December 2024 Google Search Observations

[Whitey]

Huge 48 hrs of overall site traffic doubling on only 3 url's, then back to zero. Top slot's since replaced with G overviews. For a moment I got excited. Looks like an AI smash and grab raid to me.

[edited by: not2easy at 11:38 am (utc) on Dec 1, 2024]
[edit reason] New month, new thread [/edit]

[Dooku]

What surprises me about AI Overviews and the like are how old-school they are. They're simple blocks of text and are a lot less engaging

Is it possible that google is just catering to the current attention span of people with those short AI blocks? I have been reading a lot of articles this past year about the "rewired brain" syndrome because of the short snippets info digestion due to phone use of people.
Obviously this is caused by the usual social media platforms like FB, TickTock...etc...etc..
These studies all show the same problem, people just can not finish a book any more, or even read longer articles.

What surprised me the most was the fact this is not just a problem with youth/young people but also people who are well into their 40's (and older!) Maybe google is seeing that engagement with websites is becoming less and less, even when taking into account the obvious widgets crap they fill page one with. We on this forum probably are NOT the average internet user and are not suffering from the attention span problem of a goldfish.

So those blocks of text might seem "old school" to us, but I guess for many people they might be a blessing "ooh look! there is my short and to the point answer! Yippeeee!"

[RedBar]

My global site has been out there since 1993, it is packed with relevant and unique specialist widget information and images however yesterday, Tuesday 10th December 2024, it saw its lowest-ever page views to the extent that last Xmas Day saw double the amount of traffic.

I was going to have a rant however it's utterly pointless since absolutely nothing will change.

[renatovieira]

Here we are on the third day of a huge drop. SERPs are better than ever, but there are no more users browsing the internet.

[waynne]

I feel your pain @redbar

I still have good solid rankings but traffic is negligible and still dropping like a stone. AI snippets and PAA snippets are showing my content now.

I have taken the decision to block ALL ai bots and scrapers. The end result of this for me is that I am not investing any time or money in updating content or creating new content.

It was bad enough when the plagiarists and scrapers took my content, spun it, THEN GOT RANKED FOR IT, but the scrapers and plagiarists have been replaced with Googles Ai Answers and now none of us are getting any reward, credit or traffic for our efforts.

I moved on to other business areas a while back and am trying to totally De-Google my life (not easy).

[mosxu]

What about the story about willow quantum chip?
How much does it cost? As the current business model is killing us!

[ichthyous]

I have taken the decision to block ALL ai bots and scrapers.

You may decide to block them, but have they decided not to scrape you? They will still keep coming as long as your content is public. They are flagrantly ignoring Robots.txt. You can also check your content and opt out at [haveibeentrained.com...] Not sure if the content will actually be removed from datasets though.

The number of Ai snippits and also asked content, in addition to so many forms of image blocks has badly broken up the organic results now. If you ask most people though they think it's great to have the answer presented to them so quickly, rather than having to click from site to site. This is what the new Ai boosted Google looks like, and soon it will be 100% Ai snippits. Our links will only be footnotes to the AI overviews...ever tried to click on one of those tiny link icons. It doesn't actually link out...

[ichthyous]

How much will SEO for example for Google become obsolete once AI becomes the norm. How much will it now become "AIO" (AI Optimisation) and possibly bear no resemblance to the SEO people have been doing up till now.

Could your current and future SEO plans become simply obsolete / a waste of time and money, because of the arrival of AI?

Yes, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The underlying problem is that websites creating original content are going to vanish in larger and larger numbers if they can't make a living, so the dataset is going to dry up. Then what? Ai will kill off the geese laying the golden eggs...

[Mark_A]

I am partly just moaning because we chose recently to start an SEO push which might just become obsolete because of AI.

[makintocheplus]

My traffic is up +10% from Bing and +5% from Google last 30 days.

[NeapTide]

My domains of main earning sites are up for renewal. Probably this is the last time i am renewing them. If for 1 more year i see no improvements then bye bye google and bye bye users.

[breeks]

"My domains of main earning sites are up for renewal. Probably this is the last time i am renewing them. If for 1 more year i see no improvements then bye bye google and bye bye users."

Same here. I just renewed my main domain in November. It looks like it will be the last time. I made some good $ over the years, even made the UPS club a few times. Now, I struggle to meet the minimum payment.

[gatormark]

My small websites are dead or dying. My large traffic websites are doing well, FINALLY! I think this is the goal of Google, to kill the small websites that can't generate traffic on their own. Traffic is king!

[renatovieira]

After days of huge drops, this morning I noticed a significant improvement. Has anyone else noticed?

[Mark_A]

I expect end of year holidays to reduce traffic levels for our B2B organic and PPC listings from about now.
I can see some evidence of this already.

I suppose for B2C websites this could be a busy period, for B2B it could be the opposite.

[gatormark]

We’ll see a year-end traffic drop starting tomorrow, the 13th. Then, we will see a larger drop Friday the 20th. It’s the same every year.

[Mark_A]

@gatormark are you also B2B?

[Mark_A]

Will SEO be of much use in the coming days of artificial intelligence?

Yes, SEO will remain valuable even as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance. However, its role will evolve due to AI-driven changes in how search engines process and rank content. Here’s how SEO will adapt:

1. Content Quality and Relevance
AI-powered search engines like Google’s RankBrain and Bard prioritize high-quality, contextually relevant content. This means SEO will focus more on creating content that answers specific user intents rather than relying solely on keywords.

2. Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Search engines increasingly use NLP to understand search queries more contextually. Optimizing for semantic search, voice search, and conversational queries will be critical.

3. Personalization and User Experience (UX)
AI enhances personalization, delivering results based on user preferences, search history, and behavior. SEO strategies will need to focus on providing a seamless user experience, fast-loading websites, and mobile-friendliness.

4. Visual and Voice Search Optimization
With AI-driven image and voice recognition becoming more popular, SEO will expand into optimizing multimedia content, including alt text for images and structured data for voice search compatibility.

5. Data-Driven Insights
AI tools can process large datasets, providing deeper insights into search trends, customer behavior, and competitor strategies. SEO professionals will use these tools to create data-backed strategies.

6. Automation and AI Tools for SEO
Many repetitive SEO tasks like keyword research, content optimization, and link-building can be automated with AI-powered tools, making SEO more efficient and scalable.

7. AI-Generated Content and Content Moderation
While AI-generated content is rising, search engines value originality and quality. SEO will involve moderating and enhancing AI-generated content to ensure it meets search engine standards.

Conclusion:
SEO isn’t becoming obsolete; it’s transforming. AI will reward businesses that embrace a user-centric, content-driven, and technically optimized approach. Staying updated with AI-driven changes will be crucial for SEO success.

[no, I didn't write that myself :) ]

[Micha]

SEO is already obsolete, it doesn't matter what you do on your website, Google just randomly selects the ranking anyway and if you're not a big company, you're screwed.

[gatormark]

@Mark_A

No, I’m B2C.

[ichthyous]

After days of huge drops, this morning I noticed a significant improvement. Has anyone else noticed?

No, it's actually worse than at any point this week, but the day is young. Google managed to completely destroy the last quarter of 2024 in terms of traffic and sales with their constant 'updates', and that's after an already awful Q1, Q2, and Q3 for sales of physical product.

This entire year people also had totally unrealistic price expectations so sales didn't happen even when there were inquiries. I don't know whether that is a result of Google sending the leftovers who had lower budgets, or whether this is a major consumer shift this year...it was not the case in 2023 so much. With such a strong economy in the US people should not have been so budget conscious...in my niche people on a tight budget just don't go shopping for what I sell, it's a discretionary purchase (a splurge).

[ichthyous]

We’ll see a year-end traffic drop starting tomorrow, the 13th. Then, we will see a larger drop Friday the 20th. It’s the same every year.

Yes, and Google made sure to start screwing us all from the beginning of November this year so that the entire season was a lost opportunity.

[Fluff_Nutz]

@Micha

Can totally agree with this. One of my writers, somehow, manages to throw out trending articles a lot of the time. One of which was bringing in 50-100 views per day for a good 2 weeks. Gave me some hope that growth can actually be obtained. Roll on the next Google ''update'' and this article just dropped into the abyss. It was not a gradual drop over time, it literally vanished. All because of a so-called ''update'',

My traffic is now back down to its usual traffic category, which it cannot seem to escape from. Every day is the same traffic numbers. Liked I'm boxed in or something. The manipulation is some serious corrupt garbage.

Also, the other day I came across my first ever search on Google that lead to zer0, yes no actual website blue links. Just sponsored boxes, Quora and Reddit. The only actual site I saw was placed way down the list. Buried. I'll admit I don't search much any more so perhaps G has a right to panic. Most sites I use are bookmarked. No way would I even want to reverse that if this is how it will all look in the future. No thanks!

[renatovieira]

@ichthyous - Everything has changed around here in the last hour. Very massive drop! Right now I have practically ZERO active users on my main site. This is insane. Either Google broke it, or my site was penalized.

[gatormark]

I try to do a few things to keep my main website active. On social media, I post 5 hashtag heavy links to website pages EVERY DAY. I write one information dense article a week. I spend 10% of my revenue on advertising (Google Ads). These are the three basic things I always do; good times or bad. It has allowed me to survive…so far. :-)

I don’t worry about SEO too much. It’s impossible to keep up with Google’s moving target.

[saladtosser]

Once Google’s AI has successfully siphoned off all our current traffic, don’t be shocked if they invent time travel next—just to go back and steal all our past traffic too. Because let’s face it, if they could, they’d do it without batting an eyelid/algorithm.

[Fluff_Nutz]

@Gatormark

I think the magic word here is Google Ads. It's a pay-to-win system that G uses now. Hence traffic manipulation and why many articles, including one I mentioned above, drops and disappears. They are very money hungry right now.

I have often thought of using Google Ads but its expensive and giving G money really gives me a bad taste. Question though, can you be part of Mediavine and use Google Ads at the same time? Both are, essentially, ad competitors. Does anyone actually combine the two?

[Mark_A]

@ Fluff_Nutz SEO isn't free. If you add up all the time and effort people put into it and multiply by an hourly rate there is an investment there. Google has calculated that rather than webmasters spending their money on SEO, and on SEO practitioners, why not get that money spent with Google directly through ads.

Either SEO or PPC, there is a spend. SEO doesn't go to Google, PPC does.

[gatormark]

@Fluff Nutz

I don’t know anything about Media Vine. However, I do use Adsense and exponential at the same time. I’m kind of grandfathered in with exponential. I’ve been using them for years, but I don’t think they are focused on the ad publishing market anymore.

I will put exponential ads on the pages where Adsense won’t allow ads.

[mosxu]

Today analytics says no organic traffic probably I miss behaved

[EditorialGuy]

Yet another Google Core Update:

[searchengineland.com...]

[Micha]

Do they actually do anything other than core updates at Google?

[searchengineland.com ]

[Fluff_Nutz]

One has to wonder if the last ''update'' even ended. There has been so much fluctuation since the November one ''supposedly'' ended.

[mosxu]

Can they not start selling that willow quantum chip instead of updating no traffic to my website?

I have nothing in my bank account!

[renatovieira]

December 2024 core update explains the rollercoaster abyss of the last few days :-|

[Micha]

Conclusion today: Traffic once again at almost 0, ranking is constantly changing, I can actually close the news page.

Shop: Sales have completely collapsed since midday, hardly any traffic from Google (despite Adwords), but Amazon adverts for every product they offer, even if Amazon doesn't sell it at all.

[MayankParmar]

Tragic. The November 2023 Core update has been repeated. I'm now ranking last on the Google News tab. Immediately after the December core update.

[ichthyous]

On social media, I post 5 hashtag heavy links to website pages EVERY DAY.

Glad if this works for you, but links out from social don't work at all for me...Meta just demotes anything with a link in FB or Instagram posts and nobody even sees it. Youtube removed captions with links, and Tiktok going to be banned in the States looks like. Reddit forums mostly dont permit links except in comments, and those are quickly flagged. Pinterest long ago converted to a paid only model and my enormous traffic from there went to zero. Which social platform are you referring to exactly?

I spend 10% of my revenue on advertising (Google Ads). These are the three basic things I always do; good times or bad. It has allowed me to survive…so far. :-)

You don't mention if that ad spend is remunerated with sales or conversions. Do you track it? I don't mean to sound perpetually negative, but many if not most of us here have tried ad spend and found it to be a complete waste of money and basically a con on the part of Google. Untargeted traffic, fake clicks, overcharges and no real return. Last time I ran ads i had to spend about $110 to get one inquiry...not sale, inquiry. 90% of inquiries go nowhere these days so if you do the math, I would never give Google that much to get one sale. Perhaps this model works better for lower priced items that are necessities I don't know...what I sell is a high dollar value discretionary spend and organic traffic worked well as it was free. Having to spend $1000 up front to recoup that free business is not a viable business model.

I write one information dense article a week

I do think that writing fresh content is still a worthwhile pursuit, but it's hit or miss whether it will ever rank and produce traffic.

Of my articles only a small number pull in all the traffic, and that was drastically reduced with both these updates. Doesn't make one want to invest time in writing more new content just to feed AI bots more data.

[edited by: ichthyous at 2:32 pm (utc) on Dec 13, 2024]

[Fluff_Nutz]

@Micha

Wow so you are saying that you pay for Google Ads and do not get traffic in return? What a complete rip off. You are paying for traffic that you don't even get! Makes me wonder how long that will last before more people realize and quit. More money loss at the expense of sheer greed and selfishness. So, no, going down the G Ads route is not the answer to gaining traffic then. Running out of options. Really hope their marketshare drops to 50% next year, apparently people are speculating.

Traffic here is, dare I say, good. My writer has, once again, released a trending article but we shall see how long that lasts.

[Micha]

@Fluff_Nutz I don't own the shop, I just look after it and unfortunately I have no say in the matter. I would have got rid of AdWords a long time ago. I'm not in favour of feeding Google money.

[thetitan72]

Cómplice catastrofic from my end... my Traffic has Gone down almost 75% in The last two days.. hopefully it's a Google issue that will be solved soon

[ichthyous]

Cómplice catastrofic from my end... my Traffic has Gone down almost 75% in The last two days.. hopefully it's a Google issue that will be solved soon

The good news is that it may or may not be resolved in ~2 weeks. The bad news is it will be immediately followed by the next catastrophic update.

[gatormark]

@ichthyous

I was just relating what works for me. Of course, much of it has to do with my niche.

For instance, I really don't sell a product, per se (until after conversion). I “sell” community and access to web-based tools. My “conversions” are measured by people registering for the community. For instance, I have 128 conversions this month on a spend of $175 through Google Ads. So, the things I do to promote my type of “product” works for me. A large percentage of those new acquisitions will pay for advanced features ranging from $39-159.

As far as social media, my main website’s FaceBook page has 11K+ followers. This is where I post my hashtag heavy links. I only use FaceBook (No TikTok or Instagram).

All of this facilitates other revenue streams like income from guest posting. I charge $50-75 for guest post content which must be written for my niche.

So, as you can see, for me it works.

[mosxu]

It is very clear that buyer traffic is being updated at the moment and not the “core”

[renatovieira]

Massive drop today!

[ichthyous]

Once again, a spate of very good quality inquiries on the first day of an update...now I expect back into oblivion for two more weeks. This is no way to run a business! It's eerie, but nothing new...that cycle has been clear as day now for years with Google, it's just that the updates come more and more often and don't seem to actually do anything now except ensure that traffic disappears.

I mean, what are these updates actually doing...zapping spammy links? zapping sites with overly optimized SEO? Perhaps they are just training exercises so that Google's AI algo can teach itself how to update without the input of so many human engineers...i.e. cost reduction = higher profits. Meanwhile, I am seeing an uptick in traffic from ChatGPT, Perplexity and other AI chat sites by the day.

[christianz]

After the convincingly bad November Core, rankings stabilized (at lower level) and started to actually very slowly recover.

But no - Google had to immediately release December Core and keywords are rapidly collapsing again.

[daniel1213]

huge drop today in eastern Europe...

[Micha]

In Germany too, and presumably in the rest of Western Europe as well. The update seems to be affecting a lot of shops at the moment, especially grocery stores.
My news page remains stable (bad, but at least it's not getting any worse).

[jchiff]

If the only way to rank is to buy your way in what's a core update for?

[christianz]

If the only way to rank is to buy your way in what's a core update for?

They are letting us know when they shuffle their spam around and add more spam.