88% down in everything

[Samsam1978]

Ok I feel done, I actually cried yesterday over it. All those amazing creative people wiped out due to AI overviews. I thought they would ease off the AI overviews but no it has got worse. 90% down and I am going to have to downgrade my server for the 2nd time. I will now make more money on Government benefits. Why is no-one doing anything, my site is nearly 20 years old.

[RedBar]

Why is no-one doing anything, my site is nearly 20 years old.

I'm sad to hear this. I've tried to post a dignified answer several times but each time I've ended up having an absolute rant about totally inept politicians and governments and we don't discuss that here.

Worklife for many these days is about a continual adaption to and for "whatever" because of constant changes such as work culture, international business, sustainable business, how we live, finance and economy and a whole plethora of stuff we're never told about.

Plus, I can assure it's no easier being the "top dog" in a business trying to keep everything on an even keel and profitable these days since every competitor seems to be determined to hack you down ... My worklife has definitely not turned out to be what my schoolteachers were predicting in the 1960s ... At 73 I still work 60-70 hours a week!

[tangor]

The world changes and we must adapt or die. It's that simple---and annoying!

AI is not going anywhere. MEANWHILE, AI has just about killed itself off---meaning that what can be found and assimilated HAS been found and ASSIMILATED and fully 50% of that is WRONG, which leads to hallucinations, errors, and flat out wrong results.

How can that be? Look at the source(s) AI uses to develop LLMs.

Though the following link is based on AI fails is from a music business point of view, there are examples and charts, etc. that make a compelling case. You won't find this information on a "tech" "seo" discussion.

[youtube.com...]
(15 minutes)

It appears you CAN get good answers if you ask the RIGHT kind of questions.

[Whitey]

You’re not alone, Samsam1978. Many of us have built sites over decades believing quality and persistence would be rewarded - but AI Overviews have rewritten the rules mid-game.

Maybe this isn’t extinction, rather it’s evolution with a bad attitude. The free “traffic economy” is collapsing into a “data economy,” and those who adapt by structuring or licensing what they’ve built, might still find daylight.

Tangor’s right: AI may be chasing a closed web that loops on its own hallucinations. For AI to move forward, it needs an open web, a connected eco-system, with creativity, innovation, personality, emotions and human knowledge, not one where creators are choked and stripped for parts. If AI kills the open web, it kills the oxygen it breathes.

[tangor]

If AI kills the open web, it kills the oxygen it breathes.

Already in the works. Touted as a "creativity tool" and "sidekick to human innovation" the creators of AI forgot the one cardinal rule:

Monkey-see-monkey-do.

Humans are notoriously LAZY, LAX, and GREEDY. Anything that can be done "magically" so no "work" is expended is the choice that 90% of humans (regardless of race, creed or color) will take. That is the path of least insistence and effort. In that regard nearly all "new" websites will be regurgitated AI, possibly fiddled with by Uncle Ernie that will make the results even more nonsensical. Humans are also routinely stupid when the search for lucre is involved.

The other 10%, on the other hand, are waking up to the fact that grifters are on the loose quietly stealing one's hard-won efforts and---we're not gonna take it. (Apologizes to The Who)

Bot banning, paywalls, TOS requirements, human verification, geo-location bans, all are on the table. This will remain an "open web" but it will no longer be "free" in regards to ACCESS.

[Brett_Tabke]

>If AI kills the open web, it kills the oxygen it breathes.

They only kill the 50% that isn't profitable and that they can't monetize. Most of the people reading this are in in that 50%.

>adapt

To what? Target AIO? Everyone is saying that the clicks sent by top aio citations and links are a fraction of what they used to be.

The only adapt, is to pivot your marketing. I pontificated about it here: [searchengineworld.com...] which was out of the classic 2002 post on webmasterworld here: [webmasterworld.com...]

[tangor]

Marketing is one aspect of adapting (and should be in use AT ALL TIMES), but Hardening Sites, Protecting Copyright, Requiring Humans---among other things---will go a long way to making content unique and desirable. This applies regardless of how many "traffic sources" might exist, or are utilized.

Minor caveat: One HAS to be unique and desirable at the get go. Copy cats and those selling the same widget(s) might find it harder to stand out. Nature of the Beast.

[BigKat]

Everyone is saying that the clicks sent by top aio citations and links are a fraction of what they used to be.

Study after study shows this to be true. Even the highly respected Pew Research Center says only 1% of users click a link inside AIO based on their own study. Google will chip away at that 1% as well once they've picked the low hanging fruit.
[pewresearch.org...]

[explorador]

A few years ago I worked at some big media company (huge), and had my own office. Due to random events they hired a school mate and put it on the same office with me, we used to have long conversations like in the old times.

Then someone told me something about Guns and Roses (rock history), something about films, and something about music, etc. This person said "Wait a minute...", adding "Peter has been coming here to ask you questions, and then talks at our office as if he is the source of the information... he's been using your information to flirt with girls!"

Well, I didn't care, it didn't hurt me, but surely the situation made me feel like a fool, while some people were saying "oh, Peter knows so much about music and films".

Same thing has been happening with my web content. To me it's not about ego, so, it doesn't hurt (not exactly), but others coping my content and pictures are making money and pushing me out of the game, that's... insane. And as a result, there are things I don't want to talk about because as soon I post them, I loose control over such content.

Things got really unfair.

[wheel]

I sold my last business that was entirely based on ranking, about 5-6 years ago. Took a break on some other stuff ,then circled back to doing online marketing. And yes, AI has killed Google, or at least it's killed SERP referrals. I can't even be bothered doing old school SEO anymore.
That being said, marketing existed before Google, and it'll exist after. We just need to adapt and find other sources of traffic, get exposure in other, perhaps more traditional ways. Clearly there's some traction to be had in getting listed as a source in Google's AI results. Some of the other AI programs will list sources, getting listed there can help. Not as much as ranking, but it's a start.

I'm also finding some success in secondary sources i.e. reddit. I have some outstanding comments in my industry in some of the bigger subs on Reddit. Those posts give me traffic in three ways:
1) Some people read the thread, find my website and contact me.
2) some people see me in the thread, go to google, see my ad, and click on the ad.
3) Some of those reddit threads rank in Google; people read it then see #1 and #2.

Next, I've built a name for myself in a specific offline activity, but online; i.e. a lot of people that are potential clients know me through a secondary activity that's popular. I'm transitioning that exposure into business exposure. In my case, specifically providing seminars. Just starting, but I'm expecting to have a strong response of people showing up to those professional seminars, based simply on my non-professional exposure. Come see 'this guy that you know' talking about 'my business'. Again, just starting this model, but there are other people in my industry doing similiar seminars to other niches and they're doing quite well. It doesn't scale as well as a fully online business, but it's certainly a lot more stable in the long run - the seminar business provides some very strong annually recurring and increaseing income - the customers come back for more and more every year. It's possible in 3-5 years that I don't even have to go looking for new customers, just keep reselling my old ones.

Anyway, I'm still searching and thinking on this, but my baseline is that google's dead (it was a good run, made some money, OMG remember linkpoint? was that what it was called?), AI right now doesn't have a huge promise, so start looking elsewhere. People are still researching, finding vendors, and purchasing; just not through the serps.

[Broaster]

ITs sad, my website is 15 years old, and the last 3 years all traffic was wiped out completely, and the most recent spam update I have been penalized algorithmically, I search my newly published Articles Titles in google and none of them appear at the top or on the first page anymore. Sad, I miss the days when I started my wordpress blog, I had no backlinks, but posted content and ranked for single keywords and was able to make a living off adsense. now I barely making 10 dollars in a year off adsense. AI Overviews was the final nail.

[Kendo]

the most recent spam update

Does anyone know what this "spam update" means?

[Webwork]

Meanwhile, in a galaxy not so far, far away [webmasterworld.com ]

When has it not been the case that failing to diversify traffic sources is a set-up for dying from a gaping traffic-exit wound? #LessonsFromThePast

I love how not so long ago "long form content" was all the rage in SEO circles. Methinks that was little more than food for the emerging AIO beast.

Now advisors advise that you survive by "crafting content" for AI agents. Yes, upgrade your feeding of the AI beast.

Sounds about right, if you're an AI agent. I'm sure the AI agent agrees and approves of your advice.

[tangor]

...AI agent agrees and approves of your advice.

And krap begats more of the same.

AI ON THE WEB is going to fail. AI in military is a different kind of beast and should be feared!

AI is running out of CONTENT---what is left is content regurgitated from AI (lazy humans, of course!).

Sadly, it will take some time for things to settle. How long that will be is unknown, and that is why the angst and gnashing of teeth.

Meanwhile, hang in there. As has been said before: "This, too, will pass!"

[Samsam1978]

I think it is all smokescreens, Google are training a no click internet but needs clicks on ads as it is 86% its business revenue. If people don't click it will loose the revenue. This is the most crazy business strategy I have seen since 3D cinema glasses were suppose to overtake normal film. The estimated cost per query and if Google ever went fully “AI mode,” answering every search with a AI mode, it would need roughly $466 billion a year in ad revenue just to break even. Right now, the open-web display ads only bring in about $33 billion - so go figure, it is a crazy strategy killing off the creators that made Google, Google. They are hitting their cash cow. All results they publish are hidden and datacentres are fixed price on balance sheet as depreciation. Youtube full of SORA videos and people turning off, advetisors going like Amazon pulled out of display advertising a few months back. The whole thing is going to fail. Evenutally Google will fail it can't keep it up.

[Samsam1978]

I don't think I can survive this now with the lack of revenue coming in.

[blend27]

@tangor

-- Meanwhile, hang in there. As has been said before: "This, too, will pass!"

There, fixed for Ya:

"As it was said before: "This, too, shall p*ss!"...

[RedBar]

Google are training a no click internet but needs clicks on ads

Honestly, I could not tell you the last time I clicked on an ad. I have bookmarked the few stores I do use otherwise I do very little purchasing on the Net meanwhile two of my next door neighbours have Amazon Prime delivering on an almost daily basis.

Their cardboard recycling bins are filled with ease.

[Edge]

The evidence I see suggests we face more than just the huge obstacle of AI. We are also being weighed down by persistent inflation, supply chain disruptions, and other forces of top-down economic mismanagement. It seems the worst aspects of capitalism are being amplified by AI as well as politics (USA), and we aren't seeing an effective pushback.

Like many, I don't know what the future holds, nor do I understand the ultimate consequences of these AI disruptions or what a realignment of the world economy will mean for any of us.

Faced with this uncertainty, the only clear path forward is to be relentless in our response: we must adapt, evolve, adjust, innovate, practice kaizen, and simply do what needs to be done.

[Gagan_Kumar]

Hey, I totally get how you feel. You have worked hard for years, and it’s really sad to see your site lose traffic because of AI changes. You are not alone - many creators are facing the same problem.

But don’t give up yet.
Try to:

Share things AI can’t copy - your real experiences, stories, or opinions.

Get visitors from other places too - like social media, YouTube, or newsletters.

Use AI tools to help you improve your content instead of fighting them.

Keep checking what still gets views and focus more on that.

You’ve built something great over 20 years - that still matters. Things are changing, but your voice and experience are still valuable. Keep going.

[RedBar]

@Gagan_Kumar

Do you not think most experienced webmasters / seoers have not already done as you suggest?

Ai / G algo are out of control disruptors, the algo is deliberately unpredictable, AI is collecting as much data as it can before people / sites simply give up and remove them. This will inevitably hit larger, international, evergreen sites which have already been hit by localisation, than large branded retail stores and local businesses, how evergreen hobby sites fare will be up to their creators' expectations however I've already seen many informationally valuable ones close.

Use AI tools to help you improve your content instead of fighting them.

Wow! And spread more disinformation?

E.G. I have a globally exclusive widget derivating from India. AIs tell me it can also be sourced from Brazil and Norway. My entire global industy knows this however false details given on a couple of US sites and AI tells me otherwise.

My trust factor is nil.

[explorador]

Broaster: was able to make a living off adsense. now I barely making 10 dollars in a year off adsense

I can entirely understand this. I can understand changing algos, even competition, but how something of good quality suddenly becomes almost worthless? that's insane.

I read enthusiasm and nostalgia on your post. I keep coming back to that spot myself. To me, it was never about the money, not exclusively, but monetization became interesting. The problem is, at some point you do hard work and all you get in result is online indifference or problems (people stealing your content), then your brain gets it: action -> reaction, all that work doesn't get you anything positive in return, except more work and expenses. Not cool.

Samsam1978: I don't think I can survive this now with the lack of revenue coming in.

For what is worth, I've been focusing on a mentality change. Building a website and posting content requires a set of skills:

- Research and writing
- Editing content
- Shooting pictures
- Coding
- Design
- Web administration
- Always some basic SEO and marketing

My point is, each and every one of those skills can be monetized. Perhaps one can't make the same amount of money as before posting content, but the skills to edit (editorial quality) remain and are still valid.

[Kendo]

Does anyone know what this "spam update" means?

So none of the SEO experts have a clue either?

[Edge]

Use AI tools to help you improve your content instead of fighting them.

Sounds good - real world practice is the challenge.

I, as well as, the rest of us are all asking the same question. How do we leverage AI and get our fair share of revenue and/or credit for contribution within the AI beast?

Interestingly I asked AI these questions and got a detailed response that included this sentence:

"Your job becomes that of the expert editor, correcting, adding your 40 years of experience, and ensuring accuracy"

AI knows me....

[tangor]

"Your job becomes that of the expert editor, correcting, adding your 40 years of experience, and ensuring accuracy"

In the real world Editors get paid. Was a salary mentioned?

[mosxu]

End of month zombies are active!

[gatormark]

Why is no-one doing anything, my site is nearly 20 years old.

Because there is nothing to do, this is a paradigm shift in the internet industry, and we are casualties of war/shift.

Here is what AI is saying...While this is focused on AdSense, the impact is the same in other areas of revenue.

For many smaller publishers, AdSense revenue is shrinking due to a combination of competition from major brands, the rise of AI-driven search, changes to Google's revenue model, and the proliferation of ad blockers. While AdSense remains a viable option for many, especially large websites, it is no longer the easy or dominant income stream it once was for independent creators.

Here is a breakdown of the key factors contributing to lower AdSense revenue:

Competitive and algorithmic changes

Google favors large brands: Smaller, independent sites report that Google increasingly favors large-brand domains in search results, even over more detailed content from creators. Ads from major brands are dominating placement, which pushes out smaller publishers.

AI-powered search replaces organic traffic: Google's own AI Overviews and other generative AI features are answering user questions directly in search results. This reduces the number of organic click-throughs to websites, particularly for "how-to" and educational content, which hurts revenue.

Core updates and traffic volatility: Recent Google core updates have caused significant traffic and revenue drops for many websites. The internet has become a "winner takes it all" game, with high-traffic sites continuing to receive the largest share of the ad revenue pie.

[EditorialGuy]

I can understand changing algos, even competition, but how something of good quality suddenly becomes almost worthless? that's insane.

I was a young editor for a national magazine in the heyday of magazine publishing. We paid $2,000 and up for a short story or article. I wonder what printed magazines are paying for stories and articles these days?

[Whitey]

What’s becoming clearer (at least to me) is that we’re not dealing with just ranking volatility or “write better content” cycles anymore. The distribution ecosystem itself has changed.

For years, many of us operated in the middle layer:

aggregating,

comparing,

organising,

simplifying supply into something users could act on.

That layer used to have real economic value because it saved the user effort. Now we have two simultaneous pressures:

Platforms moving “upstream”

They are collapsing steps in the user journey and internalising what used to be open web surface area.

AI systems moving “downstream”

They’re synthesising summaries that replace the need for experiential comparison entirely - even when the summaries are occasionally wrong.

So we’re being squeezed from both ends of the value chain. Not because we did something wrong - but because the shape of the chain is different.

This is why advice like “write more authentic content” or “use AI to improve articles” feels tone-deaf. Most here have already:

iterated UX,

improved editorial,

cut deadweight pages,

diversified acquisition where possible.

The question isn’t about effort. It’s about where independent operators now sit in the ecosystem.

What I see emerging is a shift:

From being discoverable to being indispensable. Meaning: embedding into workflows, tools, communities, or decisions that can’t simply be replaced by a generative summary.

Examples (across many sectors):

data streams rather than articles,

utilities instead of pages,

small, high-trust networks over broad anonymous reach,

presence inside the platforms rather than competing against them.

This isn’t a motivational speech. It’s just recognising that the middle layer isn’t gone - it’s being redefined.

Those of us who can re-anchor value in places where AI can’t arbitrage trust or context will survive this phase.

But yes, there is grief in watching the old model disappear. It’s valid. Very valid.

Still here. Still adapting.

[Whitey]

I imagine half of the readers here are blog publishers.

So for publishers who built their models on blogs and informational content, the shift is from trying to be discovered to becoming indispensable, by turning knowledge into small, data-driven utilities that sit inside user decisions, not on pages waiting to be found.

That’s how you separate your past from your future, by creating indespensible value that sets you apart from Google search and AI overviews, builds a value “moat” to exploit - that’s game on imo.

And you already have the AI tools at your disposal to achieve it.