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]

[ghostofseo]

Can May 5th hurry up and get here and either take my site to Zero or give me a boost. This waiting around for Google is getting old.

[ichthyous]

@ghostofseo It could be worse I suppose...we could be TikTok influencers

[MrSnuts]

weird sighting in my GSC data:
My site is receiving very odd spikes in impressions for single terms, which produce literally no clicks.
Example: one search term like "widget red" had 9 impressions on the average day, but supposedly spiked at 2500+ impressions yesterday, still, not a single click.
"red widget" got 700 impressions as always and returned its 20 clicks.
Both terms are said to be ranking in top 3 positions. That does not make a lot of sense.
Looks like either a bug in GSC or continued A/B testing/AI training showing up in GSC... who knows.

Anyone else seeing something similar?
Couldn't agree more to "the waiting is getting old", it is.

[Micha]

@MrSnuts I just checked and I can confirm this for three websites, including mine. Exactly the same pattern.

[morpheus83]

Direct and Google traffic has just disappeared. Seems the update is coming to an end.

[Conro]

Are noticing a new traffic slump? Known movement in the serp with Google pushing even further down

[NirthaK]

Nearly every ranking I had is gone now. The tanking started on last Sunday.

[Sandy_Desh]

It appears evident that their intention is to minimize emphasis on content creation, potentially to streamline user attention towards SEO practices. This strategy could facilitate Google in directing user focus solely towards search engine results, potentially optimizing visibility and engagement.

[sk7411]

Had a massive surge in traffic that took our webservers down this morning . High traffic since yesterday but things are normalizing a bit . The update might be coming to an end.

[ichthyous]

Are noticing a new traffic slump? Known movement in the serp with Google pushing even further down

Starting yesterday yes...a big drop at 9am sharp and it never really picked up again. Today USA traffic is starting the day at -75%!...UK and Germany are sharply up though

[renatovieira]

Very huge drop today...

[Micha]

The same here, very bad today.

[Conro]

At the moment - 28%. It seems that "write useful content for users" only makes things worse. I'm thinking of covering the site with ads everywhere, at least it will make a few cents before it dies altogether

[NeapTide]

So Mark Zuckerberg just integrated Meta AI into whatsapp. Now you can ask questions, generate AI images, write codes, articles and do more right from within WhatsApp.

Google is f**ked and so are we webmasters.

All these AI tools trained on our website contents and we are now getting nothing.

I believe Meta AI will be integrated into facebook and Instagram too. Similarly X (twitter) will also get Grok AI integrated just like WhatsApp.

I repeat Google is f**ked and so are we. Believe me there will be very few Google search users left in future. :(

[ichthyous]

All these AI tools trained on our website contents and we are now getting nothing
I believe Meta AI will be integrated into facebook and Instagram too. Similarly X (twitter) will also get Grok AI integrated just like WhatsApp.
I repeat Google is f**ked and so are we. Believe me there will be very few Google search users left in future. :(

1) AI adoption is already slowing dramatically, but Google's search volume isn't dropping that much
2) Not everyone wants to use AI for everything...it has its place but it is also riddled with inaccuracies
3) The more people withdraw consent to use their content to train AI the more unstable AI will become
4) The copyright holders still have all the power...lawsuits will force revenue sharing or the AI companies will be forced to pay out every single claim individually or collectively through class action

Google search is still very much alive and kicking. The real threat to us is that Google will not permit anyone to click through to organic links anymore...they are finding ways to keep it all for themselves long before AI takes over.

[Conro]

Don't worry, it's a chain, if we close, the AI also stops working. Who will steal the information from, from the forums? "I want to lose weight, what can I do? Cut off your arm"

[saladtosser]

NeapTide I THINK AI will have to be regulated soon, I see AI as a flash in the pan, a very painful flash in the pan but it will be taken down from online content creation IMO 12 months from now max, I'm just happy right now watching the complete decimation of Google. In order to create you must first destroy and these companies, especially google are destroying themselves! IMO. The future will be divided between several search engines, I just hope DDG is the winner! Rein in all spending and ride the coaster for the next 12 months if you can!

[mhansen]

Re: I believe Meta AI will be integrated into facebook and Instagram too.

It already is in FB for sure. I see it here in the USA. Both on desktop, mobile and the app.

[superclown2]

I just hope DDG is the winner!

I've found DDG to be really slow lately. Is it struggling with the extra business it's getting? I know I get about twice as many clicks from them as I did a year ago, albeit from a very low baseline.

So I ask myself; could they really afford to invest in the extra server capacity they may need? Or would Wall Street move in, meaning that we could be worse off than before?

Beware of what you wish for, it may come true. Maybe a heavily regulated Google would be in all our best interests after all.

[mosxu]

Meta 200 billion down! There is no blood to suck anymore. Mind you others have different tools to extract the blood!

[Fluff_Nutz]

I wonder when Google eventually rot and die it will not only, hopefully give us our numbers back on search. But also Youtube too? It will surely have an impact, right? Or am I wishful thinking here? It's just I'm adamant that that they are rocking both platforms. The traffic for a lot of people on Youtube, myself included, has been very inconsistent. Plus subscriber notifications do not work. Which is very strange and real-time figures have never been right for a long time neither.

Anyway I have struggled but tried to post daily on my main site for the past few days. It has seen a small increase of traffic but nowhere near its peak of 2022. Obviously..

[Shepherd]

Q1: revenue up 15% YoY to $80.5B

Make. No. Mistake. google search is not broken.

[NeapTide]

Since I am learning android coding now i have just come to know about another idiotic policy google introduced for new developers account. Every new independent developer account made after november 2023 has a restriction that every new app must be tested by 20 testers before it could be published on play store.

Even multi million corporations don't hire that many testers.

I believe google policy makers they all have slowly lost their minds.

[Conro]

-44% today

[superclown2]

Make. No. Mistake. google search is not broken.

Google is not broken. They are a business with a responsibility to produce profits for their shareholders and they do that very well, albeit at the risk of implosion.

Search itself is certainly broken, when instead of the best results being shown, those that are the most profitable for Google take their place.

[delorean]

Hi guys. Do you also experience the "indexed but not appearing on search" problem on your site/s?

[tom_010101]

Yes, but this is normal since 08.2023... :p

[NeapTide]

@delorean
If your website is penalized due to march antispam updates your newly published articles / pages will not appear in search results or if they do, they will be 30+ results down.

[Conro]

I created a new website about 2 weeks ago. The pages are indexed but you don't even rank the home page. It's an Amazon affiliate site, and Google got it out of the way right away Even if the content is of quality and helps the user in choosing a product they are interested in. I'm sure there would be no problem with ads

[Conro]

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...]

[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"....

detailed.com How 16 Companies are Dominating the World's Google Search Results (2024 Edition) A deep-dive into how far fewer companies than you think have taken a hold of Google's search results.

[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.