April 2024 Google Search Observations

[Whitey]

@Micha

To me it looks more like the leading media outlets have too much trust from Google and the automated rating systems downgrade the trustworthiness of other sites because of this. But of course I can only speculate.

Could be. A contact of mine is complaining that Reddit is outranking the source content in their observations.

@EditorialGuy

My experience has been the opposite. In the current update, and especially in the last couple of weeks or so, our informational travel site's top pages seem to focus even more on "topical authority" than usual. Currently, the top 10 pages are almost always about [Destination 1] + [our most popular subtopic] and [Destination 2] + [our most popular subtopic].

A travel related site that I monitor uses a similar technique. It is ad heavy to the point of being a pain to enjoy reading the good content, but the content itself is about [Destination 1] + [popular subtopic's]. The traffic to this site grew very strongly since 2018 as content was added. Articles did not all rank straight away, but let's say 1 in 3 or 4 went straight into the top 10 within days or a few short weeks.

I wonder if these types of sites could be vulnerable to the ongoing march on AI where images, and subject matter can be written on all subjects and referenced to "headline authorities" (ie brand, Reddit's etc). Topical authority may be playing 2nd place to just "authority" in the eyes of G.

Again, just me saying as I don't know.

PS I think the current guidance from G is way too vague. Folks deserve not to be blindsided by this incredible life changing effect on business without a better level of accountability for webmasters to respond to. G is so pervasively dominant in the business World it needs to be brought into line with a better level of transparency IMO.

[edited by: not2easy at 12:28 pm (utc) on Apr 1, 2024]
[edit reason] April thread split cleanup [/edit]

[saladtosser]

In G's mind they will probably explain it as if they are doing the world a favor by retaining all internet information for its AI and thus preserving all human knowledge for future generations in a centralised system in case sites vanish, (or caused to vanish by AI in our case) like the world seed bank with plants, which would be okay if they were a non profit but a few USA companies monetising the *worlds* information seems illegal to me! I think some blame has to go to Sam Altman for releasing AI trained on other peoples property, now all companies have to follow suit!

[Conro]

Imagine if Tiktok did, but having a spy like Google and Facebook is perfectly fine, from the US to Europe

[saladtosser]

The whole thing with TikTok makes me think, YouTube (google) has been lobbying to get TickTok banned, where will creators and viewers go? Rumble? NO YouTube = more $! These things are pretty blatant IMO, how much data can the Chinese realistically obtain from teenage girls twerking?

[ichthyous]

Google search seems to be doing quite well...they are raking in more than ever by decimating our businesses - [cnbc.com ]

Yesterday, traffic to the most important converting section of my site was -75% even though I am still ranking #1 spot. On mobile there were four huge ads at the top before ever seeing my site, plus all the widgets. I have not had a serious inquiry this week...only useless inquiries from people half a world away that I deleted as soon as they came in, people asking if I have any positions open, etc.

But I am getting more traffic than ever from Mongolia, India, Vietnam, Phillippines, etc...lucky me. Google is under a lot of pressure from all of its competitors to produce profits, and it is going to keep decimating search until none of us have any viable traffic left. They are cloaking this in anti-spam updates, but really they are just constantly testing how they can best boost their revenue by taking all of the organic traffic.

[Fluff_Nutz]

@saladtosser I have been saying that about G and Tiktok for the past few months now. Knowing how corrupt and greedy G are I'd be surprised if I was wrong. It's annoying that G own two of the top and biggest platforms with both Youtube and owning the majority of the search market. If Tiktok were to be banned it all just continues to go in Google's favour. Right now Youtube, for me and others, is terrible. Inconsistent traffic and, yet again, led by a poor algorithm and management. Really hope we eventually get some relief and respite from this eventually. They are killing two of my three revenue streams.

I doubt that Tiktok will be banned though. Or at least hoping it won't anyway. It's most likely that they will sell the US share instead. That, to me, would be more logical at least.

@ichthyous

I read something about revenue increases for Alphabet and Google late last night. Just skim read it. So frustrating. They don't deserve the praise. It's our money they are stealing. How can they possibly be feeling any form of accomplishment from it? It makes me sick.

[Martin Ice Web]

Today is -50% and all rubbish.

[Conro]

Have you heard of Google news? From next year it will no longer be possible to put the feed in the publisher center, but it will be Google to decide With its automated systems when and if to publish the news of a site. How it's unclear, but it's sure to be another hard slap in the face to small and medium-sized sites

[Micha]

@Martin Ice Web It seems that Google is mainly targeting German websites. No matter where I look, they all have massive ranking losses.

@corno it will be interesting to see if Google kicks out the small publishers that are already included.

[londrum]

Im in travel and i’ve just been looking at my main competitors on semrush — the ones i’ve been competing with for years — and they are all suffering exactly the same. The graphs all show the same decline over the last year, accelerating around september and october. One of them was a huge site with close to a million in traffic, now it’s hovering above 100,000
The only one that shows an actual rise is the official website for my territory.
So it looks like affiliates selling other people’s products are all being demoted and there’s not much you can do about it. It doesnt matter if you add lots of useful info, original photos and reviews, You need to be selling your own product

[Micha]

so according to Google, the update should have been completed on 19 April. And now there is also a feedback form, which is a damn bad joke to say the least.

[twitter.com ]

[shadowlight]

They are cloaking this in anti-spam updates, but really they are just constantly testing how they can best boost their revenue by taking all of the organic traffic.

Which is finite not infinite, there will come a time when they have nothing left to squeeze.

[Conro]

The update ended on April 19th, and my traffic is more downhill now than when the update was in progress. I hope to find a job as soon as possible because I don't want to know anything about the internet anymore

[superclown2]

They are cloaking this in anti-spam updates, but really they are just constantly testing how they can best boost their revenue by taking all of the organic traffic.

They are thumbing their noses at the legislators, secure in the knowledge that they can always put in one appeal after another when their abusive practices are punished. It cannot go on for ever though.

[Micha]

Is the update really over? Because I'm just wondering where this big drop is coming from today, Google's traffic is practically dead.

[Whitey]

It cannot go on for ever though.

It won't. The so called "ensh*ttification process" is now compounding rapidly with big tech and Google at the forefront of it. Something will break out in the coming years as the gap becomes exposed for counter opportunity. AI, legislation, competition, earnings pressures etc etc etc

[CommandDork]

"I hope to find a job as soon as possible because I don't want to know anything about the internet anymore"

That's my sentiment too. I imagine a future when I am no longer having to be tied to the internet for much, enjoying what bit of life remains :)

[Conro]

A private company cannot have such great power for a public service. Governments are primarily responsible for allowing these companies to operate in continuous grey areas

[ghostofseo]

We can't take it anymore. One thinks that if google penalize sites like this then there is definitely something wrong with their algorithm, that something is done to improve, but no, excellent quality sites are deleted. By now, Google is like an aggregator that decides who to whitelist, the others, after their content has been stolen by their AI, are deindexed. After all, no one can say that sge rewrites existing content if the original content is nowhere to be found in the serp. Right?

[twitter.com...]

@conro, good find. :) If a 20 year old industry leader site can be yanked from Google it can and will happen to any small publishers moving forward. Especially if the big media sites taste blood in the water, they are coming after any affiliate channels they possibly can find. Best EVERYTHING Listicles... Everything and anything, just hit publish and watch the money roll in.

[Dooku]

Especially if the big media sites taste blood in the water

How a monopoly sends 3 Billion clicks EACH month to fellow monopolies:
[detailed.com...]

And still most people complaining at reddit, seroundtable, searchengineland.....etc...etc...are using chrome and everything "google"....

[ichthyous]

Is the update really over? Because I'm just wondering where this big drop is coming from today, Google's traffic is practically dead.

Same here, traffic is down hugely today...search is -15% and direct traffic is is -31% at almost 7pm. Almost all of that is USA and AU traffic, down 29% and 65% each. All of my most important category pages are impacted with traffic -32% to -43%. I think this is just the new norm...how do you think Google keeps reporting such huge profits? They are completely destroying what is left of organic in order to force higher paid clicks.

[Conro]

Now we will have to put up with all the solutions of the seo gurus that will never coincide with each other. However, it is better to listen to as many as possible, maybe someone really guesses correctly

[oldog]

After 45 days ! Game Over ....now what?
A new Game that will last forever ?

[EditorialGuy]

I"d hate to be the AdSense or Google Ad Manager executive who has to justify his/her falling ad revenues from third-party publishers.

[Conro]

@EditorialGuy Google tells you whether or not someone clicked on the ads or how many views were made, as I mentioned with them it's all about trust. They will have to justify the zero or almost zero ROI to those who invest with Google ads. Now google ads after the latest changes is even more of a waste of money, it's good maybe for branding, not for immediate sales. Of course, in my opinion

[Conro]

@Oldog are you zero visits? What kind of site do you have? Look at the serp, maybe you find yourself with YouTube videos and paa in the first position and you have lost traffic for this reason

[waynne]

I was hoping we could discuss observations on this Corepocalypse update and trends noticed after our "impact statements"?

My Sob Story = I've lost 4 SEO clients who are closing their brick and mortar stores, a loss of 16 jobs, I'm closing a number of useful resource sites I have built over the last 20 years primarily because they don't cover their hosting and maintenance costs

But we could all go on for pages with lists, moans and whinges on the devastating impact of this "update". But this is life, the Florida Update had a similar impact and we all moved on. With complex AI on the horizon the idea of people using the internet to surf for information is a thing of the past.

I have seen =

1) Some very high quality pages slip to position 6-9 for phrases "looking for guides on", "how to use", "why should I fit... " which is pretty pointless (outranked by box shifters and stores selling the product rather than information about & how to use and comparison reviews on the topic). When there are so many above SERP position 1 ad slots and info boxes they get very little attention.

2) Some small businesses with minimal SEO have remained rock solid in both position and traffic, but many have seen dramatic drops. The loses seem to be anyone in a remotely competitive industry. If you build pink spotted pet hats you'll be just fine! Builders, traders and shops have all seen drops.

3) Competing sites that have plagiarised content, AI generated and the higher quality "info spam - SEED PICKER" affiliate sites have been nuked, no where to be seen.

4) The quality of leads provided from SERPS is very poor in all industries I watch.

I predict a major economic downturn based on the results I have seen from the sites and client sites I manage. I feel this update is twofold, firstly a way to show more ads, & more google properties, or PAA and the other to remove as many low quality pages as possible. The day of making easy money is over, we now have to actually earn it unless we start a major search engine!

When people get sick of Ads on YouTube, sponsored Serps and are generally unable to find what they need, they will look to other means and providers of information.

[Micha]

@Wayne It's normal to complain, the frustration has to come out.

But it's important to share observations, that's true. So on the whole, I can agree with your observations. It's similar in the German-speaking countries.

One thing I have noticed is the "advertising" point. I could observe that after some websites (including mine) changed the placement (more text before the first ad banner), the articles ranked better. All these websites do not use Google advertising, but use their own ad server.

However, I don't see an economic upturn, rather the opposite. Because what you are accusing Google of presupposes equal treatment and, to be honest, I don't see that. When I look at my customers, I see the absolute opposite in the ranking, good texts have no chance because certain players automatically rank well, no matter how bad an article is.

When I compare searches for a keyword with different search engines, the results on Bing, DuckDuckGo etc. look significantly different and more importantly more relevant.

Where I definitely agree, or more accurately, what I'm hoping for, is what you write about people being fed up.

[Billy85]

SERPs have become such a joke.
It's almost as if G ranks anything over a site that has been deemed "unhelpful", whether its better, worse or even relevant.

I can only speak for my niche, but when I see the SERPs for some long tail keyword articles I wrote and the content that outranks my pages, I can only laugh.

Whether my content is the most helpful or less helpful, my articles at least tackle the query and provide an answer, whereas the other pages that outrank me have either no relevance or barely have anything to do with the topic. (and reddit isn't even in SERPs in my niche in Germany)

Traffic has also become even worse in the past week with mostly zombie traffic where my site probably ranks for some unrelated or irrelevant stuff.

[Conro]

Yes, in practice, google has become like the poor search engines of the past and to which you asked one thing and brought you other results. It's as if the first page of yesteryear has been removed and you go straight to the second or third page. For example If I ask how to polish the body of a car, I would like to know the process, not the name of a wax that sells an ecommerce. Today I noticed that after the first 5 google irrelevant results I switched to Bing and the answer was featured

[Micha]

Yesterday was a record day for my website, thanks to Discover, but today is the usual slow day.

My friend's store has been hit pretty hard. Traffic is up, but sales have dropped to an absolute minimum since the weekend, the whole of last week was really bad though. The only thing that has increased is the number of spam messages via the contact form. He won't be able to keep this up for much longer.