Latest SEO News & Tips From SE Roundtable Blog

When you go to the Google AI Mode home screen, the quick way to do that is to go to google.com/ai. You may see a small disclaimer under the search…

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

There is a report coming out of a Google event named Google Access that has a Googler saying that ads are coming to AI Mode very soon in the EU….

Google has updated its Misrepresentation policy for both Shopping ads and free listings within Google Merchant Center. Google said the “update provides additional examples of what the policy covers, more…

Google is testing a new optimization insights layer or recommendation interface for Google Ads. This has three columns named (1) build a foundation, (2) drive performance and (3) expand and…

Google is looking to hire a software engineer with the responsibility of improving the quality of User Generated Content (UGC) contents in Google Discover.

Google has officially launched the new grouped sponsored label in the search results. This is where Google groups multiple ads under one larger sponsored label, and then places a “hide”…

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 results…

This is a programming note that Tuesday and Wednesday are Simchat Torah and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Tuesday and Wednesday, October…

Over the past few days, the local SEO community is pretty upset that Google appears to be testing removing the call button from the local results. I am not sure…

Lenny Rachitsky interviewed Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google, who we cited here numerous times over the past couple of years. The interview covers how AI is not replacing…

Have you heard of the Google Goldmine Scoring System? It supposedly looks at your page, your content, and Google gives it a goldminePageScore, title tag factor, body factor, anchor factor,…

A couple of weeks ago, Google added a new help page titled Discover feed source overview. This page discusses those cards in the Google Discover feed and when Google gets…

Google has updated its Auto-Apply Recommendations setting within the Google Ads interface. The button moved to just above the regular recommendations section.

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 Business Profiles…

For the original iTunes version…

Google has published a new help document on the topic of Google Business Profile negative review extortion scams. The document explains what they are, how to report the scam, what…

Google is testing a new section within the Google Ads advertising console named “Missed Growth Opportunities.” This section shows you the “performance you could’ve achieved in the last year if…

There are a nice number of reports of GA4, Google Analytics, showing a huge surge in organic search traffic over the past couple of days, but Google Search Console is…

Google has updated its Voice Search models to be powered by Speech-to-Retrieval (S2R). Google said this allows it to “gets answers straight from your spoken query without having to convert…

The Microsoft Advertising blog posted about how to optimize for AI Search Answers. I thought it was weird to see this on the Microsoft Advertising blog and not on the…

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

While I was offline, it seems the chatter within the SEO industry spiked around the topic of search ranking volatility. It is harder to confirm the volatility, now with the…

Google announced it will replace the “Ad networks” blocking control from Brand safety within in AdSense with a new “Authorized Buyers” blocking control. This will start on November 6, 2025,…

Google AI Mode is now available in over 200 countries and territories. Google said they are expanding AI Mode to “more than 35 new languages and over 40 new countries…

Google upgraded the Try On feature to now support shoes, in addition to other forms of clothing. Plus, Try on will soon also work in Australia, Canada and Japan, Google…

Google seems to be testing a new Insights feature for Google Business Profiles. The new insights section shows you profile suggestions, like tips on getting more reviews, what to update…

Google added Google NotebookLM to the list of Google crawlers, under the list of user-triggered fetchers. Google said they added this user-agent “based on feedback.”

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

Google has added a new promotion option to Google Merchant Center. The new option is Google Wallet. Google doesn’t detail what this promotion does but it likely lets you promote…

Microsoft is telling Bing Search users when it is using history for some of its search features. Bing will show section named “History” and then say what history is knows…

Google is testing a new, more publisher-friendly version of the AI Overviews for recipe results. The new design has the recipe cards at the top, citations at the bottom and…

Google is testing using the italic font type for the links in AI Mode. So the links have a bit of a slant to them, compared to the other text…

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

Microsoft is testing a new and updated layout for its Copilot product box/section within the Bing search results. It looks like they just swap the answer and product listing sections…

Google had a bug in Google Discover that showed the publisher’s name and logo twice on a story. The publisher’s name showed once at the top and once at the…

Google Search is testing a new carousel to promote AI Mode named “Ask AI Mode anything.” It gives you ideas on how to “Explore” new or related topics in AI…

Google updated the wording in the title documentation for Merchant Center, now suggesting you can use your own brand or company name in the short title of your products. That…

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

This is a programming note that Tuesday and Wednesday are Sukkot and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 7th…

If you search for [events near me], Google may not show you any events near you. It seems like Google is not serving that events carousel right now. I suspect…

Google is testing having the “Show More” button within AI Overviews jump you directly into AI Mode as opposed to loading more of the AI Overview beneath it. This appears…

As we reported earlier, Microsoft said a new Bing Places update is coming soon. Well, now it is rolling out to businesses in Bing Places for Business.

Google was previously testing placing AI-generated snippet summaries below each search result snippet. Now, Google is testing replacing the search result snippet’s description with its own AI-generated description.

Microsoft will be shutting down its Microsoft Advertising Ads for Social Impact ad grant program. It will officially be discontinued in December 2025.

A year ago, we learned that Google would transition from Google call ads, call-only ads, to using call assets within responsive search ads (RSAs) but we didn’t know the dates….

Google has confirmed a Google Search serving issue that is currently ongoing and impacting serving “some pages in some locales.” This is a large enough issue that Google posted about…

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

This week we covered the Google AI Mode news that it is more visual for many queries, including shopping queries. Google AI Mode agentic capabilities can now be opted into….

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…