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]

[Martin Ice Web]

What I am getting is the leftovers...customers who have $200 budgets for $1500 items.

And i thought it is only us that getting this leftovers. We see that current sales are very low budget sales. The buyers that are buying more than 1 item are vanished.
Since two 2 days sales with google traffic stopped. And again amazon is picking up again.

What i noticed when reading forum posts i don´t see "google it or google for" anymore but more "u can buy it on amazon". I think mainly because amazon does anything for their users and google does anything for their inverstors.

[Billy85]

By the way:
I checked the web tab.
There are also YT videos, but instead being shown in the video preview thumbnail, they are shown as a blue link...

Maybe it would bring something, if it wouldn't be somewhere hidden on the right side.

[Micha]

@billy85 There are already instructions on how to set the web search as the main search in Chrome. Maybe we should spread the word.

[RubicCubed]

There are already instructions on how to set the web search as the main search in Chrome. Maybe we should spread the word.

Google is dead, at least here in the USA. Best not to promote anything with Google since all they want to do is take 100% of the traffic/profit from our work. If we are going to spread the word, let it be to use a different search engine.

Traffic quality from Google has declined so much I would put it on par with Facebook traffic. Google has too many ads, refinements (PAA), old forum threads (Reddit), etc. that average users can't find what they're searching for. If we are able to squeak out a sale from Google's terrible traffic, it's typically a low value order that will have a high rate of return. Higher rates of returns from Google traffic is likely the result of Google confusing their users so badly. This march to AI sounds great, but definitely is moving in the opposite direction of all the hype. There's a real opportunity here for some other company to step up to the plate to help users find what they want without all of Google's ads and gimmicks. If no real competition arises to keep Google honest, then search will continue its decline into becoming a worthless technology.

[Treud]

Everyone is going crazy for the AI, it totally reminds me the NFT release, market were crazy about this, and about 8month, no even a year, everything shattered into pieces.
This AI master race will not favor Google I think, looks like they try to squeeze the lemon at it max before throwing it.

I do hope the market shares will balance somehow and make a sane competition.

[londrum]

google's version of AI is so far removed from what AI is supposed to be I don't know how they even get away with calling it AI. It's just an article spinner. They have been trying to increase the size of our snippets for years, so they can squeeze in entire answers and stop people clicking away, and now they have found a way to do it. They just hoover up all the answers from our websites, change a few words and sentences around, and call it AI.

I exaggerate slightly, but not by much. I've seen examples on X where 80% of the text is identical to the original site

[ichthyous]

And i thought it is only us that getting this leftovers. We see that current sales are very low budget sales. The buyers that are buying more than 1 item are vanished.
Since two 2 days sales with google traffic stopped. And again amazon is picking up again.

Since the end of 2023 Google has done an amazing job making converting traffic vanish completely. I would think that we are in a major recession, but we aren't here in the US. I am getting people who are completely delusional in their price expectations, which was always the case but now it's basically all I get.

As 2024 progresses I am seeing inquiries from abroad vanish completely. Nothing from UK or continental Europe, nothing from Canada or Australia, nothing from the UAE. Now I see the USA traffic is actually reducing in volume. So this is a gradual plan to just grab all of the sales and then just shut websites out of traffic completely. We all knew this was coming going back to 2018 or so...you could see it from the tactics Google was using.

Google will become an afterthought for many of us, it will not occupy so much time and effort because there will be no return on that investment. The businesses which perhaps weren't so focused or dependent on search traffic are also starting to feel it, even though they might not be able to target why business is drying up exactly. But any business which was getting sales online either directly or indirectly is getting whacked by Google now.

I am seeing another big drop this morning...USA is -41%

[RedBar]

@ubound - Global plus regional stats from Statcounter April 2024:

[gs.statcounter.com...]

[Micha]

Impressions are down, clicks are down, Google traffic to my website has been dead for hours. As a news site, you have to manage that first.

I just looked at a Korean online grocery store that has zero sales through Google today and is down 80% since the beginning of May. As a website owner, you really should try to get away from Google somehow.

[tom_010101]

Yepp... The same on my german online magazin. Since 08.2023 the traffic is from 30.000 per day falling to now 5000 per day. And no idea, what i can do. After 22 years with my own company, the end is near...

[Micha]

@tom_010101 it's no different for me, but i don't want to give up yet. it's just very disheartening that no one in germany, neither the media nor politicians, is interested in the subject. only in retrospect is there a lot of shouting.

[tom_010101]

@Micha+ Yes. In Germany you have the feeling that no one else is affected. No other forum entries, nothing... I can't give up either. After all, I make a living from it. But it's very very frustrating...

[superclown2]

In Germany you have the feeling that no one else is affected.

It isn't just Germany that is suffering by any means. The whole world is, including those who spend money on Google ads, who are (according to trial testimony from Google employees) being ripped off by unethical, and possibly illegal, ad auction price manipulation.

[searchengineland.com ]

'Don't Be Evil'? I couldn't possibly comment.

[Micha]

@Superclown2 The only difference is that we currently have a political landscape that is worse than in most other countries. There are hardly any sensible politicians left here.
I read the article yesterday, very interesting and it should actually be compulsory reading for everyone who buys advertising from Google.

[superclown2]

The only difference is that we currently have a political landscape that is worse than in most other countries. There are hardly any sensible politicians left here.

I see that Google wants a judge to preside at future legal cases against them, rather than a jury.

Nothing to do with 'lobbying' and future jobs of course.

[Rick_Mh]

Hello, has anyone felt a drastic drop in traffic from yesterday to today?

[mosxu]

The algo is out attacking for not paying more and more! It goes hunger games style on some of us!

Buyer traffic is less and less most of businesses have to pay for they own buyer traffic but they think that is not their branding work but somehow search engine magic!

[RedBar]

@Rick_Mh - It's a weeekend and my traffic can vary quite considerably since I am a trade-only, bulk, wholesale manufacturer with most buying visitors usually working Monday to Friday.

Having said that my traffic after 15 hours is down at about 35% of average and of that 35% 31% of it has been the return of that Huawei Cloud bot therefore, realistically, my traffic is way down.

[sk7411]

Drop again since yesterday!

[NeapTide]

I am seeing one of my website with very few backlinks getting ranking improvements in serps after several months of chaos but traffic is not increasing. The only reason is all the google garbage boxes, sponsored, featured boxes, SGE on top. People are not going to even 6 or 7th organic result buried under several "google garbage boxes"

Now even Sponsored Ads are displayed like they are organic results on top.

[Samsam1978]

I am seeing 15% drop from last week what is going on guys?

[Samsam1978]

Yes, and my ad revenue (adsense) is down also about 20% --- this is the worst I have ever seen since 2010. What are they doing? They are actually creating a situation where they make less money from my website? It does not make sense. Why do you want people to stay on the search page? People are not liking the AI overview.

What is going on, the AI takes my words but don't give me credit.

Not good Google, this is my living, and you are making less money also on the ad revenue. I run a site at 1-2 million uniques per month.

AI nonsense is killing the web!

[Micha]

Hm, did someone switch off the internet today? You'd almost think so if you look at the low data traffic. -45 percent compared to yesterday is practically zero. And I'd rather not talk about a comparison with the previous week. Of course, Saturday is always weak, but this is new.

[RedBar]

what is going on guys?

Not a clue, my global site was well below average until 2 hours ago and since 17.00 UK time it's flown past my weekday average. All genuine multipage visitors.

[Treud]

Before late February and the Start of the March Update, sells and traffic were ok, since the patch then traffic somehow remain pretty much the same but just receiving traffic that doesn’t convert (bot?). I was about anyway to pull out of this business because too many companies on this niche, factories start to do #*$! as well, so this last update forced me to accelerate the exiting strategy.

Luckily new projects are totally not internet related ! The good old warehouse store with brick & mortar !

Maybe the Google strategy behind all of this is kill 90% of all small commerces, and just work with the 10% that will survive the aftermath in a year or 2.

[Micha]

Let's start Sunday with a joke: John Müller says

I can't make any promises, but the team working on this is explictly evaluating how sites can / will improve in Search for the next update. It would be great to show more users the content that folks have worked hard on, and where sites have taken helpfulness to heart.

Now aside from the fact that it's John saying that, this "we're bringing helpful content forward" is starting to sound like a broken record.

@Treud
That's roughly what many store owners are currently telling me. February was great, March too, April well, and this month so far, a disaster, despite normal or increased traffic from Google.

[Samsam1978]

Every single answer in my niche now includes an AI overview, and I have observed a 20% decline in revenue and a 10% drop in RPM due to the transition to a CPC model. I am genuinely uncertain if I can continue operating under these conditions, including covering server costs, despite having been in this business for 15 years. The AI overviews utilize my content, but no-one is clicking on my website.

This situation is serious - it could result in the lack of content production of human-generated content, leaving the internet dominated by AI-generated material. Gosh.

[Billy85]

@Micha
For me, beginning of May (first week) was also pretty good for my small shop, but regular sales suddenly stopped after the first week / at some point when the new Update started.
I also lost more rankings for some of my products, being outranked by non German speaking sites (mostly English) that are also outside Europe and totally irrelevant for German users that are interested in those products.
But Google ranks anything above an "Unhelpful" website, even if it's irrelevant to the User.

[Micha]

I would be interested to know how a store is supposed to be helpful, I mean, products are sold there and that's it. Users who surf there want these products or to browse and not read articles about these products.

[Billy85]

My website started as a blog first and is still predominantly a blog (no Ads, but affiliate links) + a Shop for almost 2 years now.

But it is IMO a great blog, since I bought, tested and compared all my products, made my own photos and came up with my own testing methods etc.
And since this retarded Classifier is still applied side wide, I'm getting outranked by the most irrelevant pages, whether for my articles or products.

[saladtosser]

To compensate for Google taking our content as and when it likes, to level the playing field JM and Danny are considering opening up their houses as a free for all. Want to use their lawn mower or need a cup of sugar? just pop round to your local Google Liasson and take what you want! Whats good for the goose is good for the gander?!

[ichthyous]

Welcome to Monday, when you can expect a mysterious drop in USA traffic at 8am sharp that doesn't recover until the eve...and it repeats every weekday M-F.

Anyone else noticing masses of top three ranking terms dropping off at the same time, slowly rebuilding again, and then dropping off again? Instability in top ranking terms seems to be part of Google's strategy now

[Samsam1978]

I seem to have some sort of throttle on mine. Same everyday, use to have better days than others.

[RedBar]

I would be interested to know how a store is supposed to be helpful, I mean, products are sold there and that's it. Users who surf there want these products or to browse and not read articles about these products.

It all depends upon the type of product it is and how much information one needs to know before evaluating whether or not that product, or its competitors, are suitable and the right value for money.

My products when sold retail are very expensive, I would say that the average retail purchase price is probably about USD 10-20K however it could easily go up to USD 100K if one chose an alternative selection. When spending that kind of money one would be nuts not to try and learn about it and its alternatives.

Google seems to favour retail stores all using similar images and promotional text since that is what their data tells them through their classified ads programme, they can insert into their advertising SERPs similar organic sites hence why the real knowledge sites for those products are pushed down the rankings.

[Micha]

Well, if I take the Korean grocery store: Most of it is not available in retail stores and you can only describe products, nothing more. The store had 2 sales via Google from Friday to today, that's ridiculous.

Since I see this pattern with a lot of stores, I'll just say that Google is intentionally lowering the visibility of small stores to get them to buy ads, even if it doesn't do anything.

[Samsam1978]

You are not alone ichtyous 15 year old site everything is 25% down --- maybe 40% down from 2023. Been doing this for 17 years and I am too old and too tired to keep up with constant changes. I supply amazing human written content to my users and they love my website but I am outranked by spam, RPM has reduced and now throw in AI overviews.

I dedicated my life to this and I still have a large mortgage but my website has reached 1 billion people since it was launched all that time ago --- but can't give up as caring for disabled child and this is my livelihood.

I just wish they would be kinder to old publishers, listen to us, not mash up our content in AI overviews.

How are google going to make money from AI overviews?

[RedBar]

I'll just say that Google is intentionally lowering the visibility of small stores to get them to buy ads

That I would not disagree with whatsoever.

We actually do 60 mile round-trips to a speciality Chinese store that does not even attempt to sell online, they rely upon word-of-mouth recommendations with sales increasing nicely. They have a single splash page with the facility if they wanted to for a sales promotion, they've never used it!

[Shepherd]

Where's Bob Villa?

" getting oil stain out of concrete before sealing "

They are simply rubbing our faces in it at this point.


Sorry Mods, no explanation needed, I know

[edited by: not2easy at 11:10 am (utc) on May 21, 2024]
[edit reason] fixed typo [/edit]

[Treud]

I start to receive traffic more in line with my business, inquiries are better! Let's see if it's a 2 days thing or Google getting better ....

[Sissi]

My traffic is up 50 % against last week
I just recognised why some pages where working better than others and found out the reasons.

If you work with Google accept such fluctuations or leave it.
As a professional when your business is down you don t call for an intervention of the politic. This is usually the means of the weaks. I think Germany has proven in past that it was the wrong way….

[Micha]

@SissiIf If only my company is doing badly, you're right, but if entire industries are doing badly, then it's the job of politicians to intervene, that's what they're there for. Politics should actually prevent a corporation from having so much power, and yes, Germany has done a hell of a lot wrong in this regard, namely watching some US corporations get too big. And in the US, I think Google should be put in its place pretty quickly, because these AI responses are nothing more than a huge copyright infringement.

And don't think I'm just sitting here hoping for politics. Of course I'm looking for reasons and taking action, and yes, it's working, my site is seeing more traffic, but I'm not selling anything either.

[oldog]

@Micha From today's Guardian

[theguardian.com...]

[superclown2]

if entire industries are doing badly, then it's the job of politicians to intervene

Quite right; but the problem is the American legal system.

A case against Google was filed nearly 4 years ago.

The trial started last September and ended in November. That was six months ago and there is still no verdict.

When there finally is a verdict, and if Google is found guilty, there will be another trial to decide what remedies there will be.

There will then be an appeal.

There will then be another appeal.

By then the whole thing will be moot anyway because of the inevitable evolution of the Internet.

This is why Google likes their cases to be heard before judges. In a jury trial there is usually a verdict and punishment is handed down to guilty parties. A single judge's verdict can be questioned by higher and higher courts almost ad infinitum; that of 12 unbiased citizens, deciding unanimously, is much more difficult to challenge.

So yes; relying on officialdom (at least in the USA) is of very doubtful value. Making sure that the public, and those who pay the money for Google ads, know what is really going on is far more effective. Word of mouth and social media are very potent weapons.

[Micha]

@olddog thanks, I'll read it later in a quiet minute.

@Superclown2 so no different to us, just unfortunately our politicians still think the internet is not needed. And I agree, it's important to make the problem more visible and also show inexperienced users that there are alternatives (I'll put a recommendation on my website later ala "We recommend DuckDuckGo", it may not help but at least it's a small thing).

What really annoys me are the people who celebrate Google and put the blame solely on the website owners. This glosses over the problems and makes many websites worse than they are.

[Whitey]

By then the whole thing will be moot anyway because of the inevitable evolution of the Internet.

Modifying the laws which companies have to comply with is a start.

But what motivates that are the politicians and the votes. Then of course corporate lobbying of which Google is powerful.

I don’t think there’s ever been a more complex legal scenario confronted by humankind in business than Google. If you’re a business, you can’t avoid it at any level.

[RedBar]

I thought I was having a reasonable traffic day until I checked my logs and found that Singaporean Huawei Clouds bot had been 48.9% of visits. I've tried every method possble to block this thing without any success meaning thousands more visits over the next few days:-(

Obviously this also means my real traffic today is very low.

[Micha]

Incidentally, the EU has just passed a law to regulate AI and, of course, the issue of copyright is missing. But there are also a few good aspects, such as the fact that AI systems must be monitored by humans and a labeling requirement for AI-generated content (only how this is to be implemented is a mystery to me).

If I understand this correctly, then Google's AI nonsense won't be appearing here any time soon.

[Dooku]

@Redbar, Do you have control over your own nginx or appache server? And are you using Cloudflare?

[RedBar]

@Dooku - I do not use Cloudfare and have control over everything. I had this problem before in January and couldn't find a solution then after many hours and attempts. It's my first-ever time of not being able to resolve such a situation.

[Dooku]

@Redbar, There is something(bug?) strange when using iptables or the UFW firewall on linux servers. For the most part those work, but I notice too many block rules for these kinds of bots do not work that way, UNLESS you ad the user agent to the nginx main config file and block them from there.
Or you need to install and use Fail2Ban, which also effectively blocks these bots using the correct settings.