June 2026 Google Search Observations

[BigKat]

I am supposed to believe that AI is useful for business when biggest AI company (Google) itself can't make AI that can spot spam from real content.

It demonstrates AI is more hype than anything else. If AI were so great, all the states allowing AI data centers to be built would be using the technology themselves and they're not. I'm sure a lot of politicians are getting rich, along with the AI companies, but that's about it at this point.

[edited by: not2easy at 11:46 am (utc) on Jun 3, 2026]
[edit reason] New month, new thread [/edit]

[BigKat]

over the past 1.5 years they have chosen approaches to ranking websites that do not surface best websites in each respective niche and keyword.

Over that 1-1/2 years Google has also moved organic results so deep down the page few searchers ever see them. I'm sure Google plans on dropping organic results completely, except for certain searches, which is why they really don't care about rank factors anymore.

As Google continues to work toward a zero click search experience, other search engines are reporting increased use. DuckDuckGo was one that reported [deccanchronicle.com...] nearly three times the traffic to it's no AI search page last month. There's a lot of people out there that still want to explore the web and not get trapped by Google. I hope this trend continues.

According to DuckDuckGo, traffic to its AI-free search page reached a record high on May 28, 2026, rising three times above normal levels following Google's recent AI-focused search updates. The company says the increase has remained steady, with visits averaging about 84% higher than usual, suggesting a lasting change in user behaviour rather than a temporary spike.

[Martin Ice Web]

We can confirm that DDG has become a significant traffic source. Never seen this before.

[Micha]

Is there possibly a Google update rolling out right now? The recovery of our news site seems to be over; big drop today. I can't say much about the shop yet, but there I'd probably blame the hot weather before anything else.

[RedBar]

Is there possibly a Google update rolling out right now?

About 10-12 years ago, possibly longer, G / Matt Cutts openly admitted that outside of major updates it also performed 300-350 "other improvements" a year ... Obviously that's an average of one a day to be filtered through, is there any reason not to believe this still continues ?

[Micha]

@RedBar I know, but something feels seriously off right now. Today I had 27 articles from Amazon Egypt in my Discover feed, basically all ads. In my niche, Top Stories are suddenly showing betting sites I would never have expected to see there, and some obvious spam sites seem to be back as well. The odd part is that yesterday the results looked much cleaner. I just don't understand what Google is trying to achieve with this.

[RedBar]

Today I had 27 articles from Amazon Egypt in my Discover feed

A coupe of weeks ago I turned on my usual radio news channel on my phone. All was fine until an advert came on and I thought that can't be right, then the next ad came on and it clicked, I'd been using my VPN set to Boston, USA the previous night ... Doh :-))

[Micha]

then the next ad came on and it clicked, I'd been using my VPN set to Boston, USA the previous night .

That wasn't advertising. Those were regular articles, all in German, but hosted on Amazon Egypt. Very strange.

And honestly, that's not even the strangest thing I'm seeing today. Right now, a lot of gambling sites are showing up in the search results as well…

[Micha]

I should have kept my mouth shut; Google has rolled out a spam update

[status.search.google.com ]

[christianz]

That wasn't advertising. Those were regular articles, all in German, but hosted on Amazon Egypt. Very strange.

What's strange about it? Remember, they are ranking by authoritativeness and expertness. Those are solely defined by which corporation owns the domain. Does Google or one of its T-admin approved big tech friends own the domain? If yes, that's great content and it MUST rank above everything else.

[christianz]

I should have kept my mouth shut; Google has rolled out a spam update

Those almost always reduce traffic to genuine sites and boost spam sites. I would say with 90% accuracy. Especially with AI when spam sites are mostly very rich, verbose, unique non-commodity AI slop, prime content for Spam Update promotion, especially in combination with big tech domain for that shot of undeniable authority.

[Fluff_Nutz]

I knew something was up. Always happens when traffic is on a high. Urgh,, Google and your useless ''updates''. But, though likely wrong here.. I would like to think that this new annoyance is just a late announcement as traffic was already a mess before it.. Who knows any more?

[RedBar]

A huge drop in traffic to my global site yesterday and so far today.

[Martin Ice Web]

It is called SPAM Update - means more SPAM in results less quality.

[Chris travel 30]

It looks weird to me: The traffic is jumping back and forth. 20 minutes good traffic from G, 20 minutes almost nothing. what the he.. are they doing?

[Micha]

The news site is performing a bit stronger in Discover again today, but other than that: more spam, significantly more spam. The shop is experiencing exactly what Chris just wrote. But we are only at the beginning of the spam-boosting update, so a lot could still change.

[Fluff_Nutz]

Yesterday continues these terrible drops, now -20% compared to same day last week. Revenue was managing to successfully keep up with last month. With better RPM rates. Now its dropping to -2% compared to last month. Meaning, both traffic and revenue are now down in comparison. Instead of just one metric. Thank you Google and Singaporean bots! Well done!

The future is looking terrible the more I think on it. With zero click garbage and yet our content must still be needed as it, still, appears in the AIO. With no growth allowed. On top of that tons of ''updates'', what feels like more than normal and each one taking chunks of traffic and never returning it. It's all very volatile and one sided. How is any of this allowed? Websites will not survive as there is barely anything to survive on. I'm not sure even Newsletters work and I doubt it will bring much traffic in. You would need a big stable and active subscription list, which only the big sites might have. As they had time to grow one. Meaning smaller sites (like myself) have no chance. On top of that, paywalls won't work if 90% of traffic are bots. How can bots pay for viewing pleasures?
ON TOP OF THAT... A lot of social media platforms do not allow for links to personal websites. They see it as self promotion (which it is) and will often get flagged.. This is also a poor way to gain traffic. After all of that I am, also, out of ideas.. This is terrible management..

In other news, more people have left Google for AI rivals.. Is this a sign of Google having no idea what they are doing? It certainly feels like it. That is at least 4 key players in the space of a very short time period

[Martin Ice Web]

Very big drop since yesterday. (-80%). We do NOT SPAM.
Beside that our rankings improved significantly (using VPN). But traffic comes in surges. 1 hour nothing only bots. Next hour normal traffic.
We see traffic to 1 page from 10 different IPs within 2 seconds.

And pages that have a canonical link to a aggregate page are back in index.
GSC showed them as not in index with correct canonical page.
If google uses all pages and ignores canoncial tag for the SPAM Update then i do not wonder why we lost traffic.
We do have alot of similar pages due to color and length for our items.

Sales sales are a little up. Our amazon sales are highest ever.

[Micha]

Sales are indeed impressive, particularly given my sector and the current temperatures. The news site is also seeing good traffic via Discover, and rankings remain stable. However holy... spam is skyrocketing, the headlines are flooded with rubbish, and very strange websites are starting to surface in the organic search results.

The funny thing is, Google allegedly hates top lists where sites rank themselves at number one. Yet, I’m seeing an increasing number of these lists ranking well at the moment. Go figure

[RedBar]

spam is skyrocketing

MSFT bots are all over my sites generating tens of thousands of 403s ... They achieve absolutely nothing therefore why bother?

[Micha]

The rollout is complete

[status.search.google.com ]

[RedBar]

The rollout is complete

Wow, I must have a 33 year old spam site, traffic down 70% today ... hmmm

[Chris travel 30]

Not sure if the heatwave in Europe is making my readers lazy to buy stuff/book their holidays, or if it`s just google.

Traffic was down the last days, lets see how the weekend goes.

[RedBar]

Bear with me, a tale of two sites this morning after 12 hours.

!. The hotel venue ... This is our biggest gig of the year, way bigger than Xmas or Easter. Two full days of mostly live bands etc, 10 in all with Sunday being a massive charity fund raiser, thousands taking part, contributing and assisting for free and it's hot. Looking forward to it.

2. Global site after 12 hours at 10% BUT orders and enquiries from well-established customers coming in as normal.

Is it only AI bots that are interested in our sites to give Joe Public their instant AI answers?

1st July I am launching an experimental AEO site purely to see what happens. No, it has not been written by AI however I have studied what AI "seems" to favour.

[Chris travel 30]

To be honest: they can't tell me the "update" is over. I really do not believe any word they say any more. It feels like the SERPs are shuffling every 2 hours or so: in one moment, traffic spikes over the top, next it's basically dead. Sorry guys, that's just manipulation if you ask me. And again, I am reaching a point of pure anger about this company that keeps the web in a stranglehold.

[RubicCubed]

I see the same shuffling as Chris. Considering Google has lied to us many times before, I don't see any reason to think they aren't lying again. Anyway quality pages should be pinned at the top and this shuffling is just more evidence Google isn't concerned about quality.

[Micha]

There's still quite a bit of movement, although the official completion of the spam update doesn't mean rankings stop changing altogether. Football dominates my niche anyway, but my news site seems to be stabilizing again, including Discover and Google News traffic. That said, I'm still seeing a lot of spam sites showing up there, so from my perspective, this update hasn't been particularly successful. The shop is performing surprisingly well. I expected the weather alone to cause a significant drop in orders, but the last two days have actually been surprisingly strong.

One thing I've noticed is that several websites I monitor have lost a massive amount of visibility following the spam update. I honestly didn't expect that. Overall, it's been a few days of a Google rollercoaster that felt completely pointless, because spam hasn't really decreased at all.

[RedBar]

Needless to say the hotel venue site's traffic is crushing all the other sites combined today and we still have six hours to go!

Insofar as my global site is concerned I have been preparing multiple 301s from it to my new AEO site scheduled for 1st July. Interestingly those clients who have seen the new site say they prefer it for one overwhelming reason, the existing site has so much information and options that it was too much ... oh wow ... so much is too much = spoilt for choice ?

[goodoldweb]

Interesting how these "updates" are almost always followed by tighter email rules and spam filters.

We use our own domain's SMTP server for email, and immediately after this update our messages suddenly started landing in Gmail spam folders. We have SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configured correctly, and our domain passes every blacklist, email security, and DNS verification test we've thrown at it. Yet Google still decides our emails belong in spam.

It's incredibly frustrating. Not only has organic traffic to our website taken a hit over the years, but now we can't even reliably communicate with our own customers. More and more, it feels like the only way to get your emails delivered is to use Gmail, and the only way to get meaningful traffic to your business is to pay for Google Ads. Everything else seems to be an uphill battle.

Google will no doubt say it's all about fighting spam and protecting users, but from the perspective of small businesses it increasingly feels like that's become a convenient excuse to steer people toward their own ecosystem. If you want reliable email delivery, use Gmail. If you want visibility, pay for Google Ads. Whether that's the intention or not, that's certainly how it comes across.

And if that really is the direction things are heading, it completely undermines the idea of an open internet. The internet was built on open standards where anyone could host a website, run their own mail server, and compete on equal terms. When a handful of dominant platforms effectively become the gatekeepers of who gets seen and whose emails get delivered, that principle starts to erode.

Yes, I understand that because we're on shared hosting there's always a chance another site on the same IP has been sending spam. But penalising every legitimate website on that IP because of one or two bad actor(s)? Seriously? That's the definition of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

How lovely.

[samwest]

We still doin' this? LOL

33 years Red?
That had to be 2400 baud dial-up days.

[RedBar]

That had to be 2400 baud dial-up days.

Yep and using Windows 3.1 ... Optimising images was my biggest challenge!