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Google has over 90% of the search engine market share and processes almost 100,000 searches per second and 8.5 billion per day.


But because customers around the world use the platform as a gateway to the Internet, recent changes in the search engine algorithm could portend disaster not only for the creators who make the Internet what it is, but also for the customers who rely on it trust the platform to serve the consumer. best content for their questions.


Useful content update from Google


In September 2023, Google released a Core Helpful Content Update (HCU) with the express purpose of helping users find original, useful content written by people, for people. The update aimed to reduce the amount of poorly written content in the results.


The result did not match the intention.


According to search engine optimization (SEO) experts and independent publishers, the HCU prioritized big companies, whether they gamed the system or not, and punished independent publishers who wrote from the heart.


Blair MacGregor, founder of Trusthetics, an SEO consultancy, says: “Google’s public statements about its support for the open web often collide with the reality that in many publicly documented cases they have taken significant traffic away from the open web, or that at least seems to be the intention.”


Impact on publishers


Lily Ray, VP SEO Strategy & Research at Amsive, shares the impact on independent publishers. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of affected sites were affected by Google’s September 2023 helpful content update,” she said. “The sites vary in terms of the type of content they offer, but they are almost all informational sites – usually niche blogs that focus on a specific topic, such as travel, gaming, recipes, product reviews or celebrity content.”


Two of these sites shared the devastation the update had caused to their businesses.


Gisele Navarro, Managing Editor of HouseFresh, a website that helps customers find long-term solutions to their indoor air quality problems, reports that they lost 95% of their traffic in the September update.


“Before September 2023, we received an average of 4,000 visitors to our site every day via Google. After September 2023, that figure started to decline and stabilized around 200 daily visitors,” she explains.


Ready Steady Cut, an independent website run by film enthusiasts with reviews, summaries and explanations of on-demand television, shares similar results.


“After the September 2023 HCU, our traffic dropped by 50% overnight (1.5 million views per month). By December 2023, it had decreased by 80%,” he says.


Hoping for improvement


In March 2024, Google announced a sequel. Small publishers who invested thousands of dollars fixing their sites for what Google said they wanted hoped they would reap the rewards of their months of hard work.


Instead, many saw further declines.


Ray explains: “Until the August 2024 core update, there was no documented example of remediation at sites affected by the Useful Content Update. In fact, most affected sites lost even more visibility during the March 2024 core update.”


Hart and Navarro’s experiences are consistent with Ray’s summary.


“Every algorithm update since September 2023 has negatively impacted us,” says Hart, who fears their traffic will soon reach zero.


Navarro said the March update led to a 91% loss of search traffic, but added that they saw a slight improvement after the August 2024 update. They are still nowhere near the traffic levels seen before the September update.


How Hcu influences customers


Independent publishers aren’t the only ones who have been affected by Google’s algorithm changes. The updates also impact end users looking for useful content.


MacGregor explains that changes force users to navigate a different set of rules. Search results elevate content from big brands at the expense of small publishers and independent media. Additionally, users are seeing a huge increase in forums like Reddit and Quora popping up for search results. These new rules could harm users by serving up irrelevant, outdated, harmful, or sponsored content designed to make even more money for big companies at the expense of users.


“Users should understand that volunteer moderators run both Reddit and Quora and have been overrun by bad actors since Google’s “Hidden Gems” update came out last year,” MacGregor said. “Both platforms sometimes surface threads that contain inaccurate, outdated or malicious information, are full of affiliate spam, or contain AI-generated answers of questionable quality.”


MacGregor adds that the results can be useful, but “due to the relative anonymity of most Reddit posters, it’s critical for searchers to always take this information with a grain of salt and confirm with other sources, especially if you you’re looking for something. that could significantly impact your health or financial well-being.”


Navaro says a mix of Reddit, Quora and major media sites now surpasses HouseFresh, while Google’s sponsored results dominate the product space. These results promote products that make the publisher the most money, rather than products that best meet the customer’s needs. Independent publishers like HouseFresh take pride in their mission and prioritize user value over profit.


“We buy every air purifier we review with our own money to remain unbiased. We have two dedicated rooms in the house where we conduct in-depth testing to benchmark and compare real-world air cleaning performance. We also use the products every day at home for months and calculate the long-term costs before recommending a specific model,” Navaro explains their process.


Hart says Ready Steady Cut has lost rankings among sites gaming on the system. These include large publishing networks and spam sites that produce content on a massive scale with dodgy SEO tactics, all of which degrade the user experience.


Google pays lip service to frustrations


Ray mentioned that Google recently hosted a creator summit. The search giant invited a small group of affected independent publishers to help improve its algorithm. At the summit, Google admitted that these publishers were creating good content despite their decline in the rankings.


“I thought this was an interesting admission that the Helpful Content Update was negatively impacting certain sites in a different way than what Google probably initially intended when it designed that ranking system,” says Ray. “It was an unfortunate example of how Google’s machine learning systems can get things wrong and how collateral damage from algorithm updates can be dangerous for sites that rely on Google to make money.”


Google claimed they would make changes in the August update, but it didn’t have the impact many had hoped. While a few sites improved, most sites saw decreased or static rankings.


MacGregor said he had customers who improved during the August update, but lost again in October.


AI plays a role


In the spring, Google introduced AI Overviews (AIO), which provide artificial intelligence-generated answers to user questions.


MacGregor calls them a mixed bag. “Major publishers like Dotdash and Ziff Davis say they haven’t seen a significant drop in inbound traffic to their properties, but many sites are planning a bigger impact as AIOs continue to evolve.”


He also points to Google’s recent experiments with recipe blogs, which aggregate all content in the search result so users don’t have to click through to the publisher’s website. While it may be easier for the user, small publishers rely on those clicks to make a living. Without them, they may have to close up shop.


Free and open web at risk


Google’s original mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” ensured that the best content rose to the top, whether it came from global brands or small independent publishers.


Users could find niche site owners who shared their passions, discover hidden gem destinations, try unique family recipes passed down from generation to generation, and gain new perspectives on old problems. Creators earned an income doing what they loved through display ads or promoting their favorite products, which incentivized them to keep creating.


If Google continues on its destructive path, the free and open Internet will cease to exist.


“Often overlooked, small publishers are the backbone of the digital ecosystem, yet they are bearing the brunt of Google’s algorithm changes,” says MacGregor. They will also be the first to close.


If this process continues, the “dead internet theory” will come to life as creators can no longer afford to publish content. Without new ideas, AI bots will regurgitate the outdated, often misleading information that remains, effectively rendering the internet unusable.


A path forward


For twenty years, the Internet has provided hope, opportunity, and information to millions of users. But we are now at a crossroads. As Macgregor says, “Whether the helpful content update or past and current core updates have harmed us, we must break this vicious cycle and create paths to a better future.”


Searchers may switch to other search engines, such as Bing or DuckDuckGo, to capture Google’s market share and show that they are not satisfied with the latest results. They can subscribe to creators’ newsletters and follow them on social media to find them beyond organic search.


The future of the Internet depends on users. We can continue to allow giant corporations to consolidate valuable internet real estate, destroying the free and open internet, or we can look for alternatives that support independent publications. The choice is ours.



This article was produced by Media Decision and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.



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