May 2024 Google Search Observations

[Billy85]

When I checked my site, 90% or so were some Spam links, but I wouldn't disavow them because I've heard that some sites were worse off after disavowing.
Almost every site has to deal with this and from what I understand, Google only regards those that are listed in your search console?

I also think it has also to do with the amount of people that click on it, meaning, if you try to build backlinks and nobody is clicking on it, google disregards them or gives that link less relevance.

[edited by: not2easy at 1:30 pm (utc) on May 2, 2024]
[edit reason] split thread cleanup [/edit]

[superclown2]

Desktop is behaving with different results to mobile down here in Australia.

Here in London I haven't seen any Discussions and Forums junk on mobile today but the lengthy scroll seems to have been abandoned., at least in my vertical. Pages are containing fewer organics; the most I have seen on the first page so far is seven, the lowest two. The rest is ads and googlespam.

On desktop we have the now-usual 4 ads of varying lengths, then PAA and Discussions and Forums before the first few organics, followed by more googlespam and ads. The actual organics, on the search terms I used, have changed, with different results from yesterday.

Why are these results so abysmal and chaotic? I can think of three possible scenarios:

1) Google are expecting a caning from Mr Mehta and they are squeezing every last penny out of the golden goose before the axe falls on it's neck;
2) The rumours of a paid search coming are true (good luck to them with that), with a parallel free one packed with ads, and Google are experimenting with potential layouts;
3) Google has suffered a corporate mental breakdown with thousands of employees wondering when their 3am redundancy text will arrive. Perhaps those who have jumped ship to work on ChatGPT's proposed search engine were very wise to do so.

Perhaps none of these are correct; perhaps all of them.

[Whitey]

Something new or strengthening recently:

I just did a regional localized brand name search.

[brand name] [service type] [location]. Here’s what I saw:
- 8 of 10 positions for the brand / location
- content carousels for the brand linked to their website
- linked different content sections to the brands key information for the 8
- Google reviews and a Google “rate this panel”

In the top 30 results, it is mostly the brand. eg Brand news, carousel of nearby brands, best products of brand, alternatives to brand etc etc

Of the top 30 results, only 2 are returned for quality independent meta search comparison sites. Some of the big meta and niche sites are now GONE.

This is a big recent shift and shows to me that Google can replicate any intermediary content website and organize its own content layer (perhaps better) directing traffic directly to the principle, eliminating the middle man.

Nothing new here, except the intensity and dominance of all scroll positioning. It’s hectic.

The next step will be to charge for referrals/advertising directly with the source, eliminating the middleman and raising the ad prices (=more revenue for Google).

I wonder if this is the start of a demise of the meta search sites, particularly in travel.

Actually, it makes me wonder where any site will be in 6-12 months if Google and AI can rebuild your marketing presence better. Yikes.

Perhaps we’re on the road to all sites being expunged on the basis that Google can build your site better.

Google is gobbling up your content faster and with AI it’s going to accelerate imo.

[christianz]

Drop on May 9th. The whole month of May is bad and getting worse.

[mosxu]

Looks like G is in killing mode no buyers are clicking here!

search.chatgpt.com should open competition up and for us to be able to compare quality of the traffic!

Search should be offered as a utility and many companies should sell ads and pay Chat GPT a commission!

[seokees]

It is going from bad to worse with traffic but even more with conversions.

[Micha]

I'm really fed up with Google. My new articles are no longer being indexed, yesterday there was another slump, and today traffic has dropped sharply again. And for days now, two false reports from my niche, which every major news site automatically has from a news agency, have been ranking at the top, that's what I call logic.

I really wonder why we're all still going along with this. At the moment, we're just publishing content to feed an AI. And unlike us, the big publishers benefit from this because they get big contracts from the AI companies. A new professional field: a pawn between big companies ... yay.

[tom_010101]

Update number <5000? [seo-suedwest.de...]

[sk7411]

@tom_010101 , Barry is not gonna like this i bet! :|

[NeapTide]

Did you know the name Google is the combination of 2 words Go and Ogle. Ogle is actually a slang word.

These days Go-Ogle is more like "Go F**k yourself"

They were supposed to fix the things with new core updates. But they are making it worse.

[saladtosser]

Buckle up my lovelies. I am about to rant...

Before SGE was announced around 12-14 months ago, I predicted on here that it was only a matter of time until Google took your/our content and answered everything themselves; my logic was that they needed to make more money every quarter, so it had to come from somewhere, at some point. (I didn't expect it would happen this fast; kinda thank Spam Altman for G picking up the pace.)

My prediction for what is **NOW*** to come is when SGE is released to all users. There will be no reason for the general users to visit most websites anymore. As a result, many hosting companies and domain registers will go bankrupt (because most small website owners go under, they need mass sales). Just before that hosting costs and domain name renewals will go way up to try and compensate for the loss of the many at the expense of the few; this will push out many more sites as the traffic (next to none) won't even cover these basic expenses. (G has your content in SGE, and your going under is a bonus to them). WordPress and plugin creators go under, and there is no incentive to create/innovate in a dead/dying ecosystem of a few sites left; the death of all WordPress sites follows, wordpress/cloudflare/cdns go under. Remember, G has your content in SGE, and them going under is a bonus.

Custom Web designers and web developers (myself included) have become obsolete. No one needs *NEW* websites anymore, and entry-level hosting/domain renewals and development costs have become too high for a site (and with no traffic to monetize) unless you are a huge brand and need some web presence; competition in sues and a race to the bottom becomes a reality, it is then mostly outsourced to India because the cost of living is so much lower!

Content creators, editors, writers, graphic designers, and SEOs are all finished because of AI in general (if they aren't already) but completely finished at this point; even the ones who are kept on by sites because of morality from site owners will be let go because the owner no longer has the traffic and the costs are too much, websites pivot, start selling things, all start ads as organic produces no traffic or organic is removed completely one quarter (it's coming), ad price hits sky high you pay more than you make on ads...

Search Liasons, JM, and DS jobs are obsolete; you don't need to liaise with webmasters that no longer exist (this is the one positive I can find in the situation because some people need some karma).

The entire internet ecosystem is completely destroyed; what are you gonna do? If you made enough, retire; if not re-skill in a non-creative online job like, let's say, plumbing?! We see a massive influx into trades, pushes down prices, more competition, and undercutting each other until AI robots (a few more years away) take over these jobs...... Universal basic income happens; Google pays us through massive taxation to prevent social unrest and prevent people dragging people like DS, JM and the higher-ups into the streets and going gadafi on their asses!

The transition will be incredibly painful, but UBI is the only long-term answer to their short-sighted greed, and their greed will eventually mean they work for us, feed/cloth and water us (five years away) (assuming the covid injection doesn't kill the masses, the plebs in the shorter term)

Thoughts? BTW love you guys haha!

[christianz]

Google's unique advantage was integration with the open web - websites and web apps. If they make the mistake to copy OpenAI search or something similar, they will have very little advantage left, especially as time goes on and they have fewer and fewer data to scrape. They have to make decision which way to go.

Btw, generative content is often garbage and doesn't get near the quality, trustworthiness and freshness that open web apps provide.

With the AI hype and desperate attempts to outdo Microsoft/OpenAI, Google may make the wrong decision.

[rustybrick]

@sk7411 what am I not going to like? :)

[Micha]

@Salattosser true to the motto: The last one turns off the lights. Unfortunately, what you're writing is not far-fetched, it's probably time to get yourself a good wine and when the time comes, drink it comfortably and watch the internet go down.

[mosxu]

Too many dead bodies already, killing even more is an insult to law and order!

[superclown2]

In the meanwhile we haven't seen the Mehta decision yet, which may change things completely; there is another DOJ case against them coming to trial next year; Europe is already investigating them for possible breaches of the DMA (and these people don't take prisoners); India is determined to bring them down - need I go on?

Google have managed to transform themselves from the most popular guys in town to the most hated. Morale amongst their workers is said to be at rock bottom. Nearly everything they touch, apart from 'search' (which they are making a real mess of at the moment) turns sour PDQ. They are betting their whole future on AI which they used to be leaders in but they are now an also ran with many of their best brains working for other companies.

I have said this many times but it's still worth repeating: without their monopoly of search they would be out of business in no time. It is that monopoly, together with the complete inability of Bing to accept that their search results page is an incoherent mess in which ads are almost impossible to tell from organics, that has kept them going so far. If they are obliged to stop their wholesale bribery those who have benefited from it will have to make other arrangements to cover the shortfall which might well mean bringing out their own search functions or partnering with different providers instead.

In the meanwhile people out there still want to get important information from websites that they can compare with each other rather than be spoon fed instant single answers by an AI system which has been trained on very dodgy data. Bing has been offering AI search for quite a while now yet their share of the search market has barely moved.

On Monday we expect to see a new competitor which may, or may not, nibble at Google's market share but if it doesn't there will be others, and if the current legal moves don't bring them to heel there will be more litigation until something succeeds, or a better mousetrap is invented.

It didn't have to be like this but the greed of Wall Street has made Google's future far less secure than it should be.

[Whitey]

Google Search Claims Another Victim: Tripadvisor Lowers Outlook

[skift.com...]

Remember the days when TA was the 1st place you went to for a review. What changed?

[EditorialGuy]

Google Search Claims Another Victim: Tripadvisor Lowers Outlook

Ah, the irony: Google helped to build TripAdvisor in the first place by indexing keyword-based TripAdvisor pages that were empty except for an invitation to "write a review."

[Markedd]

@saladtosser I can assure you without a shadow of doubt that there will be no UBI now or ever in the future.
As for the SGE taking over everything, we'll see if that holds true. Even if my website is no more, the info I moved to YouTube is well received and if things go right (for a change), I should be up back to same monetization level as I was before this whole conundrum before the end of the year.
Again, I do believe that there is life after Google and the people that want to use SGE will be just a portion which will be served by Google/OpenAI/blahblahAI. Those that want to use the web as before will still search websites. And I think the latter is the far larger group.

[Micha]

Today is the first day that most of my website visitors are not coming from Google. According to Search Console, impressions and clicks have dropped a little more each day over the last week and, according to the latest data from Friday, have reached the level my website had 7 years ago. This is pure arbitrariness on Google's part. It can't be that a week ago the numbers went through the roof thanks to Discover and then on Tuesday there was such a sharp drop. If it was a manual spam measure, okay, but it's not. It's not natural and since it's not just my site that's affected, it can only be described as market manipulation by Google.

[Treud]

Tried some KW in my niche today with Bing, I saw the same site first page with the same blog post in 4 different languages.
If translating your website with AI in all langues in the world for SEO is now a thing I’m out of this world…

[Markedd]

By the way, if anyone thought that the 301 redirect may work, well, l am not sure it will. Since I had nothing better to do about a month ago, I moved approx 20 articles with some updated info to a fresh domain. With the 301 redirection. I don't deny that there is traffic, but just as much as if I would have left them on the main website. And all that comes from the redirection itself, the new website is nowhere to be seen. Maybe a very early conclusion, but I am not sure new websites will rank at all right now and in the near future unless they get lots and lots of quality backlinks quickly. I may mess around with backlinks as well just to see what happens as soon as I have some money to burn.

[RedBar]

After 26 years in the Google SERPs I think I've almost just been blown out for whatever reason!

My Sunday traffic after 14 hours is at 13.2% v 2024 average.

All my former well-ranking pages have just about gone, I have one at #3, a couple at #10, some in the 20-30s with the remainder all gone. This is for both .com and .co.uk results.

Obviously something is happening, we'll see what transpires or do I take this opportunity and retire from this utter farce?

[Micha]

@RedBar I'm sorry to hear that. But welcome to the most annoying club in the world. But what do you mean by withdrawal? Closing websites is not an option, is it?

[Markedd]

@RedBar It depends on whether you have the funds for one or more years before we know whether Google won or not. I am optimistic that websites will remain relevant outside Google, but it seems everyone that has access to broader data and better prediction systems insists that the future is AI. Honestly it feels forced towards the public and there is a wise word to never force a fart (sorry for the language, but couldn't find a better way of putting it).

[RedBar]

Closing websites is not an option, is it?

Nooooo ... Is this an update blip I am seeing this weekend or something else I've sort of seen several times however not to the extent that many of my rankings have completely disappeared altogether ... Or is it the continuation of the US localisation purge of foreign companies since I see that many of my major bulk competitors are missing too.

It depends on whether you have the funds for one or more years

That's not an issue whatsoever it's more of a can I be a$$ed with this continual game-playing by G. AI does not concern me one iota, it's the current buzzword used to try and impress others that one is "up-to-date" and "on trend" :-)

The fact is that the G SERPs are very good for finding and learning about a lot of stuff however if one's subject query just so happens to stray into the commercial world then G's classified ads delivery machine takes over and for the most popular widgets simply drowns-out the results page with a myriad of paid-for promotions.

You do know you have me to blame for all this? I started this ad experimetation back in the early 90s with Altavista!

[Whitey]

Something new or strengthening recently:

I just did a regional localized brand name search.

[brand name] [service type] [location]. Here’s what I saw:
- 8 of 10 positions for the brand / location
- content carousels for the brand linked to their website
- linked different content sections to the brands key information for the 8
- Google reviews and a Google “rate this panel”

In the top 30 results, it is mostly the brand. eg Brand news, carousel of nearby brands, best products of brand, alternatives to brand etc etc

Of the top 30 results, only 2 are returned for quality independent meta search comparison sites. Some of the big meta and niche sites are now GONE.

Nooooo ... Is this an update blip I am seeing this weekend or something else I've sort of seen several times however not to the extent that many of my rankings have completely disappeared altogether ... Or is it the continuation of the US localisation purge of foreign companies since I see that many of my major bulk competitors are missing too.

@redbar - can you expand some more on the "localisation purge" that you are seeing or hearing about. I haven't come across any commentary on this, but am interested to know.

I'm hearing back from an SEO that an iconic household brand leader in our region has lost a lot of traffic recently. Their search traffic is now mainly comprising of [ their brand name ] +kw

As mentioned above, I'm seeing intermediaries [ meta search ] mostly gone from brand name searches for [brand name] + [location] searches in a vertical that i monitor, with up to 25-30+ listings on Google's self created SGE platform results templates.

[Micha]

@RedBar, that wasn't meant seriously either, nobody is going to throw away their website that quickly.

What I just noticed: According to Search Console, the indexed URLs have dropped by almost 10k. That would explain why the clicks and impressions have dropped so much, because among them are some articles that were always in the top 3 (and which you can't actually find on Google anymore, as a test showed).

In general, there still seems to be a lot of movement on Google, at least the visibility index of the pages I monitor has dropped a lot from yesterday to today.

So it's the usual madness, but it would be really nice if things finally settled down.

[mosxu]

@RedBar,

Sorry to hear that,
It sounds like G really likes you to advertise:))

[Dooku]

dragging people like DS, JM and the higher-ups into the streets and going gadafi on their asses!

It's going to be more mundane than the picture you presented for the near future. Why I think that?

First the buzz about G killing off small websites and only thinking about short term shareholder value seems to be picking up online:
A few examples of YT vids appearing more an more:
[youtube.com...]
[youtube.com...]

And one YT vid below I find particularly relevant to the underlying fundamental issue at hand of unbridled greed of which G is a good example and making even the different generations prey on each other. Take especially note of this vid:
[youtube.com...]

So, to refer back to the quote above from Salladtosser's post asking for opinions;
People, this is not going to end well if this continues, and it all depends on the fact if a certain tipping point will be reached in the next 12 months.
I have seen some very dark messages on a different forum that got me worried a lot, the kind of posts like "going gadafi on their asses!"
In the past I always thought these posts are all jokes and fun.....but lately some are becoming really worrying.

[saladtosser]

Just to be clear I'm not advocating for that haha, I just see it as a possibility. I'm one of the ones who will die in a corner quietly so as not to bother anyone lol

Isn't there a movement happening already called "eat the rich"? I wouldn't want to be the public face or even associated with a company that negatively impacts *anyone* personally, I think it would put myself and my family in the firing line, nor would I want to be associated with a company or individual who does that on a moral level either...as content creators by our nature we build, create and improve not destroy!

[Billy85]

It's funny how some people are saying to start YouTube and to diversify traffic.

Yes, it's always good to have multiple traffic sources, but I've seen so many sites like Retro Dodo facing "extinction", despite having massive YouTube & Social Media following.

And let's be honest, YT has not only become pretty sh*tty for creators, it also belongs to the same greedy Company that are creating these problems. They can pull the same sh*t and they pulled sh*t in the past. And in a way you become even more dependable on Big G.

Search engines are the most effective, because it's supposed to show people what they are looking for.

[Markedd]

@Billy85 I know and I am one of those that moves their content to YouTube because there is no other way for my type of content to reach people. It may be by design, but I have no proof about it.

[Micha]

I can just see that the big publishers in Germany are losing a lot of visibility, all of them. And even if it's mean, I just had to grin a little. Let's see when they realize this and go on the barricades, maybe something will finally move here...

@markedd one question, does that work? I also hear that it's better to go to YouTube, but at the same time I also hear a lot of complaints that it doesn't work.

[Markedd]

@Micha It depends on what the websites are about. For me, yes, it makes perfect sense since I can use the article as a script successfully. The upside is far more engagement and the possibility to build a loyal community. The downsides are that you're on a Google platform, so no communication, risk of termination with no recourse and lots of control over what you say (don't upset the big boys or else). I always dreaded the idea of not having my own platform, but it's not me who made Google have multiple monopolies on what people view and search. I wonder what people think about the chat AIs. How ignorant can you be to think that a big corpo has your best interest in mind and rely on them to curate the info on the web for you, as a user, to digest. I can't fathom what's wrong with people nowadays.

[tom_010101]

@micha... Thats sounds interesting. What german pages you mean? I see it on motor1.com

Sistrix is from 16 fallen to 9

[Micha]

@tom golem, Süddeutsche, Faz, Spiegel, Stern, Heise, T3n even Tagesschau have lost a lot of visibility according to Sistrix. Golem has been hit particularly hard, but the website also has many "Amazon is currently selling ..." articles.

[Cyril TechWebsites]

At least the first article I found that's fully covering our problems:
[msn.com...]

And this one is specific but still good:
[usatoday.com...]

[Whitey]

@Cyril_TechWebsites

Google has created an ecosystem that is always tilted in its favor; its dominance gives it disproportionate power over what people see in the marketplace for ideas, goods and services.

What else will Google do to further impact all our lives ... and our pockets?&#8239;

Scott Stein is vice president, general manager of USA TODAY.

I hope that the coverage get's get's noticed across the media and regulators. G needs to be held accountable for it's actions and impact on people.

[NeapTide]

Shouldn't google have made separate tabs for SGE and Traditional search just like: Search / SGE / Images / videos / news etc?

Even bing. com has:
Search / Co Pilot / Images / Videos etc. They have not f**ked up their traditional search engine with generative contents.

Do google even read recommendations of users or do they just listen to bureaucratic idi*ts running Google monopoly these days?

[superclown2]

Here are two new ones on me, here in London:

A 'Things To Know' box under the mandatory four ads, with five sub-boxes which together take up nearly all of the space on my desktop; and further down (under of course PAA, Related Searches and three youtube videos packed with ads) a block of four ads, side by side.

Yep. Google is determined to destroy organic .

[superclown2]

You do know you have me to blame for all this? I started this ad experimetation back in the early 90s with Altavista!

You probably helped AV to self destruct :-)

Hopefully history will repeat itself.

[Micha]

The massacre continues, more and more store owners I know are complaining about completely collapsed sales, no more orders have been coming in since the weekend, despite advertising on Google. It simply can't go on like this.

Well, and as far as my website is concerned, I don't need to talk about Google traffic anymore, it's been at a minimum since the weekend and not even worth mentioning. On the other hand, my podcast is bringing me more and more visitors. But at least it's the same for all news sites in Germany; the visibility index at Sistrix shows an ever-increasing loss for the big publishers. So I'm in good company.

I would just like to finally understand what Google is actually trying to achieve with this. The company definitely can't make money this way, more and more users are unhappy, we website owners are unhappy anyway, etc. I just can't see any logical goal.

[Mark_A]

Reducing results from Organic SERPS can cause people to increase PPC advertising.

That is my theory for what Google is doing.

They are making organic be unreliable and holding out the offering of PPC.

[EditorialGuy]

Shouldn't google have made separate tabs for SGE and Traditional search just like: Search / SGE / Images / videos / news etc?

It certainly would make sense for Google to have a separate tab for "Web," now that the main search window has turned into the proverbial kitchen sink.

[RedBar]

For simplicity's sake let's say G used to have 10 blue links, when advertising was first introduced we still had 10 blue links plus s few ads.

I've just looked at the G SERPs for one of my most popular widgets and all I SEE is a mass of image advertising starting with:

A scrolling image ad gallery of 13 ads
1 blue link
A block of 6 images
PAA
4 blue links
A block of 16 image ads PLUS view more products which led to 32 more image ads!
3 blue links

That's about where I would say a traditional 10 link page would end.

In total 58 images ads v 8 blue links.

I assume that the more one pays for an ad, the higher the cost?

I know I've written this before however the Google classified ad system is well and truly in full-effect and has been for quite a few years and is being tweaked all the time. "Improving" the current G SERPs will only alter after intensive G testing.

I am old enough to remember with our family business back to the 50s that we used to advertise in about 50-60 regional newspapers with, basically, no way of knowing how effective that advertising was other than "hoping" it kept the company brand in front of potential buyers ... I must stress that this was not random advertising, it was in a specific sector of a newspaper's classified ads.

IMHO the current G SERPs is simply the modern version of what we used to do with local / regional newspapers.

What's the point of this post?

Welcome to the norm, I can't even call it new norm since it's been this way for at least 10-12 years and as to what may happen with all the "new stuff" proposed, in reality it is more of the historical same yet even more refined, learn how to use it to your best effect, thinking / hoping that things will reurn to the noughties is pointless.

[Fluff_Nutz]

Placing and creating a new tab for web search/AI would make logical sense. For users, publishers and even lawsuits. Unfortunately Google do not do logic. This is becoming more and more apparent.

So, until they inevitably kill themselves off. We need to diversify. As mentioned by RedBar and many others before. I am currently creating as many of these diversifications as possible. Never even used this latest one I signed up to but, apparently, it works. Can't have too many of these and its literally our only option until a new search arrives, depending on their motives. But I agree G ''search'' is definitely not an actual search engine any more.

Social platforms do seem to be working, slowly, thus far too. But I guess it depends on the kind of site and content. Mine is usually always in demand so growth can be rather fast if its actually found.

Also, users don't want AI forced down their throats. They especially don't want ads neither. Oh and it gets boring seeing the same sites all the time. Most people enjoy seeing underdogs. Those that work hard. Most, so called, top sites scrape content and that, too, is evident. If this is the, so called, norm now. Then the demise of Google is, as said, inevitable. Grab some popcorn and watch them crush themselves.

I now find myself creating content knowing it will happen. It's a matter of when and not if. When I see Google so far down my traffic source list I also see them as just a basic company. No different from anyone else, the equivalent of a dying monster. My focus is where it should be, on diversification.

[Micha]

I'm watching Google I/O right now and so far it all sounds like websites are just playing the role of input generators for Google's AI and are otherwise useless. I especially see this statement from Google as a kind of threat: "Organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful".

[Billy85]

In a way, I doubt AI / LLM won't be reliable for a long time.
They have millions upon millions of different data sets, it mostly does not understand the content, it doesn't know what's true/false, it doesn't know which sources to get the information from, it's pretty expensive and slow.

It will be good for certain things like translations, but I doubt it will be the main source users will rely on.

[superclown2]

In a way, I doubt AI / LLM won't be reliable for a long time.

Absolutely. Garbage in, garbage out.

I use ChatGTP a lot for creating scripts but I've yet to get one that I haven't had to finish off myself. CSS in particular still seems a mystery to it with constant elementary errors.

Like a well trained monkey it can repeat what it's taught, but innovation is beyond it. And like New Bard or whatever it's latest name is it's taught from data on the Web which is the biggest cesspool in the universe.

I wonder how long it will be before it becomes fashionable to feed these engines with absolutely ridiculous data? Perhaps someone will offer a prize for the person who achieves the best 'hallucination' every month.

*Please note: this would be possibly illegal and a completely irresponsible thing to do and my comment is purely theoretical and in no way an encouragement to anyone to do such an irresponsible and possibly illegal action. And anyway who would judge what the funniest one was?*

PS anyone here remember the 'French Military Victories' Google bomb?

[RedBar]

So, until they inevitably kill themselves off.

Just remember that G is not a juvenile start-up looking for seed funding, it is nearly a 26 year old, extremely wealthy, established company in existence for longer than 50% of many people's working lives ... A 20 year old in 1998 is now approaching 46 years of age.

Plus it has immense influence and powerful connections within the US government that are very unlikely to go away