Latest SEO News & Tips From SE Roundtable Blog

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

As you know, Google updated its Search Quality Raters guidelines with 11 new pages a couple of weeks ago. But with that, Google also added the term “generative AI” to…

Google is now testing using generative AI to write descriptions within the popular products section in Google Search. We’ve seen this with knowledge panels, local listings and many other parts…

Ever since we began seeing the new Yahoo Search AI features and AI Chat, we’ve been asking if they were powered by their own AI, by maybe OpenAI or maybe…

If you embed resources on your pages, those embedded resources can be cached longer than other parts of the page in Google Search.

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 is testing…

While this month was not as busy as last month, it was still a pretty stressful month for a lot of site owners and SEOs. I was expecting more core…

Google is sending emails to some advertisers letting them know that they can opt out of a test, where Google will use AI to automatically create backgrounds for their images…

Jordi Ribas, the Head of Search at Microsoft, touted Bing’s growth on social media (X and LinkedIn). He wrote, “Since we launched Bing Chat in Feb 2023, we’ve seen significant…

Over the weekend Google launched Product Studio AI features to Google Business Profiles products. Now when you add/edit products on your local Google Business Profile, Google will let you “change…

Google has this new map unit that is titled “Related places” and shows a map with a carousel beneath it of related places. This actually comes up for brand name…

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

We are seeing more Google search ranking volatility hit both over the weekend and also mid-week. Google expanded its site reputation abuse enforcement to Germany. Google AI Overviews powered by…

Google is testing (I think again) review carousels and block units in its search results for product queries. A number of SEOs spotted these coming up over the past week…

Google Search is now sometimes showing the ability to filter products in its search results by product rating. I am not sure if this is new or not, but I…

Google is testing a new filter for its shopping results in the mobile search results. Instead of showing a single filter menu, Google is showing a product image carousel line…

Google has a new Search Labs feature named Ask for me. Ask for me will have Google call businesses for you, to figure out the cost of the service and…

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 search ranking…

Google Search ranking volatility spiked and heated again over the past 24-hours or so. I am seeing renewed chatter spike up yesterday, January 29th and continue through today. I am…

Did you know there is a quick way to directly generate an access request for Service Area Businesses in Google Maps? This is apparently not so new but also not…

We recently covered how you can now drag and drop menu items for your restaurant in your Google Business Profiles. But Google also seemed to add the ability to move…

In early December, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, said Google is starting to test powering AI Overviews with Gemini 2.0. Well, we may be starting to see some of…

Microsoft reported its second quarter 2025 earnings and it showed that its search and advertising revenue was up 21%. The previous quarter it was up 18%, then 19% but before…

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

Google has once again expanded the reach of its site reputation abuse policy, beyond the US enforcement from from May and beyond limited European regions last week – we are…

Google may have pushed some improvements to the reporting system within Google Search Console. Now Google can show how soon the report was updated within a 30 minute interval. So…

Google AI Overviews, even when not signed into a Google Labs project, is providing coding and programming examples and help. This started sometime yesterday, I believe, and before, I believe…

John Mueller from Google noted that he finds it “interesting” how those who spend time in our industry “can often recognize made-for-search-engine content fairly quickly.” Meaning, we are good at…

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

John Mueller from Google said that merging content is always more challenging than a basic site move. Meaning, when you take a look at your content on your site and…

Gary Illyes from Google said that if a URL has a status within Google Search Console as “URL is unknown to Google” that means that URL is really unknown to…

Google has added a method to bulk manage the special hours for all the businesses you manage in Google Business Profiles. You can easily copy special hours from one business…

Google Search is testing the frequently saved label not just in the main search results but also on the local results, the places section, of the Google Search results.

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

Google Search may have pushed some unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update or tweak around Friday, January 24th. I briefly mentioned this on my Friday video but I felt it…

Yahoo is continuing its AI Chat features within Yahoo Search, while also incorporating AI Answers into its search results. The AI powered answers and chat seemed to be powered by…

Microsoft Bing is testing placing the sources section of its AI Answers in a carousel view, instead of a list view. This let’s you scroll through the sources as opposed…

Microsoft is testing different colored URLs for its organic (free) results and its sponsored (paid) results. The organic URL slugs are bold black colored and the sponsored URL slugs are…

Google is testing a new job carousel in the search results titled “jobs at similar employers.” This likely pulls from the Google Jobs postings schema and more but it can…

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

Google search ranking volatility is heated this week, but some of the tools are having issues tracking them. Google is sending out penalties, manual actions…

On Thursday, January 23rd, Google updated its search quality raters guidelines PDF document. The last time Google updated this document was for the March 2024 spam update changes, over ten…

Google’s John Mueller said that when it comes to disavowing links “it’s in a spammer’s best interest to encourage others to spend time on it.” Why? Because Google has said…

Microsoft is testing a new local pack design and layout for Bing Search local pack results. Bing is placing these blue boxes, either below the map, to the right side,…

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

Google looks to have expanded its enforcement of its site reputation abuse policy to European regions this week. Google began enforcement in the US back in May but Google seems…

Yahoo seems to be testing AI Chat within its search results. The chat feature loads on the right side for your query. You click on it and it loads an…

Google is still testing its offensive page annotation feature in the Google iOS app still, but the good news is that the opt out feature does indeed work. Yes, it…

Microsoft is testing a new search filter menu option that lets you filter by real estate results. This shows up in the normal search menu below the search box.

Now when you use Circle To Search in Google, Google can now return AI Overviews to those results. Google said they are “expanding AI Overviews to more kinds of visual…

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

We may be seeing more Google search ranking volatility start to get heated starting this weekend, through January 20th and 21st (and maybe today). Some of the Google tracking tools…

Google has updated not just its site reputation abuse policy for clarification purposes, Google also updated the manual actions section for site reputation abuse. Again, these are just clarification changes,…

For the past month or so, Google has been showing map pins on Service Area Businesses within Google. Previously, Google did not show pins on businesses without a public address…

John Mueller of Google said that sometimes doing SEO can cause sites more problems with search and search rankings. Sometimes not doing SEO, might be better, John implies.

Google is testing an expandable brand store knowledge panel. So if you search for a brand like New Balance, Google will show a knowledge panel on the right with products,…

Google Business Profiles started to allow chat through texting and WhatsApp for businesses in international regions. Now, this feature seems to be rolling out to businesses based in the United…

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

Google is testing AI Overviews that offer a toggle to turn on and off translations and/or just show the translations by default.

Google’s John Mueller replied to a bunch of screenshots of SEO tools showing word counts for the same page that tailed the word counts differently. John said, “This is also…

Microsoft is testing a new search setting named Adaptive Zoom. I am not exactly sure what it does, I tried to toggle it on and off and see how clicking…

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

Google is testing placing a new products carousel, a trending products carousel, on the right side where the brand’s knowledge panel would appear. So, instead of having details of that…

Chris Nelson, Senior Staff Analyst, Search Ranking at Google has updated his LinkedIn bio to specify that he manages a large team that builds ranking solutions for Google Search. One…

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

For the original iTunes version, click here. This week I covered how the third-party search rank checking tools seem to have cooled, but the chatter is still pretty heated. Maybe…

Google seems to be testing an AI-generated version of What People Are Saying in Google Search. This shows a similar video or social media type of search results but it…

Google is updating its hotel prohibited practices policy to specify that (1) you are required to display final room availability and rates before requesting user information and (2) you are…

For the past week, we’ve been discussing how most of the third-party tracking tools have been showing much calmer and cooler search ranking volatility. This is all while the chatter…

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

Google has partnered with The Associated Press to provide more real time data for Gemini. Google said “the AP will now deliver a feed of real-time information to help further…

Google updated its review snippet documentation to recommend that ratings should be accompanied by a review comment and author’s name. This is a recommendation and not a requirement, but it…

Google has said it has updated its child and teen ads policies to increase transparency and make it easier for advertisers to understand these policies. Google added there are no…

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

In some European regions, Google, likely because of the DMA laws, has to show review aggregated ratings from third-party sites. How does Google know which sites to take those reviews…

Google is testing using its generative AI, Gemini, for the “people also search for” section within Google Search. I mean, Google is testing AI all over search, so I guess…

Microsoft is testing a new ad format where you can click “see more links” to show even more sitelinks on the search ads shown in the Bing search results. These…

Google is testing the sitelinks carousel on the desktop search results interface. We saw this on the mobile results in December 2023 and all the way back in 2017 but…

In June 2024, Google dropped continuous scroll (infinite scroll) on desktop search and then mobile search. But if you click on the video tab within Google Search, continuous scroll is…

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

Did you know that sites and pages with manual actions can potentially show up in the Google AI Overviews. So while the page has a search penalty and won’t show…