June 2024 Google Search Observations

[NeapTide]

That's how google is disguising ads in Generative AI results. They are not even labelling them ads anymore. Pure day light robbery of user generated content and plagiarizing that with ads for their own gain.

[drive.google.com ]

[edited by: not2easy at 4:57 pm (utc) on Jun 1, 2024]
[edit reason] new month, new thread [/edit]

[Fluff_Nutz]

This is why I often get the feeling that Google are above the law. They are continuously toying with the authorities. They know they do wrong but don't care. Greed has blinded them MASSIVELY. But who can blame them when all it ever comes to is a fine and a slapped wrist? They make more money than some third-world countries. They (and we) need proper action before anything comes to an end, alas it never comes. If it does it will be really slow, too damn slow for most sites. Sad really.

Traffic over here is so inconsistent yet again. Was up by 10% the previous day and now I'm down by -25%. Waaay too much fluctuation. This is the problem and what makes this no longer fun. You cannot say its all down to competition neither. Although I am in a highly competitive niche I was doing just fine when I first started out, the competition won't have changed that much in those short few years to warrant a -90% drop since then. The ranking system is so rigged and its toxic.

The American government and law authorities are an embarrassment. To let so much criminal activity escape undeterred. It's not just Google neither. Amazon too. All of which are American monopolies.

[Conro]

Yes, every day the fluctuations are crazy. Forums are getting higher and higher, even the pages of companies, it doesn't matter if they are sites that do not respond to the query or if they are 10-year-old threads that are out of date, the important thing is that they take traffic away from small sites. However, I also see big sites that are losing traffic, honestly I don't know who will remain, except for random sites that will be randomly put to answer queries.

[Shepherd]

google is unlikely to change for the better willingly due to their duty to shareholders.

Governments are also likely to be unable or unwilling to affect change.

An uprising from within by the few employees left with a conscience is feasible but unlikely. Even if it occurred, google would likely quash it quickly.

An even more unlikely scenario is an organization of content creators banding together to undermine google. This approach, however, would have the highest likelihood of success. google is aware of this, which is why they are setting up deals with platforms like Reddit.

[superclown2]

google is aware of this, which is why they are setting up deals with platforms like Reddit.

They may have set up a deal with reddit but they have no deal with the people who create the contents of reddit. A lot of them are pretty hacked off that Google now assumes it belongs to them.

[jchiff]

I think it's pretty clear by now who rules, and with little accountability:

Tesla self-driving cars, Boeing aircraft, and ... Google AI. Deep breaths everybody.

[Conro]

Today - 26% of traffic. I'm down below 1000 visitors a day. I was reviewing the articles, I reviewed a hundred, but the traffic is still going down. What's the point? Between AI applications that come out one a week and Google rewarding the brand and no longer the content, it all seems like a waste of time to me now

[ichthyous]

"One of the pages where the text vanished jumped up 40+ spots"

I would guess it is simply google seeing the page change, random shuffling and gathering data.

@Shepherd I don't think so it has remained high ever since. I am testing with the text off the page to see if it remains in the higher position. If so, I will try it with some other pages. Perhaps some sort of over-optimization penalty is triggered here?

[Micha]

I feel today the same way about google traffic as everyone else here: it's shrinking and shrinking and now it's shrinking a lot again. But measures continue to work very well, which can be seen again today, meanwhile the number of visitors is rising again, even today, when Google is almost dead again.

@jchiff I'm a sci-fi fan, but what you're describing makes me fear that Terminator wasn't fiction after all ...

[Samsam1978]

<snip>
Also I am down 13% in May! Hoping AI overviews has been reduced a little what do you guys think?

[edited by: not2easy at 11:52 am (utc) on Jun 7, 2024]
[edit reason] Please see TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[Samsam1978]

@NeapTide - Maybe that is why they went to CPM so the click through does not matter --- just so the ad is seen. Cut out the middle man which is us.

[jchiff]

@Micha, I didn't mean to sound too dark. I think Tesla, Boeing, Google and others will be held accountable in their turn. By the government? Not so much.

[Dooku]

Some of you might know the state of affairs at the seroundtable forums towards google.
But now I noticed people also informing everyone that they will let their (entire) domain(s) portfolio expire and also probably not renew some of their hosting accounts. That's a pretty clear picture of what is happening because of google's greed.

It also explains probably the large increase I see in "seo" related spam emails I and others are receiving.
Nothing will change unless the European Union informs google to either pay up on their total of almost 9 Billion Euro in fines or have google blocked or kicked out just like the Chinese government did. I am willing to bet a large sum of money in that case google will transfer the entire sum next day!

Google lost 2.3% market share in one year, which is actually a BIG amount....and they know it. But things are now moving faster than ever in the SERPS with google adding AI overviews on top of their other "widgets". It's quite possible at some time we will reach a point that people just do not want to wander through the google swamp any more and will leave in droves in search of an easier to use and navigate search engine...whatever that may be.

[Markedd]

@Dooku I let three domains expire already and will let the main website that brought up to 10K USD a month last year to expire as well at the end of this year since I already paid for the hosting.

[RedBar]

I was just checking my traffic stats and initially thought that they were running low until I compared them to 2022 and 2023 and I am, in fact, ahead by some 12+%. Plus, to my surprise, so far this year my USA average traffic levels have been remarkably consistent and I certainly wouldn't have bet on that!

[ichthyous]

Since Monday I have had a reversion to more normal traffic, and a bounce back to parts of the site that had been hammered since before Memorial Day. That coincided with the links disappearing, and now those are mostly back as well, although the count is still lower.

I am getting calls and inquiries via the site, but they are still fairly low value and non-converting customers. One even scolded me for daring to send a price quote that was 20x his delusionally low budget. I had deleted his first inquiry without responding, then he came back two weeks later and inquired again and was vague so I responded. At this point I just look for any sign that they are delusional in their price expectations and get rid of them...and that is not normal for me, nor do I consider it good business practice, but I can't spend my days handholding losers. Until about 4th quarter of 2023 I was having much more viable clientele with money...then it all just turned to sh^t overnight.

[ichthyous]

Google lost 2.3% market share in one year, which is actually a BIG amount....and they know it. But things are now moving faster than ever in the SERPS with google adding AI overviews on top of their other "widgets". It's quite possible at some time we will reach a point that people just do not want to wander through the google swamp any more and will leave in droves in search of an easier to use and navigate search engine...whatever that may be.

Let us not fool ourselves here...Google is still a monopoly and people are not rushing to leave Google search. Bing is equally as messy, and has minimal market share. I do not believe the entire world will run to convert to AI search, but Google will continue to ram it down their throats by putting it at the top of search. This is still the testing phase...perhaps people will prefer that and perhaps they won't. I do think that sites like Perplexity will gain share, and thankfully they include links to the source.

The truth is a lot of those people just accepting whatever is given to them in the AI overview blurb at the top of the page were never going to dig too deeply for answers anyway. It's the ones who continue past the AI overview who are serious. If your business model was dependent on getting a huge stream of shallow visitors hitting your 1,000,000 cloned articles then you are finished. Those days are over forever. Move on, change strategy as AI is probably going to wipe you out. I think the web is going to be smaller, but perhaps higher quality as the content farms get taken out.

[EditorialGuy]

But now I noticed people also informing everyone that they will let their (entire) domain(s) portfolio expire and also probably not renew some of their hosting accounts. That's a pretty clear picture of what is happening because of google's greed.

In some cases, it may simply be that the business model of "create a lot of Web sites ad populate them with keyword-driven content" may not be effective anymore. That isn't necessarily a bad thing for the Web and for users. (Addendum: I just saw a post on SEO Roundtable where a commenter claimed to have--get this--1,200 Web sites. It's hard to see how that could be effective as a long-term publishing and revenue strategy.)

As for Google's greed, that may be part of it, but it's also worth remembering that Google has a long history of beta testing in public. The sheer volume of AI-driven spam that's flooding the Web isn't helping matters, either. I'd be all in favor of Google waiting 30, 60, or even 90 days to index new sites, just to discourage the instant-gratification crowd, but maybe there are good reasons why Google hasn't taken that approach.

[edited by: EditorialGuy at 4:48 pm (utc) on Jun 7, 2024]

[christianz]

Worst traffic I have seen in a while. Both for my HCU boosted and HCU demoted sites.

[Conro]

Yes, there is quite a drop not only because of the algorithms, but also because of the launch of the Gemini app in my case. We've pretty much got everything against us

[ichthyous]

In some cases, it may simply be that the business model of "create a lot of Web sites ad populate them with keyword-driven content" may not be effective anymore. That isn't necessarily a bad thing for the Web and for users.

Exactly, as I also commented in the post directly above yours. Those types of sites capitalized on SEO, but added no real value to the internet. Now perhaps sites which originate more unique content will be rewarded, but I wouldn't bet on it. In a world dominated by nothing but monopolies they will always manage to accrue all the benefit to themselves. But perhaps Google is realizing just a small bit that they cannot kill off all the geese laying the golden eggs and still have a product themselves.

[EditorialGuy]

But perhaps Google is realizing just a small bit that they cannot kill off all the geese laying the golden eggs and still have a product themselves

I don't know what to think. On the one hand, Google seems to be in full machete mode with is approach to private (as opposed to corporate) information sites. On the other, Google is demonstrably investing time and money in trying to make search better. (Author entities come to mind.)

Is the current "Populate the SERPs with Reddit threads and Forbes content" a placeholder approach to keep spammers at bay until better solutions are found? (I can't help thinking back to the days when Wikipedia and TripAdvisor seemed to rank high for everything.) The folks who run Google may or may not be greedy, but they can't be naive enough to think the current SERPs are up to snuff.

[christianz]

I just saw a post on SEO Roundtable where a commenter claimed to have--get this--1,200 Web sites.

I looked at my crystal ball and did some psychic analysis about his Web sites:

When you subtract fully automatically re-spun sites that are duplicates of some other sites of his you get 600.
When you subtract sites that almost exactly cover the same topics that some of his other sites you get 300.
When you subtract sites that are scraping and rewriting other authors website content you get 150.
When you subtract sites that have little to no added value and merely rehash facts available in other places you get just 9.
When you only take sites that he has real topical expertise and real enthusiasm about you get 1 or 2.

This is your average 1200 website owner.

[Fluff_Nutz]

Oh joy. I have just been notified by Mediavine that I am apparently using AI. So is millions of others if I am not mistaken. Problem is I am not using AI for my articles and neither are my writers. I did create an AI account months back but never actually bothered with it. I write everything from experience as I am passionate about my chosen subject. I do not need to cheat and use AI. Essentially becoming part of the problem we now face. So my time at Mediavine looks to be ending rather soon.

I'd assume that people are lashing out and accusing others to decrease competition. That on top of Google's current shenanigans is enough to make me quit the website altogether. My hosting plan is due for renewal next month, I'm likely to cancel that like so many others. Wish I never started the website to be honest. Fun at first but after that the stress and hassle is not worth it.

[Conro]

Even if they were written with artificial intelligence, what's the problem? All big tech companies are aiming for LLM spinners. By now we are ridiculous, they basically want to shut down all the sites and let only a few big tech control the information

[Micha]

@EditorialGuy

The folks who run Google may or may not be greedy, but they can't be naive enough to think the current SERPs are up to snuff.

They are not naive, but the management wants to maximize sales. When something like this gets rolling, you often lose sight of the essentials of the product. Of course, the specialists who work directly on the algorithm know better, but they have to follow management's lead.

I personally believe that many at Google believe that they are helping users in this way and those who have realized that the path is not so good at the moment because criticism is increasing probably can't change anything.


And some more reading material, who would have thought it, an AI copies content.

[forbes.com ]

www.forbes.com Buzzy AI Search Engine Perplexity Is Directly Ripping Off Content From News Outlets The startup, hailed as a Google challenger, is republishing exclusive stories from multiple publications, including Forbes and Bloomberg, with inadequate attribution.

[EditorialGuy]

SEO spam of the day:

I just got offered a chef's knife in exchange for a backlink to the knife company's site. I guess that's the cutting edge of spammy link-building..

[Conro]

So for keywords where I answer queries I've lost positions, while I've gained where my site has nothing to do with the query. Years and years of hard work by Google's engineers to get sites that responded perfectly to queries and then became like the worst search engines completely messed up

[Micha]

@EditorialGuy I counter with pots, a universal translator and my highlight so far: fishnet stockings. (and that was just this week)

So general question, according to Search Console the number of indexed pages for me has risen again after falling sharply in recent weeks. Has anyone else noticed this?

[RubicCubed]

I haven't been around much since I lost a lot of interest in Google. They seem to be on their death bed despite what speculative stock markets think. There's been more volatility the past couple days and further destruction in Google's SERPS, making it near impossible to find anything. Is there anyone competent who still works there? Thankfully the other search engines are making more sales for us because Google is just plain rubbish.

[universenet]

Google want maximum remove publishers in the name of biggest possible price of ads in Google search, google does not want share profit with anybody, even does not want give their applications cheap, this is why using google maps price gone in sky, , Google want eliminate small but big companies too , all in the name for biggest possible profit over Google search only, soon we can expect that all free applications like emails , storage and similar will be available just for pay and AI will be full possible using only for someone who want pay monthly similar like for Netflix