Google May 2026 core update - what are your thoughts?
- Thread starter Diamond Damien
- Start date
asano
Junior Member
- Mar 18, 2024
- 105
- 41
Dead internet theory?
I'm AI positive, but that doesn't mean the majority of AI is just massive companies siphoning knowledge from
the people and repackaging it with monetization giving nothing back to the creators.
It literally hurts authority content while helping to promote copypasta.
I'm AI positive, but that doesn't mean the majority of AI is just massive companies siphoning knowledge from
the people and repackaging it with monetization giving nothing back to the creators.
It literally hurts authority content while helping to promote copypasta.
Seeing mixed signals myself. Niche data sites that have strong E-E-A-T signals seem to be holding or gaining - especially where the content is genuinely hard to replicate with AI (real statistics, model outputs, proprietary data). The sites getting hammered tend to be the generic "10 tips" type content. The good news is if you're building something with real data and expertise behind it, this update seems to reward that over pure volume.
- Sep 11, 2025
- 331
- 62
As always googles does what googles wants and we have to adapt, google is still relevant but probably in the future it will move to AI search engines so the better you can optimize for that the better you are and of course paid results will always be king !
- Oct 5, 2023
- 307
- 109
Would we face websites dropping their traffic?
- Aug 9, 2017
- 5,574
- 6,859
My ranks pretty much across the board have gone back to almost exactly what they were at the start of the month, so I reckon that was the data snapshot point. Looking forward to working out the citation sources of choice, and of course seeing all the previously whacked parasites come bouncing back 
- Mar 14, 2025
- 393
- 130
Too early to call it yet, but the first thing worth watching is not just traffic, it’s which page types are moving. Brand searches look mostly fine for now. It’s the thin comparison posts and recycled AI content that seem to be getting pushed around more. Forums and older pages with real comments still look stronger in some SERPs. No point rebuilding the whole strategy mid-rollout. Let it settle first, then check by intent and page type. Sometimes it’s not even a ranking issue, just the SERP shifting again.
Ley
BANNED
- Mar 2, 2022
- 485
- 245
I've experienced increase in traffic across sites.
One thing I've noticed in this update is that Google removes AI overview from some keywords, maybe to send traffic to sites.
Also, small sites rank better.
Organic traffic is now at the mercy of Google, not even site owner working hard to rank their pages any more.
AI overview is counterproductive for Google, and I think we'll continue to be seeing ups and down in SERP ranking and traffic.
One thing I've noticed in this update is that Google removes AI overview from some keywords, maybe to send traffic to sites.
Also, small sites rank better.
Organic traffic is now at the mercy of Google, not even site owner working hard to rank their pages any more.
AI overview is counterproductive for Google, and I think we'll continue to be seeing ups and down in SERP ranking and traffic.
Assclown
Regular Member
- Apr 20, 2018
- 423
- 321
They do affect.
jennykumar
Senior Member
- Nov 14, 2012
- 925
- 477
what i recently found in many google searches that google has indexed and started showing readme.md kind of files from github, some raw codes from various repo. Something has gone wrong here. Who needs to a website ranking for raw html/php codes?
jennykumar
Senior Member
- Nov 14, 2012
- 925
- 477
i totally agree with this. Even on reddit we were discussing this. AI is built on already published content - text, music, graphics, etc. If google stops rewarding sites, people will stop publishing new content. This means AI will have just stale content. Lets say all people stop publishing (including news sites) from June 1, 2006 then AI will not be able to produce new content based after June 1st. AI is dependent on peoples experiences and information.
- Feb 28, 2019
- 7,432
- 7,873
That looks like a snake. Is Google breeding snakes now?
masterweb2
Junior Member
- Jun 4, 2021
- 185
- 67
this is what happened to my websites (normal niche) , traffic dropped and i'm confused what is happening
- May 27, 2016
- 11,108
- 2,521
They affect EVERY website.
seopowergirl
BANNED
- Apr 28, 2026
- 139
- 33
I'm still watching how things play out but my first impression is that this update hasn't affected all sites in the same way A few people are reporting gains while others are seeing drops, which is pretty typical with core updates Personally I prefer to wait until the rollout is complete before making any major changes because the rankings can be very unstable at the beginning