Latest SEO News & Tips From SE Roundtable Blog

Over the weekend I reported that the Google Search ranking volatility tools finally began to calm. But the truth is, I have seen a big spike in chatter around Google…

Statcounter’s search market share data for the 2024 year is up and there are a lot of ways to look at this data. At Search Engine Land, Danny Goodwin wrote…

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. The Google search…

Google has reportedly fixed the Google Maps pin attack exploit that has been lingering on with Google for several months. The exploit allowed one to move business locations to another…

Google Search has these search results snippets that show a related reviews carousel under the snippet. You can swipe through the related reviews and then click on them to reveal…

Microsoft is testing using bold sponsored labels in the Bing Search results. So instead of the very hard to see sponsored labels in Bing Search, Microsoft is testing bolding those…

Microsoft is testing an updated Bing Search AI answer box powered by Copilot is testing an updated interface, that seems to promote links to publishers more. The links are more…

A few months ago, Google quietly updated the manual action policy violations list for News and Discover policy violations. Google removed the adult-theme and artificial freshening sections and then added…

For the first time in forever (see what I did there?) the third-party Google Search volatility tools have cooled down to normal volatility levels. The chatter has been somewhat more…

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

Google’s John Mueller clarified once again that your URLs do not need to be lowercase, they can be uppercase, it really doesn’t matter. But he did say, pick either lowercase…

Google has turned down some features for the tax specialist vertical in Google Local Service Ads. The big one is that there is no auto-crediting for this vertical. Also, Google…

Google is testing adding a share icon to the product detail view within the search results. This comes up at the top of the panel, after you click on a…

Google is testing writing out a 57 words, 364 characters, notice on its home page, about its cookie usage and data usage. It is super weird to see three lines…

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. Reddit seems like…

It seems like Reddit, the site that ranks well for every single query in Google Search, is starting to see a small but visible ranking drop in Google Search. It…

Google’s John Mueller said that using generative AI to create blog posts and content for the purpose of getting backlinks is “almost certainly against Google’s spam policies.” He said this…

Google Search is testing a darker dark mode. Instead of the grayish dark mode, Google is testing a dark black version of the dark mode. The darker version is #111217…

Google now lets you add to your restaurant’s menu within Google Business Profiles. Previously, I believe you were only able to replace your previous menus, but now you can add…

Did you ever want to listen to a summary of your Google Discover feed? Well, now you can. Google has a new Search Labs experiment called “Daily Listen” that puts…

If you go to the Google home page today, you will see a gray Google logo. Google does this on somber days and since today is the national day of…

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

What happens when you lose a lot of links really quickly, how might that impact your Google search rankings and SEO performance? Well, John Mueller of Google was asked that…

Google is testing showing local ads in the local pack without review stars. Normally you’d see review stars for the sponsored results in the local pack, but in some cases,…

Using the “validate fix” button within Google Search Console to communicate to Google that you fixed an issue, does not signal to Google to expedite anything on its end. It…

Google has updated one of its help documents to specifically say that ad scheduling isn’t compatible campaigns that use Smart Bidding. The previous version of that page said, “Ad scheduling…

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. Microsoft is trying…

Google now added the new 24-hour hourly data from the performance report in Google Search Console to the export functionally. So now you can export hourly data, the most recent…

Google Ads SPN, search partner network, has a 37% lower ROAS, return on ad spend, for shopping campaigns on Google Ads when compared to Google Search ads, directly. Mike Ryan…

Google has added a new attribute to its vehicle ads product attributes. The new attribute is [date_first_registered], the date of when the vehicle had its first registration date with the…

Google is testing new search refinement options to let users expand their queries for the people also ask and people also search sections of the search results. We’ve seen numerous…

About a month ago, a reader sent me a screenshot of Bing showing this weird search box on its page after you search for Google. I thought it was some…

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. There may be…

There are reports of a major local search ranking change with Google Maps and Local Search results. The reports of this local search algorithm update started to funnel in over…

Google is showing now sometimes showing more than one source for a story in the Google home page, Google Discover, feed. This can show up in a carousel format or…

The topic of URLs for SEO and ranking is one that has been around since search engines first existed and 25+ years later, it is still a popular topic. Google…

Google said that core updates should have no impact on a site name in the Google Search results being updated or changed. When asked, John Mueller of Google wrote, “That…

Did you ever run the Google Search Console URL inspection tool, and click on the view crawled page link, and then see a blank screenshot under the screenshot tab? It…

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 says you…

It’s the new year and why should that mean that Google Search calm down at all, in fact, it has been heated all holiday season, through New Years. I posted…

We’ve seen various flavors of the what people are saying sections in the search results before. We’ve even see Google use AI to return results within them. But it seems…

Google’s John Mueller said that simply adding country codes to your URLs won’t result in “any change at all” for regional ranking reasons. He added, changing your URLs will result…

A Redditor posted a question asking if startups in 2025 need a blog. This was posted in the SEO section of Reddit, so John Mueller replied by just saying “no.”…

Bing is now testing placing these arrow buttons, in a circle button format, next to the sitelinks. This is something Google has been testing on and off for some time…

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. I posted the…

Talk about a busy month – the last 30 days has been pretty wild. We had the November 2024 core update finish in December, then we had a new December…

Google’s John Mueller was asked if the Google Search Console screenshot feature in the URL Inspection Tool is what Google Search sees. John responded saying, “For the most part, yes”…

Google seems to be testing a new local search feature that is categorized as “Places people are talking about.” It shows you local restaurants with social media information, like posts…

Every year I report on how some Google representatives are active within the SEO communities, offering SEO support and encouragement of sorts, to the SEO community. This year is no…

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. Why should New…

The Google December 2024 core update and the December 2024 spam updates are both complete, but yet, the Google search ranking volatility is still intensely heated. It feels like one…

Google has rolled out fewer confirmed search ranking updates in 2024, then it did in all the past years where Google confirmed these updates. Google rolled out seven confirmed updates…

We’ve seen top-quality store badges in the Google Search results for a long time now. But now some are seeing the badges directly on individual websites, which turns out to…

Google Search is testing a new method to get trigger an AI Overview in Google Search. You can select text with your mouse cursor and then select the “Get an…

Here are the most popular articles on the Search Engine Roundtable by number of comments. In other words, these are the articles with the highest number of comments posted in…

The Search Engine Roundtable is made up of what you, the search community, are talking about. What are you, the search community, noticing in the search results, whether it be…

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

Google is testing using Gemini to generate the Things To Know section using AI. Yes, AI-generated Things to know results in Google Search that look and feel like AI Overviews….

Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, reportedly held a meeting for its employees where he spoke about the upcoming challenges in 2025 and how important it is for Google to ship AI…

Google often shows images in the knowledge panels within the Google Search results, but when you click on them, they often load smaller in an overlay window. It seems Google…

Google is now testing titled sponsored search ads in the Google Search results with “Find related products & services.” And as you guessed it, those buttons lead to more search…

I am not sure I’d call this new, because I believe I’ve seen this numerous times before, but Google has two AI Overview rendering animations. One for when you are…

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

Google Search is testing showing a “nearby stores” section that has an embedded map with a “more options” button that leads to a local pack. This is instead of showing…

I always find it funny how I have so much to write about, day in and day out, on the topic of SEO and search marketing. I mean, fundamentally SEO…

Google is testing showing a section under the Local Service Ads for call out extensions or other extensions. This increases the visibility of these already super-visible Local Service Ads.

Microsoft is testing a squared off search bar on the Bing home page. Normally the search bar is curved around the edges but for some reason Bing wants to try…

Google has completed the rollout of the December 2024 spam update after a seven-day rollout cycle. This update started on December 19, 2024 and 12 pm ET, and was completed…

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’s December 2024…

The Google December 2024 spam update seems to have burned through the Christmas holiday, with high volatility on Christmas eve and day. I saw comments from site owners and creators…

Google has relaxed its inconsistent language policy within Google Merchant Center to allow some languages between your product feed and your website language not to match. Google wrote, “we are…

Apple has issued a motion of intervention in the DOJ vs Google antitrust case, specifically in the remedies side to help Google fight the default search agreement it has with…

Every year I like to cover how I spot Googlers, like John Mueller, but yes others, working and communicating with the SEO community on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. This…

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

Google has officially rolled out AI organized results for restaurants related queries. We’ve launched a new way to get dining recs on Search. If you’re looking for something like ‘restaurants…

Google has posted a new help section for Google Merchant Center, a Merchant Center Next Glossary. This glossary defines key Merchant Center terms and links you to related articles with…

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

On Thursday, December 19th at 12 pm ET, Google began its release of the Google December 2024 spam update. It seems like that update kicked into gear the day or…

Google has offered up its remedies over its antitrust case with the Department of Justice – it was forced to, it didn’t want to. Google said it will appeal the…

Google is now showing payment options on some retailer’s knowledge panels. This comes after Google started asking for the payment options a business accepts in Google Merchant Center, although, it…

Microsoft is testing a new section in Bing Search titled “How to pick.” It helps you figure out what product you should pick, by breaking down the options and configurations.

And now we have the Kwanzaa decorations live in the Google Search results. Just search for [Kwanzaa] to see them. Google also went live with the Christmas decorations today and…

Christmas is around the corner and Google finally posted its Christmas decorations in Google Search today. We already have the Hanukkah decorations live and now we have the Christmas decorations…

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