July 2024 Google Search Observations

[renatovieira]

Search Console frozen since friday. Has anyone else noticed?




[edited by: not2easy at 1:39 pm (utc) on Jul 1, 2024]

[Micha]

@RedBar
I like WP and use it for all my websites. Why should I reinvent the egg when I have one that I can optimize?
Editorial systems in particular are anything but easy to build and that takes a lot of time. With WP it's much quicker. Admittedly, it's more boring than building everything yourself, but it saves time.There is generally nothing wrong with such systems, the web has not changed as a result, except that the really ugly HTML websites have largely disappeared. And I'll bet you anything that you can do what you do with WP (of course I don't know what you actually do, but I'll take the liberty of saying so).

And as far as the issue of fewer publishers is concerned, the market is competitive and small companies can hardly survive, also or especially thanks to Google. It has already been said above: Because Google seems to favor certain providers and that is also what I have heard all these years from publishers as the reason why they are giving up. This has only accelerated in recent months.The favoritism can be seen by everyone and is only denied by Google and a handful of SEOs.

[ichthyous]

It's Monday, and a 33% drop in my USA traffic so far today. I do think that the election year cycle and political turmoil in the US is having a dampening effect on traffic and especially on conversions. People are not even looking.

[RedBar]

@Micha - Please re-read my post, I actually state:

Am I againt WP? Nope, it's fantastic

This is the point I am making:

because their employer(s) tell them they have to be, and why do they tell them this, because they are replaceable very, very easily by another just out-of-school robot.

WP has made things so much easier for those who choose to use it therefore they do not NEED to come here except to whinge or whine about whatever.

[Micha]

@RedBar I already understood what you wrote and am not saying you don't like WP or anything like that. I just think what you wrote applies more to those who use website builders (e.g. Wix and the like), which is what more and more small businesses are doing. WP has evolved to the point where you can still create simple websites, but anyone who has to build a website with it knows after a short time that it takes more than just a few plugins and a theme.

However, it's always more fun to develop everything yourself, because then you have to get to grips with your website even more. (and I have to be honest, if I had the time, I would have replaced WP on my website with something of my own a long time ago)

[seomotionz]

Traffic is down by 40% in the tech niche.

[superclown2]

WP has evolved to the point where you can still create simple websites, but anyone who has to build a website with it knows after a short time that it takes more than just a few plugins and a theme.

1) The average WP site is full of vulnerabilities. Plugins and themes are a hacker's dream. If you get hold of Kali Linux there are stacks of constantly updated tools for exploiting them.

2) It creates top heavy sites which are much slower loading than they could be.

Google loves fast loading sites. HTML CSS and Javascript are not that difficult to learn. All our sites have been hand coded for the last two decades which is one of the reasons why we are still in business whilst so many of our earlier competitors disappeared.

[Micha]

@superclown2

Everything you say is true, but when I look at my main website: not only is it faster than many other self-made websites, but it's also not as "top-heavy". It depends on how you use WP and companies now know that too. Which is no wonder, because Google's roar of "fast websites blah blah blah" cannot be ignored.

But let's leave that aside. Just a quick word about "giving up": I don't think it's because of the system, I think it's because of the general circumstances, which were mainly created by Google and they are system-independent.

[superclown2]

I have lost track of the number of WP sites I have found with hidden links in them, put there via SQL injection or other dark arts. There are certain websites that owe their success to techniques like this.

Just a quick word about "giving up": I don't think it's because of the system, I think it's because of the general circumstances,

Yes 20+ years ago it really was the Wild West, website creators could put up any old junk and it would still rank on at least some of the many search engines that existed. Give Google their due, their dominance was well earned and they certainly cleaned out a lot of the poor quality sites. That is still the case and if it wasn't we would all face far more competition.

Unfortunately Wall Street took over Google and their priority is making money, not helping searchers find the best websites. Those of us that survive will have to adapt to the new circumstances, or go under. Any realistic suggestions on how we do this will always be welcome.

Darwin was right. It isn't necessarily the strongest that win out in the end, it is those best able to adapt to change.

[ichthyous]

@superclown It's fairly easy to harden any WP site against vulnerabilities. I can see from cloudlfsre the attempts being made on my back end and scans for files 24/7. You have to be diligent about setting up rules to deny access before it even hits the server, that's with any site. But I totally agree about the plugins...WP authors have a high rate of abandoning plug-ins and a good number can have vulnerabilities. You have to be careful about what you install.

USA traffic has crashed this morning...-60% at 10am. I am noticing this pattern of extremely low morning traffic and then it builds towards the end of the day. But traffic in general is tepid this summer...both search and direct traffic.

[Micha]

By the way, it won't be long before we experience a few more loops on our Google rollercoaster

[seroundtable.com ]

[Martin Ice Web]

Traffic quality is bottomless. And it is clear that google is aiming brands traffic. Even our own brands got hit. Nonm branded items are the main sellers right now. And these are most very "old" out of tech date items.

[renatovieira]

Huge drop today... Here we go again...

[ichthyous]

I can second that...my USA traffic is -67% at 10am, and home page traffic is -77%. For whatever reason google refuses to use my home page for the serps now, and has switched to ranking interior pages on my site for high volume competitive searches. The result is I am nowhere to be found for these searches with my interior page going up against other sites' more powerful home pages. It's very annoying and makes no sense...my home page was fine for twenty years. My traffic now is dropping below 2023 traffic for June and July and still dropping...

[RedBar]

The reason I posted about WP was in response to this comment:

I've seen fewer and fewer publishers on here,

Do WP employed site builders need sites like WebmasterWorld or do they try and find their problems' solutions within the WP world?

You are probably an exception Micha. I did use WP once for a blog on one of my sites, I got it to run very fast, I got it to rank very well indeed knowing what was needed however I gave up on it for one very simple reason and that was performing back-ups.

Now I don't know whether I was doing something wrong however it was a nightmare and then I had to move servers ... Oh boy, that was it, I fell out with WP immediately. I had to move 100+ sites all hand-built, all but one went as smooth as silk except for the blog ... I gave up on it in the end, it was probably me however I like to be in control of what I do and know precisely where everything is and how it works, realistically I didn't know a darned thing about WP!

[not2easy]

OT - Our WP forum here - [webmasterworld.com...] shows that a lot of WP users don't understand how WP works and try to do things you might do with a plain html site, but because WP manages everything from its own settings that are configured by the user - and often without understanding the consequences of their decisions - it can lead to disappointments and surprises. The WordPress.org site offers everything you'd need to know, free tutorials and all, but too often people just start in and then look for fixes. Oh, and add in a dozen magic plugins...

WP reminds me of lucy24's old office complaint:

I really hate this dang machine!
I wish that they would sell it!
It never does just what I want,
but only what I tell it.

[RedBar]

You are probably an exception Micha.

Ok, this is when I probably embarass myself!

A few years ago one of the world''s leading web developers used to post here daily with in-excess of 13K posts and ostensibly last seen here in December 2023. She posted under the name of netmeg and I distinctly remember a few years ago that she converted all the sites she ran into a customised WP.

They were extremely successful but bear in mind she was originally a hand-coder..

[Dooku]

one of the world''s leading web developers

That person is not your average "publisher" :-)

Most people still think that botnets consist of infected desktop computers.
In actuality most consist of infected shared hosting or VPS accounts....running scripts 24/7 or on demand.
As long as the malware operates below the servers operations per second threshold for that account.....even the hosting company will not be aware a WP site is hacked.....because most do NOT scan diligently with quality tools.
WP sites are being hacked at the rate of thousands each day and the majority of webmasters and hosting companies don't even know they are hacked.
It's not a question of IF but WHEN your WP site will get hacked.
Any form of security goes out the door when your system is based on publicly developed plugins......you might as well post your credit card # and cvv# online.

[Micha]

WP has advantages and disadvantages due to its simplicity. Many installations are unfortunately crammed with plugins, not secured and then have an SEO plugin and think everything is fine. Oh yes, and if things get really bad, you do without a web space and host directly at Wp.com

But then all is not well and I know enough WP sites that have been cobbled together and cracked. I have repaired countless installations.

I also prefer self-built systems, mainly because I can customize them better to my needs. With my site, however, I have to be honest and say that I simply don't have the time to do this alongside my editorial work, because the system would have to be very extensive - after all, I have 45 editors who have to use it. That's why I left it at optimization. For example, I only use three plug-ins, have adapted the theme and so on. I also host my site on my own server, so I don't have any problems with security. Of course, there is never 100% security, but everything has been fine for 14 years.

Oh yes, one more little note: I find the WP world mostly horrible, just like the SEO world and I ended up here because I just had a look around and found the forum here quite nice.

So, enough about WordPress now,

[saladtosser]

As a professional custom full stack developer, specializing primarily in .NET 6-8 MVC, I find WordPress to be rather limiting. Its one-size-fits-all approach often feels cumbersome and bloated. In contrast, full stack development offers precise control and efficiency, particularly with technologies like CWV and robust hosting solutions such as Azure.

I understand that not everyone has 30 years of day in day out development experience (from notepad days), tracing back to the days of classic ASP, which, despite its limitations, still powers many business-critical sites today. For me, transitioning to WordPress would be a significant downgrade.

It's important to note that Core Web Vitals (CWV), fast page loading, HTTPS, and mobile-friendly designs, although pimped by G, do not guarantee top search engine rankings. From my observations, Google still places substantial weight on backlinks, even those from outdated, non-mobile-friendly, non-HTTPS sites. Despite meeting every technical criterion, superior content and social signals other site don't have does not surpass the influence of long-standing backlinks. G would rather serve an almost impossible to use desktop only site on mobile in my niche because it got backlinks back in 1999 than a modern user friendly mobile site from 2007...

This reality reminds me of the importance of foundational backlinks from when you were the first and the longevity of their impact trumps everything. sadly and wrongly IMO

[ichthyous]

Traffic to my home page has remained at -67% all day...impossible unless there is some kind of throttling or penalty. Has anyone else seen this happen with their site?

[freshpaul]

@ichthyous

I'm seeing what I normally see when it feels like there's some kind of update going on. Traffic remains about the same, but conversions drop off a cliff. No one fills out forms on our site. Luckily we had a bunch of leads come in on Monday, but it's been crickets ever since.

[Micha]

@freshpaul So it's not just the shop that I look after. It was exactly the same, orders came in on Monday, but hardly any since then, despite increasing visitor numbers.
This month is turning into a disaster for this shop ...

[mosxu]

No genuine traffic today freaking zombies

[freshpaul]

@Micha

Yup. For us, it has turned into a game of conversions and not traffic. It seems that after any kind of dial is adjusted, it's radio silence. It's hard to understand the type of traffic that Google is sending to our site.

And yes, Tuesday, for example, we had more traffic, but a quarter of the conversions vs Monday.

[ichthyous]

USA traffic is atrocious today...-49% at 1pm. And huge swings from hour to hour has become the norm. My graphs have gone from sawtooth to sharktooth.

[Micha]

@freshpaul

I also wonder what kind of traffic this is. I think it's extreme that nobody buys anything. It can't be because of customer restraint, the traffic is probably from countries where we don't sell. However, it is noticeable that many shopwners have this problem and always at the same time (I just spoke to a few people who told me exactly the same thing), so I can't call it a “coincidence”.

I'm at a loss, because there seems to be nothing you can do about it.

[universenet]

Ideal situation for google is next:
Remove eveyy website what is possible from internet
I was surprised when they changed price for using google maps like arround 100x higher (not 100 percent, it was 100 x)
Only criminals doing that
I am not surprised about google antyhing
Google is like a scammer

[saladtosser]

Ladies, can someone please explain to me why are LLMs chat bots/image generators are being referred to as "AI" everywhere? AI, hasn't been invented yet as far as I can tell but calling LLMS AI lowers the bar MASSIVLY and seems to be an excuse for "programs" to commit content theft!? What am I missing, I've looked at GROK its code. They excel at specific tasks related to language processing but do not possess general intelligence or consciousness and everything they spit forth is off the work of others, paid or unpaid! It's not AI guys!. Please please please pick everyone up on this because AI is an excuse for content theft, our content, LLMS aren't AI, don't let them tell you the content they produce is AI!

[christianz]

USA traffic is atrocious today...-49% at 1pm. And huge swings from hour to hour has become the norm. My graphs have gone from sawtooth to sharktooth.

Judging by GA real-time, traffic is really bad right now. US seems to be worst.

But GA real-time is not reliable. Yesterday it showed decent numbers but actual finalized number sessions was bad.

[londrum]

@saladtosser, i totally agree. Most of them are just glorified article spinners. The whole thing is a masterclass in PR.