Recent Comments on Search Engine Roundtable

Hunar commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

I personally don't think google is destroying the ecosystem on purpose. I think it's just a by product of them trying to play catch up. Lets face it, google stopped being innovators a long time ago, all they've done is play catch up, and hope they don't get left behind when the new hot thing comes out. Just in this instance it's AI. They freaked out when ChatGPT came out and it was very popular. So, now they are literally shoving AI down everyone's throat, You can't use google in anyway, shape or form without some form of them Shoving AI in your face. They don't wanna be left behind. So in return, you are stuck in their AI loop hoping you know google as the new "ChatGPT" and in return, it's taking everyone's revenue. At least that's what i think.

Comment ID #6803082736 11/29/2025 07:07 pm

Sam commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Anyone think they are deliberately destroying the ecosystem so if they lose the ad tech case, there's nothing left for competitors to monetise -no traffic to the websites?

Comment ID #6803071679 11/29/2025 06:27 pm

Durant Imboden commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

As with most things, it depends. Today, our editorial travel site's Google traffic is up 20 percent week over week at a time of year when we're usually in the doldrums. My theory is that Americans who hate football and shopping escape to the Web to escape the NFL, bowl games, and Black Friday.

Comment ID #6803069426 11/29/2025 06:19 pm

Golden Phoenix commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

AI is just devouring the internet. Pinterest is completely trash now. I think 75% of it is now fake. Video, even recipes. Google is openly encouraging its users to use Veo in their Shorts, everyone is pushing AI. This is going to crush anyone who is already not a big brand. Even if you have great content, you are going to get lost because people just now copy you. It is so easy to copy content too. Gemini can reverse engineer anything. I don't think this business is completely dead but what works 5 years ago does not work now in any wa

Comment ID #6803053136 11/29/2025 05:26 pm

Golden Phoenix commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

it's not about rankings or clicks. By the time people even seem my site, they have already bought from eBay or Amazon. I used to make 6 figures, I used to make $1500 a month on AdSense easily. Now it's barely $100. Nobody should be mad at your observation. The problem is Google

Comment ID #6803052442 11/29/2025 05:24 pm

snuffy commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Thank you Sam. I completely agree with you. Completely. I will start reading your posts with care and interest.

Comment ID #6803020698 11/29/2025 03:53 pm

snuffy commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Thank you DataDonkey. If a website's traffic does not return to normal on Monday then I was wrong about that website. If it does return to normal then you know that your site is behaving normally.

Comment ID #6803020005 11/29/2025 03:51 pm

snuffy commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

What makes me really angry about AI is when shopping cart platforms/programs offer to write product descriptions. I work really hard on my product descriptions - harder than I work when writing articles. The AI generated product descriptions often sound like me talking.

Comment ID #6803018788 11/29/2025 03:48 pm

DataDonkey commented on OpenAI Scaling Up Crawling & Bots

ChumpGPT is an AI slop engine and doesn't care about matching images to their source. We have the same problem but have come to the conclusion OpenAI's shit can't be made to stink less. We just hold our nose.

Comment ID #6803000994 11/29/2025 02:58 pm

Sam commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

No Data Donkey I honestly believe that for the first time ever this year, Google are facing a crash in "ad revenue" due to the set up of AI and the impact on the whole system. Before AI someone visited a site to read about say history for example and they might see an ad for a product for like $5 and be like hey I will buy that what a bargain. That "discoverability" has now gone. Keywords don't yield the same effect. Google are concerned about the fact advertisers are questioning ROI on LinkedIn. I have a feeling that advertisers are just pulling back the budgets from everything I have read (and I read allot) And the way they've changed sponsored links. Clicks are through the roof and conversions are down. People are clicking by mistake, not by intent. Advertisers are paying more for less and know it, and pulling back. They're questioning ROI directly to Google, honestly, I don't think they thought this would happen but they are seeing they have started to break their own ad model in all this and they just believed the ad market will follow them into AI and that ent happening. Say spending £200k extra for serving AI Overviews in niches like mine, yet they are loosing $500k by not sending the traffic my way or my competitors - so my niche is alone -$500k not counting return visitors. I also see niches where they put non advertising sites above adsense sites. They are loosing the revenue this way as well. Spread this across the entire web where most queries are not leading to sales. It is billions of losses. Record quarter profits have not accounted for AI spend hidden in Capex, as they have depreciated AI over 5 years. It is super worrying. The crazy thing is that this is all over OpenAI who had no market share, no revenue model and accounts today for just 1% of total market share (tiny) and almost going bust: mainly developers, early adopters and writers as users: so Google started this whole thing without ever needing to. They could have created Gemini and slowly rolled that out as an LLM rather than mess with search. Now they have found themselves in a position where visitors, publishers and advertisors are questioning the whole search viability going forward. It does not make sense.

Comment ID #6802999850 11/29/2025 02:55 pm

Sensei commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

This is true. That's why unless someone has a service tailored to a localized area or is promoting something that is unique in some way, including it's marketing strategy, everything else will stay permanently drowned out as background noise among all the AI slop. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d93df0a63e873ceadbb43ef021ba7504d9e27c098f279049cb07e5e163855f77.gif

Comment ID #6802995654 11/29/2025 02:44 pm

Sam commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Yes, and that is why Google I think is not promoting content >2019 it is ignoring it unless your an established website (thank goodness) that is one thing they are doing right.

Comment ID #6802995613 11/29/2025 02:44 pm

Sam commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Thank you. My posts are not about this weekend or week.There is a fundamental shift here of no click internet and no click advertiser ROI which is hurting the open web.

Comment ID #6802995097 11/29/2025 02:43 pm

DataDonkey commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

No reason for anyone to give you a thumbs down. What you said is true and a reminder for some. But I will say with all the Googleshit in the serps, traffic returning to normal December 1st will still be a disappointment but maybe not as disappointing as it is now.

Comment ID #6802994981 11/29/2025 02:42 pm

snuffy commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

I know that lots of people are going to give me "thumbs down" on this but here is what you need to know if your website gets a lot of visitors from the United States. In the United States, Monday, November 24 was the first day of "Thanksgiving Week". Lots of schools (Kindergarten through 12th grade, and universities) in the United States close for that entire week (Monday through Friday) and students return to school on the following Monday or Tuesday. Lots of people travel to visit family (or take vacations) use the internet much less during that week. So, the traffic for most sites with lots of USA visitors will see traffic numbers down 10% to 20% or more on Monday and Tuesday. Traffic will be down a lot more on Wednesday. And traffic will be even lower on Thursday (because it is Thanksgiving Day) and Friday (because it is Black Friday a shopping holiday that a lot of people go out to buy Christmas gifts). However, on Monday, December 1st traffic for most sites will jump back up to about normal. A lot of people see their traffic drop on the Monday before Thanksgiving, panic and they go out yelling that their site got hit by Google, or Google did an update. Don't be deceived into thinking that "Google did something". Learn that this happens during the last week of November every year. It is part of the annual rhythm of most websites. I know that many of the people who visit this site know all about what I wrote above, but many people need to know this.

Comment ID #6802991835 11/29/2025 02:34 pm

Golden Phoenix commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

1 thing AI is doing that people underestimate is how easy it is making people to come up with tons of content. Think about it, if anyone with a laptop can generate 100s of pages a day, it is going to overwhelm the internet. You are competing with them for eyeballs. In the past, you maybe had 10, 20 competitors. Now you could have 20k thanks to AI.

Comment ID #6802983927 11/29/2025 02:15 pm

Ziko commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Discover's interface has changed; social media taken over everything, distorting Discover's appearance....

Comment ID #6802976388 11/29/2025 01:57 pm

DataDonkey commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Forgive me Sam, but I feel I'm not the only one who doesn't understand what your 70% Thanksgiving theory is. Do you mean clicks are reduced by 70%? My clicks/traffic is worse, but Google is doing that to push up the value in ads/need to pay for traffic so they make more money. Fewer options in the serps for people to see means less competition and advertisers may see improved conversions to help offset the unwanted clicks/CPM Google is forcing them to pay for. About the only thing that changed since the end of Q3 and the start of Q4 is even less organic traffic and Gemini 3 touted as overtaking competitors. These are all positives for Google and bad for us. <blockquote>Google and Bing are saying ROI cannot be measured by clicks</blockquote>This is more big techie gaslighting. They haven't figured out how to define ROI when they've taken it all.

Comment ID #6802973143 11/29/2025 01:49 pm

Sensei commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

<blockquote>They are trying to change the ROI definitions - it ent going to work guys.</blockquote>When the typical woke Googler can't even define what a woman is, it's no surprise they'll try to redefine any reality or fact to suit their bullshit.

Comment ID #6802969480 11/29/2025 01:39 pm

Sam commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

They will as they are now starting to see that ROI is totally down (see Barrys 28th Nov video) and they are worried going around saying ROI needs a new calculation

Comment ID #6802955871 11/29/2025 01:07 pm

Sam commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Don't forget the web and websites are thriving

Comment ID #6802955197 11/29/2025 01:06 pm

Sam commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Good idea. And maybe reply to the google on LinkedIn who saying the web is thriving

Comment ID #6802954811 11/29/2025 01:05 pm

Sam commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

I don't think the USA government will have enough money okay, I know, they could print the money but then the USA dollar will go down in value and I don't think they want that, Open AI is not worth doing that for.

Comment ID #6802953789 11/29/2025 01:03 pm

Sam commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

I am just watching Barrys video on the 28th about the fact Google and Bing are saying ROI cannot be measured by clicks. This supports my theory of the 70% down over thanksgiving. Sorry. But advertisors won't spend based on nothing and no ROI and just visability. They can't show value in AI. They are trying to change the ROI definitions - it ent going to work guys.

Comment ID #6802935943 11/29/2025 12:22 pm

Durant Imboden commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Wouldn't it be news if there <i>wasn't </i>volatility?

Comment ID #6802934357 11/29/2025 12:18 pm

Golden Phoenix commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

OpenAI are done. Their models are not the best anymore. Sora is not going to be enough for them to make money. OpenAI squandered their position. Google went from Bard, which was the worst, to Gemini 3.0, which is better than GPT. Grok went from a joke to 2nd best. OpenAI in the meantime are comfortably third and could get worse

Comment ID #6802929482 11/29/2025 12:07 pm

DataDonkey commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Spam Altman, and his AI slop engine ChatGPT, will do anything to stay afloat and shift their operational expenses and expansion plans onto taxpayers just like all the other big techies have done. The geriatrics running the USA will probably go along with big techies ideas for fear the USA will lose the AI race. Your post and story in it does point to an inevitable consolidation in the AI space. As this consolidation occurs, investors will lose a lot of money and taxpayers will lose much more. MS CEO Nutella will come out looking like a hero if OpenAI goes under because Nutella will buy it up for pennies on the dollar and probably get tax dollars to buy it with. <b> OpenAI asked Trump administration to expand Chips Act tax credit to cover data centers</b> - <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/08/openai-asked-trump-administration-to-expand-chips-act-tax-credit-to-cover-data-centers/">https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/08/openai-asked-trump-administration-to-expand-chips-act-tax-credit-to-cover-data-centers/</a> <blockquote>The letter — from OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane and addressed to the White House’s director of science and technology policy Michael Kratsios — argued that the government should consider expanding the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit (AMIC) beyond semiconductor fabrication to cover electrical grid components, AI servers, and AI data centers. The AMIC is a 35% tax credit that was included in the Biden administration’s Chips Act. “Broadening coverage of the AMIC will lower the effective cost of capital, de-risk early investment, and unlock private capital to help alleviate bottlenecks and accelerate the AI build in the US,” Lehane wrote.</blockquote>

Comment ID #6802900605 11/29/2025 10:53 am

John A. User commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

<a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/maga-enraged-by-trump-s-bid-to-block-ai-regulation/ss-AA1Rbg6l">https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/maga-enraged-by-trump-s-bid-to-block-ai-regulation/ss-AA1Rbg6l</a> Trump at it again, so starry eyed by his billionaire peers, he's so determined to push through with it all, F* the non-billionaires...

Comment ID #6802899152 11/29/2025 10:50 am

Sensei commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

Lol that's perfect. Yeah, there were more than one major issue he won on like closing failed Biden's open border and ending his 2 new wars under his weakness on the world stage, etc., but there's no spinning that he totally dropped the ball if not sold out completely when it came to reigning in Google and big tech.

Comment ID #6802896398 11/29/2025 10:42 am

Sensei commented on Thanksgiving Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility

You're not wrong. The only thing worse than Fox is fake news CNN and whatever BSNBC is renamed now. At least Fox has much hotter women on without terminal TDS when spreading propaganda, which makes it slightly more tolerable in small doses. I never trust any one source for news, especially from legacy media.

Comment ID #6802895766 11/29/2025 10:41 am

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