I’ve put off writing this for some time. About six months in fact since the repercussions really started to hit home. I always hoped things would work themselves out and improve. But they haven’t. They’ve just continued to get worse.
I’m talking about the state of Google search and how this once ‘don’t be evil’ company has turned into a deliberately deceptive, money-grabbing monopoly.
The recent changes to the way their search engine works has impacted thousands and thousands of creatives and website owners across the globe. This includes me here at Tiny Eco Home Life Home.
What’s happened?
In September 2023, Google released a major update to their algorithm – the so-called ‘Helpful Content Update’. An ironic and laughable name. They then released a major follow up to this in March 2024, which essentially doubled down on the first one. If you’re not in the world of running websites, you’d never know about these updates.
The result has devastated a lot of smaller sites whose visibility has dropped in favour of big media sites, user generated platforms like Reddit and any semi-relevant site that sells a product. It’s made it virtually impossible for small, independent, information-based sites to survive.
You can read similar posts on Retro Dodo, House Fresh and Moral Fibres – plus many, many more. The news of these unfair changes are even hitting the headlines at the BBC. These articles do a much better job of explaining what’s happened than I do here.
On a side note, I have to thank Wendy from the fantastic Moral Fibres for encouraging me to write this post. If you haven’t already, do check out her site as it’s full of outstanding content on green living, ethical fashion, eco cleaning and more.
Why does it matter?
The reason it’s so important – or was so important – is that Google is how the vast majority of readers found these smaller sites. Tiny Eco Home Life included.
Organic search via Google used to supply around 80% of my monthly traffic. For example, people searching for ‘most ethical banks uk’ or ‘best eco toilet paper’ or ‘where to find second hand books online’, would quite often find this site, like what they read and stick around.
Of course I was very thankful to Google for this. For the best part they were doing their job as a search engine properly, providing the best possible websites and articles for what the searcher was looking for.
But best results no more. Google has changed the game.
Tiny Eco Home Life has to all intents and purposes been banned from Google. As a result my overall traffic has been reduced by around 80%. Even if you search for something specific on my site using ‘tiny eco home life’, you’re unlikely to find anything on Google.
Above: My site not showing for a very specific search on Google (left), but showing near the top on Ecosia for a non-branded search (right)
My crime? Helping people with their search queries according to Google’s own guidelines. However, now Google doesn’t think my website is ‘helpful’ in the slightest, despite years of previously thinking so.
Tiny Eco Home Life still gets direct traffic, searches from Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia and from social media platforms, but this doesn’t make up the shortfall. It’s made it almost impossible to commit the hours I used to for researching and writing, simply because it’s falling on deaf ears, so to speak.
It’s a shame because when I went self-employed in May 2023, I anticipated spending much more time building this website and helping more people live a sustainable life. This is my mission. And still is. But I’m struggling at the minute.
How are they doing this?
You may think this is a case of me being bitter. Google used to give you loads of traffic, now they’ve taken it away. Get over it, it’s all part of the game.
Listen, I’m all for the game when it’s a fair and level playing field. And Google used to be great for this. It’s the main reason why they’ve grown into the monopoly they are.
However, things have changed significantly. The game is not level. For the first time since the launch of Google in 1998 under the genius of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, they now want everything for themselves. They don’t want to be a fair and frank search engine. Instead they’re saying, ‘let us do the Googling for you’.
Ok, fair enough, a business can change their direction, can’t they?
Yes, that’s true, but the problem is that Google has been built on the shoulders of other websites. Its ingenious way of crawling, processing, indexing and ranking websites helped it to elevate to the levels it has. Without other websites and content, Google would be nothing.
However, Google is now using the information from other websites in a different way. For itself.
They’ve used the info from first hand content creators, such as myself and thousands of others, to train their AI machines. Instead of directing users to other websites to get answers, they’re now rolling out ‘AI overviews’ and presenting their own answers to users’ queries.
As Kyle Chayka puts it in his New Yorker article, “Google and OpenAI are fracking the internet’s trove of information, extracting any value, and destroying the ecosystem with no coherent plan for what is meant to replace it.”
It’s a dangerous move. Because these overviews are bundling information together from different sources, they’re rife with issues and misinformation – adding glue to pizzas, recommending people keep dogs in hot cars, eating a rock a day for vitamins and minerals, smoking whilst pregnant, plus tonnes more examples. Have a read of this NY Times article.
As Gisele Navarro of HouseFresh says, “I understand that Google doesn’t owe us or anyone else traffic, but Google controls the roads. If tomorrow they decide the roads won’t go to an entire town, that town dies. It’s too much power to just shrug and say, ‘Oh well, it’s just the free market.'”
Greedy Google and dodgy dealings
What’s left after AI overviews and paid results is a smattering of natural, ‘organic’ results. Except these have been infiltrated too.
You may find a lot more Reddit pages at the top of your search results. This website has experienced a 126% growth in traffic in recent months. I’m sure this is nothing to do with the under the table $60m deal penned between Reddit and Google, which also coincided with Reddit’s initial public offering in March 2024.
The rest of the first page of organic results is invariably taken up by big media sites and other companies, like Forbes and those in the Dotdash Meredith empire.
As part of their updates, Google kindly gave these media conglomerates a two-month grace period to clean up their spam act, known as ‘site reputation abuse’, which these sites did like clockwork to manipulate search results.
Dangling the carrot for the rest of us
Like with previous algorithm changes, Google have said that sites can recover from any negative impacts. They’ve just got to be ‘more helpful’ and create ‘people first content’.
They’ve said a whole load of stuff that people have done to the tee and seen absolutely no signs of life, let alone a full recovery. Websites owners have had their sites dissected and taken apart by experts and people from Google themselves, only to be told they’re site isn’t perfect (no site is), so it’s no wonder they’ve been hit in the updates. This is absolute rubbish.
Despite being 10 months into the first HCU update in September 2023, not one site that was seriously hit by the update has recovered. Not one.
In essence, Google has been gaslighting independent sites such as mine, whilst it was getting itself set-up for its AI search launch. In the BBC, Google said they ‘give website owners help, resources and opportunities for feedback on their Search rankings.’ Again, this is nonsense.
So, what now?
Ok, we are where we are. So, what now?
To support small, independent sites there are a few things you can do:
- Switch search engines – Just like more ethical banking, vote with your actions and move to someone else – Ecosia, Bing and DuckDuckGo are a few better alternatives. Remember to change the default browser on your laptop/computer, as well as your phone – if you have an iPhone: go to settings > safari > search engine. If you use Google Chrome, you can change your default browser to Safari too.
- Newsletter sign up – If you haven’t already, please sign up to the Eco Life newsletter. This is one the few remaining ways to directly talk to people without battling more extreme search engine or social media algorithms.
- Follow on social media – I admit I’m not particularly great with social media but it is a great way to show a different side of the website. I have Instagram, Pinterest and a Facebook page.
- Share good posts with friends – There’s nothing better than word-of-mouth recommendations and shares. If you like a post, please link to it in FB groups, Instagram or send it to someone via email or text.
- Bookmark sites – I have a good amount of bookmarked sites that I regularly check to see what they’ve been up to. This is a great way to keep up-to-date without relying on search engines.
- Support me directly – Any small amounts of revenue I used to receive via ads, affiliates and collaborations have been severely impacted by these changes. You can support this site with a one-off donation or regular monthly support via Kofi.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you.
In truth, I thought nobody would be interested in hearing about my Google tribulations. But, good honest businesses are being affected by unfair changes and it’s only set to get worse from here. Many are now going bust or on the brink of doing so. More people need to know about it before it’s too late.
The changes are making me think about the future and how I can adapt this site to be truly helpful for those looking to reduce their impact and live a more sustainable life. This isn’t the end, so give me a bookmark, give us a follow on social, join the newsletter and be part of the journey.
Thank you,
Ben
