Google commands over 90% of the search engine market share, processing nearly 100,000 searches each second and 8.5 billion daily. But as customers worldwide use the platform as a gateway to the internet, recent changes in the search engine’s algorithm might foretell disaster, not only for the creators who make the web what it is but also for the customers who rely on the platform to serve the best content for their queries. Google’s Helpful Content Update In September 2023, Google released a core Helpful Content Update (HCU) with the stated intent of helping users find original, helpful content written by people, for people. The update sought to reduce the amount of poorly written content appearing in the results. The result didn’t match the intention. According to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts and independent publishers, the HCU prioritized large companies, whether they were gaming the system or not, and penalized independent publishers writing from the heart. Blair MacGregor, Founder of Trusthetics, an SEO consultancy, says, “Google’s public statements about its support for the open web often run up against the reality that in many publicly documented cases, they’ve taken significant traffic away from the open web, or at least that seems to be the intent.” Impact on Publishers Lily Ray, VP of SEO Strategy & Research at Amsive, shares the impact on independent publishers. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of sites impacted were impacted by Google’s September 2023 Helpful Content Update,” she shares. “The sites run the gamut in terms of the type of content they offer, but almost all of them are informational sites – usually niche blogs focused on a specific topic like travel, gaming, recipes, product reviews, or celebrity content.” Two of these sites shared the devastation the update wrought on their businesses. Gisele Navarro, Managing Editor of HouseFresh, a website dedicated to helping customers find long-term solutions to their indoor air quality issues, reports they lost 95% of their traffic in the September update. “Before September 2023, we received an average of 4,000 visitors daily to our site via Google. After September 2023, that figure started to drop and stabilized at around 200 daily visitors,” she explains. At Ready Steady Cut, a film enthusiast-run independent website offering reviews, recaps, and explainers of on-demand television, shares similar results. “After the September 2023 HCU, our traffic dropped by 50% overnight (1.5 million views per month). By December 2023, it had reduced by 80%,” he shared. Hoping for Improvement In March 2024, Google announced a follow-up. Small publishers who invested thousands of dollars into fixing their sites for what Google said they wanted hoped they would reap the benefits of their months of hard work. Instead, many saw further declines. Ray explains, “Until the August 2024 core update, there was no documented example of a recovery among any site impacted by the Helpful Content Update. In fact, most affected sites lost even more visibility during the March 2024 Core Update.” Hart and Navarro’s experiences align with Ray’s summary. “Every single algorithm update since September 2023 has negatively impacted us,” shared Hart, who fears their traffic will soon hit zero. Navarro said the March update led to a 91% loss of search traffic but added that they’ve seen a slight improvement after the August 2024 update. They’re still nowhere near their pre-September update traffic levels. How Hcu Impacts Customers Independent publishers aren’t the only ones who lost out due to Google’s algorithm changes. The updates also impact end users searching for helpful content. MacGregor explains that changes force users to navigate a different set of rules. Search results elevate subpar content from big-name brands at the expense of small publishers and independent media. In addition, users see a massive increase in forums like Reddit and Quora surfacing for search results. These new rules can harm users by serving irrelevant, outdated, harmful, or sponsored content designed to make big businesses even more money at users’ expense. “Users should understand that volunteer moderators run both Reddit and Quora and have been inundated by bad actors since Google’s “Hidden Gems” update began rolling out last year,” says MacGregor. “Both platforms sometimes surface threads that contain inaccurate, outdated or harmful information, are riddled with affiliate spam or feature AI-generated responses of questionable quality.” MacGregor adds that the results can be helpful, but “because of the relative anonymity of most Reddit posters, it’s crucial for searchers always to take this information with a grain of salt and corroborate it with other sources, especially if you’re searching for something that can significantly affect your health or financial well-being.” Navaro says a mix of Reddit, Quora, and big media sites now outrank HouseFresh, while Google’s sponsored results dominate the products space. These results promote products that make the publisher the most money, not those that best suit customer’s needs. Independent publishers like HouseFresh take pride in their mission, prioritizing user value over profits. “We buy every air purifier we review with our own money to remain unbiased. We have two dedicated spaces in the house where we conduct in-depth tests to benchmark and compare real-life air cleaning performance. We also use the products at home every single day for months on end and calculate long-term costs before recommending any specific model,” says Navaro, explaining their process. Hart says Ready Steady Cut lost rankings to sites gaming the system. These include big publishing networks and spammy sites producing content at scale with dodgy SEO tactics, all of which worsen user experiences. Google Pays Lip Service to Frustrations Ray shared that Google recently hosted a creator summit. The search giant invited a small group of affected independent publishers to help improve its algorithm. At the summit, Google admitted that these publishers were creating good content despite their drop in rankings. “I thought this was an interesting admission that the Helpful Content Update negatively impacted certain sites in ways other than what Google likely initially intended when it designed that ranking system, says Ray. “It was an unfortunate example of how Google’s machine learning systems can get things wrong and how collateral damage from algorithm updates can be dangerous for sites who rely on Google to make money.” Google claimed they’d make changes in the August update, but it wasn’t as impactful as many had hoped. Although a few sites improved, most saw decreased or static rankings. MacGregor said he had clients who improved during the August update but lost out again in October. AI Plays a Role In spring, Google rolled out AI overviews (AIO), offering artificial intelligence-generated answers to user queries. MacGregor calls them a mixed bag. “Big publishers like Dotdash and Ziff Davis say they haven’t seen significant inbound traffic drops to their properties, but many sites are planning for higher impact as AIOs continue to evolve.” He also points to Google’s recent experiments with recipe blogs, which compile all content into the search result so users don’t have to click through to the publisher’s website. Although it may be easier for the user, small publishers rely on those clicks to earn a living. Without them, they may have to close up shop. Free and Open Web at Risk Google’s original mission, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” ensured the best content rose to the top, regardless of whether it came from global brands or small independent publishers. Users could find niche site owners who shared their passions, discover hidden gem destinations, try unique family recipes passed down through generations, and gain new perspectives on old problems. Creators earned an income doing what they loved through display ads or promoting their favorite products, which incentivized them to keep creating. If Google continues down its destructive path, the free and open internet will cease to exist. “Small publishers, often overlooked, are the backbone of the digital ecosystem, yet they bear the brunt of Google’s algorithm changes,” says MacGregor. They will also be the first to shut down. If this process continues, the ” dead internet theory ” will come to life, as creators can no longer afford to publish content. Without fresh ideas, AI bots will regurgitate the stale, often misleading information that remains, effectively making the web unusable. A Path Forward For 20 years, the internet has provided millions of users with hope, opportunity, and information. But we’re now at a crossroads. As Macgregor says, “Whether the Helpful Content Update or past and present Core Updates harmed us, we must stop this vicious cycle and create paths for a better future.” Searchers can move on to other search engines, like Bing or DuckDuckGo, to cut into Google’s market share, showing they’re unhappy with the latest results. They can subscribe to creators’ newsletters and follow them on social media to find them outside of organic search. The future of the web depends on users. We can continue allowing giant corporations to consolidate valuable internet real estate, destroying the free and open web, or we can look for alternatives that supportindependent publishing. The choice is ours.   This article was produced by Media Decision and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.