March 2024 Google Search Observations

[Cyril TechWebsites]

Over the years, Google's principle seems to have shifted from its original "Don't be evil" to "Be a pure evil"... I guess if some authorities or government will stop it? They are just stealing our content, destroying the Internet prioritizing user-generated content (UGC) pages with a lack of quality and expertise, destroying teams and content creators behind the websites.

A lot of you are saying that they are after money. But what's their goal for the future? What result will they have in 2 or 3 years more? Internet will die, it's obvious that Reddit forum's pages aren't answering the majority of people's searches. What will they do when no one will continue publishing and updating content? Aren't they face a deep stagnation because of this? I just can't get what they are doing - I understand they are trying to steal everything is possible, but what's next step? How will they survive in the circumstances they are creating?

[mosxu]

Anyone noticing that zombie traffic is active now at the beginning of the month rather the end ?

[ichthyous]

How many of you use the date to publish your articles?

I don't, but Google has that data internally from the first date that it indexed the page...it knows how long its been sitting. More important is to update the content. I am going through my old 'latest news' posts and beefing them up. Not just for google but because it looks better and more important to visitors to my site. I am sometimes removing actual dates in the old posts...it becomes unimportant once the 'latest news' is ancient history news. My site visitors don't care and aren't going to research if an award was given 10 years ago, it's an award and still looks good.

[Shepherd]

the search engine becomes the publisher

google starting dipping their toes into this years ago, enhanced snippets, knowledge panels, PAA... they are just about up to their bullocks now. They will find a way to defer the responsibility/liability for the content to the AI system. No doubt the Gemini dust up was an early move to set some sort of precedent and layers of protection between google != publisher.

[MayankParmar]

Avoid mini heart attack: Analytics real time is broken rn

[EditorialGuy]

Dates get tricky. I'll often put them on pages that are time-sensitive, but on evergreen pages, it depends on whether the date matters. Also, I usually include links to official sources whenever it seems appropriate: e.g., on a page about a museum or public transportation, where things like opening times, prices, etc. can change without notice.

Also, I always include "Date Modified" dates on revised pages with JSON-LD markup, but those "modified" dates get tricky, too. John Mueller of Google has suggested that dates should be shown as modified only if there have been substantial changes, but what's a substantial or significant change? In an article about Widgetburg subway fares, for example, a change of one text character (from USD 1 to USD 2) might be substantial to the person buying a subway ticket, but is it a substantial or significant change from Google's point of view? Beats me. I can only do what makes sense to me and to the reader.

Side note: There's a British guidebook series, much beloved by fans of art and history, that has a lot of evergreen text from a century or more ago. The practical info gets updated, but the description of the altarpiece in St. Whosit's Cathedral might not have changed since before World War I. I don't think the guidebook series has been ported over to the Web, but if it were, it would be amusing to see "Dateline: January 3, 1912" on a page about this or that artwork or church.

[BigKat]

March core and spam update has launched: [status.search.google.com...]

[Micha]

Google has announced a core update for this month and updated the spam guidelines at the same time. [developers.google.com ]

[christianz]

Big drop. If this is March core & spam update and their answer to AI spam, then Google is in trouble - even bigger than before.

[Fluff_Nutz]

Isn't it a coincidence that there were no updates for both January and February. Said to be the 2 worst months for ad RPM. Then when its starting to pick up an update hits. Can't wait to loose yet more traffic..

Edit: Unless the analytics haven't updated yet, I'm already -20%. Yay! I'm so excited to loose the remaining 80%

[not2easy]

A note about Interaction to Next Paint - New CWV replacing First Input Delay on March 12 was posted a few days ago here: [webmasterworld.com...]

They offer tools to help speed up your changes.

[superclown2]

March core and spam update has launched

How many 'anti-spam' updates have I seen in the past 20-odd years? yet it still continues as real specialist sites disappear further and further down the drain.

Anyway, what's wrong with spam? After all, it encourages more people to click on ads, which is the primary purpose of the 'search' (read: advertising) page anyway.

[BigKat]

How many 'anti-spam' updates have I seen in the past 20-odd years? yet it still continues as real specialist sites disappear further and further down the drain.

It's been years since I've seen our site benefit from a Google update even with great content and unique products unavailable anywhere else. Since Google's profits keep rising, it's safe to say these updates benefit their bottom line without regard to SERP quality, spam, etc.

[EditorialGuy]

Big drop. If this is March core & spam update and their answer to AI spam, then Google is in trouble - even bigger than before..

The updates have barely started. In his article at Search Engine Land, Barry Schwarz (a,k.a. Rusty Brick) wrote:

"This March core update will have multiple updates within it, since this update touched on several systems within the core update, Google will push out updates to those systems over the coming weeks."

The spam update will take even longer to begin (let alone complete):

"Two of these spam updates will result in both automated and manual actions this week. The site reputation abuse spam update will go into effect in two months from today, on May 5."

Sit back in your recliner, because it's going to be a long wait for things to settle down!

[searchengineland.com...]

[Conro]

Tomorrow the Digital Market Act will come into force. How do you think Google will change in Europe? The other day I noticed that two paid advertisements were no longer in the top two positions on Google, but rather after the first two organic search results (perhaps a test?). YouTube, on the other hand, remains invasive, and I don't understand why there are TikTok videos without sound that always redirect to the app as soon as you touch anything; they practically just occupy space. Another thing, how long do you think it will take before Google receives its first DMA fine? Let's take bets (ironic), considering that various platforms are complaining that Google will actually worsen things regarding fair competition.

[Micha]

@Conro I've been reading a lot about this over the last few days and to be honest, I think some of the "ideas" are difficult. Intermediaries will get more traffic, which on the face of it is good as Google loses power, but on the other hand all the price comparison offers etc are not exactly neutral in terms of their results.

Direct traffic for shops that were previously at the top will definitely decrease. I think this is the usual half-thought-out EU approach that we see very often, but of course you have to look at the exact impact first.

As for your bet, I expect there will be more grumbling in the coming weeks. I don't expect a lawsuit for another year.

[oldog]

Another update full of Blood, Sweat & Tears by thousands of webmasters....
my two cents...

[renatovieira]

Huge drop... Here we go again...

[Juniya]

One of my oldest domain suddenly has been removed from the search engine, I hope this is a bug jesus...

[superclown2]

Another thing, how long do you think it will take before Google receives its first DMA fine?

They still haven't paid the earlier fines adding up to billions of Euros. They just keep appealing to higher and higher courts. This not only takes years but costs the countries that levy these fines a fortune in legal fees.

They are not stupid, these people at Google.

[christianz]

Huge drop... Here we go again...

Yes. This update stinks. I read their short description about "scaled content" penalty/system. Essentially it means that if your site is large with lots of pages/URLs, it has no value to users (it is "scaled content"). And if you are spammer, you should spread your ChatGPT articles across multiple hacked wordpress sites and cheap .tk domains, instead of just few spam sites, otherwise they are "scaled content" also.

Fantastic!

[Micha]

People don't panic, the update has just started and will take 4 weeks according to Google, until then strong fluctuations are normal. No one can say what will happen, only guess, but thinking only negatively only helps to increase frustration. And a drop today can mean a rise tomorrow (I'm experiencing a rise today and I bet you my site will go down again tomorrow).

[ichthyous]

What I am seeing today is big drops to all of my most important category pages of up to ~80%. Most are down ~25-50%. However, the traffic to bottom-level content pages is much higher than normal, so overall traffic is only down 10% this morning. Every single country is UP today except for the USA, which is -52% this morning. That should tell you everything.

Lately, traffic has been steadier and relatively strong...especially non-USA traffic. The problem is it isn't resulting in new customers. Normally I would say that is due to an economic slow down or recession, but that simply is not the case now.

[anzsub30]

@Juniya have you checked GSC - manual actions?
many people are reporting Manual Actions/removal from SERPs today!

[Juniya]

@Anzsub30 - Yes, I just got the notice in the GSC and yeah can confirm a bunch of others got the manual action notice. NOT good. The website is a popular local one, it's 12 years old. Time to asses the damage and see what can be done to fix it asap. In my 20+ years of 'SEO' or web development, this is my first manual action and I feel it.

[saladtosser]

Did Danny S say anything?

[mhansen]

I'm seeing a plethora of people reporting via Twitter/X of many sites being deindexed and/or manual actions taking place. It seems like every hour, someone is sharing a new finding. Some of the sites I have seen as examples thus far, were large scale AI generated sites with millions of users over several years of growth. Another I checked was a well-known internet marketing guy, known for sharing affiliate marketing tips in the make money online market, podcasts, popular Youtube channel, 8.6M monthly SEMR visitors, etc - 100% deindexed.

I wonder if they'll make it to Forbes?

[christianz]

@mhansen

So much for AI algos driving search... Seems like they are resorting to manual curation, at least as far as those recent manual actions. Unfortunately there are too many AI spam sites created each day for even a very large human workforce to review. So these high profile manual actions against black hat SEO marketers/spammers seem more like damage control for Google brand amid all the talk about how bad their search quality has become.

[saladtosser]

If only wordpress and these other cheap platforms were never invented and people had to pay a real web designer/developer! Only people serious about a website would have invested in a real website and we wouldn't have all this crap! Domain name price needs to be trebled as well to increase the entry level into owning a website!

[Micha]

@saladtosser please explain this to a non-profit organization that supports socially disadvantaged people. Such organizations often have no money for a "real website" or higher domain costs. Higher costs would only cause them to disappear, but the problem addressed would not be solved. Strictly speaking, AI is the problem, it was let loose unchecked and anyone can use it. It was clear that it would be exploited immediately.

[Alex_1729]

@mhansen
I assume you're talking about zacjohnson.com website. I've been checking it for the past month, and with 8M and such high traffic for a few months, I think that must have given him a lot of $$$ even if it's now all gone to #*$!. Was it worth it? I honestly don't know, but I'd say probably.

But now, with so many manual actions, who is the winner here? Someone must be winning with so many big sites being hit.