June 2025 Google Search Observations

[Conro]

I also see bots coming, but the strange thing is that after 4 years they keep looking for pages that I deleted from the site. In any case, I closed the company because of Google's illegal monopoly, so I don't care what happens to the website anymore. I just hope that Google will be condemned for the damage it has inflicted on companies that need the web to live. If Google hadn't taken the monopoly illegally, this damage would never have happened. The small (and more) web companies all depend on a single search engine and the whims of those who manage it

[edited by: not2easy at 1:46 am (utc) on Jun 7, 2025]
[edit reason] New month, new thread [/edit]

[Whitey]

@Fluff_Nutz – You’ve nailed the mood. Feels like a silent shift rather than a classic “update.” The AI hype cycle may settle, but right now, it’s distorting visibility and user flow. Sites still have soul, and I think long-form, trusted content will regain footing; especially if users tire of shallow AI summaries.

@RedBar – Not just you. I’m seeing strange shifts too; legacy pages tanking while obscure ones spike. Could be NavBoost or presentation layer experiments favoring diversity or query refinement tools. Feels more like SERP experimentation than a core algo shakeup.

[goodoldweb]

@frostitomik

The problem is that people here believe the main reason is Google. That Google is sending them some type of fake "zombie traffic" specifically designed to not convert. This has been going on for almost a decade and it's completely wrong and delusional.

The main reasons your traffic doesn't convert are:

People and businesses being completely broke
Too much competition
Adblocks and similar

And yes, the web as we know it is dying because of greed and too much competition. AI is just the final nail in the coffin.

In the end, Google search will die as well and be replaced by something else (AI assistants).

Take it from someone who’s been a webmaster since around 1997—managing and promoting dozens of websites for our company and for many clients. I’ve spent thousands of hours analyzing server logs, tracking IPs, building bot traps, writing custom search engines, and designing keyword-triggered ad systems.

After all these years of hands-on experience, I can tell you with much confidence: it ain’t rain, buddy.

Through AdSense, Search, Gmail, Chrome, Maps, Android, and even Android Auto, Google has an unmatched, real-time understanding of users' online presence. They can pick and choose leads at will and dirct them to anywhere they see fit.

[mosxu]

@goodoldweb

“They can pick and choose leads at will and dirct them to anywhere they see fit”

This is so true, while doing that their engineers expressed concerns of disappearing buyers:))

[Dooku]

Someone called this "The Great Decoupling", which is happening to most websites now, not just informational but also e-commerce:
[x.com...]

[EditorialGuy]

Sites still have soul, and I think long-form, trusted content will regain footing; especially if users tire of shallow AI summaries.

I'd like to think so, too, but how will users find it?

Food for thought: One of the original, fundamental concepts of the World Wide Web was the use of hypertext linking for citations and additional information. It would make sense for Google to provide an access ramp to the "long-form, trusted content" that you describe for two reasons: (1) To serve users who want more than generative AI can provide, and (2) to ensure the continued existence of "long-form, trusted content" that provides grist for the AI mill. If Google killed off 90 percent of the derivative and purely revenue-driven pages in its search index, would many users notice or care?

[Conro]

Ahahahahah who knows how many "ai" there are that deceive customers and investors, I would have some idea [business-standard.com...]

[Przemek]

Hi everyone :)
Just wanted to share some personal thoughts about what’s been going on in the SERPs lately. For the past few days, I’ve been noticing some unusual volatility across several projects I manage. The patterns don’t really look like a typical core update to me - more like Google is "tuning" its anti-spam systems. So I suspect we might be getting close to a Spam Update. As for the next Core Update, my guess would be late July or early August. Of course, this is all just speculation - I have no confirmation. But if you're also seeing strange micro-spikes, drops, or sudden deindexing - especially on sites with low EEAT or templated content - I just want to say: you're not alone :D
Best regards

[Micha]

Google is currently causing chaos again. Semrush has been displaying movements for 3 days and what happens? The garbage is flushed to the top again. My news page has dropped from 6 digits per day to 4 digits and has lost some keywords. It's the same with other sites too, it's great cinema.
But the store has been running quite reasonably for a few days now.

@przemek But something seems to be wrong with the spam detection ;). But you're right about the core update; there's usually one in July. And that the small sites will be the losers again, well, has it ever been any different?

[Martin Ice Web]

But the store has been running quite reasonably for a few days now.

Haha, we are seeing the opposite since 3 days. Zombies. Traffic is rising but sales are down.
it is looking like a roleback to serps two weeks ago.

[Micha]

Well, by “passable,” I mean that something is being sold at all. And yes, it really looks like a rollback, only with a strong kick. These “silent” updates are just annoying.

[saladtosser]

Any thoughts on the mass deindexing going on write now? Hundreds of comments on twitter

[mosxu]

3 days shock traffic ads must stop …

[Fluff_Nutz]

Urgh, Google. We get it, you are a business. You need money to survive and live. Guess what! So do we!

My traffic is currently -30% right now BUT, on my end, its not entirely Google's fault. I am, however, almost certain its Google moving and further manipulating everything to suit themselves. So an unannounced ''update''. De-indexing articles is nothing new. I painfully went through it once already. Feel for those just experiencing it for first time. All time and effort lost. For what exactly?

Also, G are trying to destroy Youtube right now too. Multi-tasking. Forcing viewers to remove ad blocker. I couldn't even access the site, let alone watch a video. Not until I removed ad blocker. So I switched to uBlock. Seems to be a fan favourite in terms of still allowing access to the site but, also, blocking ads too. I would totally support content creators and remove it BUT 90% of the revenue goes to G instead, no thanks.

Have to hand it to SEO he is not afraid to go to any and all lengths for every $, but why must we be punished for them to achieve this? Its an annoyance and, hopefully, more and more people will notice these ads and leave Google platforms altogether.

[goodoldweb]

YouTube is practically overrun with ads these days — a clear sign of a company under pressure, possibly gasping for air. It's getting to the point where visiting the platform is almost unbearable.

No Sundar, we ain't taking a subscription. Keep abusing your viewers, bombarding them with ads, like a cheap spammy MFA made you know where. What can possibly go wrong.

P.s.
Compared to ChatGPT or Grok, Gemini is dumb as. Which may explain a few things about the state of the index right now.

[saladtosser]

@goodoldweb I pay for YouTube Premium and even that is getting unbearable because almost every video now has a few mins of a sponsored section (ad) thrown in, i'm paying to avoid this crap but get it anyway! Between that and all the e begging (like, subscribe, become a member, buy my merch) on every video, its losing its appeal!

[mosxu]

One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (H.R.1), passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May 2025, includes a provision that imposes a 10-year moratorium on state and local governments from enacting or enforcing regulations on artificial intelligence (AI)

[Gotcha]

I've been working on optimizing my tech blog for Bing for the past two years. I've managed to reach 60,000 page views, and it's still growing. I find Bing to be more stable. Sure, it's not a huge amount of traffic, but I'm happy with it. Honestly, I don't care about Google and its never-ending updates

[Fluff_Nutz]

Excuse me, 60,000 page views is not a lot? I'll swap those numbers. I don't even get half of that. Granted I'm in an oversaturated niche but still. Hopefully I'll reach that some day. Only been doing this for 2yrs. I'm envious of anyone who can still make a living from all of this.

[Gotcha]

Fluff_Nutz + You won’t believe me if I tell you that I earn between €5 and €10 max per day with AdSense, even though most of my traffic is from the US and on desktop. It’s because my niche is oversaturated — there are too many blogs, and the big names like PCGuide, PCMag, TechRadar, etc., take everything. That’s why I left Google.

[frostitomik]

@Gotcha

I believe you. All of my websites combined get about 1-2 million monthly pageviews but I don't earn more than $80-90 a day with Adsense.

I have also started focuing on Bing, where my rankings are super stable. I have seen a huge decline in Google traffic, but also some increase in Bing/DDG/Yahoo traffic.

Gone are the days when my websites earned $200 a day with minimal work.

[RubicCubed]

One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (H.R.1), passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May 2025, includes a provision that imposes a 10-year moratorium on state and local governments from enacting or enforcing regulations on artificial intelligence (AI)

If you recall, last month the head of the US Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter, was fired [arstechnica.com...] just one day after her office released a generative AI training report suggesting not all AI training may be fair use. Now that she's gone, I'm sure a Big Tech friendly/anti-publisher rights department head will take her place.

Big Tech has big money that neither side of the aisle can refuse. These are terrible times with US Government making moves to legitimize the theft of our content so AI companies can claim ownership to and profit from our work.

[londrum]

One thing that I've been noticing in Google Search Console over the last two months, which loads of people are talking about, is that your clicks are no longer tied to your impressions. My average position and impressions can both go up (sometimes by quite a lot), but the click-through rate and number of clicks either stay level or go down. The gap between clicks and impressions is growing wider as time goes by.

[BigKat]

If you recall, last month the head of the US Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter, was fired [arstechnica.com...] just one day after her office released a generative AI training report suggesting not all AI training may be fair use.

This alone was a HUGE blow to publisher rights since we now have one less ally in US Government. Some news outlets, like NY Post ( [nypost.com...] ) suspect her firing was necessary for AI to remain unregulated and free to continue taking our content without compensation. She has sued to get her job back, but it's going to be a tough battle for her to win.

The gap between clicks and impressions is growing wider as time goes by.

This is classic damage inflicted by AI Overviews. Elsewhere people are talking about SEMrush showing the highest level of AIO in the SERPS today, and many of us will see the gap increase a lot this week.

[RedBar]

I must be mentally perverse !

I decided to let my global site continue simply to see how fast they could annihilate it after 32 years ... It would seem to be "not very long" if the first week of June continues in the same vein ... So far minus 60% ... incredible.

Meanwhile UK local hotel venue plus 20%!

[Treud]

Got around 2500 pages deindexed the last week on a total of 7000 pretty much. That’s quite huge.

Getting back to work on this site is getting more and more a pain… been running this shop for 12 years, and no orders, even less inquiries, total dead, and I’m sure the visits I see on GA is pure bots to pretend I receive some bread crumbs.

I prefer to focus now on a new project, still E-commerce but this time with a shop we plan to open in the futur ! I think I’m done for the 100% digital !

[christianz]

One thing that I've been noticing in Google Search Console over the last two months, which loads of people are talking about, is that your clicks are no longer tied to your impressions. My average position and impressions can both go up (sometimes by quite a lot), but the click-through rate and number of clicks either stay level or go down. The gap between clicks and impressions is growing wider as time goes by.

Because Google is willy nilly stealing your content and your living with full endorsement of US gov.

[mosxu]

10 years no regulation for AI, we all need to plan carefully not to end up as slaves!

[webdev29]

Regarding the hypothetical 8th update, I've also seen a massive loss of converting traffic. The 6th and 7th were exceptionally successful days in terms of conversion/quality of traffic, before the debacle of the 8th, which I estimate at -60% per day in terms of conversion. I saw a bit of movement in the SERP, but nothing too major. In my opinion, the drop in conversions and qualified traffic is due to Google's usual manipulation of traffic.

We'll have to see whether this returns to normal in a few days' time, or whether we're dealing with the worst update of the year, ready to take a toll on our businesses' summer sales ....

I've had thousands of pages de-indexed recently too since april, and I'm seeing this phenomenon on a worldwide scale, with both blogs and e-commerce sites affected. Google is probably saving a lot of money on data processing and storage.

It could be theorized that, after harvesting a page's data to train its various llms, if it doesn't add any value for Google, it's dropped from the index. A sort of selective sorting in the sole interest of the search engine.

Many people forget that Google uses most of our data to “Forge” a commercially viable SERP for its business model, and to promote its products through serp features and ads. A far cry from the directory serving the user.

[Treud]

I do think they deindex pages to save crawl budget en expenses. The IA is running at a cost, all these companies are All-in with it.
For now it’s free, they make sure we are used to it, and after it will be behind a pay wall.

Where everywhere they ask you to save energy for the sake of Earth, these tech companies are releasing a technology that will just make power shortage everywhere…. Non-sens for me.

[saladtosser]

@Treud funny enough I just got an email from google

"We’re writing to inform you of the price change that will go into effect for your Google Workspace Business Starter subscription on or after July 9, 2025. The updated subscription pricing reflects the significant added AI value"

I don't want or use this "significant added AI value", I just use the damn email from workspace as standard, looks like I need a new email provider but then do I want to take the risk of moving as I foresee many email providers shutting down soon because of lack of business after the knock on effect of websites closing down!