Latest SEO News & Tips From SE Roundtable Blog

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. A new study…

Google sent out an email to advertisers yesterday about changes coming to Google Tag Manager. Specifically, Google Tag Manager will send events before loading a Google tag and Google calls…

A new study from Columbia Journalism Review showed that AI search engines and chatbots, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Deepseek Search, Microsoft Copilot, Grok and Google’s Gemini, are just…

A new data report from Rand Fishkin at Sparktoro says that Google Search has seen 21.64% growth in searches year over year. This comes after his study that showed 1/3rd…

Google can now show the “price at checkout” within the Google Shopping listings, both paid and organic. I am not sure if this is new, being that Google has had…

Google is testing a new shopping ad format. This format expands product listings available within a store, shows the products with larger images and product details and then lets you…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

No surprise here – Google will be testing and experimenting with ads in Google AI Mode. Google told Adweek that they will be “explore bringing ads into” Google AI Mode.

Google has updated its manual actions documentation around site reputation abuse, to expand on the next steps and actions you can take if you receive this manual action. Google now…

Google’s VP of Product at Google Search, Robby Stein, has responded to concerns from publishers around the new AI Mode. Specifically, the concerns around this new AI search interface not…

Google is testing a knowledge panel that includes a places card that can be expanded to show a map and local pack results. I cannot replicate this, which makes me…

Google is now using a much larger font for the knowledge panels shown in Google Search. The font size looks jumbo and it does not seem to be test, it…

Google Search is testing a feature to quiz you on the product you are looking for and then to give you more tailored recommendations for product suggestions. This box is…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google dropped the…

Google released its much anticipated AI Mode, which is in beta now, but it super cool. Google AI Overviews are now powered by Gemini 2.0. Google had more search ranking…

Google sent out emails to Local Service Ads advertisers notifying them that their Google Business Profile accounts are not affiliated to your Local Service Ads account. That means your reviews…

Google has shut down, turned off, and disabled, its new page annotations feature. The feature where Google hijacked your content, placed links in your content, links you didn’t add yourself,…

Google has this new “Know before you go” section in the search results. I mean, it is new for search, not new for Google Maps and not new for local….

Microsoft is now showing why it selects or chooses to show a specific ad directly in the Bing search results. When you click on the arrow down by the URL…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google launched its…

Google has officially announced Google AI Mode, after hearing rumors about it for months and then seeing leaked screenshots of it a few weeks ago. Google said AI mode gives…

In December, Google told us they are testing powering AI Overviews using Gemini 2.0. We think we even saw Google testing this in the wild with deeper AI Overviews with…

Google is testing more favicon designs within Google Search. I mean, we cover these way too often but hey, I like favicons, don’t you?

It looks like Microsoft is testing search ads that auto expand to reveal sitelinks under those ads within the Bing Search results. You don’t need to click or do anything…

Rajan Patel, a VP, Engineering for Search at Google and the Co-founder of Google Lens, is now also offering an assist to Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liason. For the…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

I’ve been watching the volatility ever since the unconfirmed February 26th or so ranking volatility when the tools didn’t show much of a spike but the chatter was super high….

Google is now using generative AI, and labeling it as such, within the Google Search product details overlay. When you click on a product listing in Google Search, the overlay…

Google now supports expressive reactions for Google reviews on mobile search and maps. This shows up when viewing a Google Business Profile’s reviews on mobile.

Google is now showing AI Overviews within the movie review summaries in Google Search. Under the review summaries is a disclaimer that reads, “Al overviews are experimental.”

Google announced a number of updates to Google Shopping and Search with AI enhancements and expansions. Specifically rolling out vision match, a new try out new looks feature and expanding…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google posted new…

Google has posted some fresh data, saying they answer over 5 trillion searches per year. The last time we saw this data was in 2016, when Google was at 2…

A new report released by Rand Fishkin at Sparktoro with the help of Datos’ panel measure web browser activity showed that about 1/3rd of active web users don’t use Google…

Google added QR codes that you can give your customers to quickly leave you a review for your business on Google Search and Google Maps. This can be accessed in…

Did you know that 10% of all searches on Google from a younger audience start with Google’s new circle to search feature? That is what Roma Datta Chobey, the Managing…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google Ads stopped…

It is time for the monthly Google Webmaster Report. We are now in March as we continue to wait for the first Google core update of 2025. We did have…

While we’ve seen AI Overviews in the United States for a while now, and while Google has expanded them to 100+ countries – they are still not officially launched in…

Google now accepts RVs (recreational vehicles) and campers in Google Vehicle Ads. Google posted this on Friday afternoon and wrote, “Vehicle ads will be expanding to include recreational vehicles (RVs)…

Retailers have been complaining for the past several days that there is a bug in Google Merchant Center when trying to add the shipping rates and costs. Step four of…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

Microsoft Bing Search’s Copilot Answers now can show maps and local results, including local ads. The AI answer has a map on the left side and then on the right…

A couple of days ago, Google sent out an email to owners of Google Business Profile listings. The email was a reminder about the Google Business Profile policies, and it…

A year or more ago, Google added a toggle switch to use Gemini directly in the iOS Google Search app. Well, that was removed this week and you now need…

Microsoft is testing outlining the individual search result snippets within Bing Search. So when you look at a snippet, it has this outline around it, and then when you hover…

If you go to Google Shopping and enter a query that is not shopping related, Google will add a button above the shopping results asking you to search Google for…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. We are seeing…

I am seeing the SEO community starting to chatter around a lot of Google Search ranking volatility. Keep in mind, the third-party tracking tools currently seem relatively calm. Often, I…

Microsoft is now showing the sources it used to generate its AI-based “from sources across the web” section in Bing Search. If you click on the little i icon, Bing…

Google is now showing a “top search” definition box below the auto suggestions within Google Search for some searches. I guess it is a quick way for Google to give…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google Local Service…

Google has sent out an email to its Google Local Service Ads advertisers, notifying them that they are now letting searchers use a booking link to schedule an appointment or…

A few weeks ago, we saw Microsoft testing green colored sponsored URLs for the Bing search results. Now I am seeing reports of both underlined and bolded URLs and titles…

Last April 2024, Gary Illyes from Google said he was on a mission to make web crawling more efficient, he wanted to “figure out how to crawl even less, and…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

Microsoft seems to be testing a more fully AI-powered search engine, which may be named Copilot Search. Copilot is the name of Microsoft’s AI features, formerly known as Bing Chat.

Some sites, hosted on some CDNs (content delivery networks), are experiencing a big spike in server response times for crawling, while seeing a drop in total crawl requests. So technically,…

18 year old, publicly traded education technology company, Chegg, has sued Google over its AI Overviews and how it has hurt their traffic and revenue. Chegg has “filed a complaint…

Google is testing opening the normally closed/collapsed AI Answer box. Meaning, normally you need to manually tap to expand the answer, here Google is testing opening these boxes by default,…

The Google Search Console API has been delayed for the past several days. Data is days behind the web interface and causing issued for those who use Looker Studio, Big…

Google seems to have added, for some merchants, a new section named Physical Stores to the Google Merchant Center Next console. In this section is random data from within the…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

A few weeks ago, I reported on how Google was testing showing deeper Google AI Overviews, maybe powered by Gemini 2.0, with over 60 links and citations in them. Well,…

Microsoft is at it again with its search engine – Bing. Previously, when you searched for Google, they tricked you to think you were searching Bing and then hide Google…

For the past few years or so, Google has had a more detailed, almost survey-style review questionnaire for some local results, especially restaurants. Now, according to Claudia Tomina, Google has…

Apple seems like it may be preparing integration Google Gemini in Apple Intelligence as an option for its users to select. Aaron Perris from MacRumors spotted hints in the iOS…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

We had more ranking volatility with the Google Search results, this time we reported on it on Thursday. There are some rumors of a local update where Google would remove…

Google posted a new Google Ads update for Response search ads (RSAs) where up to two RSA headlines can serve in the space that previously only sitelinks were eligible for…

Google is testing a new box that highlights that you can book the hotel at the official site, the hotel’s direct website. This does not look like a sponsored result,…

Microsoft has this new style for some of the Bing Search Copilot answers. They can show a card or box that has a tabbed carousel where you can swipe through…

Last week, Shameem Adhikarath spotted a sponsored label on top of the “People also consider” box within the Google Search results. I figured it was a bug with ads not…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

It’s been almost two weeks since I last reported on a Google Search ranking update (unconfirmed) and that may be a recent record. But that being said, I am now…

Google announced a couple new Google Lens features; (1) they are expanding how AI Overviews show on Google Lens results and (2) Chrome and Google’s iOS app now let you…

Google Business Profiles now can add backgrounds to the images you upload to your Google Posts, using AI. Victoria Kroll from Google wrote that you can now “can create an…

Google is showing AI-generated review summaries on some top quality store pages. So when you click on a specific retailer or merchant’s top quality store link, at the top of…

Martin Split from Google said that having an audio version of a page or a blog post, does not impact your Google rankings. He said it is good for your…

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

The first week of January, we reported on an interesting local update we named the January 2025 local search update. Well, this might be more of a diversity update, where…

If you try to access your Google Business Profile page right now, you likely won’t be able to. It seems Google Business Profile edit section within Google Search is broken…

Google Business Profiles support team is currently a bit delayed, with a backlog of support requests, video verification delays, and reinstatement request backlogs.

We know Google can show reviews from third-party sources in Google Business Profile listings. We’ve seen Google take reviews from Yelp, travel sites and other third-party websites. But these days,…

Google is testing a new design for its search results that are more of a grid format, more of a boxed in design. They are not on all the search…