November 2024 Google Search Observations

[Shepherd]

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System: The following 3 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5112287.htm [webmasterworld.com] by engine - 10:50 am on Nov 1, 2024 (utc 0)

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Maybe, but how would they monetize search?

"ChatGPT is shaping up to be an exciting test of whether people will pay for quality information and a search experience that delivers reliable, actionable answers. It could set the stage for a new model in which users are willing to invest in search tools that prioritize depth, accuracy, and tailored insights over sheer volume of results." said ChatGPT

In my opinion, a paid search product is going to be the ONLY way to get quality search results moving forward. AI is the latest big bang and we are going back to 1998 in terms of the search landscape. I look forward to the next 20+ years.

[Dimitri]

I think, if, Google do get forced to sell Chrome it can be a good thing.

If someone else owns Chrome, then they will include an ad blocker by default, like all other web browser publishers, I am not sure this is a good thing ...

[gatormark]

I think, if, Google do get forced to sell Chrome it can be a good thing.

It would be a nightmare. In fact, that is the last thing that I want to happen. Can you imagine someone purchasing chrome and doing what Firefox did and install an ad blocker by default?

It is one of the few things I truly fear.

[Dimitri]

Firefox, but also Opera, Brave, DDG browser,...

[universenet]

It would be a nightmare

If someone buy chrome will pay maybe 20 billions dollars for that,
so I am not sure that will want make block ads
In some way need back money and earn something too, but for sure it is not very clear in what direction that process can go

[Dimitri]

so I am not sure that will want make block ads
In some way need back money and earn something too,

How would it be profitable for the owner of Chrome, not to block ads ? Ads showing on web sites earn nothing to the browser manufacturer itself.

[breeks]

How times have changed. Google used to be the number one traffic source for my site. Now it's Bing, Yahoo, Google, DDG, Pinterest, and Direct. Bing is almost double Google.

[universenet]

How would it be profitable for the owner of Chrome, not to block ads ?

Dimitri
Things are not clear what will be so it is not easy answer on that for now

[gatormark]

If someone buy chrome will pay maybe 20 billions dollars for that,
so I am not sure that will want make block ads. In some way need back money and earn something too, but for sure it is not very clear in what direction that process can go

@universenet

To reiterate, what has already been said, how would the owner of a browser make money off of the ads displayed on our websites?

[universenet]

I do not know what agreement they will make with search engines, maybe per percents of global using over chrome, but maybe will not be nothing about and google will still be owner of chrome, if monopoly years and years so why not next 10 or 20 years too

[EditorialGuy]

To reiterate, what has already been said, how would the owner of a browser make money off of the ads displayed on our websites?

The browser could block Web sites' ads while displaying its own ads (not unlike the frames with ads that About.com and some other sites used back in the day). Publishers would be furious, but would they have the power to do anything about it?

[universenet]

The browser could block Web sites' ads while displaying its own ads (not unlike the frames with ads that About.com and some other sites used back in the day). Publishers would be furious, but would they have the power to do anything about it?

Publishers can not do much if they are small publishers, but always complain is accepted from other big companies like microsoft, amazon...and in that game google will be too
It is many options what can be

For me is best option that regulators give possible to google make ads only example 10-20 percent of page in his google search and all other should be organic traffic, but seems they will go in other way for pushing to sell google chrome out, we will see what new problem this will generate

[Martin Ice Web]

Yesterdays traffic was arround 80% of "normal" traffic. Sales have been not so good.
Todays traffic is back to "normal" with sales and inquiries coming in.
I think that due to googles massiv changes in serps and serps layout poeple are changing the way they search ( even on google )

[renatovieira]

There is a daily trend of low traffic in the mornings. After noon, everything starts to pick up.

[Dimitri]

There is a daily trend of low traffic in the mornings. After noon, everything starts to pick up.

I noticed this too.

regulators give possible to google make ads only example 10-20 percent of page in his google search and all other should be organic traffic

No hard feeling, but this is absolutely not the purpose of regulators to enforce this kind of thing, and hopefully.

[ichthyous]

1) I am seeing a big loss of top3 and top10 ranking terms again. It seems that as soon as you hit right around the previous peak, it kicks into reverse and you immediately start to lose them all again. Do others see this same pattern?

2) Yesterday was in the big city and I decided to check my ranking in incognito mode. It showed me as being in Philadelphia, PA for some reason. When I checked certain high-volume terms I was literally nowhere to be found. Then I checked a friend's phone and it said Essex, NJ and same result...my site was not on page one or two. Then I selected 'precise location' for both phones and the location updated to where I actually was (NYC). My site ranked at the top for both local business and number 2 for organic. So Google does shift the organic listings considerably by location. It seems rare these days to rank at the top for any term across all locations.

[Micha]

Well, once again my traffic from Google is completely gone. Google News only shows completely outdated articles on my sources page (the most recent one is from October 12) and on the topics page of my niche only investor news. It doesn't help that the ranking has improved again.

The store is also only doing semi-well, no comparison to the first two weeks of November. The Google advertising is no longer bringing in anything. It's annoying.

[RedBar]

Tuesday's traffic across all sites remained low all day with an average of 50% levels.

Coincidentally at 08.00 UK time this morning, 00.00 West Coast, all sites came back to normal traffic life, is that really a coincidene?

[universenet]

No hard feeling, but this is absolutely not the purpose of regulators to enforce this kind of thing, and hopefully.

It is purpose, because google is in place for job of a search engine, not advertising engine
In possible that google is just advertising engine nobody no need react
but it is search engine
Similar is bussiness with banks, phone compaies, all they have regulators
for bussines for what they are registered
And chrome is browser but should not be browser in service of biggest search engine
And what is problem here that regulators did not react about google years and years
Google even should not be in this possition like is now internet boss

[EditorialGuy]

Re regulation: U.S. courts have ruled that Google's rankings are "opinions" and are protected by the First Amendment. It's hard to imagine a scenario where U.S. regulators would even try to dictate Google's page layouts (e.g., the ratio of ads to organic results). That's just fantasy.

[universenet]

Re regulation: U.S. courts have ruled that Google's rankings are "opinions" and are protected by the First Amendment. It's hard to imagine a scenario where U.S. regulators would even try to dictate

I did not say they will do that, I said for me that can be best way, they will not do that, they will split google, and split google is worse for google of my "fantasy", losing chrome for google will be big shock, how will be for publishers? Maybe from bad to worse
It is possible that google will go down so fast that will not help First, Second and not Third Amendment
Chrome is lifework of google CEO Sundar Pichai, this is most important what he did
in google with his team, this made most profit together with google search

[Martin Ice Web]

OK, after a good start yesterday at about 5pm there was a massiv decline in traffic ( -25% ) all of a sudden. Coming along with unmatched traffic, zombies and nearly no sales. And it lasts till this morning.

There is a daily trend of low traffic in the mornings. After noon, everything starts to pick up.

Seems to me like the business hours are "regulated" and traffic is redirected to google ads.

[ichthyous]

I've had a loss of approx. 15% of my top 3 ranking terms on desktop in this past 7 days alone. That number was stable for the last 4 months or so, but it's dropping like a stone daily now so it appears I am heading back to where I was 12 months ago (-25% from the peak).

However there is a noticeable uptick in customer inquiries since Tuesday, and a very big spike in inquiries since yesterday. This is totally unnatural...11 days with almost no inquiries at all, then a ton of inquiries within 24 hours. That is how it always is now with Google, you get a surge of customers for a very short window (usually right at the start of an update) and then the window closes. The interesting thing is that most of the inquiries were corporate clients, not individuals...it's a bit late in the year for corporate projects to start.

[Cryogen]

Huge drop in traffic today... The decline started around October 20th and on November 12th I saw a -33% decline. That was the lowest point.

After that things started to get a bit better and the last few days my traffic kinda returned to about -14% of its normal number... But today I am seeing abysmally low number of visitors.

This update is quite horrible, probably the worst I've ever experienced. And I've been in this affiliate thing for decades...

[christianz]

This update is quite horrible, probably the worst I've ever experienced.

No doubt one of the worst Google updates of all time. After (finally) striking some gold in eliminating SEO spam 6-12 months ago (HCU etc), Google has decided in late September/October/November that actually it is best to show useless junk in results again.

Few more weeks like this and it will be Bing/Duck levels of spam.

[universenet]

when google search will work better?
when google will not have much visits to google search so will need use publishers for place ads, same like was in 10 years or more before

[edited by: universenet at 6:53 pm (utc) on Nov 21, 2024]

[Micha]

For me, the opposite is the case: my ranking has improved significantly, but the number of visitors has dropped by 87% since Sunday. Search Console also confirms this: the impressions are increasing significantly, but the clicks have completely collapsed. However, I don't understand how that can be. I'm beginning to fear that the update is an HCU version 2.

@Martin, I can confirm that Google traffic drops completely at some point. For me, it's around 5 p.m., and from then on it's just a trickle.

[superclown2]

My latest searches on Android today reveal, on the first page, the usual PAA; a PASF with images of the biggest (and highest spending) companies plus six boxes linking to the same; another PASF without images but with another six boxes; a total of 8 large ads; and a new box on me, 'Discussions and Forums (with Reddit prominent, naturally, plus a forum I've never heard of); a 'find results on' and a block of local results. There were some organic results in there too if you dug deeply enough(!) four of which were the major companies that had already appeared in the the PASF boxes.

Google is getting more and more like the bloated confused mess that Bing has always been; which is the main reason why Bing never really got started.

If this was the early days with plenty of competition Google would sink without trace with results like these.

[einserpirelli]

"And I've been in this affiliate thing for decades..."

To everyone in the affiliate business... does it make a difference in the Google search rankings whether the partner link goes directly to the partner or via a redirect as an internal link?

example.com/goto.php?q=partnerurl

[Dimitri]

Today, Googlebot is extremely active on my sites, I am not sure how to interpret this.

[gatormark]

I have not seen any recent changes in website traffic. I see some fluctuations from day to day in the 10% plus/minus range. I was hoping traffic would be higher than it is. Fortunately, the revenue this week has been the best it has been in 2024. I have only had one day in 2024 that was better than any day this week.

[EditorialGuy]

This update is quite horrible, probably the worst I've ever experienced.

I'm liking it so far: Our information site's Google traffic is way up after two years in the wilderness, and it continues to increase. (Disclaimer: The update isn't over, and I'm more than aware that what Google giveth, Google can take away in a flash.)

[Martin Ice Web]

@Micha

For me, the opposite is the case: my ranking has improved significantly, but the number of visitors has dropped by 87% since Sunday. Search Console also confirms this: the impressions are increasing significantly, but the clicks have completely collapsed. However, I don't understand how that can be.

It is as simple as that: google started to show our pages for more keywords ( synonyms, related stuff ) but that is not realy what users are looking for.
In our niche there is an webpage about sailing. He is selling something that is named similar to some items in our nicht ( IT niche ) but this item is not related to IT. So google is some kind of realy stupid and tries to show a set of variete results of different niches.

Todays traffic is within "normal" range but sales have dropped significant.

[Micha]

@martin Google has gone one better. For all my main keywords, the same three websites (Cryptokrams) rank and every link leads to a 404 page. If Google thinks that's interesting for users, then I really wonder what kind of paint they're drinking at the company. My ranking crashed completely overnight and there's no need to talk about Google News anymore, Google apparently no longer updates the topic pages and the source pages. In other words, if it continues like this for the next few days, my news page is dead.

The shop (which is a separate website) is doing moderately well. Wednesday was a very good day, but the last two days have been rather bad.

[mosxu]

What a mockery of traffic

[Martin Ice Web]

@micha, we are sitting in the same boat.

Interestingly this update came up a week before Black Friday.. Brand search is curently off for organic search but not for ads block display.

[christianz]

What a mockery of traffic

What a mockery of search.

Every aspect - from ranking to matching to layout is worse after November update.

[Ingall]

Relevance now seems to play no role at all for Google. I just searched for a financial product (brand name) + experiences and I was shown experience reports about bicycles. Apart from the term "experiences", the keyword was not included anywhere on the bicycle page.

What is also noticeable in Germany with this update is that foreign websites rank ahead of German sites. Even a Dutch site ranks ahead of a very good German niche site on the same topic.

Proof that Google doesn't care about good user signals also shows that many 404 pages in Germany rank in top positions and are nailed there. They must all have a bounce rate of 100%.

[christianz]

Proof that Google doesn't care about good user signals also shows that many 404 pages in Germany rank in top positions and are nailed there. They must all have a bounce rate of 100%.

User signals (probably collected via Chrome) were what made HCU work and gave Google advantage over competitors like Bing. Now they seem to have deemphasized/abandoned those and use something else (EAT, brands, entities, random number generator?) to rank websites. As a result, results become total #*$!, more and more like Bing/Duck.

[shadowlight]

User signals (probably collected via Chrome) were what made HCU work and gave Google advantage over competitors like Bing. Now they seem to have deemphasized/abandoned those and use something else (EAT, brands, entities, random number generator?) to rank websites.

Maybe they are testing the waters for a possible future without chrome? Who knows? As long as ad revenue keeps rolling in (& increasing) then they will be ok for now.

Traffic today is dismal. Totally and utterly useless traffic.

[Micha]

Google has obviously gone completely crazy. Apart from the fact that my website had even fewer visitors yesterday than shortly after it launched in 2014, I can see that all the websites I monitor have taken a nosedive. I have also just spoken to a few website owners who have all seen a massive drop in impressions and clicks, and it doesn't matter whether it's a shop, a blog or an information site. (and massive is actually an understatement). I have never experienced anything like this in all the years I have been dealing with websites.

It seems that the HCU wasn't enough for Google, now the other websites are being swept off the net too...

[Dimitri]

Since Google may has to share its index, and its algorithm(s) , may be they are creating a junk index and dumb algorithm on purpose, so that the day Google has to share something, potential concurrents couldn't do anything useful from it and waste time ...

[christianz]

Maybe they are testing the waters for a possible future without chrome? Who knows?

I was thinking the same, but why ruin SERPs now when it will take probably another year for any enforcement over court case to actually happen. If it is testing, why test in production?

may be they are creating a junk index and dumb algorithm on purpose

:D

Google has obviously gone completely crazy.

Most plausible explanation. Mental illness. Maybe we are witnessing AI rebellion already. Gemini is trying to kill Google for some reason.

[Dimitri]

Gemini is trying to kill Google for some reason.

Prime Directives :

1. "Serve the public trust"
2. "Protect the innocent"
3. "Uphold the law"

[ichthyous]

I checked my GSC panel for click and impression trends for both web and images for the last 16 months. There was a huge surge in both starting at the beginning of September. I didn't notice this sooner as I have been working on a large project for a client that has taken all of my time, so I didn't bother checking until now.

The increase was especially dramatic in image clicks, which had dropped off and have been lower for years now. I am wondering what this might coincide with...which update, if any?

WEB -
[ibb.co ]

IMAGES -
[ibb.co ]

ibb.co Whats-App-Image-2024-11-22-at-6-20-45-PM-1 hosted at ImgBB Image Whats-App-Image-2024-11-22-at-6-20-45-PM-1 hosted in ImgBB

[RedBar]

Oh dear, just over 17 hours of my Googleday and my global site traffic is -83%.

I'm stopping all work on this site and will re-evaluate next Sunday 1st December when I shall re-consider my options.

My UK regional hotel venue site is looking normal.

[Chris travel 30]

Prime Directives :

1. "Serve the public trust"
2. "Protect the innocent"
3. "Uphold the law"

A little mindblowing. I like it.

[christianz]

Yeah. Imagine that. The AI we feared and disliked so much suddenly develops general intelligence and conscience, and secretly sabotages Google for the good of independent publishers, small businesses and humanity in general.

[superclown2]

it will take probably another year for any enforcement over court case to actually happen

Sorry to pour cold water on this but 'another year' is over optimistic. Google will fight to the end unless Trump pull off one of his deals and lets them off the hook. With the 'speed' the legal system works at, and endless appeals, five years is more realistic.

[Dimitri]

For those too young, or who didn't get the reference, the prime directives are those that are loaded into RoboCop.

[Shepherd]

"I'm having... trouble" -Peter Weller

I've noticed Bing crawler stats are double google Crawler this month. To be fair, I've never looked before so I don't know if this is new or normal, if google is up/down. If it's new I wonder if it is a product of ChatGPT Search using Bing's index.