google! Please stop: you are destroying independent websites.

google! PLEASE STOP: YOU ARE DESTROYING INDEPENDENT WEBSITES | GeekNews

Google is killing independent websites by hiding them from search results
This could be due to Google’s AI ranking system getting out of control, or a deliberate move to increase advertising revenue.
Certain sections of Shepherd’s website experienced an 86% drop in Google traffic over a 16-month period. This occurred despite the page having high visitor participation.
- Google keeps changing but this decline is crazy and is destroying many websites
- They promised that if they created good content, they would rank the page higher, but this promise is not being kept.
In one particular section of Shepherd, 60% of visitors read more than 75% of the page and, on average, spend more than 5 minutes.
12% of visitors learn more about a book or go to a bookstore, and 8% click on a recommendation list.
Kevin Miller‘s example
- Kevin Miller is an expert on the Battle of Midway, and his page used to rank in the top three on Google searches, but is now down to page three.
- Visitors stay on his page for more than 7 minutes on average, and 55% read more than 75% of the page.
- Pages ranked instead of Kevin’s in search results are comprised of low-value content. Examples include simple lists on Bookshop.org, unsorted book lists on Goodreads, old threads on Reddit, unprofessional and unhelpful pages on Quora, etc.
- On the other hand, DuckDuckGo and Bing ranked Kevin’s page 1st and 3rd.

Many independent websites have lost over 95% of their traffic from Google and are on the verge of going bankrupt or going out of business.
Shepherd was able to survive thanks to increased traffic from Bing, DuckDuckGo, and social media.

In the past, if you typed in what you wanted, it would magically show you results, but now there are only ads, spam, and unhelpful results.
Google needs to improve its search function and communicate with website owners.
Google’s search engine is no longer useful and is full of ads and spam.
Google should provide website owners with practical information and consider a partner program to solve problems.

GN⁺’s opinion

Google is causing enormous damage to independent websites. There appears to be a fundamental problem with Google’s search system.
A decrease in the quality of search results will have a significant negative impact on user experience. People may stop trusting search engines
Google needs to take this issue seriously and find a solution. It is important to communicate and cooperate with website owners
Independent websites should develop a diversified traffic strategy that does not rely on Google. It will be helpful to use social media, newsletters, and other search engines.
You might want to consider using alternative search engines like Bing or DuckDuckGo. They can provide more relevant and diverse results