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?

[Conro]

@saladtosser The problem is not wordpress because it has been around for years and is also used by those who do not have budget problems like real news outlets, the problem started with ChatGPT which only generates garbage like Gemini and other Ai. Google then made things even worse by giving consent to the use of artificial intelligence, and then manually sanctioning sites that used it.

[mosxu]

All zombies here…

Update? What has to do with zombies?

[Juniya]

@Conro, I agree, the real issues started with ChatGPT, it completely changed the game and Google panicked with Bing getting into it etc, it caught them off guard. BUT this update is basically saying, you CAN use Ai but it better be the best use of AI yet, the content has to be 'meaningful' or useful for the user. They themselves had/have been using AI to generate content for years, same with NY Times, and other big websites it's just that no one knew about it except those in the executive and technical side of media publishing. Now that every jack and jill has access to the same or even better Ai than these big companies, NOW it's a problem.

Either way, the rollout just began, we will know more about the impact by this time next month.

[ichthyous]

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!

I have used Wordpress since 2016 and I paid a dev to have it highly customized. There is a very viable business utilizing the site, and quite a profitable one. Yes, Wordpress has its problems and it is hard to optimize for speed...but a lot of people use it because they can get started quickly and customize the platform to a high degree. Also, there is a theme and/or plugin to do anything you can imagine. Are the themes and plugins well coded?...some yes some no. You have to do your research before choosing. Also keep in mind that I was getting quotes of $60k+ from dev teams to put up various kinds of sites, but in the end I got my entire site up and running for under $5k with WordPress.

I would say the real trend here was when people started using Facebook pages and other socials as their websites. I have seen a lot of small local businesses which don't even bother to put up a site anymore. I typically look at these types of businesses as marginal, but it appears that many younger business owners don't think that they need a site anymore....they market on social media.

[Conro]

@ichthyous On Instagram and Facebook, if you sponsor or review a product, you don't even have Google penalizing you, and these kids know it. Even on YouTube, there are many channels that do promotions and participate in affiliations without any issues, but I think Google on YouTube will start cracking down on them very soon. The only losers are us website owners who have to comply with the craziness of those behind Google. No reviews, no posts, no affiliate, no sponsorships, you can't sell guest posts, you can't advertise other websites or products, if you sell ads, it's worse for you. So why don't they remove Google's monopoly? Today, the Digital Market Act came into force in Europe and nothing has changed. Endless advertisements as always, and People Also Ask boxes are increasingly dominating to take traffic away from websites. Frankly, I'm tired and I no longer enjoy following a website.

[Fluff_Nutz]

With the amount of backlash, lawsuit, anti trust cases and countries all trying to bring down Google you would have thought that something would be done. The problem is when. We are all tired of playing this game. It's also causing issues with Youtube. I was wondering where half my traffic went. For the amount of subscribers I have I basically get no views. I then found this video from a rather large channel

[youtube.com ]

It states that subscribers do not get notifications. So that even bigger channels that bring in more profit for Google can forever be on top. We, as content creators, do not have any fair competition because G are always supporting them. So even if your content is great and you work your @ss off its never going to be good enough. So I just spend my time in the 'Can't wait for G to fek off waiting room'.

[superclown2]

Well the DMA day has arrived and I can see no change at all here - usual mass of ads plus PAA plus whatever else above the first (single) organic - but then I'm in The UK. Have any of you in Europe seen any changes?

[Micha]

@Superclown2 The only thing I see here in Germany is a bunch of price comparison sites when I was looking for a specific product, but otherwise everything looks the same as always.

[Alex_1729]

@Fluff Nutz
That video guy doesn't seem very rational. He creates 10 accounts and doesn't even say whether he clicks on his notifications or engages with the videos, and then wonders why it's not recommended to them. Isn't that how Youtube algorithm works? Then he sees a graph and thinks Google conspiracy. That looks a bit irrational to me and makes little sense. Now I dislike Google just as much as the next demolished small publisher, but I have to use my brain here: just because a graph is similar, doesn't mean that's why your subs don't get notifications. Maybe they just don't like watching you..

[Fluff_Nutz]

@Alex
That might be true in some cases but unfortunately, reading the video comments. Many of their fan base admit and manage to back up his claims. Many admitting to not getting any notifications for months.

[renatovieira]

Zombies everywhere! Right now I have small, recent websites that are 1 month old receiving huge traffic. It's even funny... Why does G do these tests with zombies?

[ichthyous]

Big drop 6am-9am, then 9am-10am a big spike, then a big drop again at 11am and it has stayed at 0-4 visits for more than two hours now. I can see how this is going to be a perpetual rollercoaster ride while their latest update rolls out. If this lasts until May we are all sunk.

How are all of you defining 'zombie' traffic? They hit the page, don't do anything and out? That has been my Google traffic for years!

[not2easy]

Something worth reading for those with EU sites or traffic: Google Compliance With Digital Markets Act [webmasterworld.com]
(Compliance starts today)

[renatovieira]

@ichthyous - Yes, they hit the page, don't do anything and out.

I've noticed this before here too. But since the updates started, it's been every day all day. Websites that I created less than a month ago, receiving a lot of traffic, and always a fixed number of users per minute.

Could it be an Analytics error? Who knows...

[christianz]

@Conro That was probably a coincidence. I have evergreen old pages with appropriately old dates in schema that continue to rank well.

[Alex_1729]

That might be true in some cases but unfortunately, reading the video comments. Many of their fan base admit and manage to back up his claims. Many admitting to not getting any notifications for months.

That's not a connection to Google's stock value. That's just evidence that his audience isn't getting notifications, nothing more. There is a logical fallacy going on here. There needs to be a logical link between a claim, and the evidence. Otherwise, it's just nonsense. Having a graph similar to his own audience's notifications is not evidence of his claim.

[Razorllama]

30% of my keywords have completely dropped off the SERPs. No manual actions in dashboard, which means that the Google dance has started for my site. Considering the drops over the past months, I'm whatever with where it goes. Will be an interesting month or so.

[MayankParmar]

I'm just tired and can't believe this update also failed to reward my original news reporting. According to Sistrix, I'm down 9% in the US and 20% in India (probably because the update rolled out in the South Asian country faster). Ahrefs shows a 30% drop in keywords.

This is insane and doesn't make sense. I test everything I write. I add several screenshots, and my articles are referred to by these big publishers (Google's favorite companies). I'm literally known in my niche for authentic and authoritative coverage, and yet I was hammered by the October/November core update (started ranking last in the News tab). And now, things have gotten even worse.

SEOs on X are saying Google is getting better, but I disagree. A better search engine would not demote me to the last page of Google News for articles which are referred to by other publishers. The big media sites use my reporting, link to my work, and rank on the first page of news and Top Stories. And I'm on the last page (50-60th, outranked by Chinese and Russian bots).

Trustworthiness? People who work at big tech companies (including Google) have contributed articles to my site. I've got fewer ads than my competitors.

[Conro]

@christianz You have to put the date on the items that don't have any. See the dive these articles make right after

@MayankParmar SEOs will always agree with Google, so you pay them, but that you get out of the penalty does not guarantee it and the fault will always be yours because you don't pay them enough to do the job if you don't recover. Advice, run away

[chandranath]

I was hit by Google update once in Sept 2023 & then in Dec 2023 and dropped from 10,000 PV per day to 3500 PV per day.

For the last 2 years, I have been using <snip> a language tool to help me write articles.

I tested my site for AI-generated content score using <snip> an ai-content-detector. I noticed that all the articles written using the help of <snip> language tools showed high AI Content scores (as high as 60% to 80%), while the older ones were below 20%.

Is that something to worry about?.

[edited by: not2easy at 11:33 am (utc) on Mar 8, 2024]
[edit reason] Please see TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[Cyril TechWebsites]

Another drastical drop for my website. Keywords are dropping for almost a year to nowhere - my website filtered like I'm producing the pure spam. The traffic levels from Bing and Google are now approximately the same, Bing keeps increasing year over year.

[Micha]

The number of my pages in the index has increased significantly again. However, I don't know what the reason for this is. The spam update or the EU DMA. The ranking is also improving, but on the visitor side it still looks absolutely miserable.

[rustybrick]

@Cyril TechWebsites do you have a manual action in Google Search Console?

[Cyril TechWebsites]

@RustyBrick

No, Barry, I didn't receive any manual actions. Algorithms just destroyed my website thrugh 2022-2023.

Most of my pages are looking like this:
[imgur.com...]

At some moment they started to be "unhelpful" and since then my website was vanished from the search day after day. But Bing loves my website, as Yandex do, or Duck... Don't know what more I can do.

I tried everything I could, updating, content cleaning (deleting-prunning) - nothing helps to change the situation. My situation is more dramatical, because I'm here, in the middle of the war... :[ I would like to tell as others here that I will go looking for a job, but it seems the only job I left is a battlefield, no chance here with all these destructions and recesion.

[rustybrick]

That chart doesn't show a huge drop off last night but a gradual drop over several weeks... Right?

[Cyril TechWebsites]

@rustybrick

Yeah, it started since May 2022 update and keeps vanishing website with every HCU update. The article you have seen is updated every 3 months with the latest info.

[Conro]

Now my site - 16%

[christianz]

Ahrefs showing drastic tanking of keywords, but my traffic is holding on and drop is decreasing. As low as minus <3% WoW for yesterday.

Ahrefs is lagging behind, obviously.

[ichthyous]

I'm seeing a gain in keywords and traffic is spikey but fairly close to the same as before the update...just very large peaks and valleys. So far so good in terms of traffic, but zero conversions. Very sorry to hear some of your stories...it's brutal to work so hard and then have it wiped out, especially if quality is the focus and not spammy tactics.

[Fluff_Nutz]

@Alex

I would assume that they were simply referring to Google and their sheer greed and it being their way of venting out frustration. But lets be honest with the way G are treating their SERPs, how mostly every platform except ones owned by Google are usually stable. Why notifications don't seem to be working to begin with, strange? Its all manipulation and this manipulation has to come down to profit making. What else could it be? Its only getting worse too. Granted there is no 100% concrete proof but we are talking about Google here.

Anyway my main site is now down by a further 30%. If you add the 20% from the other day, when this update first kicked off. I am now down by a total of -50%, lovely.