Clicks: 34 | Impressions: 10,410 | CTR: 0.33% | Avg Position: 17.2
Running total since Feb 11: 1,574 clicks, 210,222 impressions
The last day before we blocked Google. 34 clicks. 10,410 impressions. Down 43% from the peak in just 12 days. CTR cratered to 0.33%. For context: we had better CTR when we were getting 151 impressions a day.
Google was burying us deeper on every remaining query. The trajectory was a straight line to zero. Not because we changed anything. Not because our data got worse. Not because users stopped engaging. Because Google’s algorithm decided the honeymoon was over and it was time to put us back in our place.
So we made a decision. If Google was going to kill us slowly, we’d rather do it ourselves. We blocked every Google crawler. Pulled the plug. Took our ball and went home. Was it rational? Probably not. Was it satisfying? Absolutely.