Latest SEO News & Tips From SE Roundtable Blog

Google’s John Mueller was asked if it matters SEO-wise or search ranking-wise if you place /services/ before /location/ in your URL structure or the other way. John said when it…

The new Google Search Generative Experience now shows more links and link cards in the local results interface for some users. The link cards show below the listing and also…

Google seems to be testing clickable links within a search result description area. I am not sure if this is a bug or a feature but I was able to…

As you know, Google released its first core update in over five months, the Google August 2023 core update, on August 22nd at around 1:30 pm ET. Since then, I’ve…

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

Google Ads posted an issue where the Google Ads advertiser console may not be showing recent data. Google wrote yesterday, “The affected users are able to access Google Ads, but…

Google has posted a list of troubleshooting and FAQs around the Google Business Profiles video verification method. As you know, you can verify your business in Google Business Profiles through…

Google announced that starting next month, in September, existing vehicle ads campaigns created through Smart Shopping campaigns will be automatically migrated to Performance Max.

At the beginning of this year, Google Maps posted a document with restrictions around user-generated content in Google Maps. Now, Google has created a new appeal process for when Google’s…

This week I broadcast from Chicago where I cover the latest confirmed Google update…

Google has updated the help document for file types indexable by Google to include Comma-Separated Values (.csv) in the list. I doubt Google was not bale to index those files…

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. Googlers spoke, “off…

Since April, Google has been testing a local pack in the search results that auto-expands the map section when you hover your mouse cursor over it. This now seems to…

Bing Chat is now testing the nosearch feature, where Bing is disabled for Bing Chat responses. We first heard this was coming in early July but we were just waiting…

Google’s John Mueller said there is no rule that a page has to rank in the top ten search result positions for it to be considered eligible for a featured…

Bing Search is now testing search result snippet tags and labels within the search snippets. This is something Google has been testing on and off for years.

Google is testing replacing the three vertical dot button for the About This Result feature in the Google Search results with the circle i button and, previously covered, triangular dot…

Google’s Search Off The Record podcast had Danny Sullivan, John Mueller and Martin Splitt on the topic of Google ranking updates. While most of what was talked about is not…

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

Google is asking searchers to compare the traditional search results to the Search Generative Experience search results. Google is asking searchers to pick which results are more helpful for the…

Google’s Gary Illyes gave some maybe unsanctioned ways to block portions or part of your content on a specific page. So let’s say you want a section or paragraph or…

Google Search has started to roll out the second broad core update of the 2023 year, and this one is named the August 2023 broad core update. It started on…

One of the bigger issues with many AI image creation tools is that it cannot write text well on or with an image. It can make amazing, unique and powerful…

Three months after Microsoft Bing promised to add Bing Chat data in Bing Webmaster Tools, we still do not have it. Yesterday I asked the Bing team, once again, for…

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

Microsoft Bing is pushing more into Bing Chat through Bing Search. Bing is adding Bing Chat icons in the autocomplete bar, the pagination bar and other areas of Bing Search…

Google’s Ad Liaison, Ginny Marvin, posted a X/Twitter thread clarifying some of the confusion about brand safety controls & reporting supported in PMax, Performance Max campaigns.

Google will stop collecting anonymous reviews on August 25, 2023. Google posted this notice in a help document, which reads, “Important: We’ve stopped collecting anonymous reviews and will stop showing…

Google has the ability for you to request content about you to be removed using the exploitative removal practices from Google. One user was afraid to use it because she…

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 have…

Bing is testing a green official site label or icon on some of its search result snippets. We’ve seen the “official site” title added to some search results in the…

Bing is testing a “Verified” label in the search result snippets. This is a new label that is placed next to the URL in the search result that says “verified.”

Microsoft is working on bringing more and more features to Bing Chat. Some of these new features that are being worked on, some actually being tested now, include Bing Chat…

As I hinted to in my SEO video recap on Friday, we saw some early signing of an unconfirmed Google Search ranking algorithm update starting Friday, August 18th, and it…

In part one with Lance Bachmann, we spoke a lot about business, growing a business and his passion for his employees. Then in part two we spoke about local SEO…

Despite all the data showing that Microsoft Bing has not gained any market share since it launched Bing Chat in February, Microsoft is saying Bing Chat’s usage has been up…

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 SGE has…

Bing Chat will soon allow you to copy and image to your clipboard and paste it directly into the query or search box. This will make it faster than manually…

Google is testing wider and larger image thumbnails on snippets in the desktop search results interface. The images look about twice as wide, maybe even more, the the normal image…

Google launched some new Search Generative Experience features, like SGE while browsing and definitions in the SGE answers. Google seems to have stopped testing displaying links in SGE AI-generated answers….

Google can now show six top stories in a uniform gird format in the top of the desktop Google Search results. We normally see four top stories but if we…

Earlier this month, we reported that Google was testing three-different citation and link formats in the Search Generative Experience AI-generated answer. It seems that as of yesterday, Google has pulled…

I am seeing a spike in the number of complaints around reviews going missing from Google local business profiles. This week, there are tons of new complaints that reviews that…

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

Google is testing a paid version of customer support for its advertisers who use Google Ads. Google said this is a “paid pilot” where its “smallest customers can receive specialized,…

Google is testing updating the Google Business Profile web interface by adding a “Manage Photos” button. This comes shortly after testing the Food Ordering button.

Google’s John Mueller said it might be bad if your site depends on Google Discover for traffic. He said on Mastodon, “If your site depends on Discover traffic, that sounds…

Google may be testing a new Google logo after launching the existing one in September 2015. The new logo looks a bit more cartoon-like but is consistent with the original…

Google Business Profiles has shown pending status of reviews as a label on top of the review but now Google is showing to both the reviewer and the owner of…

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

Google’s next step for its Search Generative Experience is SGE while browsing. In Chrome on desktop and in the mobile Google app on iOS and Android, Google SGE can summarize…

Google has added those definition-based contextual links to some of the words placed in the Search Generative Experience answers and results. This is very similar to the featured snippet injected…

Google seems to now support adding social media links to your Google Business Profiles. You can add your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, X (formerly known as Twitter), YouTube and…

In June, we reported that Microsoft Advertising would require advertiser identity verification. Well, Microsoft posted an update relaxing those requirements in a big way.

Google Business Profiles posts feature is not accepting images for the past day or so. When you try to upload an image or photo to your new Google Posts, nothing…

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

Google has a new 3D model link [virtual_model_link] attribute, or at least new documentation on the 3D model link [virtual_model_link] attribute. This lets you provide 3D and/or AR models of…

Google’s John Mueller had a nice one-liner on Reddit again, this one he said “By definition (I’m simplifying), if you’re using AI to write your content, it’s going to be…

Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, said on Twitter that Google probably shouldn’t trigger a Search Generative Experience answer for navigational queries. You can always manually trigger the SGE response, but…

Google Ads is testing a new AI-generative solution for help guides and answers. Google is inviting some advertisers “to try AI-generated answers in help guide,” it emailed some advertisers.

I should start by saying, this is super dangerous and you probably should not do this unless you really know what you are doing and why you are doing it….

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

Google Ads is deprecating Shopping campaigns using Enhanced CPC starting one early October 2023. Google said any Shopping campaigns using Enhanced CPC will behave as if they are using Manual…

A few weeks ago we reported that the Bing Chat infrastructure upgrade that Microsoft is working on was taking longer than expected. Well, on Friday, Microsoft Bing’s CEO, Mikhail Parakhin…

Microsoft Bing’s CEO, Mikhail Parakhin said on Twitter that Bing Chat outperforms raw GPT-4 but it comes at an expense. He said, “It is outperforming according to our measurements,” when…

Google’s John Mueller said on Mastodon a few tips on domain names, but one line was pretty strong. He said, “your domain name is never going to make or break…

Remember all that debate and chatter around Google saying not to delete old helpful content? A lot of people in our industry jumped on CNET for doing it but the…

In part one with Lance Bachmann, we spoke a lot about business, growing a business and his passion for his employees. In part two…

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

For the original iTunes version, click here. Google has a bug with the Google News Publisher Center where some publishers’ feeds were days behind…

Google is testing showing two local service ads in a list view, a change from it showing three local service ads in a carousel format. Google actually switched to three…

We previously reported how Bing Chat lets you select text on the Bing search results to conduct another search. Now Bing is expanding that to also let you search directly…

Google’s John Mueller is at it again, saying that text-to-HTML ratios are not a thing for SEO. He said on Reddit, “It makes absolutely no sense at all for SEO,”…

Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said it is important that there is human oversight when it comes to using AI-generated content. He said this on Twitter after speaking at the…

Google is testing using colors for the +topic search bar refinements, those bubble buttons you sometimes get under this search bar in Google Search. I am seeing normal white buttons,…

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

Google has added a new option in the Google Business Profile appeal for “Fix photo that doesn’t show.” This means you can submit a support request for when you know…

Google has released a minor release for its Google Ads API, version 14.1. This comes just about two months after version 14 was released. New in 14.1 includes new recommendation…

Google’s John Mueller said trying to provide a good user experience but not succeeding will not result in any ranking benefit in Google Search. John said during office hours at…

Google is now saying that its new Local Service Ads guidelines are faster for reviews and also more flexible by allowing more creative images. What that really means, well, time…

Google is testing a new phone ad extension that lets you scan a QR code on your phone to call the number. Also, you can see three images across the…

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 will show…

Google announced several new features for the upcoming holiday season; yea, it is coming… These features include Customer Acquisition with High Value optimization, local ad changes, new product reporting, and…

Google Search now has this section titled “From publishers you follow” in the search results. That is if the query returns content from a Google News publisher you actually follow.

Google said you will soon see fewer FAQ and HowTo rich results showing up in the Google Search results. Why? I assume because there is just too many of these…