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?

[Shepherd]

The vast majority of the google SERPs optimists are located in the google Ads campus. Not for long though since as bad as the SERPs are for searchers, google managed to make google Ads even worse for advertisers...

[ichthyous]

But I am sure that after this update, Bing will gain even more market share. The trend after the HCU update was very clear. Google will probably have to drive its business into the wall with an announcement.

Wishful thinking, with 90% of the market Google isn't worried about Bing search. The whoopla over AI search is already waning and it didn't make a dent in Google's share of the search market. Google can play with Ai, squeeze us to death, degrade it's own organic search results and it isn't going to matter much until some real and stringent regulation is implemented. The dummies in the US congress can barely grasp the basic concepts behind search, social media algos, AI...you really think that meaningful legislation is coming down the pike? I would think the only way it will happen is if the US bases its legislation on already existing EU or UK legislation.

[Micha]

I would think the only way it will happen is if the US bases its legislation on already existing EU or UK legislation.

Well, the legislation in the EU is not that great. Google has a lot of loopholes and even if you violate the law, there is a fine that is paid out of petty cash and that's it. Much stricter laws would be needed. It's no different to your situation in the USA: many politicians don't understand all this and Google has a lot of lobbyists in Brussels

[EditorialGuy]

I would think the only way it will happen is if the US bases its legislation on already existing EU or UK legislation.

Estimates vary, but according to one source, Google Search has a 91 percent market share in the EU and nearly 94 percent in the UK. In the USA, Google's search market share is only 87 percent. I don't know what EU and UK legislation you're referring to, but it hasn't exactly created more competition in search.

[BlueEyes82]

@EditorialGuy

A monopolist can only destroy itself and Google has been working hard on this since September.
My data shows strong gains for my websites on Bing in Germany. Many friends have also noticed in their private lives that the search results are no longer good.

If Google continues down this path, it will have major consequences in the medium to long term.

[superclown2]

An optimist might think (or at least hope) that, after cleaning its index of outright spam and junk sites, Google would turn its attention to restoring a modicum of quality to the remaining search results.

That would mean a decrease in profits and a drop in their share price - Wall Street wouldn't like that. After all that price is volatile as it is, with shareholders nervous over the failures of their AI project and the torrent of legal actions the company is facing, because of it's greed. Google is locked in a long term death spiral.

I don't know what EU and UK legislation you're referring to, but it hasn't exactly created more competition in search.

Absolutely. The problem is that, at the moment, Google has better lawyers, and their legal fund is bigger, than even governments. It won't always be this way though. There is an inevitability of gradualness.

[sk7411]

The same is happening this sunday, it's recovering lol.

[waynne]

I'm not noticing much of a drop in impressions or position in webmaster tools, but a substantially lower click through ratio, in some cases 30% lower. Geographically it seems to affect US traffic more than other regions but this has varied from day to day.

Is anyone else seeing this? I suspect PAA & YouTube links are taking the traffic in this update.

[Conro]

I see big tech sites that are having a drop in traffic. Sites that have not been touched by previous hcu and spam algo. Obviously they are excellent sites, well done and with useful content but let's not forget that for google a quality site is that bin of reddit

[Conro]

@waynne Most likely they have put you under some paa or youtube video. Check for post that receive less traffic. However, I noticed a significant drop in traffic even though the articles in my case were in the same position

[superclown2]

Obviously they are excellent sites, well done and with useful content but let's not forget that for google a quality site is that bin of reddit

A useful site is more likely to be clicked on than a Google ad. This makes it a competitor.

[ichthyous]

Most likely they have put you under some paa or youtube video. Check for post that receive less traffic. However, I noticed a significant drop in traffic even though the articles in my case were in the same position

I'm seeing an almost 80% loss in my most important category this weekend, but there is no PAA and no Youtube videos above the results. I did slip from #1 to #2 spot, but my site has a bigger and more noticeable image block. Google seems to now have taken away the large image carousels under the links completely and instead they added a small box of three images to the right of the link. This makes it much more difficult for any site to stand out.

Having said that, it's the first morning where USA traffic wasn't starting the day at -60% of normal traffic, today it's my UK traffic that is mysteriously at -60% after having held up until now without a single drop

Since this all started in early March there has been almost no new business...two new viable inquiries in 14 days. I have never seen anything like that and it would imply a major economic recession. But there is no recession here, just Google ensuring that it starves us all out and forces us to pay for ads in a desperate attempt to replace the traffic.

[christianz]

I see big tech sites that are having a drop in traffic. Sites that have not been touched by previous hcu and spam algo. Obviously they are excellent sites, well done and with useful content but let's not forget that for google a quality site is that bin of reddit

I think Google now labels all useful sites of size as Scaled Content. Other than YouTube and Reddit, and other whitelisted priority sites that don't have to follow any rules.

For any great website there is at least one "ranking system" that will tank it. If its not EAT, it will be Scaled Content or any other of them. This is not a problem for popup spam sites and parasite spam, of course.

[christianz]

Btw, today traffic seems especially terrible. Previous days decline has been very gradual. But it has been a decline since (and shortly before) the update was announced. This junk update showed its nature on day one, and has not evolved in any way as far as I can see.

[EditorialGuy]

I'm seeing an almost 80% loss in my most important category this weekend

We're doing better for our most important categories than for much of our other content: for the last week, traffic has been down about 49 percent for the last year for our most important topic, while traffic overall has been down about 62 percent year-over-year. Our most popular pages continue to bring in the most traffic, just less than before because of slightly lower rankings. It's hard to know how much of the problem is due to the HCU "classifier" and how much is the result of Google's UI changes (more ads, more visual clutter, and SGE above the fold).

In other words, we're currently better off than a lot of sites are, but "better off" just means "slowly hemmoraging" as opposed to "gushing blood from a slashed artery."

ADDENDUM: I should mention that the 49- to 62-percent drop hasn't been entirely due to the current Google updates. We lost a fair amount of Google traffic during the last few "Reviews" and "Helpful Content" updates. In daily comparisons since March 5, the week-over-week figures have ranged from about 15 percent up to 15 percent down (mostly down since last weekend). In other words, the current updates are affecting us negatively, but not as much as their predecessors did.

[edited by: EditorialGuy at 5:01 pm (utc) on Mar 17, 2024]

[Whitey]

Know your “frenemy”. Its technical strengths and weaknesses, wants and desires.

Some introspection of self (your sites) in the face of this onslaught will strengthen you. Aside from the injustice consider exactly why (from a technical / content viewpoint you and others were chosen to be hit. Painful as it is, it might be the light that gives you a chance to regroup.

My sense is (with notes to myself)

Google:
- is unable / doesn’t want/can’t cope with a gathering content explosion (AI/pSEO/content farms)
- doesn’t need the additional content, unless it’s new and compelling
- needs to adapt to changing search queries and user habits
- relies now on Reddit etc to educate its own AI build
- it’s own digital assets (user facing and backend) is THE GOOGLE brand that both facilitates and competes with brands to force users through their channels. Think major vertical dominance eg finance, medical/health, travel etc

What’s your fight back strategy?

Notes to myself:

- build social interaction
- better UI/UX
- provide compelling reasons to interact outside of G’s influence
- observe G’s strengths and weaknesses, and exploit the gaps
- think longer term
- focus on what your users want
- be patient as you lie in wait to have your day :)

Just my thoughts I wanted to share, for better or worse.

[edited by: Whitey at 4:59 pm (utc) on Mar 17, 2024]

[Conro]

@Whitey You can try to do what you say and that can take a few years anyway if you do everything yourself or Otherwise you can create a site like jm, with Content that maybe interests one in a billion people and in the end you get de-indexed by google anyway, However you just can't make a phone call to get indexed again in the serp

[breeks]

My website traffic is so bad that I hardly get any spam comments. Even the spammers are having a hard time finding the site. :)

[Conro]

Today there is a deafening silence

[Micha]

Today there is a deafening silence

Not only with you. Today has been a dance of death so far. Google News seems to be having problems, new articles are not being indexed and some of my top keywords have dropped from yesterday to today. So it's going to be a quiet Monday.

[Conro]

My site keeps losing traffic. I'd like to say that since it's the same for my competitors something will change, but now I've lost hope. Google Wants Us All Dead

[Micha]

Google Wants Us All Dead

For this we would first have to be known to Google and I believe that anything below the largest of the NY times does not exist for Google.

[superclown2]

Google Wants Us All Dead

No. They want us all to pay for clicks, in the forlorn hope, for most of us, of making a profit (or at least breaking even). The end result of course would be increased prices for the public as the costs are passed onto them, and the destruction of even more small businesses.

Google delenda est.

[Razorllama]

The time has come. I finally have more traffic from bing + duckduckgo than google. In fact, the total annihilation ending with last week's onset has left Google organics accounting for 30% of my overall traffic. Used to be 90%. You can guess what that means for the overall traffic drop.

Funnily enough, the last few days I had queries/purchases comparable with the times I had 4x the traffic. Bing and DDG seems to convert decently, while not nearly enough to cover the $$$ losses.

[Conro]

Before I have read some comments on reddit About seo. To confirm that it is a junk site where people write to write something, there was the comment of a guy who said that google is full of junk sites and that these updates are only made to remove them. He said that with Duck Duck Go, he immediately found what he was looking for. Will he have understood that the problem is Google and not the sites? Before, google was much better than Duck Duck Go. :D Every time I enter reddit I come out even more convinced that it is just a junk site like other social networks where people can say anything without knowing what it is talking about

[Fluff_Nutz]

Speaking of Reddit I just laughed because people still think its their own website that is at fault. If its your first time, sure you would probably think that. But on multiple hits after? Then admitting to contacting the Google support team and asking them why they were hit. Get with the programme. It's Google ffs.

I also read a likely conspiracy regarding the timing for these updates relating to the DOJ case, using these updates as basic cover ups to help their court case. Google, in general, makes me sick. This ''update'' is now scheduled to end in May too. When the results from the DOJ case comes in. Also making it a 2 month ''update'' instead of one. 99% of websites will be completely dead by then. The SERP will be like an empty echo chamber, with a mere tumble weed flying through.

I have gone from getting 2-3k views a day to a mere 300 now. But I read worse for others dropping from a million views per month to 10k. That is a huge drop. I can't express how sorry I feel for those that depend on the income from the sites to keep them going. Terrible management. The worst thing is they can get away with it and continue these updates for as long as they want. We say it will end in May but who is to say it will be any time soon? It's over.

Diversify at all costs we are fighting a loosing battle.

[Conro]

If it dropped from 1 million visits to 10000 per month, in my opinion it was a site on discover. Many of these sites have been taken out, and just as it is easy to skyrocket, it is also easy to fall to the ground.

[superclown2]

I also read a likely conspiracy regarding the timing for these updates relating to the DOJ case, using these updates as basic cover ups to help their court case.

To be honest I would have thought they would have had the opposite effect, showing how useless they are now as a search engine. Unless of course they know something we don't?

[RedBar]

To be honest my traffic has been up for several days now, Sunday was very busy and so far today at just gone 66% of the day, I've already reached my average.

March is traditionally my busiest month of the year therefore this is a pleasant surprise considering the poor finish to 2023.

[Conro]

@RedBar Had you lost a lot of traffic?