Google is Hijacking Your Content!
Google are at it again!
What NOW you must be thinking, after all the naughtiness that they did in 2024 they are looking like they are going to go further in 2025.
I'm sure you have either read or at least seen in the news the DOJ investigation into Google last year,
I could overlook that a little as many large companies prioritise their shareholders over their customers,
Then there was the leaked document showing that Google have been monitoring clicks and user interactions from Google search to your websites. Why is this a problem, well for over 10 years continuously they have been saying they don't do this and have lied about it.
Again I can overlook, it makes sense for them to do this - and most SEO's have thought they were doing this anyway - but it was a shame they lied to us. Can we trust them now? (hint: NO).
But this next thing they are currently testing is just too far!
Google calls this "Page Annotations" and it is where they add a link to your websites content to direct your visitors to Google's own website.
Yep, that's right, they are taking your hard earned traffic and sending them to Google search so they can find out more on the subject, and of course your competitors websites.
Now this is just a test at the moment and only affects some websites, and users would need to be using Google's IOS search app for this to work.
How are Google adding links to our websites?
To the user of the website - your future customers - your website will look the same as normal, with one small change, these links to Google. Google isn't changing the copy of the page, but just making a word or sentence a hyperlink, like this one "How I saved over £1000+ a year for a customers website". You will not be able to see these links yourself when you look at your content on your site, for example using a browser, this is because they are actually overlapping your content, with your content plus their links.
This is why you need to use their app to see this in action.
So, you will not know when or where these links appear. You can't even add some fancy JavaScript to the buttons to monitor as the links are not actually on the website, but just looks like they are.
Why are Google doing this?
Quite simply to get more searches -> for you to click on adverts -> for Google to increase their revenue.
How can you stop Google from add a Link?
Almost all SEO's who have found about this - it only started in December 2024 - are dumbfounded by what Google are doing here. So much so some of them have started a petition to Stop Google's Page Annotation before they really get going. Please sign!
Additionally, you can opt out from Google performing this on your website by filling out a form, there isn't a command you can add to your robots.txt or anywhere else on your server, you need to use this form.
In a month or so Google might stop adding links to your website. I stress might as you will most likely not know and they are not the most trustworthy company in the World.
Hope this helps, please share to help others.
Stuart