July 2025 Google Search Observations

[Martin Ice Web]

And like every time, google lies about he start of this core update. It definitly started on friday.
And again it rewards old fashion, low content, bad html websites. Even websites with no pics or pictures smaller than 300 width are rewarded.

[edited by: not2easy at 11:55 am (utc) on Jul 1, 2025]
[edit reason] New month, new thread [/edit]

[Micha]

This core update has really been a rollercoaster for my news site. At first, everything was going fine, then things took a nosedive, but since Friday, rankings have clearly improved and visitor numbers have shot up.

One thing I’ve noticed though: ever since the update started, AI-generated answers have been showing up more frequently on Google in Germany. But honestly, I don’t get how Google thinks that’s helpful. Out of 10 answers, 2 are summaries missing the important half, and the other 8 are complete nonsense.

[Whitey]

I’m seeing similar traffic spikes as shown in GSC screenshots shared here (a few more weeks of this update to go I guess): [seroundtable.com...]

[Fluff_Nutz]

After finally managing to remove the German bot invasion, or, at least, block them for now. My traffic is still quite nice. Cannot complain. But even with Google's slight traffic increase they only manage 5th place in my list of sources. So no real change in position for them. I'm enjoying my other stable baskets of traffic right now too.

So far traffic is good all around. Has been going good since July 4th. Would love to keep this up.. alas..

[mhansen]

Google is wild... and it makes no sense.

BusinessDomain#1.com - HCU recovered website for +1 year that I removed all informational content and only had interactive tools... built a solid Brand around, etc - dropping like a hot potato, losing all rankings in top 3 positions and traffic over the weekend.

exactmatchspamdomain#2.com - 15 year old EMD, purely generic informational lead-gen affiliate website that lost 50% of traffic from HCU in August 2022, then the other 50% in Sept 2023 HCU... just gained back every top 3 position it ever held, and is converting visitors to affiliate leads like a kid in a candy store with a no-limit credit card.

I mean, I'll take it, and I'll also re-establish all 6-7 of those other previously high performance lead-gen generics I took down after Sept 2023, and reset them to their original junk content, but cmon Google... whats up with all this? Who's running things over there?

[Shepherd]

What a crazy update...
massive crawl on the July 2nd.
traffic plummet shortly after (hard to pinpoint because of US holiday)
core vitals' "good urls" number starts plummeting 11th, no change in "bad" or "needs improvement" urls, both 0. no significant change in indexed pages, slight increase in "Crawled - currently not indexed" pages.

[Conro]

Let's imagine that Google's AI has ruined the most popular search engine in the world, now let's imagine to the countries where social scoring is used, who knows what disaster AI can do.

[mosxu]

“social scoring” is personalisation in the western countries, everyone has a profile that AI might use one day!

LLMs so far make me not think and when I use google search it feels ancient!

[nordland]

I think AI will be good in Google search, of course it will take time to get it perfect. I think many people here dislike it because it takes away clicks to your website. As a user, you probably want to get quick information without having to visit 5 different websites. I look positively at the future and adapt.

[christianz]

I look positively at the future and adapt

If you haven't created anything of value that so called "AI" has stolen, spun and monetized, of course you can "look positively at the future".

As for adapting - yes creators and publishers will gradually adapt and lock things down and eventually Google's AI will become even worse than it is today.

Or Google will come up with actual business model that isn't based on criminal theft.

[EditorialGuy]

As a user, you probably want to get quick information without having to visit 5 different websites.

It depends. Not every user is looking for a quick answer.

Take something like how to get from Widgetville Airport to the city center: For some users, "Take the no. 6 bus" is enough. For others, the best response to the query is a Web page with detailed instructions with photos.

And, of course, if a person is actively searching for Web sites about a given topic, Web search--not AI Overviews--is what's needed.

[EditorialGuy]

Addendum to my previous message:

Google AI Overviews are a search-oriented version of Wikipedia, just as Wikipedia is a Web-oriented version of Encyclopedia Britannica. There's a place for the encyclopedia approach to information, but that doesn't mean Google AIO will replace the Web any more than Encyclopedia Britannica replaced books during the heyday of print.

[ichthyous]

Anyone else noticing that Google is dropping huge numbers of links from GSC reports? My backlink count keeps dropping each time it updates.

[BigKat]

As a user, you probably want to get quick information without having to visit 5 different websites. I look positively at the future and adapt.

As a user I don't trust a self-serving company convicted of multiple antitrust crimes to display answers that are in my best interest. We adapt to the environment as well by raising prices which helps offset the traffic loss associated with Google's IP theft.

[Conro]

@ichthyous I have talked about it several times. In my case they are sites that have closed or deindexed articles or backlinks no longer considered. I find myself with only 50 domains linking to me now, obviously the rankings have had a drop for this reason too.

[Micha]

As a user, you probably want to get quick information without having to visit 5 different websites. I look positively at the future and adapt.

Because I like eating pizza with glue or eating rocks? You hear from all sides that users don't want AI crap, but Google doesn't care. And from a user's perspective: anyone who trusts Google has lost control of their life; everyone knows that you should never trust just one source.

And regarding what else you wrote: Could it be that you have never done any independent research yourself, but only work with AI? To be honest, it sounds like it.

[goodoldweb]

Google is toast. Run into the ground by an incompetent CEO. We've had to hike prices across our webstores more then once just to offset Sundar’s Adwords extortion and blatant content theft.

Meanwhile, we got a couple of sales this week from a search engine called Qwant — never heard of it before, but it actually delivered.Great localised results too. Wow!

What’s the story there?

[ichthyous]

@conro In my case the sites and the links are still up, they haven't been deleted at all. They're just dropping from GSC in big numbers.

[gatormark]

As a user I don't trust a self-serving company convicted of multiple antitrust crimes to display answers that are in my best interest. We adapt to the environment as well by raising prices which helps offset the traffic loss associated with Google's IP theft.

Because you are not the average user. The average user doesn’t care about the things Webmasters care about. Yes, they want quick information…if they are searching for information.

Even I, as a web developer, want quick information. The difference is, I know not to trust quick information. Average users do not know that.

[goodoldweb]

@gatormark

Most everyday users I speak to have noticed that Google Search is out of whack. It’s gotten so much harder to find and compare products or reliable information with all the Reddit clutter. And the AI-generated answers? Often just plain wrong. Google's a mess — and Joe Public absolutely noticed.

[Martin Ice Web]

big changes started on monday night. Bots toke over, google traffic is -70% , sales are down , user engagement is zero.
All the current websites have one thing in common: very, very, very low content. One low res picture + h1 + lots of keyword stuffing
This current state is just the opposite of what google says it wants websites to be

[Treud]

My bot traffic is under control since a week, not sure if it’s all actions taken or if it’s just done (for now), my major KWs recovered a bit, but nowhere since last year but the increase is there. I see finally improvements, inquiries and orders.

[Fluff_Nutz]

Once again its the same with Youtube. Many of its users are getting sick and tired of the ad spam and are wanting an alternative platform. No one likes ad spam regardless. So I won't be surprised if, over time, users on both Youtube and Search decline. No one wants false and inaccurate AI answers. No one wants false translations and, obviously, no one wants ad spam.

For me Google Search only lands in 5th place in my list of traffic sources. So I don't really need to rely on them any more. I'm also seeing a shift to other diverse options on my Youtube channel too. In my attempts to escape their traffic manipulation. Though, Youtube is a lot more stable still, when compared to search. Even though they are continuing to destroy both platforms.

Though, my overall motivation has took a huge hit. I'm trying and hoping that my diverse options can keep me going. But it will forever be in the back of my mind. The 'what if?' I really don't want to go through another episode of this situation in the future. There should also be something in place to protect content creators. The world is so goddam corrupt.

Also, I only just recently found out that Youtube even takes a % of revenue from Memberships. I swear, when I first accepted it, that the creators gets the full 100%. Did I misread? Also, the option to Download videos is annoying and infuriating too. Users have been able to ''download'' any and all videos for a while now, all for a small fee. A fee that creators do not see. But its our content!

It really is slave labour. We work hard to create content for our own personal gain. I have some videos waiting to be uploaded, which took a year of work to complete. Some other videos take months. I know I work too hard for what I get in return. We all loose what we should be seeing and getting due to sheer corporate greed. So what are we even working for, exactly? Can't do it for profits as its taken from us. Traffic manipulation, so doing it for users is also quite pointless.

All, we creators want, is a stable platform owned by a stable company. Alas, even if one occurs (TikTok) the Americans try to ban it for their own selfish desires. Coming up with a lame excuse for their true intentions. So, ultimately, we creators are not allowed what we desperately need. To make it worse we need American users as its one of the biggest Tier 1 countries. Which ad platforms also want and need. How do we even compete with this garbage?

[RubicCubed]

I look positively at the future and adapt.

I would be positive too if I worked for Google or had a lot of stocks in the company. But for the rest of humanity, not so. Having AI O at the top of search results is one thing, but AI is taking over organic results too. A recent ahref study [ahrefs.com...] found only 13.5% of top ranking pages were made purely by humans. Nearly 28% of top ranking pages were either substantially or purely made with AI. We are witnessing the decline of human creativity which will also lead to a decline in human intelligence. AI may be viewed as getting more intelligent in the future not just because it has become smarter, but because humanity as a whole has just been dummied down by AI.

[Micha]

@Fluff_we are extremely dependent on the Google ecosystem and there are hardly any alternatives. It's clear that Google is exploiting this situation; it's always been that way. Now they're just taking it too far because the company feels too secure and unassailable.

[gatormark]

@goodoldweb

I’m a user experience engineer, too, and user testing has shown that the average user looks for quick answers and does not know not to trust AI overviews. Personally, I educate people every opportunity I get. However, the “average user,” a 40-year-old stay at home mom in Poughkeepsie, still does not know not to trust things like AI overviews.

[ichthyous]

Here is an excellent and well-documented piece from the Economist regarding the rapid shrinking of the web due to AI - [economist.com ]. It's behind a paywall unfortunately, but well worth reading...if you send me a message I can send a link to read it as I am a subscriber (up to 15 free reads only).

To sum up, web traffic is already down 15% so far this year to informational sites, with health related sites being hit hardest at -30%. [ibb.co ]

DotDash Meredith, a huge publishing conglomerate with numerous high traffic sites, reports that the share of traffic from Google has dropped to 30%. Down from 60% three years ago. The number of searches leading to no-clicks out has risen to 70% since AI Overviews were introduced last year. The majority of outbound clicks were to Youtube videos. We are basically competing for the remaining traffic, and that will most certainly shrink over time.

There is some positive news in the article...there are compensatory schemes and technologies being cooked up, some of which are already in place. Cloudflare is working on a system where AI bots will have to pay to access website pages apparently. But really, will any of these platforms bother to pay for sites they have already scraped?

I feel for those of you running purely informational sites. I have a site which is basically a hybrid...sales platform and informational...sales of products, services and free articles. I have definitely seen the traffic to the articles drop off in the last 6 months. Overall my traffic is holding steady, but there won't be much incentive to create new informational articles in the long run.

[ichthyous]

Search traffic has been lower since Monday, reversing the generally higher trend. A rollback of the latest update in progress? My site has been steadily gaining top three ranking terms (if that really means anything anymore). But it is bleeding backlink count at GSC. Either Google is discounting links now, or just not bothering to devote resources to count them. AI is far more important now than calculating backlinks perhaps...

[BigKat]

But it is bleeding backlink count at GSC. Either Google is discounting links now, or just not bothering to devote resources to count them.

Or backlinks are lost due to sites shutting down because Google has starved them of the traffic they need to pay the bills. With AIO dominating a user's screen, backlinks probably aren't worth anything unless they send traffic. Heck, even ranking #1 for us is worthless because of AIO.

[webdev29]

The last few days are really special. We can clearly see the pattern where Google manipulates traffic as it sees fit, and its ability to do so has become impressive.
For my part, I've noticed on several e-commerce sites that all the traffic that converts is able to disappear for a whole day, and come back the following day or only during a time slot (ON/OFF effect). All this without any major changes in the SERP and, above all, without the slightest drop in traffic!
AI-driven A/B testing has become a real guillotine for sales. In fact, I'd bet that in these update periods, “scared” customers are flocking to ADS.

[ichthyous]

@webdev My sales are effectively zero since April. But I think that this has equally as much to do with the current unstable political/economic climate driven by Washington. My sales were zooming from November to end of March. Odd how that worked. So yes Google is definitely always impacting sales, but for those of us selling higher priced discretionary goods it's all about economic and political sentiment right now. I see even businesses in my field that are not as dependent on online sales and search doing very poorly now. Sales have cratered.