October 2025 Google Search Observations

[saladtosser]

@gatormark Been seeing this for weeks bud! Its a shame the AI crap isn't restricted to that tab but its flooding every other tab as well

[RedBar]

I've had a big attack from Tung Chung Islands Kong Kong this morning on a small 130 page .co.uk site.

It purportedly came from Google calling on every page a minimum 150 times with the contact php 700+times using the search term "testing" almost 10,000 times.

Now added to block list.

[ichthyous]

USA traffic is back to being perpetually weak again, while non USA traffic is zooming. Today USA is -56% at 10am. Could be the government shutdown is also distracting people. I recently sent a marketing email to about 12k recipients total and not one response despite an open rate between 13%-54% on the lists. People are very very cautious these days.

[londrum]

@ichthyous google removed the &num=100 parameter and search console impressions dropped for pretty much everyone i think - positions shot up at the same time. i'm not sure how, exactly, but it was widely reported

[mosxu]

How do I shut myself down till agentic sales start?

[Martin Ice Web]

role back? 3 days of stable traffic and now it is the old mess. Traffic is very bad, bots are back, sales are down.

as soon as something is good with google they push the KILL switch

[mosxu]

Chat GPT charges 2% for a making a automatic check out but works with shopify for now more agents will follow

[Dooku]

Chat GPT charges 2% for a making a automatic check out

Yes, we definitely do need another "in between" business acting as a gatekeeper or what not.....no added value, nothing, just "earning" money without doing anything.
There is NO more innovation as Ed Zitron mentioned. All of these "tech platforms" are just there to create obstacles to squeeze companies and people......else we will put you on the other side of the wall......either play or go bust. I have not seen ANY innovation in the last couple of years.

[ichthyous]

Chat GPT charges 2% for a making a automatic check out

I personally would not pay ChatGPT, or anyone else, 2% for a referral. They can visit my site to check out if they want, they don't have to buy it through ChatGPT. This is an ominous sign...before you know it they will be mentioning only those sources that pay them in their results.

I just had two of my former partner sites go belly up and shut down. Both were highly reputable and had excellent content. One was about twelve and one was twenty years old. The older one didn't redirect the pages or anything, just one redirect for the home page. This to me indicates that due to the lack of viable organic traffic from Google it was preferable to just shut down and stop the expense. I know for a fact the the newer site was bleeding money and traffic because I made an offer to buy it. The organic traffic was waning before AI even hit and they were losing thousands of pounds per month.

I think we are just at the beginning of the shrinking of the internet...we are going to see a big reduction in the number of viable sites out there. I know that the biggest site in my niche depended heavily on organic traffic from their editorial and product pages. I left the platform and stopped paying them years ago, I can only imagine how little business there is now.

[goodoldweb]

"No more organic clicks for you!".
Said the monopolistic search Nazi.

At what point we webmasters are going to take back control of our online businesses by creating a viable alternative that address this greedy "tech" disgrace?

[Chris travel 30]

@Martin
We see the same and just like you I was thinking yesterday: There it is - after the Update, there comes the rollback.

@goodolweb
whatever would be the alternative, i am in.

[Micha]

In general, shops seem to be getting really dragged down by Google right now. I spoke to a few owners yesterday, and they all said that their sales are down (Rankingcheck has shown a massive decline for all of these shops). The shop I run is no better off. Even with Google Ads, nothing is working. My news site has a lot of traffic at the moment, but if it weren't for that, it would probably be dead too.

Oh, and the bots are currently annoying as hell again.

[goodoldweb]

I can confirm that our webstore has been heavily affected. We’ve had zero organic clicks in the past three days, only paid clicks, and even those are minimal and non converting.

Advertising costs keep rising while traffic quality continues to decline.

Our eBay shop has also been completely inactive over the last few days.
We offer unique, live products with very little competition, yet it feels as though Google is holding our customers hostage.

[gatormark]

What the heck happened yesterday? These fluctuations are insane.

[ichthyous]

My USA traffic is -30% today at 1:30. It's been off this entire week and getting worse by the day. Not sure if the government shutdown here is having some sort of impact, but I doubt it...I don't have a lot of visits from Govt agency employees.

I have also seen that traffic originating from mysite.com.webcache.com is down dramatically lately... Almost 85% this week. What's up with that?

The bigger part of the drop could be that I had two reputable high DA partner websites with about 300 aged backlinks to my site close up and vanish this week. I've had links from these sites for 7-10 years. We are seeing more ecommerce sites go belly up...in the case of one of them the reduced organic search traffic really hit them hard. I know because I had access to all their data when I made a bid to buy the site.

[Kendo]

At what point we webmasters are going to take back control of our online businesses by creating a viable alternative that address this greedy "tech" disgrace?

Given that nothing is impossible, anyone have a suggestion about what could be done?

[kireb]

My traffic stands at -90% compared to the previous years. All my organic Search has been replaced by infringing sites. My materials are at the top of Google, just not on my sites. Google claims I'm not the content owner! I will stop creating content, this is pure thievery.

[kireb]

My traffic stands at -90% compared to the previous years. All my organic traffic has been replaced by sites infringing my content. My materials are still at the top of Google Search, just not on my sites. Google claims I'm not the content owner, after 15 years of partnering! I will stop creating content, this is pure thievery.

[mosxu]

2% charge only if user checked out is a game changer as long as there is genuine competition between many AI agents!

Of course there will be no innovation but at moment most of us are forced to pay for zombies!

AI competition between west closed models is a must but also because China’s open models that would not mind a 2% commission and shipping direct from China!

[Kendo]

Dunno if this relevant. I have been checking rankings by searching keywords every few days for the last few weeks. I have been logging those results, for 4 specific pages - 4 pages that have always been my main landing page from search results.

Being in Australia I get search results for Australian peeps. But I also have a Windows server in the US that I can access to use the desktop. The results from AU and US are very different. I have checked from other locations around the globe and results are similar to AU - which suggests that US websites are being favoured in the US.

In AU those pages have always been in top 10. But in US they vary between 10-26. Well that was up until a couple of days ago. Now the pages that were doing the best have dropped 1-20 places, some no longer found in the top 100.

So something has changed. The pages that I was logging only have internal links (no backlinks) and were doing well based on content. Their positions have been taken by different pages - ones that do have a lot of outside backlinks.

I wonder what will happen next week?

[goodoldweb]

I have a dream of an internet that is truly centralized yet free from corporate or governmental control. A digital utopia where access to information is seamless, equitable, and unmanipulated. In this vision, a single, transparent infrastructure unifies the web, eliminating fragmented platforms and walled gardens. Search features would be powered by open-source algorithms, designed and maintained by a global community of developers, ensuring no single entity be it a tech giant or a state can dictate what we find or see.

This centralized internet would prioritize user privacy and data sovereignty. Advanced encryption would safeguard personal information, while decentralized governance models, like blockchain based systems, ensure no one can censor or prioritize content for profit. Search engines would deliver results based on relevance and authenticity, not paid promotions or hidden agendas. Every user, from any corner of the globe, would have equal access to knowledge, tools, and opportunities.

Challenges like misinformation and scalability would be addressed through collaborative, transparent moderation systems, not top down control. This dream envisions an internet that empowers individuals, fosters innovation, and upholds freedom, a digital commons where the pursuit of truth and connection reigns supreme, unbound by corporate greed or authoritarian oversight.

[mosxu]

All we need is AI competition, AIs need to eat each other this is the only way to prosperity!

[Kendo]

I have a dream of an internet that is truly centralized yet free from corporate or governmental control.

Ah, but someone has to be the GateKeeper, even if just for maintenance, like cleaning out the spider webs and dead bugs that accumulate in the bottom of the server casing.

[Conro]

@goodoldweb However, if these algorithms are aware of spammers, we already know how it will end

[Micha]

Gosh, bots are really getting on my nerves at the moment. It's getting worse and worse, and there's nothing you can do about it....

[goodoldweb]

@conro

The entire web infrastructure was built on open source and collective community work. Spammers have been trying to disrupt the web since day one, yet the web has continued to function and overcome the hurdles.

The spammers we’re facing now, however, are well funded and publicly listed. They deceived the community into believing they were a force for good, when in reality, total control of the web was always their main goal.

Bit by bit, they’ve taken over the entire ecosystem, from mobile operating systems to browsers, email, maps, search etc. A truly dark anti competitive force.

The web community must return to the drawing board. Becouse things are completely out of control. This dark anti competative entity is openly standing between us and our customers, restricting trade in broad day light.

[RedBar]

@Lendo

which suggests that US websites are being favoured in the US.

I have been posting this for several years now, localisation is very noticeable in several countries and in several languages. In fact for amateur searchers looking for information outside of their "fenced-in" region it can be extremely irritating!

[gatormark]

I have been in my niche for 20 years, and the historically niche-focused authoritative players have been relegated to the third or fourth page of Google search results. The only niche-focused player I see regularly on page 1 is a site that doesn't display ads on its main pages. That is very strange. That seems like a lose-lose for Google, but I don't know their end game. Most of the traditional authoritative players (community-based) have been replaced by non-niche, general-interest websites. As a side note, I am down 60% from October of last year in traffic and AdSense revenue. This is the first time in 20 years that my revenue has decreased in October and is lower than the summer months. The first time in HISTORY!

[guarriman3]

Starting on Saturday, the number of Total Impressions dropped 20% and the clicks dropped 20%. The Average position remains unchanged

[Kendo]

The only niche-focused player I see regularly on page 1 is a site that doesn't display ads on its main pages.

Ads not showing doesn't mean they at not paying for ads.

When I realised that Adwords was a bad investment, I did keep it going with a minimal budget for some time. During that time I never once saw one of my ads, not even from a device not associated with my ad account.

But then I never once saw any of my ads even when I was paying heaps per month. Their excuse would have been that my daily/monthly allowance had been spent or displayed elsewhere.