Latest SEO News & Tips From SE Roundtable Blog

Google AI Mode added the ability to upload PDFs and images for your queries. Google also added a Canvas feature to help you plan things while you are asking AI…

A new Google search ad, the AI Max kind, was spotted in the wild and boy did it look interesting. This ad had a super long headline and had dynamically…

Google is testing displaying different colored and shaped buttons, assets, in the sponsored listings within Google Search. Google has the pill-shaped version and square version, one that is highlighted in…

Google is testing grouping the favicons from the sites from advertisers at the top of the sponsored results, on the right side of the sponsored label. This is part of…

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

Google is notifying some advertisers that they do not comply with Google’s EU User Consent Policy, i.e. Consent Mode v2 and that as of July 21st and will turn off…

Google is testing a button to drive more people into AI Mode for shopping help. The button is labeled “Help me shop in AI Mode.” When you click on it,…

Google has now expanded AI Mode to UK users after bringing it to India last month and the US fully the month prior to that. Google said, “Starting to roll…

Google seems to be testing using AI to summarize the menus for local restaurants within Google Search and Google Maps. I believe it still shows the real menu but will…

A bit over a year ago, we saw Google testing a website link in the hotel local pack on desktop search. Now it seems Google is also testing it 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. We had even…

I know I just reported on the super-heated Google Search ranking volatility week we had, and how the post-core update seems more unstable than during the June 2025 core update….

Google seems to be rolling out a new Google local feature for Google Business Profiles that shows if the attributes listed by the business are accurate. Now, Google can show…

Google had it Google Search Central Live event in the Asia-Pacific region last week. It was a three day event, as opposed to the normal half day events it has…

Google seems to be testing replacing the three vertical dots next to the search results snippets with a question mark icon. Clicking on that triggers the about this site feature.

Google has changed how much it charges for message leads within Google Local Service Ads. Previously, it was 50% of the corresponding phone lead but now, Google said it is…

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

This week we covered the strong search ranking volatility post Google June 2025 core update and it continued through the week, with a spike on Thursday. A Pew Research study…

As we reported earlier this week, Google Search ranking volatility was more heated (and for longer) after the Google June 2025 core update completed than during the core update. Well,…

Google finally launched its virtual clothes try-on feature after launching it several times and then demoing it again at Google I/O. Google also launched price alerts to let users specify…

Google Ads is adding more detailed data to RSAs, responsive search ads, reporting. Specifically, it now shows click and conversion data per RSA headline. This is instead of it just…

Google launched a new Search Labs experiment it is calling Web Guide. It basically organizes the web search results for you by category. Google wrote, “Web Guide is an AI-organized…

Google is now also showing AI Overviews for explanations of lyrics. If you do some searches asking about the meanings of some songs, Google may give you an AI Overview…

I am seeing numerous tests now that seem to prove that OpenAI’s ChatGPT search feature is using Google Search’s index or search results page to serve its own search results.

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 says normal…

Gary Illyes from Google said at the Google Search Live Deep Dive event yesterday that you don’t need to do GEO, LLMO or anything else to show up in Google…

Google has released an alpha version of an API to access Google Trends data – the Google Trends API. “This new API will help Researchers, Journalists, and Developers to understand…

Google’s John Mueller and Martin Splitt spoke for just under 40 minutes on the topic of CSS and SEO. They covered why CSS files matter for SEO, how modern CSS…

Google’s John Mueller gave some advice on how to handle show web pages, for when the event or show or performance is complete. How do you handle those old show…

Recently, Google said that no AI system is currently using the LLMS.txt file. But maybe some are starting to? OpenAI may be starting to discover and crawl LLMS.txt files on…

Google announced it will be removing the block control category named “Significant Skin Exposure” from the block controls. That means if you have apps or websites where you want to…

Google reported Q2 2025 earnings today, which showed Google’s ad revenue was up again year-over-year, with an increase of 10.4%, and overall revenue is also up 13.8%.

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

Pew Research Center released a report that showed Google searchers who encounter an AI Overview are less likely to click on links to other websites than users who do not…

Google is testing adding more links within the search results snippets. Google is showing a “see more” link that will jump you to the section on the web page related…

Google’s John Mueller confirmed that Google Search doesn’t have a mechanism to handle product pricing that differs by state. So if you have one price for the same product in…

Microsoft is testing outlining, placing borders, around the search results in Bing Search. So each snippet has this outline around it with rounded corners.

Google is adding the Product Studio tab to the left side bar of Google Merchant Center for some merchants. Beforehand, it was within the Products tab, as a feature in…

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

Google is testing replacing the “More” button under the search bar within the search results page with at least two different options. One is “More filters” and the other is…

Google Ads seems to be moving brand inclusions and exclusions into AI Max for any new search campaign you create. Google has a note that says, “Turn on Al Max…

Google’s John Mueller said it may make sense to noindex your LLMs.txt file. This way, the file doesn’t get indexed by search engines, and then somehow a user lands on…

Google used to label the Find Related Products & Services search ads with a larger sponsored label. It seems Google has removed that label and is now adding a smaller…

Google Ads can now show recommendations or insights based on what your competitors are doing. So if a new competitor starts to enter your market, Google might notify you of…

Google has uploaded a new logo for Google Search Console. The logo looks like a variation of an analytics logo with a magnifying glass, with blue, green, yellow and a…

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

Jordi Ribas, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Search and AI, posted a comparison of Microsoft’s Copilot to Google’s AI Mode on LinkedIn. He said, “They’re both excellent AI search products…

Google is testing moving the “Ask” button to one of the main buttons on some Google local listings. I cannot replicate this but the Ask button in this example below…

Google Ads is letting some advertisers add negative keyword lists to their Performance Max campaigns. This is despite Google’s very own help documentation specifically saying, “Negative keyword lists aren’t available…

After months of testing, it seems Google is rolling out a button for AI Mode directly in the search box on Google’s home page – on Google.com. This seems like…

Google Ads is adding a tips icon in the Optimization Score column within the Google Ads reporting. Clicking on the icon will bring up tips and recommendations that Google thinks…

Google posted a new policy on Friday, July 18, 2025, that immediately prohibits advertising of Daily Fantasy Sports on Google Ads within California. This is based on a new law…

Google told us the June 2025 core update completed early on Thursday, July 17th, but now, four days later, we are still seeing incredibly heated volatility, even through today. The…

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

Google’s June 2025 core update finished on Thursday after running for 16 days. It was a volatile Google update for a while with some recoveries. Google AI Mode gets Gemini…

Google launched a new feature for Google Business Profiles that lets you check the status of your edits. So if you made a change and you want to see what…

Google’s John Mueller said it is hard for service oriented login web pages to rank in the search results. Like, if you have a landing page where people can login…

Google is supposedly showing AI Overviews for movie-related queries. Apparently, this is new, although I don’t have firsthand knowledge since I don’t typically search for movies. However, I’ve been told…

Google Ads is rolling out its new Smart Bidding Exploration bidding update to some advertisers. At Google Marketing Live, Google called this its “biggest update to bidding in over a…

Microsoft is testing showing sitelinks with light gray underlines in the Bing search results. Normally, the Bing sitelinks don’t have any underline at all – but here Bing is testing…

Google Analytics real-time reporting screens seem broken again. I am seeing a ton of complaints about GA4 real-time reporting not showing full data.

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 announced the…

Google is charging searchers to access the latest and best of its AI Mode and Deep Search. Google released Gemini 2.5 Pro for AI Mode and Deep Search for Google…

Several weeks ago, we reported Google was testing AI-generated summaries for Google Discover. Well, according to TechCrunch, Google has confirmed as of this week, this is an official launch and…

Earlier this year, Google released a new search labs feature named Ask For Me. Google would call local businesses to get the information you need and then send it to…

Google is testing much larger favicons in the Google Search results on mobile. We’ve seen Google test variations to favicons and sitenames countless times and covered a lot of them…

For the past couple of years, we’ve seen Google show QR codes you can scan and email or text this number to call features in the Google Ads. Google’s Ads…

Google’s June 2025 core update is now done rolling out, it took 16 days and 18 hours to complete. The core update started on June 30, 2025 at around 10:34…

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 barely…

Google’s John Mueller replied to a question around indexing issues on a site and said that if the site is hosted on a strong platform and is technically sound, and…

Google Ads seems to be testing an expandable row in the channel performance report that shows you an overview of your feed-based vs asset-based metrics. You can click on a…

Have you ever noticed ghost users in your Google Ads change history log? It just shows “AdWords Administrator” but doesn’t show which user, by name, made the change.

Google has added two more comparison views to the Search Console performance reports. One lets you compare last 24 hours to previous period and the other lets you compare last…

Google Business Profiles appeal tool now shows the reason your appeal was rejected. It can show a list of reasons why the appeal was rejected, so that next time you…

Google seems to have updated its core web vitals metrics within Google Search Console a few days ago. The weird thing is that good URLs and URLs need improvements metrics…

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 has updated its local ranking documentation and Tips to improve your local ranking on Google page. The new wording is shorter and has fewer details than the older version.

Google seems to be automatically adding social media links to Google Business Profiles. A post from Darren Shaw of Whitespark shows that hundreds or thousands of locations had their social…

Google announced it has a new metadata field for its Search Analytics API (for Search Console’s performance reports) that will tell you about incomplete data points you received through the…

Google AdSense may have a bug with its PIN verification processs. There are tons of AdSense publishers complaining in the Google AdSense Help Forums about issues where they are unable…

We know you have been able to add your text or WhatsApp number to your Google Business Profile for some time now, but now Google is asking for it when…

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 June…

Today marks the two-week mark of the start of the Google June 2025 core update. This update seems pretty significant thus far, with Google announcing the update on June 30th…

Google has updated a number of search-related help documents for its merchant return policies and loyalty programs. Google said these updates are to “remove unclarities in the documentation and examples.”

We knew this was coming but as of July 11th, your reviews on Google Local Service Ads are now managed by Google Business Profiles. I know a number of local…

Google is either testing showing link cards only within AI Mode or it might be a bug. Randomly over the past few weeks or so, I’ve seen reports of people…

Google is now showing not just short videos in AI Overviews but also longer-form videos in the AI Overviews. AI Overviews may show no videos or may show several videos…

Google Ads with Gmail has this feature that you can now click one button to apply a recommendation for your Google Ads. The scary part, you don’t even need 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 local rankings…

This week we covered the ongoing Google June 2025 core update and how we are finally seeing some recoveries with the past helpful content updates, and some core updates. Google…

Starting around June 25, 2025, many are noticing huge declines in impressions and clicks from their local rankings in Google. This is from the Google Business Profiles performance reports and…

Google is testing a zoom effect when you place your mouse cursor over the images in the search result snippets. Normally, these images do not move, but in this test,…

Microsoft is testing expanding its image search box within the Bing Search results to let you “explore” images in a deeper way. Part of this test brings you into Bing’s…

Microsoft is testing using a blue delivery truck icon in some of the ads in the Bing Search results. I guess it is to symbolize that they offer delivery?

Microsoft is testing showing the “See more” button at the top of the Bing local pack, instead of the bottom of the local pack. I suspect this is a test…

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

It has now been ten days since the Google June 2025 core update began rolling out. It will probably take another ten or so days to finish rolling out, but…

Google Search Console may have a weird glitch in the performance report average position data. For some reason, many are seeing huge declines in average position in the chart but…

In February, we covered the new Google Ads “people also consider” ad format for sponsored search results. Then, on mobile, it was in a list format. Now, Google is testing…

Google has removed from the Google Business Profiles help documentation the ability to use a utility bill as evidence for submitting an appeal. I am not sure why it was…