February 2024 Google Search Observations

[borishar]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5099651.htm [webmasterworld.com] by engine - 9:30 am on Feb 1, 2024 (utc 0)

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Well it all makes sense if you think about it. The US traffic is lower, overseas traffic higher probably because the ads business isn't as big overseas as it is in US, so they've been jamming ads at the top for US search results but not so much so in other countries. I can also confirm very abnormal drops in traffic starting around 12pm. I am not going off of google analytics, which is horrible nowadays, instead using my locally installed analytics based on nginx data.

[Micha]

The only thing that could lead to a change at Google would be a new management, the current one is completely haphazard, has no vision at all and only sees the company as a money-printing machine. This cannot go on forever, because as has already been written: Advertisers are becoming increasingly dissatisfied, so are we webmasters and so are the people who use Google.

So briefly to the figures for my website: as usual, a weak Monday, but in keeping with the weekend, no up, but no down either.

[MayankParmar]

Please search "Windows 10 ISO" and see the results. There's a LinkedIn Pulse post, which seems to be an AI written version of another website on the same search result.

[EditorialGuy]

Our main editorial travel site has had a very slight drop in the last few days, compared to the previous week (probably just a return to normalcy after one page had a spike for several days last week).

We do have a small spin-off site that has been getting a boost after nine years as an also-ran. It's geared to short-form content:--"All the basics for shorter trips"--while our original and much busier site, which is is skewed toward in-depth long-form pages, is down considerably from last year despite links from places like the BBC and CNN.

[RedBar]

which is is skewed toward in-depth long-form pages, is down considerably from last year

I've noticed similar in my industry, sites with much less information plus many inaccuracies and poor images seem to have had ranking boosts.

[mhansen]

A few observations in Feb thus far. 7-YO US based lead-gen site. Expert detailed content from 20+ years in industry. Unique tools for consumers. 300 or so content pages (easily copied, outranked by Forbes), 50 or so tool pages (Not easily copied as they are interactive and require a bit of logic).

A few changes I made in Oct/Nov to the site in response to HCU:

- Removed above the fold CTA as it led to a page with a lead form and had a very high abandon rate and pitiful GA user metrics.
- Modified lead form to a multi-step, conversational type form that takes about 30-45 seconds to complete and asks for no personal information until step 3.
- Beefed up authority/trust signals via about us, contact, phone, physical address, linked to LLC business registration at local Secretary of State office. Linked to business related Trademark on at USTPO office.
- De-optimized titles from KW/solution focus, to Trademarked/solution focused.

Result of efforts thus far:

- Site is exploding in popularity on Bing/DDG/Yahoo/AOL. Visitors have increased from these search engines by 80% or more since late December 2023.
-12% referrals to general content difference in Google in GA4, so no gains there. Tools have seen a 40% increase in Google. (Content = bad, Tools = Good)

One other thing I noticed about the site metrics in SEMRush, is that it has dropped 35-40 points in what they call their "Domain Authority Score". What used to be a strong 60-65 or so, is now a 24. I checked the site in ahrefs and the domain did the same there, dropping from a 59 DA to a 38 DA. I don't really track or monitor backlinks, so I don't have any information why those metrics dropped after the HCU.

[Ingall]

The problem is that Google cannot recognize the quality of a website and simply relies on links.

This is what Google itself writes about quality of content:

"Once our systems have identified relevant content, they try to prioritize those that appear to be most helpful. To do this, they identify signals that help determine which content is characterized by expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.

One of the many factors we use for this are links from other prominent websites to the respective content. This has often proven to be a good sign of trustworthiness.”

Even if I have the best expertise and write the most useful content for my users, it is of absolutely no use to me if I have no backlinks.

I love writing helpful articles for my users and invest a lot of time in research and fact checking. I receive positive feedback from my readers every day by email.

However, it is very frustrating when you see, for example, that a paid article with false information on the subdomain of a large newspaper ranks first on Google for my keyword, while my site can no longer be found at all.

[Conro]

It's as if Google took the list of the most visited sites for each country and put them on a whitelist to be even more visited and not be penalized no matter what they do. All the other sites act as available in search only if necessary. Anyway, my site after almost 10 years is dead, not even in the Google community they were able to help me after seeing the site, and every change I make only makes things worse

[NeapTide]

Everybody should check their core web vitals and see if CLS, LCP, FID are failing or passing. If any of these 3 are failing your website will be penalized (happened after HCU to 1 of our website.)

[Conro]

@ NeapTide If that were the case, we would have solved it long ago and the LCP FID and CLS of my site are perfect, so they have nothing to do with it. Sites that have failed LCP, FID and CLS do great if they are protected by Google

[NeapTide]

Indeed. But not everyone is running CNN, BBC like news outlet websites. So we need to fix the basic issues then hope for the best although hoping for the best when working with Google is more like a fantasy these days.

[superclown2]

The problem is that Google cannot recognize the quality of a website and simply relies on links

Sorry but this is incorrect. Given, Google themselves cannot tell the difference between good quality and bad but the dominant factor in determining this is user metrics. In other words how many people click on a site, how long they stay on it, whether or not they look for the same information elsewhere.

If you read the trial documentation this becomes clear.

[Conro]

@superclown2 Things might have changed too, because now with 'People also ask' in the first position and 'related searches' and YouTube videos always in the top positions, people click less and less on websites (I don't know how Google makes money from advertising if websites are visited less and less, although I have an idea). Then what about a new website? After the small initial boost, it would be at the end of its career. Also consider that staying on a website for 10 seconds or an hour means nothing. If I find an article with written text and a video, I might stay longer on the site compared to when I'm looking up the meaning of a word in the dictionary. I guess things need to be looked at logically, meaning Google has decided to leave only a few sites it finds reliable and to direct users and advertising towards them.

[superclown2]

Things might have changed too, because now with 'People also ask' in the first position and 'related searches' and YouTube videos always in the top positions, people click less and less on websites

Yes that's absolutely right. The trial documents exposed PAA and all the rest of the googlespam as a deliberate way of pushing organic SERPs further down to make visitors stay on Google's own site longer. We have to accept that Google is a business devoted to making as much money as possible for shareholders. Organic search results, now, are only the cheese in the mousetrap - a way of enticing visitors in so that they would click on ads.

Search results in my own verticals are not only dominated by ads but also by the businesses that spend the most on ads. Like everyone else I am seeing unique specialist sites come along, blossom for a while and then fade as these same big advertisers write a page about the same specialities (which they have little to no expertise in). A coincidence of course.

Google ceased to be a serious search engine ages ago. Their results are designed to make them the most money and not to create good results as a public service. We have to accept this, and adjust our business plans accordingly.

[Conro]

@superclown2 How does Google still make money from AdSense ads on websites if it no longer drives traffic because people read the answer in the PAA ? At least for now, there are no advertising ads in informational searches. I would expect a decrease in revenue for Google, but instead, last year they increased their revenue even more compared to the previous year, yet I've only heard many complaints from publishers about worsening revenue. How is this possible?

[RubicCubed]

At least for now, there are no advertising ads in informational searches.

It will come as the ad revenue Google reported last quarter disappointed shareholders. But I expect a major upheaval in info searches where a Gemini chat box provides complete answers to info searches with no or heavily restricted option for users to visit source websites.

I would expect a decrease in revenue for Google, but instead, last year they increased their revenue even more compared to the previous year, yet I've only heard many complaints from publishers about worsening revenue. How is this possible?

At the end of 2022, there were two ads above the fold for ecom search results. In early 2023, Google added a third ad above the fold and the inclusion of more product ad boxes. Just a couple months into 2023, Google added a fourth ad above the fold and enormous product ad boxes (4 columns and 8+ rows for 32+ total products). More recently, Google moved the PAA higher and right after the four ads at the top and above the first organic result. Google did all this, which obliterated organic traffic, just to post disappointing ad revenue for the last quarter of 2023. Just imagine what will be coming to info searches now that Google has drained the ecom well dry. Additionally, Pinterest recently partnered with Google Ads which will also help boost revenue for both parties. But in ecom, I can tell you that I never liked Pinterest because Google has a habit of ranking Pinterest pages and images from Pinterest that have been stolen for our website.

[Conro]

Perhaps that's why the other day Google was full of Pinterest recipes, another junk site just like Reddit, where threads never reach a conclusion and every opportunity is taken to argue. Why isn't Pinterest considered spam by Google? In fact, it's rewarded

[NeapTide]

@conro simply they steal money from both publishers and advertisers.
Besides youtube is now the biggest source of revenue for google. In 10 min video they often show 6 ads in 3 intervals. At each interval 2 ads are played if viewer does not skip ad.

[Conro]

@NeapTide A YouTuber had said that the advertisements were placed on his channel by Google, even though he had not requested any monetization

[superclown2]

How does Google still make money from AdSense ads on websites if it no longer drives traffic because people read the answer in the PAA ?

PAA is designed to reduce clicks on organics by pushing them way down the page where they are unlikely to be seen.

I don't know if you saw this; but several months ago, on Chrome (and no other browser running Google ads), there were multiple huge PAA boxes, one after another for a while. It came to light during the trial that the guys responsible for Chrome had been asked to help increase profits that month because they were running below schedule. It worked.

Putting this clutter in works very well at decreasing organic clicks, which means more clicks on ads.

[McKJudoChop]

"Everybody should check their core web vitals and see if CLS, LCP, FID are failing or passing. If any of these 3 are failing your website will be penalized (happened after HCU to 1 of our website.)"
@NeapTide - I wish I could post a screenshot of what happened to us. It is ultimately what brought me here. We went from 3,500 good URLs to over 3K bad URLs in one night & we did not change a thing. Shortly after, while trying our best to troubleshoot the issue, we saw an anomaly in our traffic, which dropped 52% and still has not come back up.
I've been working SEO for ten-plus years, and I've seen some valleys and peaks, but I could always find out why we were seeing these things, but not this time. I am stumped.
We averaged 6,200 users per day to our site. Now, around 800 users per day. If this keeps up, I will lose my job.
I read that Google was preparing for a shift and I'm aware of the change coming in March but this...this makes zero sense to me.

[oldog]

"Everybody should check their core web vitals and see if CLS, LCP, FID are failing or passing. If any of these 3 are failing your website will be penalized (happened after HCU to 1 of our website.)"

Absolutely right check here
[web.dev...]

web.dev Advancing Interaction to Next Paint     Blog     web.dev The Chrome team announces that INP is no longer experimental and will replace FID as a Core Web Vital in 2024

[ichthyous]

Since Monday it's been rocky...increases in visibility for some terms and drops for others. Much worse traffic compared to last week. Yesterday ended down -21% on searches, -37% for UK traffic. Once again traffic to my home page is obliterated...-60% this morning. Google is loading every search up with 4 paid ads, then a "people also ask" box. My competitors are running ads for my own brand name and they are loaded at the top of even searches for my brand. USA and Canada traffic are perpetually sluggish.

[oldog]

@ichtyous...Mate sorry...but I don't see why should anyone being interested about you website traffic...That thread is about observations on google algorithm changes not the traffic of some people websites.
Not to mention that we don't know your niche and your keywords....

[McKJudoChop]

@oldog - My apologies, new guy here and I am guilty of this also. The concerns that brought me to this forum spawned from what I was seeing across my website and the websites I manage. I have gathered from other industries like mine (cutlery, knives, collector knives, etc.) that traffic has dropped over 50% and has not returned to normalacy.
I attended a webinar yesterday regarding changes within Google, and I have not heard of any other people speaking about anything other than SGE.

My apologies; moving forward, I will keep to the topic at hand. Cheers.

[saladtosser]

I've noticed that an increasing number of search results are displaying a first photo with a "licensed by Google" tag when clicked on instead of visit site.

This seems to be a strategy where Google is acquiring a vast collection of stock photos, positioning them prominently in search results to potentially keep users engaged within its ecosystem. It's intriguing that this development hasn't sparked much discussion yet.

This move could be in anticipation of Google's upcoming SGE AI, which is rumored to significantly impact the landscape of informational websites. The implication is that if these websites become obsolete and disappear, Google would need a robust library of images to maintain the visual richness of its search results. This development could also signal a transformative shift in web hosting services. With the advent of SGE AI, the demand for traditional web hosting will decline as website traffic drops, potentially affecting Google Cloud web hosting and other hosting providers. If websites can't generate revenue, the rationale for paying hosting fees diminishes, hinting at a profound change in how content is hosted and accessed online.

[Conro]

I think SGE is not presentable. Have you used Bard and then Gemini? Come on, it's a scraper that rewrites texts and poorly at that, and it's much worse than ChatGPT and Bing's AI responses. It would take courage to use SGE in research as it stands. These AIs know everything and respond to everything, but they do everything poorly. The only good thing is natural language; the advantages end there

[mhansen]

Re: CWV and Site Speed

I have my own, or access to many others in which I support, that have a range of CWV from 99, a near perfect score - to one site that runs in the low 30's with it's CWV scores. While my own goal is to attain the best metric I can control, I have seen very little correlation to how these sites rank in Google search. ALL other things considered, it just doesn't make much of a difference from everything I have seen or experienced. Sites with 30 CWV rank #1 for thousands of queries, and sites that have a 100 CWV with great content, are nowhere to be found.

Is it good to focus on making your website run at peak efficiency? Yes, of course it is. That is a great thing for your USERS and it takes one specific metric we know Google has stated was important, and eliminates that single factor. But does Google use this as a metric to demote your good site if it's low? IMO, if you have valuable content, a good brand, good UX and a wide, diversified web presence that delivers your traffic, less than perfect CWV makes no difference at all.

[BigKat]

I haven't chased Google's advice and metrics for a long time. Our site is built for users/shoppers, and no matter what we do we will not rank above four ads and a People Also Ask box. Our focus has and will remain on serving our customers with access to quality information and more importantly safe products unlike all the unsafe products Google is generating ad revenue from. Especially in Google's current state of disarray, I'd take anything they say with a grain of salt.

[Micha]

I also think that all the metrics and tips from Google are total nonsense. If it were all true, then the search results wouldn't be total garbage in many areas or some publishers wouldn't automatically be favored in the news section.

I agree with BigKat: my website is made for the readers, just like the selection of topics. I don't follow the trend of "the main thing is to be sensational". The game of trying to please Google at all costs only leads to the death of news content because sensationalist headlines dominate. No thanks, I have no interest in this kind of game and accept the risk that my magazine will have fewer readers, but in return we offer content that we can stand by and be proud of.

[ichthyous]

@oldog Do you think you or anyone else on here knows what changes the algorithm is undergoing at any point? You don't and nobody else does either. Everyone on here posts about their traffic and how it is being affected by page layout, number of ads on page, widgets etc. If enough people are seeing similar patterns we can at least narrow down trends anecdotally. There is nothing else, Google became a black box years ago and we are all just along for the ride. If we had actual inside knowledge of google's actual algo changes we would all be just fine. I understand what you mean about not oversharing the daily races about ups and downs...I don't do it unless I see big moves. Read the posts here, many others doing the same. There are members here that have closely resembled my patterns for years now. If they post large drops in traffic I know what to expect....and I've been contributing here since like 2003....

[coderman]

Hello friends.

When I saw the topic title, I thought Google had made an update for 2024. But actually it is not like that. A lot is changing at Google. Everything is getting better and better. Poor quality ones leave and higher quality always remains.

Google recently launched Update to Inappropriate content policy (February 2024). In fact, this will affect our sites slightly. But stay calm. As always, there will be more poor quality and garbage sites.

You can review it here ==>> [support.google.com...]

[not2easy]

Hi coderman and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

That article is shown under Advertising Policies Help, not necessarily affecting ranking or indexing, though it could. I didn't see much new and different in there.

[superclown2]

A lot is changing at Google. Everything is getting better and better.

Wow. You are of course entitled to your opinion but I don't think there are many people on here will agree with that.

Some of us can look back to when Google first began , when they came to the top because their results were excellent. Perhaps if you had seen their results in those days, and followed them over the last 20 years or so, you would have a different opinion.

If they post large drops in traffic I know what to expect....and I've been contributing here since like 2003....

I find it really useful to read of other people's experiences, it helps to identify trends and separate them from issues with my own websites so I hope you continue to tell us.

[Conro]

@coderman Slowly they are all leaving. By now I see more and more abandoned sites, even sites that had not been affected in September, since mid-January they are in continuous decline

[coderman]

@conro you are right. We agree with you. The sites you see are sites that have been eliminated and pushed out by the system. Google now pays more attention to quality. Content + internal and external SEO settings and user-focused web publication. These are extremely important.

[Conro]

@coderman If you know how to analyze the sites that have not been affected by hcu, you will have noticed that they are very large sites (brand = top 100) and do not necessarily produce quality. In short, Reddit for example has doubled its visits and there people do nothing but argue and troll. The times I used Reddit I never found anything conclusive and yet this social garbage likes Google’s algorithms, for now.

[Dooku]

With the advent of SGE AI, the demand for traditional web hosting will decline as website traffic drops

By now I see more and more abandoned sites

Maybe this is the reason why in the last 6 months the amount of spam emails I receive from Indian companies to develop a new website or do my SEO campaigns has exploded?
I mean, I always received those emails for many years.....but this has just exploded in the last 6 months.
Also the tricks they use to just land in your inbox is shouting a real desperate situation from those Indian service companies.
Anyone seeing the same thing as I do?
Google is killing off entire sectors in the economy......but hey what's new?

[Conro]

@Dooku indians are know for any spam

[mhansen]

A friend sold a 500 or so page informational website business that was very popular within it's market. He sold it right as the HCU in Sept was running, the buyers were aware of the HCU running and proceeded with their purchase. Like many others in the content world it crashed hard, going from 154k highly targeted monthly visits to just 2k within 2 weeks of the HCU. He cashed his check and moved on in life, though kept an eye on it.

Last week, the domain and 100% of his content, including his author bios, etc, redirected to a brand new /section/ on a very well-established uber-popular website with a domain that sees 71m in monthly search visibility. They put all of his website content into it's own directory that was named similar to what he had named his website/business.

In less than 1 week, all of his old, unhelpful content, now ranks in the top 5 again, many with #1 positions.

- They used 301's from all old urls > new urls.
- They created (or someone did) 80 or so backlinks from obvious link farm type sites, PBN's etc. All were discovered within the last 48 hours (SEMR data)

Not really sure what to make of it at this point, but I'll be watching it to see if anything can be learned, outside of "Be one of these Uber-EEAT publishers and nothing else matters".

[BigKat]

Just saw this six hour old story on Android Authority ( [androidauthority.com...] ):

Is Google Search getting worse for you? Then OpenAI might have a solution up its sleeve.

OpenAI could be developing a search engine to rival Google

OpenAI has already shaken up the tech industry and forced companies like Google to embrace a new generation of AI features. Now, it sounds like the ChatGPT creator might directly challenge Google with a search engine.

The Information reports that OpenAI is working on a “web search product,” citing someone familiar with the plans. This service would partly be powered by Microsoft’s Bing, according to the source.

I'll take any new players in search that will help hold Google's feet to the fire because Google just keeps getting worse and worse. So far today, our Google traffic has dropped a good 30% from the all time lows it was yesterday.

www.androidauthority.com OpenAI could be developing a search engine to rival Google OpenAI is reportedly working on a search engine product. This would be the most direct threat to Google from the ChatGPT creator.

[ichthyous]

So far today, our Google traffic has dropped a good 30% from the all time lows it was yesterday.

Yes, dropping like a stone this week from Monday onward. Today search is -28%. It seems to pick up the 2nd half of the day though. In my case, all of the main category pages on my site have huge drops while the traffic is being pushed to the lowest level content pages. Arcane tag pages are receiving much more traffic in a nonsensical way, and people are arriving at page 2 or 3 of a category instead of the first page. That type of traffic pattern never converts in my experience...

[BigKat]

@ichthyous

Most of our drop is specific to product detail pages. However it looks like a deep crawl has just started, which thus far is isolated to product pages, so it's possible a small update specific to products is occurring. Our information pages seem to be relatively stable at the moment with the new lows Google has been sending for quite a while.

[EditorialGuy]

Reddit for example has doubled its visits and there people do nothing but argue and troll.

UGC has always had is ugly side. You'd think Google would know better after hosting USENET newsgroups for so many years.

[EditorialGuy]

From RustyBrick, a.k.a. Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable:

Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Hits On February 14 & 15 (Unconfirmed)
[seroundtable.com...]

[engine]

Yep, Google said they weren't going to confirm any more updates; Unless, of course, they change their mind. ;)

[rustybrick]

They said they won't confirm any future REVIEW updates specifically. The other ones they will confirm.

[mhansen]

Re: Reddit

I did not want to believe it was easy, but it is. I have an aged Reddit account tied to my business, along with it's own subreddit titled the same as the business name. I wrote my very first post in that 5-year old subreddit on Friday last week, and focused the topic and content on a new tool I created on the website, along with an image and naked link to the page with the tool. After writing the post, I ran the url through a Pagespeed CWV check via Google WebDev, so "help" it be found quickly. (This usually provides instant indexing)

That Reddit post ranked #1 in the perspectives tab nearly immediately and it still ranks #1 today, even with no other comments, likes, etc. The general SERP does not spawn any Reddit links and they are only in the referrals tab for this specific query. Of course, Google itself has a similar tool on top of the SERP for this query, which is why they relocate everything else.

[mosxu]

Copilot is answering better the questions and no ads there!

Gemini does a good job but not integrated yet like bing’s copilot!

Free traffic will only exist via Copilot and Gemini soon!

Well done everyone.

[Conro]

@mosxu I would like to know how many people use gemini, copilot or ChatGPT instead of a search engine. I try to use them every now and then, but they answer any question, often in a wrong way even if the tone can make you think that the answer is right. Why should I use it if I already know that the answers are inaccurate? I put myself in the shoes of any user and if he is not one who passes for good anything he reads then he goes back to the search engine and never returns to the chatbots.

[mosxu]

Actually I was determined not to use them but hey I do more and more against my principles :))