and simple. It might be another year or more before traffic returns to this category and meanwhile many fewer sales for me...

[ibb.co ]

ibb.co Whats-App-Image-2023-12-13-at-2-13-08-PM hosted at ImgBB Image Whats-App-Image-2023-12-13-at-2-13-08-PM hosted in ImgBB

[BigKat]

It might be another year or more before traffic returns to this category

You're a heck of a lot more optimistic than I. I expect organic results to almost completely dry up in 2024 as AI/SGE becomes a larger part of search to feed Google's growing appetite for profits. Even if AI/SGE doesn't completely takeover the SERPS, Google will always be under constant pressure to produce higher profits from the quarter before. Instead of four ads above the fold I see now, we may see six or eight ads followed by Google's refinement gimmicks. I see nothing to be optimistic about except the slowly growing traffic we get from other SEs. But these other SEs will likely also follow Google's template in abusing their search results like Google has.

[ichthyous]

I see nothing to be optimistic about except the slowly growing traffic we get from other SEs. But these other SEs will likely also follow Google's template in abusing their search results like Google has.

I can see how AI would be an opportunity for google to slip in ads into the AI results while not citing any organic links/sources. I hadn't thought about it, but it would not be out of the realm of possibility considering how hostile Google has become to organic. The only thing is this...if Google did that we would all just block Googlebot completely and then the company would have nothing to base it's search on nor feed the AI dataset. I am not seeing any traffic coming in from any AI related platform yet...not ChatGPT, and no increase in Bing AI assisted searches.

And you are right that they all follow Google's lead and will all monetize in the same way...the only solution is a publicly funded search engine, but that almost immediately becomes a hot potato with all of the conspiracy theorists and accusations of political favoritism.

[Fluff_Nutz]

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Despite my site being +20% now. Yes, traffic increased, but because its so unstable and unreliable, I'm not exactly celebrating about it. I just feel sorry for those that lived on the revenue from their sites for years and depended on it for bills and upkeep. I was going to be one of those I'll admit but I guess I'm fortunate to, now, whilst still early in the game, realize life is not quite that simple after all.

[Micha]

AI search will certainly hurt websites, but let's think about it a little further: Google and co. are not only destroying websites or companies that run websites with their behavior, but also the industries behind them. If companies see that hardly any visitors/buyers are coming to their website, they will think twice about hiring an SEO or web designer. Every online business that closes hurts wholesalers, because Amazon isn't everything. The list could go on and on.

There are simply more small businesses than large ones, and if Google and co. overdo it here, there will inevitably be a very strong headwind, because then the right places will realize that search engines are more than simple "portals" and they will have to intervene. (Even if half the web will probably be extinct by then)

[Conro]

I'm noticing more and more websites getting updated less frequently. Sites that used to publish three articles per day, now release two articles per week. These are clearly well-made sites that have undeservedly experienced a decline in visits. The serp of Google is only garbage, months of updates for have in 1 position 4 ads, many "people also ask", "people also search" and now "They often search as well".

[RubicCubed]

I'm noticing more and more websites getting updated less frequently. Sites that used to publish three articles per day, now release two articles per week.

The current environment is only profitable for those who pump Google's index full of massive quantities of auto-generated/AI spam. We need to realize Google abandoned all of us, and we can't wait for Google to return because this show is coming to an end.

[waynne]

History is just repeating itself. I ran a successful and popular photoblog. Search engines then starting showing my images in their photo search results and stopped sending traffic to my sites. Without the traffic I am unable to make any revenue from it so I stopped uploading images and let the site die quietly. The result is that search engines no longer have any fresh images from me and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, so the end result is that the end user has suffered.

Now we have search engines and AI showing our scraped (reworked, plagiarised etc...) content to visitors, which once again will kill traffic to our sites and we will have no traffic to speak of so will stop creating content. Whinging about this will not help or solve the inherent problem which is the evolution of the internet and internet users.

But I guess AI will continue to create all the content people need, until the sources of fresh information dry up and it has to start inventing facts (I can't imagine an AI inventing facts though can you lol). Eventually I see a future where people will talk to an assistant to get all the information they need, which will reduce the need for people to use search at all.

I see this as the great cycle of life, it makes sense that the internet evolves and those that use it will change, and we have to adapt with it and move on. Expecting Google to show our sites in search will not adjust the move away from users going to informational websites.

The question is WHAT CAN I OFFER THAT AN AI CAN'T? Focus on that and you'll be fine. I'm sure that search engines are seeing cash cows like search drying up and are trying hard to retain revenue further squeezing the publisher.

I have blocked AI bots from crawling all of my sites, but I can't stop the plagiarists who steal my content and publish it under their own name who no doubt have a short sighted quick buck philosophy and allow "their content" to be crawled and indexed.

[rdscx]

But I guess AI will continue to create all the content people need, until the sources of fresh information dry up and it has to start inventing facts (I can't imagine an AI inventing facts though can you lol).

AI inventing things is actually the biggest problem of LLM (Large Language Models, like ChatGPT). It's called "hallucinations" and it's something unavoidable at this point (given the way LLMs work, it will never be solved in the near future).