Latest SEO News & Tips From SE Roundtable Blog

Barry Pollard from Google did a long explanation on Bluesky on why Google Search Console says an LCP is bad but the individual URLs are fine. I don’t want to…

Did you know Google can label some of the reviews in the product reviews section as “incentivized”? I am not sure I’ve seen this before, have you?

Google is testing another variation to the title links in the Google Search results – a light gray effect. So when you hover your mouse cursor over the snippet, the…

Google has rolled out the new, more compact, menu bar for Google Merchant Center Next. This was part of a slew of user interface updates that Google has been slowly…

Microsoft is testing using really large images in the Bing Search Copilot ads. I don’t believe I’ve seen such large ads in this ad unit before, so it seems new…

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

This is just a programming note that I will be 100% offline starting Wednesday night (October 1st) through Thursday night (October 2nd) for Yom Kippur. I am not scheduling any…

Google’s spam update completed after almost a month rollout, it was pretty wild and got even more wild after the rollout completed. Google AI Mode rolled out to more languages,…

Google announced new message assets requirements for Google Ads. These new requirements aim “to ensure a good user experience” and go into effect on October 30, 2025.

Google is testing having the citations stick to the top (of the AI Overview section only) as you scroll down past the AI Overview. This keeps those citations more in…

Google announced that AI Mode had been updated to handle and respond more visually. So AI Mode responses both understand your queries in a more visual way and respond with…

Google Ads has announced several new features, including segmentation in asset reporting and enhancements to channel performance reporting. Google told me that this continues to provide advertisers with the visibility…

Here is a new interview published yesterday by The Economic Times Podcasts with Elizabeth Reid, VP of Google Search. She spoke about Google’s progression of AI in Search, content quality,…

In June, Google began testing showing a new answer box for emoji related queries. So when you search for a specific type of emoji, Google will give you the emoji…

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…

As a reminder, Google dropped its unofficial support of showing 100 search results per page, which caused issues for third party tracking tools and even Search Console itself. The theory…

OpenAI announced Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, allowing you to make purchases directly in ChatGPT. This is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol that is built with Stripe.

Google is testing not underlining the search result snippets when you hover your mouse cursor over the snippet. Generally, Google will add an underline to the title of the link…

Google is testing a blue progress bar under the Shopping Ads carousel in the search results. As you scroll the carousel to see more products, the blue progress bar will…

Google added a new report to the Google AdSense reporting named traffic source breakdown. This report helps you understand the origins of your page traffic. It also categorizes traffic based…

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

We covered the topic of taking over an old domain name from someone else and how that can sometimes be problematic in the Google SEO world. But here is a…

Google seems to be testing or rolling out a new AI chat feature labeled “Ask Stores” within Google Shopping. The AI chat feature lets you “Ask about hard-to-find items, shopping,…

On Friday, I reported on some folks gaining access to agentic features in AI Mode. Well, Robby Stein from Google announced later that day that anyone in the US can…

A number of local SEOs are noticing a lift in the number of suspensions they are dealing with in Google Business Profiles. Many local SEOs are reporting that they are…

Google said it will be strict in enforcing accurate pricing for lodging listings on Google, both for ads and free booking links. There is no policy change but they will…

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 Ads…

This week we covered the completion of the Google August 2025 spam update and then we saw ranking volatility heat up again post spam update. Google Search Console impressions are…

Google Ads seems to be rolling out a change to the campaign set up screen and flow. Instead of being asked what ad format you want to run, you must…

Google seems to be testing showing the local pack, Google Business Profile listings, at the top of the Google Shopping results in the Shopping tab. Normally, Google does not show…

Back in May, we covered how Google was testing a new sponsored results label that placed a few ads beneath it, as opposed to labeling each and every ad as…

A month ago, Google announced new agentic (agent based) features for AI Mode. Well, some are now seeing this live in AI Mode, specifically making reservations at recommended restaurants.

Google is sunsetting the session-related metrics for Google AdSense. Google said this includes all metrics that rely on ad sessions, such as “Ad sessions”, “Ad session RPM”, etc.

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

Over the past couple of days, especially since the Google August 2025 spam update officially completed, the Google search results have been rumbling. It is a bit hard to track…

Cloudflare announced Content Signals Policy, a new addition to robots.txt that allows you to express your preferences for how your content can be used after it has been accessed. This…

Google is updating the Google Ads Misrepresentation policy concerning Dishonest Pricing Practices. This will require advertisers to disclose the payment model or full expense that a user will incur before…

Google announced that Search Live is now fully live in the US and no longer requires opt in to Search Labs. In July, Google released it on mobile in the…

Google updated its Other restricted businesses: Government documents and services policy to say it may label some search ads to say, “Not a government website.”

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

Microsoft Bing is testing colorful lines and separator sections in the Bing Search results. The colors are in blue, orange and gray (and maybe more).

Microsoft is testing showing text attributes that can say things like “Free Shipping on Qualified Orders” with an icon next to the search ads on Bing Search. This is not…

Google is testing a new sponsored ads section in the search results named Featured Stores. This reminds me of the from online stores but that was organic/free, not ads.

Google is testing a shaded box design for the stock pricing and information in the Google Search results. Google has these shaded designs in other areas as well but for…

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

Google AI Mode has had travel planning for some time but according to some in the travel industry, Google recently began rolling out more of these features in the wild….

Google’s John Mueller posted saying “Authentication for your personal crawlers & SEO tools is going to be more and more of a topic.” I believe, but I can be wrong,…

Microsoft is testing bolding the title links in the Bing search results for both the organic and paid listings. I am not sure if this was a bug or a…

Microsoft is testing various interfaces for the sitelinks in Bing Search. We’ve seen and reported on Bing testing sitelinks many, many times here, so here are a few more variations.

Google is testing moving your query from the left top position to the right top position of the AI response within AI Mode. This is a subtle change but it…

This is a programming note that Tuesday and Wednesday are Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on…

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 completed the…

Google has completed the rollout of the August 2025 spam update, following a 27-day rollout cycle. This update started on August 26, 2025 and 12 pm ET, and was completed…

Google is testing a new AI Search based option codenamed Darksteel. This reminds me of when we caught Google testing 47 different AI Search options back in March but Darksteel…

As you know, Google dropped the num parameter to see more search results on a page, then the third-party tools scraping became severely impacted and many saw impression declines in…

Google is testing AI-generated product summaries in the AI Mode results, after you click on a specific product. I was able to generate this in one out of every four…

Google is testing a button that takes you from Google Search short translations answers, to the ability to translate a full conversation in another interface.

The Google August 2025 spam update will probably be marked as completed tomorrow, September 22, 2025. That is what John Mueller from Google said deep inside a comment on a…

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

For the original iTunes version…

Google announced that AI Mode will be coming to the Chrome address bar, Omnibox, soon. This means you can type in long queries and then select AI Mode to enter…

Google is testing placing the citation cards/boxes at the bottom of the AI Overviews, instead of on the right-hand side, on the desktop search interface. This requires you to scroll…

Google seems to be testing renaming the Shopping tab in Google Search from Shopping to “AI Shopping.” Maybe the results in the new AI Shopping tab are more AI-driven?

We’ve covered the What people are saying carousel and section within the Google Search results. We’ve covered the red live label for news stories. We are now seeing the two…

Microsoft is testing various interfaces for the Bing Search local pack results and map. I spotted four different interfaces, some with the map on the page, some without. Some in…

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 called the…

A week ago, Google posted a new job named Senior Engineering Analyst, Search, Anti-scraper and within the week it has already been closed out. The LinkedIn page says 49 people…

John Mueller from Google somewhat/kinda made a comment, finally on the impression decreasing with the average position increasing within the Search Console reports. This came after Google dropped the 100…

Previously, we noted a Google AI Mode feature to be able to compare items by checking them off, both for products and local results. Well, Google now has this dialog…

Google “announced” the store widget on its Search Central blog but the weird thing to me is that this store widget is not new, it has been around at least…

Google has made it official and announced updates to Google Discover. That follow feature we covered a few weeks ago is now rolling out officially to all and Google confirmed…

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

Google Discover may be showing X posts (formerly Twitter tweets) from accounts you follow and not from other accounts that you do not follow. Discover has shown X/Twitter posts for…

OpenAI announced it made improvements to search in ChatGPT. The company said the results are more accurate, reliable, and useful. The update touches on factuality, shopping and formatting.

Markham Erickson, Vice President, Government Affairs and Public Policy at Google told The Verge that searchers want AI Overviews, “contextual answers and summaries,” over links to publishers. But to help…

Earlier this year, we saw some signs that the Google local Questions and Answers feature seemed to be slowly going away, not just in India but other places. Well, now,…

Google is testing a new way to lift a suspension within Google Merchant Center. Some can now do video verification, the same way they can with verifying their Google Business…

A Google Search bug from this morning led to the search results being overwhelmed with just ads. This is obviously a Google Search serving bug where Google had a glitch…

Google is testing placing AI-generated search result snippet summaries. Under each Google search result, there is a thing bar, followed by the Gemini logo and then a short AI-generated summary…

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

Google announced that the old Search Console achievements you would get in those emails for the past few years, well, now there is a dedicated report you can access in…

Did you know Google Search uses some sort of question fringe score? It is part of the Google search data leak from a year ago, but it seems no one…

It looks like the Microsoft Advertising team is at it again. This time Microsoft is now mixing ads within the organic search results in Bing Image Search. So you will…

Microsoft is testing a new search bar/box header for the Bing Search results. The Bing search bar sticks to the top as you scroll through the search results. Google just…

Penske Media, which operates and owns Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Variety and others has sued Google over its AI Overviews. The lawsuit says Google used its content while…

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 Console…

On Friday we reported that Google Search was removing the ability to show 100 search results per page. And now, we are seeing a lot of people notice that their…

Microsoft sent out an email on Friday informing businesses that changes are coming to Bing Places, the portal businesses can go to in order to update their business details on…

Most of the third-party Google Search tracking tools are broken and not tracking properly. This seemed to start when Google turned off the ability to show 100 search results per…

There are a lot of folks in the community saying that implementing structured data / schema on your pages will help you with AI Search visibility. But few have really…

Bloomberg reports that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google (and Amazon) on whether the companies misled advertisers by not properly disclosing the terms and pricing for ads on their…

No, Google Search Console did not add an AI Overviews filter to the Search Performance report. There was a ton of buzz this morning that Google added the ability to…

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

This week, I covered the ongoing Google August 2025 spam update and how it heated up this week. Google got into hot water over saying the web is rapidly declining….

On Thursday, September 11, 2025, Google updated its search quality raters guidelines PDF document. The last time Google updated this document was on January 23, 2025, over seven months ago….

Google Search seems to be testing dropping the ability to see 100 search results on a single page. When you add the results parameter to the end of your search…

Microsoft Advertising is testing using three dots, instead of the arrow down, for the sponsored ads URL in the Bing search results. We’ve seen Bing test three dots before but…

Google may be starting to show AI Overviews when you ask for a currency exchange. I can’t seem to fully replicate this but others are starting to see this.

Google has updated the Google Merchant Center pricing policies for September. The changes include updates in the merchant fees, government charges, import and export costs, regional and installment pricing, price…

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 announced…