Google's recent changes to its search algorithm and spam filters, aimed at eliminating low-quality content, have had devastating effects on smaller websites and online businesses.
Earlier this year, Google implemented significant updates in March and April, causing catastrophic drops in traffic for many online businesses. As a result, some have been forced to consider layoffs and even site closures.
Gisele Navarro, a 37-year-old Argentine, runs the HouseFresh website with her husband. Since 2020, they had built a successful niche in product reviews for air purifiers. The site featured honest reviews without ads or product placements, earning commissions from clickthroughs to Amazon. However, the Google update drastically impacted their business.
"We went from ranking number one to not even showing up," Navarro told AFP. HouseFresh's daily Google referrals plummeted from around 4,000 to just 200. The decline was so severe that Navarro was advised to shut down the site and start anew with a different domain name.
Updates 'Helpful'
A major source of frustration for Navarro and other affected site owners is the lack of transparency regarding Google's ranking criteria. Google's algorithms are notoriously secretive, giving rise to the search engine optimization (SEO) industry, which attempts to manipulate these algorithms for better click rates. The latest update has left SEO experts scrambling to understand why some sites were boosted while others were downgraded.
Google stated in an email to AFP that the update aimed to provide users with "fewer results that feel made for search engines." The company emphasized that only changes that demonstrably improve results for users are implemented, and it believes these updates have been beneficial.
However, Navarro's widely shared blog post in May highlighted that searches for product reviews increasingly yielded ads and content seemingly generated by AI or optimized for SEO. Google defended this by stating that "people often want to learn from others' experiences" and that rigorous testing ensures the results are helpful and high quality.
'Tough Market'
Despite Google's defense, staff at a European news website reported their articles being outranked by irrelevant content from platforms like Reddit. The site's publisher, who requested anonymity, said Google referrals had dropped by 20-30% since the update, making cutbacks inevitable.
"This is a serious problem for independent publishers like us in an already tough market," the publisher said.
Businesses are now urgently seeking alternatives to relying on Google search, such as writing newsletters, creating podcasts, or finding other ways to attract audiences. A fintech news outlet boss, also anonymous, noted that competitors employing SEO firms to buy traffic were less affected by the update, while their site suffered significantly.
Navarro, who has had to drastically reduce her staff, has pivoted to video reviews and newsletters to reconnect with her audience. Despite her challenges with Google, she remains optimistic about the web, buoyed by supportive messages and increased referrals from alternative search engines like DuckDuckGo.
"The entire knowledge of humankind is on the web—and that's worth something," she said.
More: https://techxplore.com/news/2024-07-google-broken-algorithm-tweak-livelihoods.html
