Latest SEO News & Tips From SE Roundtable Blog

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

It’s been about a week since we reported on an unconfirmed Google search ranking update and well, now I am seeing multiple signs of an unconfirmed updates of sorts. I…

Google Search is testing a new expandable carousel that says “more from” a specific retailer. When it loads, it loads more products in a carousel beneath the search result snippet…

Google sent out emails yesterday through Google Merchant Center inviting some brands to manage and edit their brand content on Google Search. I suspect this is the visual brand profile…

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

We’ve seen Google test showing Google Discover on the desktop home page for years now but Google has now confirmed it will be bringing Discover to its desktop Google.com home…

I am hearing reports that Google is showing driving direction request data on the Google Business Profile API for Service Area Businesses (SABs). SABs do not get a directions button,…

Google seems to be rolling out a new metric in the Google Business Profiles performance report for “messaging clicks.” This was a feature we had in the old Google My…

Google has been using AI to write parts of the knowledge panels for some time now. But now it seems, when Google does that, it will show references and link…

Google AdSense has a new version of rewarded ads – not the Rewarded Ad Gate beta program that we covered in 2022 but the AdSense rewarded ad units beta program.

Google has made a number of updates to its Merchant Center product data specifications, including some that went into effect on April 8th and some that will go into effect…

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 AI Mode…

Google announced that AI Mode now lets you search by uploading a photo or image from your device. Before the new AI Mode only allowed you to search with text,…

Google released its annual metrics on how well it did with fighting spam on Google Maps. In short, Google said it blocked or removed more than 240 million policy-violating reviews,…

Pretty much every data provider that tracks AI Overviews in Google Search are showing that Google is showing AI Overviews more often today than they were a month ago. I…

Google announced it has refreshed its Shopping tab listings report which it initially launched in November 2022 and renamed it to the Merchant opportunities report. The refreshed report now includes…

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

On Friday afternoon, Danny Goodwin covered a 170 or so page PDF that Search Engine Land received from an anonymous tip named “Preference Ranking Guidelines.” It looks to me similar…

Google can show search ads with video formats. I mean, Google has been doing this for a while now, but they are kind of rare to see. This latest one…

After initially going live on Wednesday morning, Microsoft did not officially announce the launch of Copilot Search in Bing until late Friday afternoon. Microsoft said, “Copilot Search seamlessly blends the…

Google has a new search refinement or expansion feature they are titling “Relevant topics.” This reminds me of People also ask, Things to do, and the other ways Google tries…

Google’s John Mueller said if you have hreflang tags that point to a 301 redirect, it is probably okay. But you probably also want to automate the process of setting…

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

Mike Ryan put together the single most comprehensive third-party report on Google Ads Performance Max campaigns. It is free, super detailed, easy to read and chock-full of useful information. And…

Earlier this month we reported that Bing was testing ad labels in blue colors. Well, now I am seeing examples of those ads labels without the blue, but rather normal…

Google sent out a notification that it will automatically opt you into using content from your email campaigns to help Google know what to show in Google Search, Shopping, and…

Bing is testing a pill-shaped favicon design, like Google did a lot last year, and showing both the site name and the favicon in the pill design.

Microsoft seems to be testing a new related image search box in the main web search results in Bing Search. I personally cannot replicate this, which I take as a…

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. We are seeing…

We are less than a week after the Google March 2025 core update finished rolling out and we are seeing some heated volatility again, maybe more heated than what we…

Microsoft seems to be serving produt and shopping results within the Bing Copilot Answer boxes. When I first saw this I thought this was a bug, but it keeps happening…

Google is testing promoting the Google Maps app in the desktop interface of Google Maps. Google is placing a little icon at the bottom left corner of the desktop interface…

Last November, Google began using AI to generate review summaries in Google Maps. Well, now they seem to be showing up in the local knowledge panels on the right side…

Google’s Local Service Ads advertiser console, where advertisers go to manage their LSAs, has been inaccessible for many advertisers since this morning. Google has not yet confirmed the issue but…

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

Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, said it again, that Google does not have a system to recognize if a site is run by a big brand and then automatically just…

In late February, Microsoft began quietly testing its new AI Search interface and engine probably named Bing Copilot Search or maybe just Copilot Search. Well, now it seems to be…

Google is testing placing vertical gray bars by the search results titles and descriptions, indenting them in a bit, for stylist purposes. I am not sure what this adds to…

It seems the Google Search local feature that showed Questions and answers on local panels is no longer working for most businesses. I know Google disabled them in India, but…

Microsoft Advertising’s team posted its monthly recap of what is new with the Microsoft Advertising platform. There are new items across Shopping campaigns, audience ads, and Performance Max (PMax) management…

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 seems to…

It appears that Google is letting Reddit’s AI translated pages rank too well within its search results. This is in addition to Google letting Reddit get a lot of other…

Google is testing adding a disclaimer or piece of text on the AI Overviews within the desktop and mobile search results that says “Check important info.” I guess this is…

Microsoft is testing a new design and user experience for the Bing sitelinks and related searches. The sitelinks have this hover over shadow effect, while the related searches go from…

Microsoft is now placing quick buttons or tabs to quickly jump from the Bing Copilot Answer to Bing image or video search results. I am not sure why or when…

It’s time for the monthly Google Webmaster Report – the April 2025 version. This month we had the Google March 2025 core update kick off and finish rolling out. Google…

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 three…

Now that the Google March 2025 core update is done, I wanted to share some polls I spotted on this update, including some I posted myself. The theme is, most…

Google is reportedly going to pay $100 million to settle a 14-year-old class action case for allegedly having its Google Ads (as then known, AdWords) serve ads outside of the…

Well, it seems to be official now. Starting April 14, 2025 Google will update its Unfair advantage policy to say it is allowed to show the same ad, from the…

Last month we reported that Google News Publisher Center changes are coming, well those changes should have happened and been fully completed by today. Google updated its help document on…

Google confirmed it is fixing a bug where old, fake and previously removed reviews are resurfacing in your Google Business Profiles. It is unclear how many Business Profiles are impacted…

Google Business Profile edits may have a bug or some sort of glitch. A number of local SEOs are reporting seeing the message, “Your edit was not approved” when trying…

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 March core…

We’ve seen the clipable coupons within the search results for several years now and in store listings and many places, but have we seen them in local knowledge panels? Maybe,…

Google announced a number of features across Google Search, Maps, Lens and other areas around travel and vacation planning. Some of the features were already out there but let’s recap…

Google is testing a “contactless” label in place of the curbside pickup labels in the shopping search results. The curbside label became popular during COVID and has stuck around as…

19 months ago, Google released a feature named SGE while browsing, and later changed it to AI while browsing. Well, that feature is no longer – Google has deprecated it…

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

Google’s March 20025 core update is now done rolling out, it took 14 days, starting on March 13, 2025 at around 12:23 pm ET and ending on March 27, 2025…

Google is sometimes showing a hyperlink at the bottom of its search results named “About this data.” This links to a Google help document in Merchant Center support named “How…

Google made a really small change to its spam policies documentation to say, “In the context of Google Search, spam refers to techniques used to deceive users or manipulate our…

Google seems to be working through the Google Business Profile support, reinstatement, and suspension appeal requests. As we reported twice already, once back in mid-February and then again earlier this…

Google is testing replacing the low key website / URL button in the knowledge panels within Google Search, with a large blue button. I mean, this blue button makes it…

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

As you know, the Google March 2025 core update was announced on March 13th and it should be just about done rolling out. We saw some volatility related to that…

Google’s John Mueller responded to a concern on Reddit about a site that scored a D with its Pingdom score. Pingdom measures sites uptime and overall page speed metrics. John…

Google has rolled out AI Overviews to more European regions after we caught them testing these AI Overviews earlier this month. AI Overviews are now officially live in Germany, Belgium,…

Google is testing a new quick view button/link within the Google Search results for hotel and lodging results. When you click on the quick view button you are taken to…

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 rolled out…

There are tons of complaints in the Google Business Profile Help Forums about a bug during the setup process of a Google Business Profile. When you get to the screen…

I don’t know if you might also like this, you probably won’t but Bing is dropped ads in their featured answers, featured snippets. They are calling these ads “You might…

Google seems to be testing removing the green checkmark from the Local Service Ads. I was able to replicate this for the same query, and the same set of advertisers….

Google will change how it counts clicks in Google Merchant Center starting April 21, 2025. This change will make clicks count the same way Google Ads counts clicks. This means…

For some Google searchers the ability to go to page two of the search results is simply not possible. The classic Google pagination bar is missing at the bottom of…

About 30 minutes ago, Google sent out a batch of invites to its new AI Mode. I was one who got that email but when I click on the “try…

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 spoke about…

Google would not give a specific date for when we will see independent sites to start surfacing better and higher in Google Search. As a reminder, Google wrote with the…

On Friday, Google published its findings from its experiment of removing some EU news publishers from its search results. The results said that Google had no visible loss of search…

Google Ads has confirmed that it has lost some conversion data for some advertisers who used Google Merchant Center in February. The data is not coming back, it is unrecoverable….

Google is testing a new feature in the AI Overviews (although, they look familiar to me for some reason). When you click or hover over on a word in the…

A month ago, we reported that Google Business Profiles support was backlogged and delayed. Well, the delay is not getting any better. Victoria Kroll from Google posted an update 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 confirmed that the volatility we saw prior to the core update was unrelated to this latest core update. I also posted status updates on the Google March 2025 core…

As a reminder, the Google March 2025 core update touched down on March 13th, and as Google said, not before. And while many sites were hit super hard in the…