Google AI Search Shift Leaves Website Makers Feeling ‘Betrayed’
In the absence of clear answers from Google, creators have struggled to discern how much of their pain is due to AI Overviews or due to other changes in search.
Photographer: Gabby Jones/BloombergIn March 2024, website owner Morgan McBride was posing for photos in her half-renovated kitchen for a Google ad celebrating the ways the search giant had helped her family’s business grow.
But by the time the ad ran about a month later, traffic from Google had fallen more than 70%, McBride said. Charleston Crafted, which features guides on do-it-yourself home improvement projects, had weathered algorithm changes and updates in the past; this time, it didn’t recover. McBride suspected people were getting more of their renovation advice from the artificial intelligence answers at the top of Google search.