Latest SEO News & Tips From SE Roundtable Blog

Here is another PSA from Gary Illyes of Google. In short, if you serve a 4xx status code with your robots.txt file, then Google will ignore the rules you have…

John Mueller of Google said on Twitter that “publishing frequency alone does not make something spam.” Google’s algorithms don’t look at the content volume as a spam signal alone.

Google seems to be testing a new box in the search results named perspectives and opinions. The naming convention reminds me of Google perspectives, but this acts differently, as the…

Google is testing a “check wait time” button for some local results in the Google search results. I guess this tells you how long you have to wait to receive…

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…

Mark Saltarelli and I spoke about his history and about B2B digital marketing in part one…

Just a couple of days after the December 2022 helpful content update and link spam update finished, we are now seeing another update, an unconfirmed update that seemed to have…

Google’s John Mueller said that Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to submit a page to be crawled would probably not see the quota increase anytime soon. He said on…

Late last week, Google Business Profiles had a bug where uploading images to your business profile would fail. This was reported first by Tim Capper on Twitter on Thursday and…

Google Business Profiles seems to be testing, beta testing, the ability for businesses to add more details, to “say more about” their business attributes.

Last week we reported on a comment made by John Mueller of Google about the head section of your HTML and why you should keep it clean. John, on Friday,…

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

This week, the December 2022 Google helpful content update and link spam updates are finally complete after a long, long wait. There was a lot of movement on Wednesday…

After a long slow and paused rollout, Google has said that both the December 2022 helpful content update and December 2022 link spam update are now done rolling out. Google…

Mike Blumenthal dropped a simple but thoughtful local SEO tip that all businesses should do some time in the near future. Just check the featured photos that Google selected to…

Google is now testing the Google Ads sponsored label in the product listing results within the more products section in an additional result. I cannot replicate this, but Saad AK…

Google has a “recent images” photo carousel for some knowledge panels. For example, Google had this for a search on the [golden globes] last week, where it shows photos from…

A Reddit thread asks if Google engages in link-buying sting operations where they will pretend to want to buy a link and then use that to penalize the network. John…

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

Apple has reannounced its toolset for businesses to manage their business listings on Apple Maps. It is now called Apple Business Connect, previously named Apple Places and prior to that…

Google Search is testing displaying news stories for users in a specific country or region, from a specific country or region. Google titles this section, “Trending stories from country/region” and…

Google has this SEO case studies and success stories page since 2019 and they have updated it a few times, I believe, since. Recently, someone Mariachiara Marsella asked John Mueller…

Google’s John Mueller said when it comes to your HTML head section, you want to ensure that section is clean and tight. If possible, you don’t want it to have…

Over the last few days or so, Bankrate has been gaining a lot of attention in the SEO space. They are using AI to write a lot of content 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…

I see signals, both in terms of SEO chatter and some of the Google Search tracking tools, of more volatility in the Google Search results. The volatility is algorithm update…

The Google Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin, confirmed a bug when editing ads within a draft or experiment campaign. The Google Ads team is working on a fix, but Ginny provided…

In Google’s fifth release of the product reviews update, Google added that linking to multiple sellers is part of the overall algorithm. Alan Kent from Google said yesterday on Twitter…

Google’s John Mueller said that just because an algorithm update takes longer to roll out, it doesn’t make that update more or less intense. The update’s length is generally related…

Google Business Profiles will stop supporting price ranges for products and custom call to actions, starting February 15, 2023. Google will also remove any existing price ranges and all landing…

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

Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that traffic is not necessarily a quality measure. Basically, John is saying just because a certain number of pages do not get as much…

Google Search has a feature named “instances” that shows you when an event happened each year in history. So if you run an event annually, Google may show the instances…

Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Liasion, said on Twitter that performance max is not preferred over search ad campaigns. Ginny wrote on Twitter, “PMax isn’t ‘favored’ over Search.”

Google Maps can now show 360 views of the outside of some famous buildings and places. This gives some sort of aerial 360 view of the building in a video-like…

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

Matt Casady spotted that Google added a new vertical to Local Service Ads. Google now allows dental practices and dentists to buy ads on Google Local Service Ads.

Mark Saltarelli used to work at Cypress North for a couple of years but wanted to go in-house and joined Order, a later-stage startup. We spoke a bit about his…

Google has updated the JSON files with the list of IP addresses Googlebot. I believe Google added one new IP6 and one new IP4 IP address to the list. That…

Google has once again updated the relatively new documentation around Site Names in Google Search, this time to clarify that www and m-dot prefixes for domain names are generally considered…

Google’s John Mueller said that with some Google search algorithm updates, it is like when you plant seeds in your garden. In short, he said it is not always easy…

Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, said on Twitter on Friday afternoon that the December 2022 helpful content update and December 2022 link spam update may take an additional two weeks…

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

Microsoft Bing is at it again, this time testing a sitelink interface that zooms in and expands as you hover your mouse cursor over the link. It is pretty cool…

There are reports in the Local Search Forum that in the past few weeks or so, Google has been offering fewer verification methods via postcards than other verification methods, compared…

Google’s John Mueller said on Mastodon that using AI or ChatGPT blindly for title tag generation is not a great idea. But he did add that if you are running…

Do you need outstanding core web vital scores to be included in Google Discover? The answer is no, at least John Mueller of Google said “we don’t have that connection…

Welcome to the first video recap of 2023, where I start with the January 2023 Google webmaster report. I then explain how the Google helpful content and link spam updates…

As you know, Google can now crawl from locations outside of the United States. We know this is rare, it is used in specific situations. But if you want to…

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

A Google research paper named Generative Models are Unsupervised Predictors of Page Quality paints a negative connotation of SEO practices. It has a section named “attempts at search engine optimization…

Google has sent out email notifications to some Google Ads advertisers about changes happening to the remove redundant keywords recommendations. In short, Google is expanding this recommendation to work across…

The Information reported the other day that Microsoft plans to add OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot feature within the next few months. Bing Search already has a chatbot but ChatGPT is way…

Google seems to be sending out surveys about Google Search Console and potential future development and features around that tool. The survey takes several minutes to complete.

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

Google’s John Mueller said it is possible that Google Search Console’s URL inspection tool can show a nofollowed link as the referring page but he also said it is rare….

Google has updated the article structured data help documentation by removing the 110-character limit from the headline properties. It now says, “Consider using a concise title, as long titles may…

As the Google December 2022 helpful content update and link spam update continue to roll out, I am now seeing more signs of volatility and chatter within the SEO industry…

If you’ve been following my coverage here on confirmed Google search algorithm updates over the years, you would see that the dates Google gives to the start of an update…

Google is testing or has launched a new search refinement or expansion feature named “popular next steps.” If Google thinks<< your original query will lead to a new query in your…

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…

Another small study says that reviews with photos with them last a lot longer in the Google local listing for a business than reviews without photos. This was another study…

For the past few months or so, I’ve been tracking reports that suggest that Google Search Console is not properly tracking clicks and impressions from the local pack. This first…

Google’s John Mueller said that when it comes to hidden text on a page, Google is “good at ignoring it.” It is one of those things that Google seems not…

Google since 2019 had this “full coverage” label for news stories that showed up in mobile search results. I am not sure if this ever was presented in the desktop…

Welcome back from the holidays, don’t worry; you didn’t miss much. The December 2022 helpful content update and December 2022 link spam update are not done yet. They should be…

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 hope you…

John Mueller of Google was on the web, responding to SEO-related questions both on New Year’s Eve and New Year. This has become expected from John, which might be unfair…

Welcome to 2023, and with that, here is our Google webmaster report for 2023 – where we summarize the bigger Google SEO-related changes in the past month. The big items…

Alan Kent from Google in the latest Google SEO office hours said that putting page numbers in your title tags for your paginated pages does not help much with SEO….

Google’s John Mueller was asked what SEO skills does one need in 2023. To which he replied, “curiosity and persistence” are needed.

Google Knowledge Panels are fun and when they are wrong, you can submit feedback to Google directly in the search interface. But that interface is pretty ugly, or at least…

Nicole Waddington is a digital marketing strategist at Cypress North. She started her career as an Intern at Cypress North and then was offered a full-time job at the agency….

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 said search…

This is the last video of the year, and we have more Google search ranking fluctuations and volatility to talk about. Google said the December 2022 helpful content and link…

Google Search can now tell you if your query is using proper grammar. Google will show you a green checkmark under the title “Grammar Check” when you get the grammar…

As you all know, I source a lot of forums and Twitter threads (now Mastodon as well) here for the stories that I write. Without the amazing individuals that make…

Google seems to be testing a “price history” chart or graph in the Google Shopping search product listings interface. I personally cannot replicate this yet, outside of seeing the “typical…

In November, yes, a month ago, there was a lot of criticism across the web that Google Search and the results were declining. We touched on the topic when I…

Google has confirmed it is testing a non-DSA option when creating new search campaigns within Google Ads. Ginny Marvin, the Ads Liaison, said on Twitter, “We’re running an experiment in…

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

I conducted a very unscientific poll on Twitter asking marketers who do SEO and PPC if they are worried about their budgets being cut in 2023 due to the recession…

For the past couple of weeks, Google has expanded the Things To Do overlay carousel to allow searchers to scroll through the carousel vertically instead of clicking to a new…

While it has been calm for the past several days, today is a new day and I am seeing some signs of more volatility and ranking fluctuations as of the…

Google’s John Mueller said on Reddit that when it comes to linking from your site to your social medial profiles you should not nofollow those links. He added that you…