July 2026 Google Search Observations

[RedBar]

It must be the first of the month, I have MSFT 20.xx.xx.xx bots all over my sites with .php attacks.

[edited by: not2easy at 4:25 pm (utc) on Jul 1, 2026]
[edit reason] New month, new thread [/edit]

[Martin Ice Web]

@Micha, I´ll take Franziskaner!

[Micha]

@Martin it's all the same old junk anyway, but whatever, okay. By the way, in my GSC property under “Settings,” I now have the option to prevent Google from using my website for AI.

[RedBar]

IF I were to believe Statcounter ALL my sites are dead, including the UK hotel, however my server logs are telling me a completely different story.

[RedBar]

Aha !.!.! Statcounter does not process top-level VPNs! According to G's AI:

Most modern, premium VPN providers (like NordVPN, Surfshark, or ProtonVPN) have built-in features that block ads, trackers, and malware at the network level.
The Cause: If a user has features like NordVPN’s "Threat Protection" or Proton's "NetShield" toggled on, the VPN service actively blocks the statcounter.com JavaScript file from downloading.

[goodoldweb]

@RedBar

StatCounter is no longer a reliable tool for measuring traffic because many viewers disable tracking, and some popular browsers now do this by default. Those visits won't show in your StatCounter logs.

[RedBar]

because many viewers disable tracking, and some popular browsers now do this by default.

Yep, for years one of the first things I do when setting-up a new system is to disable tracking however I wasn't aware that some browsers do it by default. It really became noticeable for me late Summer/ early Autumn last year.

Plus, I heard this only the other day, when various govts started to say they were going to start monitoring under 18s etc for age verifications and whatnot, some of the major VPN providers saw a 4,000% increase in take-ups for paid subscriptions! Until a year ago it was only my office, family and a couple of close friends who had one, this year alone I know of at least 50+ installations and I live in a very small place.

[Kendo]

the major VPN providers saw a 4,000% increase in take-ups for paid subscriptions!

Yep. Anyone watching p**n in countries that require proof of age now use VPN - so that they don't have to prove their identity.

[Micha]

Clicks are slowly trending up again. Discover seems to be delivering for the news site once more, and we are finally dominating our sub-niche in Google News again. It actually shouldn't have been that hard, considering we are the only magazine specialized in this topic in the DACH region, but Google thought otherwise since the core update. AI garbage, in particular, was dominating, but that has gone down over the last two days. We implemented "Contentpass" on the news site, and ad revenue has been stabilizing since, works surprisingly well.

As for the shop: despite the summer holidays, we've seen good revenue over the last few days. To be honest, it surprises me because half of the week was catastrophic, but the second half completely made up for that downturn.

Oh and: I still believe there was an update running, but @martin sorry, no Paulaner for you. XD

[Chris travel 30]

@Micha, I think we are back on track with you being the contra-indicator for my site: first half of the week was great, second was a downturn and today is the worst day of the week :) so "all good" again :D

[goodoldweb]

As for the shop: despite the summer holidays, we've seen good revenue over the last few days. To be honest, it surprises me because half of the week was catastrophic, but the second half completely made up for that downturn.

We are seeing the same, great sales in the last few days, not organic though.

[Martin Ice Web]

@Chris, we are on the same site. Friday was ab big dip and sunday was worst day ever.
Today is not looking better.

I guess google started revenue loss compensation from AI overview by killing organics.

[christianz]

By the way, in my GSC property under “Settings,” I now have the option to prevent Google from using my website for AI.

Thanks for the heads up, I though it was only in UK but apparently I also have it. It's a no-brainer - instant and permanent DISABLE.

[penitentman]

Yesterday was my D Day. Google added the dreaded AI overviews to my queries and I lost 40-50% of my traffic. Rankings still strong. Showing up in a portion of the AI overviews. Conversion rate on what I'm getting is terrible. It's early and I need a few day of data to analyze but doesn't look good. Is it time to modify all my content to address specific questions in visitor queries?

[RubicCubed]

Is it time to modify all my content to address specific questions in visitor queries?

There's no reason to modify your content if Google isn't sending you enough visitors, unless you lock down your content and hide it from Google to make it available for your user's eyes only. Google will steal your modified content just like they did with your original work.

It's good you were able to go so long without AI overviews, but the initial 40-50% drop you see now will keep getting worse over time. We saw Google cut our traffic in half, then in half again and again. Now AI overviews takes over 95% of the traffic and what little traffic that escapes AI overviews to our pages is of extremely bad quality. Your time may be better spent crafting a survival plan for little to no traffic from Google by reducing operational costs, locking down content to prevent Google's theft and other self-preservation techniques. Good luck.

[Fluff_Nutz]

Urgh, I'm definitely being caught up in something here. ONCE AGAIN!

Revenue is terrible right now. Currently seeing a daily revenue drop of -50% compared to average. I dread to see what this month will be like if this keeps up. Not sure why Big G dislikes my site so much this year, but these fluctuations have been relentless. Been stuck at February levels most of the year. However, if this keeps up it could be the worst month this year so far.. No rest just constant monthly drops. They are in full destruction mode..

Rankings are also terrible too. -33% drop there compared to my usual average. Sunday, somehow, saw a massive +146% increase in impressions, which, sadly, didn't impact traffic at all. Which stayed low. So, why the sudden impression spike, I wonder?

Sadly, my GSC does not have an option to opt out of Google AI, unlike some other people on here.. Will have to look into other methods for that.. Once again tiring but nothing new..

[RedBar]

Not sure why Big G dislikes my site so much this year

Try not to take it personally, it's a poorly-written, discriminatory, manipulative algo that is doing this, maybe consider under whose instructions it is being done if you actually want to vent against a real person.

FWIW, I am now at a consistent 50% loss in traffic trend for my global site BUT how does this compare to 6 years ago during the first few months of the scamdemic?

My traffic is now supposedly at 10%, yes, despite being so highly-ranked etc I have now supposedly lost 90% of my traffic yet my business is still thriving without all those page views and downloads just like many others are, however I readily accept that if one has solely a 100% dedicated e-commerce business then a radical re-think has become a necessity.

[Micha]

Seeing a traffic drop on all my sites since this afternoon. Rankings remain stable, so it seems like Google has sent our visitors on vacation.

[BigKat]

@ penitentman

Definitely looks like Google has recently added more AI Overviews for us. Traffic continues to drop with no rank changes. :(

[shadowlight]

Sadly, my GSC does not have an option to opt out of Google AI, unlike some other people on here.. Will have to look into other methods for that.. Once again tiring but nothing new..

I thought this at first too, I was initially looking for something obvious within the main dashboard of GSC, the obvious place to put it would be under the Generative AI tab under performance in the left hand side considering its related to both generative AI and performance, or another tab visible on the main dashboard but that would be too easy and too visible.

Clicked settings, the bottom left, then a small link within the general settings page > Search Generative AI > Include or Exclude.

Also separately if you don't want google training Gemini and other generative AI models, include in robots.txt

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

I'm not implying you didn't already know this but others may not. I missed the setting to turn off AIO myself at first.

It needs widespread availability of the mechanism and a concentrated effort from web-devs, publishers and business owners blocking AIO before anything is likely to change. Maybe when google roll this out to everyone and are required to also publish click metrics and keywords alongside URL impressions, blocking AIO will become more prevalent.

[Fluff_Nutz]

Wow, I feel like I'm living under a rock. Well, at least my version of GSC is. I do not have either option for Generative AI or a setting for AI. In fact I have nothing to do with AI at all. Google is sure taking their time in updating my version of GSC. So, I'll have to wait before I can do any of that, sadly..

Though, I'm getting quite sick of Big G and there never-ending manipulation and traffic throttling, I have, instead, tried to block their AI and more using the same software I use to block IPs and other bots. Seems to do a good job with country IP bans, so why not AI too?

I have also seen an update to Google's WP plugin. This, usually, signifies an incoming G ''update''. So, announcement imminent? Maybe? The timing is usually on point with the plugin. We shall see. With the amount of fluctuations that I'm, unfortunately, seeing we know they are up to something AGAIN!

The problem with blocking G's AI though, is that, do they actually need us? I mean, chances are they will likely only pay big sites for their scraping. Like they did with Reddit. So, they will never run out of content to scrape and steal. They only take ours as we have no choice right now, so, basically, why not? So, in all honesty how much damage, if any, will blocking G's AI actually do? They probably gave us the option to block it as, deep down, they know they can do deals with bigger sites and only need their content. It does suck though, as this will likely mean limited AI answers as the sites scraped will be smaller. Would they care though? Both AI and blue links side are giving users very limited options. It's either AI from the same, small, collection of sites or hidden in G's SERP mess.. Joy..
Come to think of it, are we not already seeing this? Quite a lot of the SERP is made up of Reddit already. Chances are the remaining spaces will already be made up of other sites with done deals. Making it, once again, a very one sided situation. Again, also limited. Hope users enjoy seeing the same sites.. Urgh..
I guess, the good side, whilst it, sadly, might not mean damaging to the point of getting traffic. At least, our content can remain ours. In theory at least..

[penitentman]

It's good you were able to go so long without AI overviews,

I rank for long tail location specific kw's. I run about 200 websites so a 40% haircut isn't going to kill me but I definitely need to pivot to something else in life. I'm sure more haircuts are coming like you said. I creatively navigated the google guidelines and survived/died from core updates. Survived on more. Grinded on new projects some succeeded some didn't for 14 years. I had a good run. With AI apps taking market share and Gemini answering my websites answers I don't think I have it in me to launch and test new projects anymore. I knew this day would come and I told myself I'd start preparing but just stayed complacent. Shame on me.

@Bigkat sucks man our livelihood is game over

[seokees]

I knew this day would come and I told myself I'd start preparing but just stayed complacent. Shame on me.

@penitentman no shame. In my case, the alternatives are not attractive enough. So you keep goin' with your site and making some money, instead of something new which for sure doesn't deliver any in the short term.

[RedBar]

Quite a lot of the SERP is made up of Reddit already.

Absolutely, for my specialist trade I see a huge amount of incorrect, exaggerated or downright false "facts" often supposedly posted by experienced trades people. I've given up going there, it's worse than Wikipedia ever was.

[penitentman]

@seokees Keep on keeping on I guess until it's all washed away.

I'm curious what SEO's and affiliate marketers are doing next or thinking of doing next. Something SEO adjacent like AEO or something completely different. A poll would be interesting.

[Martin Potter]

I have MSFT 20.xx.xx.xx bots all over my sites with .php attacks.

RedBar, just wanted to add that my own small, informational, non-commercial website (with no ads, for or from anyone) is visited by those same bots from 20.xx.xx.xx territory, asking for both existing and non-existent pages, often many times over within the same minute.

If my site were on my own server, I guess it would be easy to block these extremely-repeat visitors.

[Fluff_Nutz]

I have noticed that Big G are making a right mess of Chrome right now. All bookmarks I have had on there, for years. I'll admit younger me was a Google loyalist, until recently and my hatred towards them gets bigger by the day. Anyway, all of those years worth of bookmarks have all disappeared, until you sign in, of course! This never used to be the case. I used to be able to use all of my bookmarks, even without signing in, whenever I wanted to. I guess it just increases their hold on our browsing data.

On top of that, I'm currently editing articles. Really dislike this job. Alas, whilst doing this. I have just noticed a new 'Ask Gemini' tab. Which is an eyesore as its right in the path of the many browser tabs I have open. As if I want to ask Gemini anything.. To make it more annoying, I notice that it changes to 'Ask about this page' when I browse one of my articles. Allowing anyone to use Gemini to instantly locate answers within my website. Bad move for our RPM, as once readers get their answer they will leave! I can see this being a huge drop on revenue, for something I do not want..

I thought, at one point, G were going to loose Chrome? Being forced to sell or something? Guess not..

[Martin Potter]

Google claims "Google Chrome - The Fast & Secure Web Browser Built to be Yours". Other than what you have described, I am not familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of using G. Chrome.

For many years now I have used Firefox as my browser, and everything on it belongs to me. (Including all the bookmarks!) Maybe in your situation, Firefox might be worth a try.

[Chris travel 30]

@penitentman you were asking, what SEOs and affiliate marketers are doing next. As I am both, here is a short wrap up, how i changed writing content (free to be discussed if anyone likes to):

1. All the content is 99 % human written and experience based
2. I focus on real storytelling. As I am a travelwriter, its easy to fit a real story around the information I provide. When people plan their holidays, travelling starts already with the plannings. People want real experience-bases travelstories, that makes them feel like they were already there.
3. If I want people to buy something, I have to write for humans. Often texts written by Ai feel (to me) like I really do not understand what the text is saying.
4. I am completely transparent: I tell the audience, why I recommend something, as well as that I will get a commisson from the advertiser.

Writing for me completely changed over the last months and I took a step back: from keyword-optimized texts back to the roots of real storytelling. Sometimes, when I write an article, it feel more like I am writing a short book or a telling. It brings me back to early days when I started and I now realized why my early texts were performing well: I did not think about optimization.
I write for people and for intentions, not for keywords. And even with all the traffic I lost to AiO, I still manage to have a decent return that covers my cost of living and travelling.

Over that, this is the only way I can go on with writing itself. As soon as writing feels to me more like a science, I am out. And its the same with reading: When I read the first sentences and notice, this text is 99 % Ai, I stop and never visit this site again.
So basically, and I am afraid to say that openly, I transformed more into an artist without wanting to be one.

[RedBar]

I'm curious what SEO's and affiliate marketers are doing next or thinking of doing next. Something SEO adjacent like AEO or something completely different.

I have never taken any notice of what others are saying they are doing since they usually end up in a "me too" echo chamber. I've been doing SEO before the term was coined, I worked hand-in-hand with Altavista 30+ years ago on many of my projects therefore I have a pretty good idea of what goes on in the background ...well, ought to!

Good quality SEO still works perfectly for the vast majority however for highly popular keyword phrases in many industries there has been for several years realistically only one winner in G's SERPs and that is AdWords but we also now have the added "bonus competitor" of AI with which to contend.

Insofar as AEO is concerned I have constructed and launched such a site and it is already outranking my main site plus for some widgets is already AI's reference source. It has had some click thrus already but we're only talking in the 20/30 range so far.

I am not doing this for FMCG purposes, this is to be seen globally within my industry as the "go to" source for information and project pricing.

I actually view this as my legacy project for my family business (190 years) for the next 20-25 years continuation since, again in my view, AI will become extremely more refined, accurate and dependable and those who develop their global supply sites for AI "integration" for the business world will benefit the most.

Those in the FMCG sector will most probably face conflicting advice / ideas on what to do but, as in the past, successful strategies will become evident quite quickly I would feel.

[Chris travel 30]

I am not sure yet, but I think yesterday something has shifted.