Recent Comments on Search Engine Roundtable

snuffy commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

Google traffic might be OK. But the people who land on Google see AI overview results completely clogging the top of the SERP and consume them. Then..... if they press on..... the searcher will see a huge block of "sponsored" results, a whole pack of YouTube links, a big pile of "people also ask", a big block of "Short videos"... some "you might also like", and many other diversions..... by the time they get down to where the organic listings are found.... the curiosity, energy, piss and buyers intent have been completely wrung out of the searcher... The organic results are like the last deformed slice in a loaf of stale bread.... Your Site and My Site might be slapt in there, maybe.... and if you are damn lucky, somebody might click. That's why we ain't seein' any traffic.

Comment ID #6814847884 12/25/2025 07:48 pm

googleisjoke commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

I will likely sell my last site in Jan and give a last dot to this blogging journey, it was nice while it lasted, but it's time to move on. I hesitated for too long to start selling something but in 2026 I plan to change it. It' scary but also liberating at the same time that you go test new waters and leave that old walked path!

Comment ID #6814822920 12/25/2025 05:31 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

According to my personal stats, I had 16,218 visitors to my site (based on Unique Ids), their IPs are varied, but they all seem to have the same User Agent. Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/142.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Whilst everyone here would be happy with those numbers (if they were real users), I can almost guarantee that about 15,000+ are bots. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory</a> is no longer a theory; it's a fact. I am tempted to block that useragent but I worry that that user agent might be what Google uses to test for cloaking and therefore block legitimate Google/Bing test.

Comment ID #6814805071 12/25/2025 04:03 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

The article was written in 2023; its credibility hasn't changed. It doesn't give sources until you ask it. How credible is that? Yeah, I know a lot of lazy users will not bother with sources, but even though sources do give credibility. Gemini has sources automatically, even though people don't bother, but I'd prefer Gemini to ChatGPT for that fact, not that I like these LLMs. I always use Web search and view websites.

Comment ID #6814802111 12/25/2025 03:50 pm

Alireza Naji commented on Google's John Mueller Working On Christmas 2025

Merry Christmas Barry. Happy Holidays!

Comment ID #6814773924 12/25/2025 01:55 pm

Sensei commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

2010 is right. There isn't even the slightest benefit that site has to any visitor and it shouldn't even exist, especially going into 2026. The only purpose it serves now is being a symbolic relic of what HCU was originally supposed to target, and gives gaslighting gimp JM something to still point to as a convenient example of why Google goes nuclear sometimes with spam updates. Then it only makes it more difficult for the rest of us who aren't serving up generic garbage. So I have no sympathy. They're lucky that turd is even indexed today.

Comment ID #6814713346 12/25/2025 10:03 am

DataDonkey commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

ChatGPT is very bad for running a store because our product pages are the source and ChatGPT's sources are often wrong. Even when ChatGPT rips our content to present to users, it directs them to some different products. This has been a problem for us from the start and still persists. I just don't know how an AI Slop Engine like ChatGPT can retain users in its current state. Older story, but still applies IMO. <b>ChatGPT and Fake Citations</b> - <a href="https://blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2023/03/09/chatgpt-and-fake-citations/">https://blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2023/03/09/chatgpt-and-fake-citations/</a> <blockquote>What you may not know about ChatGPT is that it has significant limitations as a reliable research assistant. One such limitation is that it has been known to fabricate or “hallucinate” (in machine learning terms) citations. These citations may sound legitimate and scholarly, but they are not real. It is important to note that AI can confidently generate responses without backing data much like a person under the influence of hallucinations can speak confidently without proper reasoning. If you try to find these sources through Google or the library—you will turn up NOTHING.</blockquote>As far as the critiques on CoolStuff's site, my opinion differs. With an ad blocker, I see no ads. Not that my intent is to not support sites, but I don't want to support Google which is what most sites run. I too could make significant improvements to our site, but with so little traffic from Google then who is going to really see it and is it worth my time to even do? I'm more inclined to just let the site freeze in time because I know any new content will be stolen by AI and any new improvements seen by AI theft bots and not real people. When there's no benefit from my work, all motivation is lost.

Comment ID #6814710353 12/25/2025 09:51 am

Sam commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

This is true. When people challenge the narrative they say it is isolated cases. It is lies, I don't know anyone thriving.

Comment ID #6814700980 12/25/2025 09:09 am

Mark commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

Yeah thats the nature of thing now unfortunately for seo's. declining value of the same rankings, due to AI stuff, overly aggressive ads above the fold, unnecessary filler to hide the natural results, etc I guess we'll all get forced out at some point, I'm not sure how much longer I'll have in the game before I'm in the victims list too & pretty much unemployable lol

Comment ID #6814698827 12/25/2025 08:58 am

Ken WIlson commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

I have several leads even in second page in 2023.And 100 leads /month in 2024, but now i already rank position 1, only fewer leads per months. Thats really interesting.

Comment ID #6814696747 12/25/2025 08:47 am

Andy Beard commented on Google's John Mueller Working On Christmas 2025

John has always been a gift to the community, even when his hands are tied Have a good one, everyone

Comment ID #6814692109 12/25/2025 08:22 am

Barry Schwartz commented on Google's John Mueller Working On Christmas 2025

Let's be kind in the comments today please

Comment ID #6814689138 12/25/2025 08:06 am

John A. User commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

Can't argue there...

Comment ID #6814688728 12/25/2025 08:04 am

Mark commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

He just needs to change the entire layout, the spam ads (both placement and type) and the rubbish content. So pretty much delete the site and start again. look at his domain /six-easy-way-make-money-blog-website/ if anyone thinks they're gonna make any money with rubbish like this they're in for a rough ride in 2026 lol

Comment ID #6814687755 12/25/2025 07:59 am

John A. User commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

I did check out the site, the aesthetics (grey on black) is quite bad, I suggested he change that and get rid of heavy amount of ads. I know the amount of ads is all so 2010 but to make any form of money nowadays you have to go full ads on even though it will hurt.

Comment ID #6814671850 12/25/2025 06:19 am

Sensei commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

Just check out his website. Cool stuff alright for a website so fucked by ads and BS it has AIDS. Almost as cool as him now responding with another troll account below.

Comment ID #6814656703 12/25/2025 04:30 am

Keshab Raj commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

That's a good point for publisher, but I am trying to justify the title itself, maybe Google itself is dropping in traffic due to their search setup. I get around 2% of traffic from AI where as Google is around 11-12% for some niche. But one of my friend is getting 40%+ overall traffic from Ai like GPT where as he gets like 6-7% from SE in overall.

Comment ID #6814656428 12/25/2025 04:28 am

John A. User commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

But how much traffic if any are you getting from GPT though? Other engines including AI are taking a share from Google but as they are all giving answers, there's no need to visit sites is there?

Comment ID #6814644179 12/25/2025 02:37 am

coolstuffblog.com commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

I think Google traffic itself is dropping. They are killing themself by adding more ads to the result, inconsistent top results and so fourth. I think it's been over 5-7 months I have been using GPT or some other Ai for accurate answers. All my friends from work place are using the same. They suggest me use AI for short and accurate answer. I do use Google map though, still less ads SPAM compare to the Google search engine.

Comment ID #6814643109 12/25/2025 02:26 am

Sensei commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

. <a href="https://x.com/Goog_Enough/status/2003805355969827023">https://x.com/Goog_Enough/status/2003805355969827023</a>

Comment ID #6814638374 12/25/2025 01:45 am

clone21 commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

Glad to be that, all done, include Google.

Comment ID #6814624499 12/24/2025 11:54 pm

Hunar commented on Google December 2025 Core Update Intense Impact

You’re right, I must just totally be making things up. Like every single time an update happens my conversions drop exactly while the update is going on. Or whenever there is an unconfirmed update going on, my rankings stay the same but traffic and sales drop. There sure is a lot of seasonality trends going on that line up with Google updates. Or how tons of people see the same patterns. But they are “conspiracy’s” you can try to gas light everyone all you want, but the proof is clear to everyone that’s paying attention.

Comment ID #6814610634 12/24/2025 10:38 pm

Dark OG commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

Happy Kwanzaa ngaz

Comment ID #6814592722 12/24/2025 09:12 pm

Barry Schwartz commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

Happy holidays!

Comment ID #6814550613 12/24/2025 05:44 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

Maybe it seems I'm a bit late for Hanukkah but I hope the thought counts. <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hanukkah/">https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hanukkah/</a>

Comment ID #6814550080 12/24/2025 05:41 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/527607eacf03b4cc9f1be12600dc31dd9973f44d6f48934b49eb0d21a47b8972.png

Comment ID #6814549444 12/24/2025 05:39 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

CPM is Cost Per Million (actually its per 1000 views) CPC is Cost Per Click CPM is where you earn money for every 1000 advert views whereas CPC you would earn money for every time you someone clicked an advert on your site which was more profitable. Now they're only doing CPM so if someone clicked your site, you wouldn't get any money. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-adsense-payment-changes-36313.html "Google said it is changing its AdSense revenue-share structure and will also pay per impression and not per click."

Comment ID #6814498242 12/24/2025 02:29 pm

Curly commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

I remember during 2019 to 2020 I was getting traffic from discover, then when I updated my site to https I lost all traffic from there. I used lets encrypt

Comment ID #6814489917 12/24/2025 02:03 pm

googleisjoke commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

have no clue what you mean sry bro

Comment ID #6814465591 12/24/2025 12:52 pm

googleisjoke commented on Google Search Traffic Drops 25 Points To News Publishers In Two Years

dont bother, it will boost for a bit and then pull you where you were before

Comment ID #6814462114 12/24/2025 12:42 pm

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