March 2025 Google Search Observations

[Micha]

and the next heavy drop. The shop and news page are virtually down today, the ranking has plummeted, and Google traffic is 0 so far... So it goes on...

[edited by: not2easy at 11:16 am (utc) on Mar 1, 2025]
[edit reason] new month, new thread, split [/edit]

[Micha]

@goodoldweb I still have a good old Nokia 6210, unbreakable those things ;) but now back to the topic ...

[BigKat]

“DOJ demands divestiture of Chrome browser and sets sights on making Google sell Android — calls Google "incompatible with free markets and freedom"

The DOJ needs to demand they sell Youtube as well. Remember years ago, before Google owned Youtube, and videos appearing in the SERPS were from a variety of sources? It didn't take long for Google to push their competitors out of search after they bought Youtube.

[Fluff_Nutz]

@BigKat
Yes, I fully 100% agree with this. Google are practically treating Youtube the same way as their search/ad agency. With random traffic drops. Sudden brick walls (where one minute your traffic is flying, the next it all stops. For no real reason). I am not the only person on Youtube to notice this. All traffic being directed to bigger channels, leaving no room for growth for the more smaller ones. Sudden influx of Youtube Shorts everywhere. These shorts are probably promoted ads with tons of traffic. Again where is the support for smaller channels?

Google practically own all platforms where content creators can earn anything. They need to let go. No one enjoys creating content on either platform because of this. Whilst I am not against Youtube videos being on SERP, if it helps smaller channels. We need the extra support. Alas, if traffic is being directed elsewhere. Away from creators then, yes, they need to let both platforms go.

Anyway, as said by many already. Something needs to be done to bring G down. The sooner the better!

[mhansen]

More news with input from several Google insiders.... overall a very good read and very insightful to what goes on behind closed doors.

"Supporting publishers has always been incidental to Google’s larger aims, according to one former senior executive. “Giving traffic to publisher sites is kind of a necessary evil. The main thing they’re trying to do is get people to consume Google services,” the former executive says. “So there’s a natural tendency to want to have people stay on Google pages, but it does diminish the sort of deal between the publishers and Google itself.”

Paywalled article at Bloomberg [bloomberg.com]

[azlinda]

I am not a fan of AI at all, but I did investigate it by using the title of a recipe. Lo and behold deepai.org even included the name of the website they had stolen it from in the result. There is no debate about whether content is being scraped or not. It is!

[goodoldweb]

@azlinda

Yep, i see this on many searches. Just comes to show how ill thought and half baked this entire concept is. Google are hitching for major copyright infringement lawsuits, from all over the world.

[Conro]

Google's Ai overview has also arrived in Italy, certainly violating the digital market act and of course copyright. The last nail in the coffin has arrived. They will probably be fined but who knows when. It's over now

[Micha]

Google's Ai overview has also arrived in Italy,

It has now officially arrived here in Germany, so let's see what effect it has here.

Edit: I have now been shown this twice, both answers were completely wrong. Why do you need this nonsense?

[edited by: Micha at 9:14 am (utc) on Mar 26, 2025]

[Conro]

Aio It doesn't work with some Google accounts. I'm using one now with which the aio almost always appear, it depends on the search. As expected, the links refer to huge sites or to Google itself. The choice of sites used as a source is really more than scarce. The answers are super basic, perhaps to push the user to ask more and more questions. Vote 0

[RubicCubed]

For those just seeing AI Overviews in their countries for the first time, take a look at Seer Interactive's CTR report. They report organic results had a CTR of 3.97% without AIO in January. When AIO is displayed, the CTR drops to just 0.64%. The massive and destructive traffic loss didn't happen all at once in the US, as Seer's graph shows, but Google's endgame is our destruction.

Seer Interactive's AIO CTR report: [seerinteractive.com...]

[MayankParmar]

This algorithm unfortunately killed my website. I was one of the publishers invited to the creators’ event, constantly reassured that my site was fine. I regularly created original content that was referenced by major media outlets, including SearchEngineLand/Barry. Despite this, I was always incorrectly demoted by Google since I started the website in 2016, with no explanation provided. I raised my voice. I have been raising my voice for the past three years. I have been sharing examples of unfair algorithm practices for the past three years in hope something would change. Not a needle moved at Google. In fact, with every update, I dropped more. I still believe something will change in future updates because I'm sharing examples, and Google will eventually understand what is wrong.

I had hoped Google would take the feedback seriously, but instead, they’ve caused even more damage with March core update. My site is no longer getting indexed properly—most pages have been pushed to the 4th or 5th page of search results. Google Discover traffic is now zero. Overall, traffic has dropped by 60%. Everything is over. I have reached out to SEOs, but there has been no help. Pinged Googlers, but no help.

Regarding indexing issues, URLs are immediately detected by Google, crawled, and the console says the URL is on Google, but it doesn't show up when I search or paste the URL. It will not appear for 3-5 hours. And some do not appear even after 3-5 hours. The console constantly says the URL is on Google. Requesting indexing does not change anything except a new crawl time.

There was and is nothing wrong with the website.

Google is at fault, and some employees know that too.

PSA: I am talking about a site featured on Forbes, CNN, CNBC and all the major outlets for reliable reporting.

Terrible. End of an era for me. I've done everything I could to support people who have worked for me even when the site made no money, but it's no longer possible with this state.

[MayankParmar]

I know I have ranted and cried over Google hundreds of times in the forum, but this March update is different. It's not like anything I have seen before. It probably created an indexing issue for me, and Google won't fix it. It just trashed the site entirely.

[Conro]

@MayankParmar Unfortunately, we are all in the same boat. All sites are facing traffic losses. It's a kind of "medical update" but this time for all sites indipendent. Just make a comparison with the same query between Google and Bing and you will notice the huge difference in results, where Bing continues to rank sites of all kinds including independent ones. Google has left independent sites by chance from 2 years, slowly it will eliminate them all.

[gatormark]

It is so strange that every year the same thing happens with my websites. They start to take off, traffic increases, and revenue increases. Then, there is an unusual throttling and decrease in traffic. It only occurs once my websites start to do well, and every year it happens, and at different times of the year. This year, something happened around February 13, which caused a tanking in my web search click performance and impressions. This time, impressions have gone from 380,000 a day in mid-February to 260,000 a day. I did notice a significant change in the ranking of certain pages and AI overviews being added to my sector. This is disappointing because my revenue was about 15% ahead of the previous year in mid-February. Now, it's tanking.

[Fluff_Nutz]

@gatormark
Yup, same here too. Me and my small team managed to create articles throughout this month. A few of which trended and brought in good traffic. Had hopes, but once again they were destroyed. Now all of my articles from this month have vanished. All of them. I'm currently -35%. Ranking is terrible. A lot of these articles also featured Youtube videos, to further help readers. So, of course, my channel also saw traffic drops. This, exact same thing only ever occurs when an ''update'' happens. Without these SERP annoyances my site can grow just fine.

We are in the majority. Yet are powerless to do anything. Fun watching your hard earned money and work go to waste, is it not?

[gatormark]

@Fluff_Nutz

The strange thing is that there was not a core update in February. The core update was in mid March, about a month after I started seeing significant changes. I don’t know what in the world is going on.

[BigKat]

I don’t know what in the world is going on.

@gatormark

In a prior post you indicated you were seeing more AIO. From what I've seen with our site, the traffic loss can be as substantial as 90%+ for a #1 position when AIO invades the query. SERP tools indicate AIO increased 20%-60% from February, depending on the tool used, which may be responsible for the traffic losses you are seeing.

[Conro]

Ai overview is almost in every search I do, now it works for other Google accounts too, it's propagating. I've lost so much traffic to my site as of last year that I don't notice any difference for the moment. It always sucks

[breeks]

Informational websites will become nearly extinct within a few years, possibly even months, due to the rise of AI search. The younger generations want instant answers, search - that's for old folks. It's been a good run, but it's over. AI is replacing webmasters or, should I say, web persons. :)

[goodoldweb]

I remember the early days. The very first time I checked Google was because I needed a search function for one of my websites. I installed the Google website search bar on page headers and the results were great—it boosted sales. I trusted their "Don't be evil" motto, I was happy to partner with them like many other webmasters.

A lot has changed since. But one thing remains the same: we webmasters still have the power to introduce better search options to our readers/customers. Working as a whole we have the critical mass power required to fight back.

I hope that team members at DuckDuckGo, Bing, and other leading search providers read this—here is your opportunity to expand your market share quickly. The key? Give webmasters easy-to-integrate website search bars and clean, user-friendly website search result pages. Help us help you fight Google's unjustified (some may say illegal) web dominance!

[breeks]

I remember being invited to Google's Santa Monica office for a meeting with a group of publishers to learn how to increase your adsense earnings. After it was over, we were invited to the rooftop bar for free drinks and food. How times have changed!

[RubicCubed]

I remember being invited to Google's Santa Monica office for a meeting with a group of publishers to learn how to increase your adsense earnings. After it was over, we were invited to the rooftop bar for free drinks and food.

With the executive team they have now, I'd be afraid they would try to throw me off the roof.

[mosxu]

AI Overviews

So boring these things It feels like I have to go to school again and waste time to read that crap…

Where is the button AI overviews On/Off ?

[Conro]

Have you noticed that AIOs appear very often in niches where websites have been destroyed? For example, for technology, AIOs almost always appear. Google had calculated everything.

[Micha]

@BigKat but something happened on February 8. I see a sudden drop on Feb 8th for all the sites I can access through Search Console.

The situation is also strange at the moment. The store has more and more visitors, but the sales remain at 0 (in terms of Google traffic). I really wonder what G is sending us.
The news page has slipped down in the ranking, but it also has more visitors. (Without Discover and Newstraffic). Somehow that doesn't add up (or it's the luck of a niche site). What is striking, however, is that Google generally displays more English websites when you search for something in German.

@conro Yes, I noticed that too. I'm still waiting for our big publishers to start attacking Google. That should happen at the latest when the AI overview drives its visitor numbers into the ground. At the latest then, Brussels will take a very close look at this, because we have some very aggressive lobby groups in Germany.

And @MayankParmar, it doesn't help you, of course, but I'm really sorry to read this. It's just a huge load of crap what Google has done to your site.

[Conro]

@Micha In Europe, meta ai for WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram is now also being released. Today the little traffic left on my site is half compared to other days for the moment

[Micha]

@conro What is it for? Honestly, humanity can't handle AI in the wild. The consequences are even more fake news, etc. Great future prospects.
By the way, I'm sorry your site was affected. If there's anything I can do to help (even if it's just a backlink), just let me know. Even if it's mean, but my news site had even more traffic than yesterday. Although it's old content, which is a bit strange, at least for a site that publishes news.

[Conro]

@Micha the era of "Idiocracy" seems to have begun and those who kill those who fed these artificial intelligence companies are already in it. For the backlink thank you, but now there is no backlink that makes a difference. Before the aio I thought of changing domain, but now with aio appearing in almost every query I make it seems to me just a waste of money. I also saw that Google has corrected its algorithm, in fact when I did a search yesterday there was no advertisement if there was aio, while now if aio appears, there is advertising below. It is impossible to be able to combine something in this way. The violation of the digital market act and copyright is all too evident but governments do not open their mouths, perhaps because it is a deliberate thing. Only a few companies that are controlled by the government of the day. Did someone say "gulf of America"?

[ichthyous]

Informational websites will become nearly extinct within a few years, possibly even months, due to the rise of AI search. The younger generations want instant answers, search - that's for old folks. It's been a good run, but it's over. AI is replacing webmasters or, should I say, web persons. :)

Yes, that's right. We here in this forum decry the outrage of Google using our site info for the dataset, but it's what most actual users want and prefer. I have heard it out of people's mouth..."I used the AI to find it". Which of us hasn't when they need a quick answer? This will affect purely informational sites badly, the ones that depended on publishing quality content and brining in revenue from adsense or affiliate links. All those bloggers who were doing so well for years must be decimated completely.

How this will affect people searching for actual products to buy remains to be seen. AIO can't replace physical items...if you need it you still have to bypass the AIO and find a source to purchase it. My site is seeing lower and lower traffic but this period of sales from November of last year until now has been the best I have seen since 2007, right before the financial crisis hit. Sales are far stronger than 2024, as if someone flipped a switch. I don't think it will last though as this current admin is too busy destroying the world economy and ensuring we all plunge into a recession.

[Conro]

Google's update has ended

[MayankParmar]

[seroundtable.com...]

March core update is done ruining businesses and life (finished rolling out)

[Micha]

@MayankParmar

March core update is done ruining businesses and life

Google is now checking which websites have benefited from this. If there are too many small ones, Google will readjust in the coming days so that they go down. It's the same procedure every time.

[azlinda]

When do the lawsuits begin in relationship to copyright infringement by AI? Or is that all thrown to the winds now? Copyright no longer matters it seems.

[saladtosser]

Wow, ChatGPT's image creation just took a massive leap forward.

I uploaded one of my professionally shot photos (taken by a wildlife photographer I hired/paid hundreds per image). It’s heavily watermarked because it's exclusive to my site, and people were stealing them constantly. I asked ChatGPT to generate a different, photorealistic version using the original as a reference... and it absolutely nailed it.

The result was stunning, I couldn’t even tell it was AI-generated. Normally, I can spot the difference, even with high-quality AI images. But not this time.

Now I’m worried. Anyone could take my watermarked images, throw them into an AI tool, and generate breathtaking alternatives. Just like that, the edge I paid for is gone.

There’s less and less incentive to be a photographer or even a webmaster these days. AI feels like a race to the bottom — I’m genuinely shocked. It’s starting to look like the creative industry is cooked.

In my opinion, AI should be restricted to research and development, not handed out for mass use in ways that erode creativity and devalue original work.

I keep seeing non-creatives argue that AI has “levelled the playing field.” But, “If everyone can be a creative, then no one really is.” Just like how, if everyone were rich, no one would actually be rich.

[Conro]

@saladtosser AI has created a new image but definitely not the one you imagined and could have created as a photographer. AI is like the auto tune of certain singers, they are all good at singing, but if you turn it off the real talent comes out

[ichthyous]

There’s less and less incentive to be a photographer or even a webmaster these days. AI feels like a race to the bottom — I’m genuinely shocked. It’s starting to look like the creative industry is cooked.

That has been the case for a long while now. 15-20 years ago you could make a decent living from licensing images, but Getty and microstock platforms like Shutterstock ended that and pushed many out of the market. At the same time the market was flooded back during the financial crisis when everyone got laid off and picked up a digital camera calling themselves photographers. But there is a brutal reality to photography, just like with real estate agents...you can jump into it easily but it's extremely hard to make a decent living so most give up fairly soon. There is a very thin stratum of photographers that make all the money. That is the case with most creative fields. Graphic designers are going bye-bye, so are art and creative directors that are used to making $300k+ a year.

In my opinion, AI should be restricted to research and development, not handed out for mass use in ways that erode creativity and devalue original work.

#1) AI content cannot be copyrighted. Artists can use AI to generate part of their works and still have their copyrights accepted, but the USCO rule now is that the work must be mostly human inspired and created. Not sure how the USCO intends to judge that on their own and do they actually have the resources to vet all these submissions?

#2) GenAI does not produce large enough images for most fine art uses, you need much much larger images to really be able to print and sell large scale artwork. Most customers with money want the artist's reputation, but AI is gaining traction there as long as the artist already has a reputation and can position themselves as a genius in using AI.

#3) We will never stop this train...it has already left the station and there is far too much money backing it. It's going to take a very heavy toll on the creative fields yes, especially the applied arts, graphic design, commercial photography and advertising...but perhaps even bigger toll on other fields like financial services, government, law and medicine. A lot of jobs will be lost across the board.

I keep seeing non-creatives argue that AI has “levelled the playing field.” But, “If everyone can be a creative, then no one really is.” Just like how, if everyone were rich, no one would actually be rich.

I have seen certain genres of photography which used to be the highest paying genres of photography...for example autos and advertising. I have seen such stunning AI images for food photography, ads and autos that these fields are de-facto already defunct. AI is being used a lot in fashion photography already too.

Certain other fields will fare better as the client needs actual images of actual items and not AI cooked up imaginary BS. One example of that is architectural photography. Clients need their actual buildings shot well, AI cannot cook up high-def images of buildings that don't exist and / or aren't open yet. They have had the ability to render these images already for years, but these clients tend to pay to shoot them via photography after they are built...not just CGI / AI

All of this doesn't even get to the point of how genAI is literally stealing and copying other artist's work. Once the first test cases are decided you can expect a flood of copyright infringement lawsuits against all of these platforms. I think they have built that expense into the business model

[ichthyous]

When do the lawsuits begin in relationship to copyright infringement by AI? Or is that all thrown to the winds now? Copyright no longer matters it seems.

They already have...there are several large lawsuits across the visual arts (Getty Images) and groups representing writers. Everyone is sitting on the fence waiting to see how these first cases are decided. If these ai platforms are punished and held accountable for their theft, which they probably will be, then it will open the floodgates of suits that are waiting in the wings. It won't be easy to prove that ai output is definitively copying specific work though...

[Conro]

@ichthyous for writing texts as Google aio does it is quite simple, because they put the sources. The worst is that AIO takes traffic off the original source. In addition to being illegal because it violates fair use and copyright, it is incorrect and unethical

[universenet]

tariff war started, now we can expect anything including search engines totally different
treatment, everyday something new, for now nothing good for any side, world is going in chaos

[Micha]

@Universenet and that makes the situation even worse for website owners. Not only are we under attack from all sides, but politicians are not interested in us small publishers because we don't hand them suitcases full of money. You only hear and see chaos, problems, etc. from all sides, and you can't get your head free.

[gatormark]

AI is like the auto tune of certain singers, they are all good at singing, but if you turn it off the real talent comes out

It would be nice if this were true, but it’s not. AI is creating some exceptional, exceptional imagery that surpasses even the creativity of many artists and photographers.This coming from me, a guy who was a Fine Art Major with a minor in art history. What’s frightening is that we are only in the birthing stage of AI. We’re doomed.

[christianz]

I keep seeing non-creatives argue that AI has “levelled the playing field.” But, “If everyone can be a creative, then no one really is.” Just like how, if everyone were rich, no one would actually be rich.

It has no levelled anything. And photography is unaffected by AI, unless you make your living from selling generic stock photos or something. Non-artistic person still can't take great pictures and I have not even once considered altering my images with AI. I am actually buying more photography gear and getting deeper into it.

A great photo is still a great photo. I am very proud of my best photos, they are combination of my "eye" for seeing beauty in things and shapes and composition and the environment through which I navigate and spot this beauty. Nowhere does AI come into play. Maybe for some mechanistic processing like noise reduction or upsampling.

[Conro]

@gatormark I didn't say that he can't do one thing well, but I said something else. With art, including photography, what you want if you know how to do things comes out, what your mind imagines, with artificial intelligence comes out what comes out of the prompt provided and from an identical prompt different images can always come out. Let's then assume that the photographer has to do a photo shoot and what does he do in this case? If you have to take photos the way the client wants and you won't come out with anything good because you don't have the skills

[goodoldweb]

Just talked to a G rep regarding the shocking adwords conversation we're experiencing lately. I asked her to pass my feedback to the adwords team.

And than it hit me, they are probebly using now the AI to show the ads and send in clicks based on what the AI thinks might be the user intent, not what we actually (key phrases specifically) specified.

Conversations are almost non existent since they've started rolling this core update, but the number of clicks is up. Mostly one page zombies that do not interact with the site or buy anything, accidental clicks.

What a mess.

[Micha]

@goodoldweb "what a mess" describes it very well. I took a close look at the shop yesterday and according to the data from the Merchant Center, there was a sharp decline in both free and paid ads on March 20. Conversion rates have been at 0 for three days now, but traffic itself has increased. Google's damn AI craze is destroying livelihoods at an ever-faster rate. You really have to be an idiot not to realize that you're also killing your own customers.

[Martin Ice Web]

As this update finished we saw a sharp drop in traffic again. So we are down -70% from preupdate traffic and it looks like it stays this way.
Search rssults from google are complete rubbish in our niche.
One good thing about the update is, that amazon picked up the sales bei 250%. Bad for users as they now have to pay the additional amazon fee.

[mosxu]

Anyone noticed that whatever traffic they send to some of us is full of angry and definitely not web experienced people?

How personalisation and elitism work hand in hand ?

[goodoldweb]

@goodoldweb "what a mess" describes it very well. I took a close look at the shop yesterday and according to the data from the Merchant Center, there was a sharp decline in both free and paid ads on March 20. Conversion rates have been at 0 for three days now, but traffic itself has increased. Google's damn AI craze is destroying livelihoods at an ever-faster rate. You really have to be an idiot not to realize that you're also killing your own customers.

After talking 15 minuts to the G rep i feel that G "being an Idiot" with this update is an understatement. They are really cluless. I gave up eventually and just asked her to pass my feedback to the team.

Maybe try asking them to call you too and give them some feedback. The more people call to complain the better.

I mentioned to her we're considering transfering our campaigns to Bing and Facebook if this junk traffic continues.

[Micha]

I was fobbed off. Ever since I chewed out the consultant last time, they don't like me anymore. ;)

[gatormark]

If you have to take photos the way the client wants and you won't come out with anything good because you don't have the skills

@convo

This was going to be my next comment. Certain types of photography will always have a place. For instance, wedding photography. However, I can see even things such as product photography being replaced by AI ( I used to art direct). I can see even portrait photography being replaced by AI.