August 2024 Google Search Observations

[christianz]

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System: The following 2 messages were cut out of thread at: [url=https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5108712.htm]https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5108712.htm[/url] by engine - 3:31 pm on Aug 1, 2024 (utc 0)

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Traffic drop since yesterday / today. Not sure who is gaining right now - SEO spam or Googlespam (SGE etc).

[ichthyous]

Also notice how quiet this forum is. People are giving up.

It's because nobody has real actionable information on how get back real converting traffic. Those days are gone and we will all get what google allows that day or even that hour. I have never ranked for so many top 3/5/10 terms in the last 20 years, but it's not referring as much traffic nor converting traffic. Google has removed the incentive to improve in search.

I wish I could depend on social media, but honestly I don't find that it works at all. It's a rigged game as well, wanting you to pay to boost your content to your own followers. When I did that and even ran ads on Instagram I got the most god awful inquiries. People filling out forms and then when you responded they had no idea why they filled it out. Useless.

Like all good things, the era of simply sitting back and watching the sales roll in online is over I think. It requires a huge amount of resources which are beyond the capacity of small business. Unless you have a lock on some unique product or service you can't compete against huge corporate conglomerates that are buying everything up.

In my extra time I have been writing articles this year. Several are ranking #1 or very well. I'm seeing whether I can siphon off a portion of the readers to convert them to customers, but it doesn't look like it...those that want to read articles aren't buyers. The extra traffic makes me happy and I'm sure helps my brand recognition but it's not translating to sales.

[Billy85]

I have no hope for this coming update(s) and future updates. The internet will become a very different place in the next couple years. (mainly transactional based results)
Less genuine content, more AI Spam content, thin content from big sites and the published content will get a lot worse.

I haven't really published much in almost a year because there is no point for me to spend money (couple hundred Euros) to purchase the products, invest a lot of time into reviewing these products, just to rank somewhere on page 2 and getting outranked by bigger sites that write 300 words and make a list of trash Chinese products.

The worst thing is when I get outranked by pages that are irrelevant to the query, just to bury my page a little bit further down. (for articles that ranked previously #1 or top 3, were regularly updated, had lots of comments and had an average engagement time 2+ minutes (sometimes even up to 5 minutes)

[Fluff_Nutz]

Okay, suggestions guys. One of my new writers to the site has messaged me saying that they plan on creating a new website of their own. Focusing on the exact same niche. Fair enough creating a site in the same niche. It happens.
However, what is currently troubling me is that they plan on using the content that is on my site, written by them. Then placing this content on their site as some kind of redirect. They call it a portfolio. Probably to boost their new site in the process. Could this potentially run risks for my site? How would you go about dealing with this exactly? I'll admit their message has caught me off guard a bit. Never come across a writer wanting to redirect and use content on my site before for their own personal use. I don't want to risk getting the site into trouble by outside negative influence, obviously..

[christianz]

people prefer to write on Facebook groups and pages

They are hoarded and nudged into FB and few other very large platforms. I don't think has been a natural process of people preferring FB over forums. Same with Google search and YouTube.

Initially some of it was natural network effect but at this point, given all the en#*$!ification and censorship, you can't claim that it is all because of network effect.

What we have now is some kind of anti-Internet where there are only 5 large mega websites and almost nothing but sea of "SEO content" around them, with few last remaining awesome websites that are increasingly difficult to find and non-viable to run.

Even my cute little website that I have been developing and running since 2007 is getting increasingly frequent offers to buy it by some multi-site "holding" companies who would just let it rot away and bring in passive income for next few years. I will not allow that. Yes, it is disheartening and demotivating seeing junk outrank me (and now AI junk) but I am surviving and keeping the spirit of the WWW alive, in my tiny little inconsequential corner of the web.

[Samsam1978]

Can someone recommend a company that manages copyright infringement please as I saw a few of you say you make money on this per year. Thank you.

[ichthyous]

Can someone recommend a company that manages copyright infringement please as I saw a few of you say you make money on this per year. Thank you.

I use my own attorneys as that provides the best results by far. But when I first started I used ImageRights and there is also Pixsy. I settled quite a few cases with IR but for a much lower rate than with my own attorneys. In the USA you will need an attorney that is admitted to the bar in that state where the infringing company is located. Good luck!

[Samsam1978]

@Fluff_Nutz I would absolutely so NO to that. I would not be happy for them to even discuss the work they did for you with other SEO people. I'd say Im not comfortable with it, as it is confidential. A competitor may want to copy your site so I would not agree to it.

[Samsam1978]

@ichthyous thank you x

[Srikanthn]

Our site has been hit by HCU I am seeing the improvement from last 1 week. Yet to wait to get the conclusive outcome.

[Conro]

Today, on the other hand, I see the lowest traffic ever. The problem was updating hundreds of articles, I shouldn't have listened to those Google sociopaths. I hope they take every possible evil. It's over for me, I give up

[Micha]

It remains strange, I can't save myself from orders in the store at the moment and my news site is also doing well. The weekend was mixed, but today Google seems to be turning the screws again.
I continue to see a steady increase in traffic from Discover, on the news side.

[Juniya]

@Fluff_Nutz - You shouldn't allow that, tell them to create new content.

[ichthyous]

I continue to see a steady increase in traffic from Discover, on the news side.

Funny, my search traffic is increasing but I cannot get a single item to show in news or discover. They show a few impressions on the first day and zero clicks, then after the first day nothing. Not sure why but I assumed it's because my site doesn't have enough authority or because it's not listed as a news site...

[morpheus83]

Things were well till Sunday and then traffic dropped off a cliff. Seems we are sandboxed as of now.

[KaseyM]

Traffic so slow...

Not surprising when I get on most search queries:

AI Overview
Top Snippet that often contradicts AI Overview
People Also Searched
(5 scrolls later)
First blue link.

[Micha]

@ichthyous Is your site labeled as a source in Google News?

[mhansen]

Since late June 2024 (23-25th), I have seen a steady increase in direct traffic (GA4). It's never been this way in the past, and over the month of July, the "Direct" channel has increased to match that of the organic search (which did not go down) in August. I'm a CloudFlare user, block AI and many countries since the service is USA only.

Has anyone else seen this increase? If so, have you determined the cause?

Thanks in advance.

Edit to add: I dug deeper into my coffee mug to slap myself awake and then drilled deeper into GA, and found that +90% of this Direct traffic is coming from European countries that are not blocked. Also, ALL this direct traffic is very quick to leave the website, usually below 1-2 seconds and completely opposite of the engagement time search users are sent from the same countries (Avg +2 min engagement).

[edited by: mhansen at 3:33 pm (utc) on Aug 12, 2024]

[Markedd]

@@Fluff_Nutz So they want to use 301 redirects from your site to their own. This would help them rank faster and the website may go high up quicker and way above your own. It shouldn't really have an impact on you as long as Google is not a moron... But what I am curious is how much are they willing to pay for the backlinks. This should be some serious juice passed on and all for free? I have a few websites that could use it as well if you're willing to spread it for free, hehehe :D

[not2easy]

A 301 tells Google that the content was permanently moved, you do not want that.

Google may note that the content still is located where it was and does not have noindex tags so that means it is duplicate content, you do not want that.

[Fluff_Nutz]

@SamSam, @Juniya, @Markedd and @not2easy

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I'm not really sure about this current situation.

For clarification he is adding these redirects from his own website. Not mine. There are no redirects on my site to his. He currently writes on my site. This is the first I have heard of him wanting to create his own site. Albeit in the same niche. So I was wondering if redirects from his own site to mine will have any negative impacts?

He says it will be a portfolio of redirects from his own site to mine. Which, I assume, will send traffic to my site. He calls it free marketing. Meanwhile he will continue to write articles. Hopefully of his own on to the site too, alongside this portfolio of redirects.

All he will be doing on my site is continuing to write articles that I pay them for.

Does this sound like a good deal? If not I'm tempted to boot him from the team. So before I make any rash decisions I am merely asking for advice.

[not2easy]

If the articles are being 301 redirected from his site to yours, that is different, but it also makes it appear that articles existing on your site came from his site. I might suggest that they link to your site as the origin, but not with any redirect, just a source link. The full article should only be on the source site to avoid confusing the bots. A lot depends on how it is set up. US copyright considers fair use, but generally that would be excerpts, not the whole article. Laws are different around the world though. Web developers and writers, even photographers and artists portfolios often show links to sites with their work without showing complete articles and images.

[Micha]

@Fluff_Nutz redirection or linking? A redirect would be strange, but a link is normal, especially for freelance authors who use it to present their work.

[Samsam1978]

@Fluff_Nutz I would boot him tbh cheeky. Asking to create a site in your niche. He writes for you. Not to create another site like yours. He would have to go if my writer. I would not want any competition to my site. If he goes off and writes a load of articles in competition then it will fail. I would not tell him just drop him by saying putting a hold due to the Google algo and AI and the site is unprofitable so use that as excuse so he don't think he can make loads of money. Also maybe say that you don't think it will do either of you any good linking due to the volatility of Google at the moment and the friendly content update in Sept 2023 saw many sites go to 0 for doing dodgy things.

Also check Originality.AI under Turbo to make sure he's not using AI.

Dear Writer, Thank you so much for all your had work, I love your writing style and all the articles you have written - but at the moment Google have released AI overviews and it is making my site unprofitable so I can't afford writers anymore so I am putting project on hold. If things change I will be in touch. Due to Google's changes I would prefer if you don't link to the articles as it could create problems with the algo. I do appreciate all your work and will be in touch again when things improve.

P.s I have employed many writers over last 15 years and now I just write myself as too much hassle tbh

[Hollywood]

Google’s Monopoly Ruling Signals Potential Shift in Search Landscape - A U.S. District Court has deemed Google a monopoly in the online search market, which may lead to increased competition and regulatory scrutiny. ~Forbes

[delorean]

As usual, high authority sites dominate. Remaining hope gradually losing.

[sanjeevk89]

I am seeing keyword ranking fluctuations in my websites. Getting regular notifications of up and down from SEMrush tool.

[RedBar]

After the first 12 days the summer holiday season continues with my global traffic, as expected, an average -20%.

August has always been a quiet month for the last 50+ year in my experience.

Our UK hotel site traffic is -10% however it is fully-booked and the restaurants are busy plus Xmas meal bookings have already commenced as in previous years.

[delorean]

Does anyone here experiencing deindexing, but not all pages. It just started this month. I'm worried right now. How can I fix this. By the way, I'm on a blogspot platform, so recommendations about Wordpress/hosting will not be much of help.

[RedBar]

Does anyone here experiencing deindexing, but not all pages.

Yep, for many years and I haven't a clue why it happens and this has occurred on many sites and especially so for unique widget pages. And when I write unique I mean the only page on the www for that specific widget.

Does G deem them as such low-traffic pages that they're not worth being indexed? I have no idea, but for me some of these low-trafficked widgets are very high-value widgets for specialist projects.

I doubt there is anything you can do about it since I use the same template layout and navigation for all my pages therefore it is not the basic page construction that is "wrong" but G's "attitude" towards it.

[delorean]

@RedBar
Thanks for the response.

[gatormark]

@delorean

Does anyone here experiencing deindexing, but not all pages.

Yes! That has happened to many of my newer and smaller websites. Google just removed pages from their search results. I use google search on my sites and they even removed the results from internal site search results, which is strange to me. I am looking for a search alternative search engine to use on my websites...if anyone has suggestions.

[ichthyous]

A sudden and quote large drop in ranking of top 3 and top 10 ranking terms on desktop over the last four days or so. A lesser drop for mobile, but still significant.

That is coming after weeks of rapid increases in the number of top 3/10 ranking terms. In the past I found that it usually happens in 6 month cycles, but now the gaining/losing of top ranking terms seems to be happening much faster. Since ~ July 20th a gradual upward trend in traffic which hasn't reverted yet. Despite losing these terms my traffic isn't dropping much.

None of this is a normal summer pattern for me. Usually traffic drops in June when all the students are out and rapidly increases again in September. To me that would imply that my June and July traffic was just much lower than it should have been....

[RedBar]

I am looking for a search alternative search engine to use on my websites...if anyone has suggestions.

I've used DDG for several years wthout any problems insofar as I am aware.

Obviously I have my code however I can't find the link to set it up and have to go out now. I'll come back later.

[RedBar]

Hmmm ... I can't find the DDG's installation page therefore I'll give you the code I use:

<iframe src="https://duckduckgo.com/search.html?width=320&site=example.com&prefill=Search DuckDuckGo" style="overflow:hidden;margin:0;padding:0;width:378px;height:40px;" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Change example.com for your website name.

I seem to remember that DDG advised to allow 2 weeks for the site to be indeed.

[Micha]

The Department of Justice is considering breaking up Google ... I have to admit that I wouldn't be too sad if that were to happen.

[url]http[b][/b]s://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-13/doj-considers-seeking-google-goog-breakup-after-major-antitrust-win [/url]

[delorean]

@gatormark
thanks for your reply

however, my site is not a new site. its been running for 5 years with some solid top pages for years.

is google really boosting 'helpful' content? i'm seeing the opposite.

[delorean]

Is it okay to put "This article was originally published on the BLOGNAME" for post feed footer?

[universenet]

[quote]The Department of Justice is considering breaking up Google ... I have to admit that I wouldn't be too sad if that were to happen.[/quote]
[url]http[b][/b]s://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-13/doj-considers-seeking-google-goog-breakup-after-major-antitrust-win[/url]

Micha
This is only way what can be good, google just need be under law, healthy competition,
Problem is how long time need for to do that? Weeks? Months? Years?

[superclown2]

Problem is how long time need for to do that? Weeks? Months? Years?

Google will appeal. That will probably fail (unless of course they spend megabucks on 'lobbying') because the evidence against them is so strong; but any delay is in their interests since they can continue raking in their megabucks in the meanwhile. They will then probably appeal again right up to the supreme court.

The continued publicity will do them no good; but even though they will know that they may well have been ripped off by Google's auction 'adjustments' many major companies will still deal with them if only to keep competitors out of the top spots. Unfortunately there is no realistic alternative company to take their place yet.

So don't expect anything dramatic to happen soon. Sorry.

[universenet]

Unfortunately there is no realistic alternative company to take their place yet

I think that Microsoft and Apple, FB and Amazon (not sure how serious is X) can take that place very fast...
Even after so many chaos not dificult to take google place anymore
Every company what has strong number of servers and what is related to search can take that place

[ichthyous]

The Department of Justice is considering breaking up Google ... I have to admit that I wouldn't be too sad if that were to happen.

[bloomberg.com ]

It's about time, this should have happened years ago. It's unlikely that they will succeed...and even if they do, it won't help us. The government is simply proposing to split off android and chrome from the search business, and also possibly splitting off adwords. So Google would no longer control both sides of the ad market, but they can still manipulate the search results all they want.

[Micha]

A split would take a very long time, but the share price is already suffering, and that should hurt Google even more.

[ichthyous]

A split would take a very long time, but the share price is already suffering, and that should hurt Google even more.

I sold all my shares when I read about the possible split up. I think the stock price will drift lower and then just continue to move sideways for a while. Better to leave the money collecting interest or invest in something else.

[gatormark]

@delorean
Sorry, the websites I am referring to are 5 years or younger. That is what I meant by “newer.” I have a couple websites that are 15 to 20 years old.

[EditorialGuy]

Google's August Core Update has begun:

http[b][/b]s://searchengineland.com/google-august-2024-core-update-rolling-out-now-445221

[engine]

FYI "Released the August 2024 core update. The rollout may take up to a month to complete. " https://status.search.google.com/incidents/gVx6b2o78zke7GrMidGy

Added from Google

Today we released the August 2024 core update. It continues our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.

[edited by: engine at 3:35 pm (utc) on Aug 15, 2024]

[superclown2]

showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.

So all the past 'updates' have failed to do this so far?

[ichthyous]

Google's August Core Update has begun:

I knew something was up...I lost a big swath of top 3 ranking and top 10 ranking terms in one shot. That's after watching them rise and rise for weeks. Hopefully they will recover, but it hasn't affected traffic much, just conversions. It's back to zero new customers.

[Micha]

more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.

It sounds like webmasters whose sites have crashed due to HCT shouldn't get their hopes up too high. And to be honest, it sounds more like a “Reddit push update” to me. I wouldn't be surprised if the update led to Reddit dominating the results in all other countries as well.

[EditorialGuy]

I view Google's affair with Reddit as a fling, not a long-term relationship. It just wouldn't make sense for Google to become an extension of Reddit while turning its back on the larger Web.