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]

[RubicCubed]

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!

The greater risk is continuing to finance a company (Google) that uses your money to harm you and others. As a matter of principal, I give Google $0 and don't contribute to their data mining efforts by using their freeware. Yes, I do test functionality with Chrome but once that's done the browser stays closed.

[gatormark]

I just checked one of my keywords that has been consistently ranked 2nd for years. Since the AI overviews, over the last 90 days, I’ve only had one click. Crazy!

[Dooku]

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!

I struggle to follow the logic in the above statement... :-) You are paying google but are afraid that other email services will go bankrupt?

What you should be worried about is this info coming from a European organization investigating US Big Tech company take-overs:
"Every 11 days on average a US Big Tech company buys up another smaller tech company. Over 67% of those companies are then closed down and the websites removed. These take-overs are what we call killer-acquisitions".
And they "investigate" less than 4% of those take-overs.....this is how you create monopolies, kill innovation, promote antitrust.....you can fill in the rest of the list.
A bit funny why this info is never published on that side of the pond?

Google is over and done. Either get a huge amount of pages indexed somehow to receive a decent number of visitors, or revamp your business to market it on different platforms and/or use other marketing methods.
And STOP giving G your hard earned money. That's like giving the executioner a tip!

[mosxu]

@Dooku

So true they not even hiding it they want BiG Tech / AI to be ultimate authority no competition no regulation claiming they need to compete with CCP / China.

We must be all brainwashed we did not vote for CCP.

[Conro]

Guys you are still hoping for it. Forget it, listen to me, if the site loses traffic it will continue to do so, maybe and I mean maybe hundreds of very very powerful backlinks could save it, otherwise it's a waste of time. Better to devote yourself to something else or anything that you are going to write, improve, update will only be useful from the ai that will have stolen the new information, leaving you with a handful of flies in your hand

[saladtosser]

@Dooku + @RubicCubed I get what your saying and agree bros, its was a recent transition after my last email host 123.reg got brought out by GoDaddy and went to hell! Ill look into alternatives esp now i have to pay more for AI ill never use!

[Martin Ice Web]

Big drop since yesterday. Last two weeks have been very good with strong traffic and sales. Monday was still ok. But since yesterday traffic is rubbish. Zombies all over the place and lots of bots.

[Treud]

My traffic is rising since a week. But it’s mostly bot with customer pattern.
It’s impossible that with that amount of traffic I receive no inquiry or nothing.

[Chris travel 30]

Things are getting more weird here: After 2 weeks of steady decrease in - basically everything - my sites are converting like never before since 48 hours. Made more affiliate sales in 2 days than in the 2 weeks before. It comes in big chunks. Like, 2 hours of sales of one kind, next 2 hours dead, afterwards 3 hours of sales of another kind... what is going on there?
Let's see how long this will last.
*sarcasm on* Maybe it's because I posted about how google is destroying the independent internet. *sarcasm off*

[Treud]

Probably the technical issues that affected ChatGPT the last 24h hahahha
People were forced to used links again. !

[webdev29]

traffic and conversions are completely dead today! really tiring roller coaster ride

[RedBar]

For a fleeting moment I thought traffic may have improved until I saw 50% of it was solely from Hetzner and Huawei Singapore.

No rollercoaster here simply consistently downhill.

Garbage rules KO !

[christianz]

Huge drop on Tuesday.

[Whitey]

For a fleeting moment I thought traffic may have improved until I saw 50% of it was solely from Hetzner and Huawei Singapore.

No rollercoaster here simply consistently downhill.

Garbage rules KO !

@Redbar - our servers are being hammered from Singapore but I don’t know who the culprit is. Bot’s flying in also from other GEO’s randomly. Our protection systems and layers are struggling. It seems you’re not alone, and I noticed @brett_tabke’s comments saying he was having issues keeping this forum online.

[goodoldweb]

We received an email from Google Merchant this morning, urging us to integrate Google Pay into our store. Sure—why not. :)

At this point, we view all Google products as just more spyware tools—designed to tighten control over free trade and the open flow of information on the web.

Not going to happen.

[Treud]

They all push for the 0 click, Google of Facebook, they don’t want you to toggle to anyone website, goal is to stay on they ecosystem, and just scroll and be fed by their own ads and products.

Got the same message from Google and i’m setting a store on facebook and they push for us to integrate everything, even the payment.

What I fear with AI is yes it seems appealing to have an answer on top, sounds quick and the length of the AIO sometimes is enough, but in the end we just have 1 version, might be good or wrong is a problem, but what I fear is after we will have « their » answer. Might sounds pessimistic but for me 1 choice is no choice.

Asking AI for small tasks that are boring (translation, writing a speech after sending a script) why not, relying on AI to make choice without crossing informations ? No way

[RedBar]

Checked my metrics first thing and traffic was up 500% ... Thanks Hetzner!

@Whitey

The last time Huawei hit my global site like thiis was January 2024 and it went on for a week and I never found the solution to block them. It never touched any other site.

[mosxu]

@RedBar

You can get Huawei Ip classes and ban them, probably 99.99% bot traffic!

[Dooku]

@Redbar, if I remember correctly you also use Cloudflare. Is there a problem blocking the Hetzner ASN 24940?
It's the main Hetzner ASN number. And if you still see Hetzner IP's after that then just use a tool like [2ip.io...]
to find the ASN number of that IP and block that also (as Hetzner has a few secondary ASN number besides their main network 24940)

I have those blocked because simply NO NORMAL visitor will EVER come from Hetzner.....it's all bots and hackers.
The same for Linode, Vultr, Amazon.......the usual suspects.

[Jerry_H]

Have you encountered the number of indexed pages in GSC dropping significantly? Is this Google update?

[Treud]

Yes the drop in GSC is huge, never saw that.

Probably a way to save ressources for the AI

[RubicCubed]

We received an email from Google Merchant this morning, urging us to integrate Google Pay into our store. Sure—why not. :)

At this point, we view all Google products as just more spyware tools—designed to tighten control over free trade and the open flow of information on the web.

@goodoldweb

I completely agree and would go one step further in saying Google should be prohibited from using their dominance in search to "compel" businesses to accept their payment option or face a perceived demotion in search. I'm not aware of the courts taking up the issue of Google Pay and how it may play into potential preferential ranking, but there's a strong case to be made that Google should be forced to exit the payment processing industry entirely.

[RedBar]

You can get Huawei Ip classes and ban them, probably 99.99% bot traffic!

Nope that does not work whatsoever for Statcounter BUT Awstats and Webalizer it seems to.

I am not at Cloudfare however the annoyance will go away when I do decide to close this site.

[mosxu]

Apart from the junk traffic coming through I am in state of shock when I type #*$! in Google:

I am so used to AI agents when I use google search compared to AI agents I am lost!

The index for these AI bots seems to be the same not sure what we are dealing with but it is hard to believe these AI bots feed from the web!

[Samsam1978]

I am seeing a drop each day by a little each day - about 4-10% guys is this normal? Is others seeing this? Like a slow decline.

[RubicCubed]

I am seeing a drop each day by a little each day - about 4-10% guys is this normal?

Drop in what, ranks or traffic? If ranks are about the same or better, but traffic is dropping then it's most likely because of AI Overviews. Many are experiencing these drops in traffic, because Google is putting more AI O in search, and there's nothing we can do to rank above it. When AI O is present and closed, Advanced Web Ranking says the first organic result appears 883 pixels down the page where few users even bother to look. As Google adds more AI O, our drops in traffic will continue probably till there is no traffic left.

[nordland]

I’m seeing a steady overall increase. Everything is trending upwards, both for my national site and the global one. I focus on creating entirely unique content that stands apart from mainstream information. Within hours, my pages often appear in AI search, rank first in traditional search, and show up in image results. It’s simply about adapting, otherwise Google traffic will fade away.

I’m not trying to trick Google. I’m just committed to producing the best content I can. While I use AI to help write the text, all factual information and images are 100% my own. My goal is for visitors to return directly next time without relying on Google. And so far, the signs are positive, direct traffic is increasing.

I am very positive about the future and intend to create the best I can, my goal is to become number 2 in the world in my sector, Google is one of the tools to get there, there are many others. Will I succeed? who knows.. It is thanks to Ai anyway, because my writing skills are not good, in terms of information I am a walking Wikipedia but it is worthless if I can't write properly.

[BigKat]

It’s simply about adapting, otherwise Google traffic will fade away.

For most there is no adapting. Both smaller and major publishers [nypost.com...] are deeply concerned that Google is using their dominance in search to suck the life out of the entire ecosystem. I think we should all prepare for the reality that Google won't stop until they've taken all our unpaid traffic away. I share a similar view as the quote from the the NY Post story.

Nicholas Thompson, the CEO of news outlet The Atlantic, told employees earlier this year that they should assume traffic from Google will drop toward zero over time, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

As a manufacturer we adapt by raising prices which are paid by OEMs, distributors, government, wholesalers who then pass these costs down to consumers (or are paid with tax dollars). For every $1 we raise prices, the retail customer often pays $2 more. In the end consumers, and in our case taxpayers, will absorb the cost of Google's hostile takeover of the internet.

[vgasoft]

Stealing will not end well for AI agents. The world will return to paid books.

[saladtosser]

My hobby passion site that I spend about a k a month in on high grade azure hosting and a professional photographer for photos of extreme quality that dont exist close to anywhere else online is down on AdSense from a best case scenario ($8 a day, always a loss i take but i take because its a passion) to $1.19 a day AdSense, even as a hobby site taking an extreme loss means I wont bother to add new content anymore! I was happy to take the hit the past 6 years because it was a passion project and I was making up for it elsewhere. But with that also under threat publishing new content on the passion hobby site stops now!

Ill keep all files on disk and try and keep it online for now ready for the next iteration of the internet because this surely wont go on and if it does there simply wont be anyone left to ply money into passion projects because they need to at least earn a little and cover some of the hosting else why bother!