Latest SEO News & Tips From SE Roundtable Blog

In my Friday video, I mentioned some more volatility heating up on Friday morning and I promised to cover it if I see more signs of that update. Well, many…

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 reported earnings…

This week, guess what, we saw more Google search ranking volatility heat up mid-week. Several new studies have come out showing that AI Overviews hurt click-through rates from search results….

Google’s John Mueller pretty much said that using image streaming techniques will not result in an SEO friendly outcome. He actually said, “It’s a great way to prevent your images…

Google is testing a new version of the mobile search results snippets where the URL is now blue, still clickable. Also, a variation where they are switching the placement of…

Microsoft Advertising has temporarily suspended the ability for agencies to send out client connection requests. Instead, the agency needs to reach out to Microsoft support and wait 5-7 days to…

Google seems to have added a new section to music knowledge panels named “Behind the music.” It seems that this is generated using Google’s Gemini AI and gives you a…

Microsoft is now showing two rows of shopping ads at the top of the Bing Search results. There is even an option to expand them to show more ads.

Google reported earnings and their ad revenue is up again year-over-year, with an increase of 8.5%, and overall revenue is also up 12%. I should note, it is down from…

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

Over the past few days, I’ve noticed signs of increased Google Search ranking volatility. I held off reporting on it until now because I wanted to see how things settled,…

Google AdSense has updated its policy center by adding three new issue labels; policy issue, regulatory issue, and advertiser preference and also adding new filters. Google said this is to…

Google updated its Google Merchant Center merchant listing structured data documentation to removed the EnergyConsumptionDetails properties and added an alternative solution to the certificationIdentification property. But keep in mind that…

Google’s Lisa Landsman interviewed Google’s Google Business Profiles Verification Product Manager, Sheerna. They discussed a lot of the concerns many local SEOs and small businesses are dealing with around GBPs…

Google is relaxing its photo guidelines for Local Service Ads. This may result in photos that were not previously allowed, may be allowed after May 22, 2025. I am not…

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 Overviews…

In February, we covered how Google’s AI Overviews really hurt the click-through rate of the search results and paid ads. Well, several more recent studies have come out that back…

Google Posts/Updates are starting to disappear from the local panels within Google Search. I saw complaints about this yesterday and tested it by adding a post myself on my business,…

Google has added video previews to the video verification within Google Business Profiles. Google’s Lisa Landsman said this will help with “submitting, ensuring clarity and accuracy ‘” saving you valuable…

Google sent emails to Google Ads advertisers about new Local Service Ads additions to its terms for its providers that they must accept by June 5, 2025 or else their…

Google has just given up on a third-party cookie alternative. Google announced it will maintain its “current approach to offering users third-party cookie choice in Chrome, and will not be…

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

Google Ads announced they will “now allow relevant Search ads from advertisers who showed amongst top ads to also participate in the bottom ads auction.” Honestly, I thought this update…

About a year ago, we covered numerous tests with shaded site name and favicon sections of the snippet. Google continues to test this, but we’re now seeing a blue gradient…

Google is testing a newish section in the Google local panel to tell searchers how far that business is from your location. Google is testing adding either a “Get there”…

Microsoft is testing adding a read more link to the Bing Copilot Answers in Bing Search. The read more link will expand the answer to show more content, generating a…

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

The folks at Google did a live demo of Android XR, Google’s AR glasses with Gemini, at the TED 2025 event. It is pretty wild to watch this demo, so…

The IAB and PwC released their annual Internet Advertising Revenue Report, which showed search ad grew 15.9% with $102 billion in ad dollars in 2024. Search ads made up the…

Fabrice Canel said Microsoft will streamline the Bing Webmaster Tools notifications because, at times, it can be a bit overwhelming. Fabrice wrote on X, “working to streamline things” when Martin…

Microsoft launched the Copilot Merchant Program, a way to feed Copilot more details about your products. Microsoft said this is a way to “integrate your shopping experience with Copilot 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 was ruled…

Google was ruled, for the second time, an illegal monopoly again by a Federal Judge yesterday. And another week and more heated volatility in the Google Search results. Google also…

Google recently said it made Search “much faster,” at least that is what Rajan Patel, the VP of Engineering at Google Search said on social. There is a larger blog…

Google Merchant Center has added a new report named popular products report. This report will show you your popular products, popular brands, top-selling products, etc, all on Google.

Google’s John Mueller was quick to debunk a claim that owning an .esports domain will have no positive SEO effect. He said on Bluesky, “There’s no positive SEO effect from…

Google has been rolling out its new full-width redesign of Google Discover. But the issue is that it is taking publishers’ images and cropping them to fit this new width.

A US judge ruled Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in some ad tech. This is the second time a judge ruled Google willfully engaged in monopolistic practices. The…

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

As I covered yesterday, Google is going to redirect its ccTLDs to Google.com. And as I reported yesterday, Google also said “it won’t affect the way Search works.” Despite Google…

Google launched its shopping / e-commerce card in the search results as a test several months ago. Since then, the card has undergone various tweaks. Now, Google is testing showing…

While you can access Google AI Mode directly at google.com/aimode, there is currently no way to go direclty to something like google.com/aimode?q=QUERYGOESHERE. But that might come, said Robby Stein, VP,…

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 Search ranking…

It’s been about a week and what would be do without reporting on yet more Google Search ranking volatility… I am seeing signs of a Google Search ranking update and…

CNBC reports Google has been sued in the UK for <<£5 billion ($6.6 billion) in potential damages over allegations that the U.S. tech giant abused its “near-total dominance” in the…

Google.com will soon be the only way to access Google Search. The ccTLD versions of Google will redirect to Google.com. That means if you try to go to Google.ca, Google.fr….

We know Google loves to link to its own search results from the AI Overviews, and we have seen those links sometimes go in a loop of sorts. But did…

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 Financial Times…

The Financial Times has a detailed interview with the newish Head of Google Search, Elizabeth Reid. The interview can be gated, so here are some of the quotes that stood…

As you know, Google is okay with linking its AI Overviews back to more Google Search results. But is Google okay with linking the same query, to the same query,…

There seems to be a bug that is impacting the first image in the product snippet image carousel set. I was notified about this a few times in the past…

Google is testing a new shortcut location for AI Mode in the Google App on Android. Google is placing the shortcut button directly in the search bar.

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

Google is testing yet another search feature that generates new queries on Google Search. This one is named “Ask a follow-up” and they are sported with the Gemini stars next…

Microsoft is testing yet another variation for its favicons in the Bing Search snippets. This one uses a dark gray background, with a circle formatted favicon, next to the search…

Google is experimenting more with shopping carousels, this time, showing products and then which articles are recommending those products. These can be shown in best of articles and recommended in…

Microsoft is testing trending icons on Bing Search’s related searches section. We’ve seen both Google and Bing use trending icons in various search features over the years, but now Bing…

This is a programming note that I am completely offline for the Passover holiday today. In fact, this post was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today – so you…

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 officially…

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…