Latest SEO News & Tips From SE Roundtable Blog

Google’s John Mueller said again that having links to your site is not a requirement and not mandatory for ranking in Google Search. He said this back in 2015 as…

Google’s John Mueller confirmed again that Google won’t likely penalize or give your site a manual action if you do not add a nofollow or rel sponsored attribute to your…

There has been a lot of local SEOs talking about the big shake up in the local results over the past week. It might be related to a local search…

This is somewhat both sad and funny and I thought I should share it here. Via Joe Youngblood, an SEO who has said he “learned a few tricks” was able…

Google’s John Mueller said that special characters on your page “doesn’t affect Google” Search rankings. This is in regards to like checkmarks such as ‘” or other special characters.

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 its…

Over the past few days you may have heard about Log4j and a major vulnerability that allowed hackers to attack unpatched Apache servers – if not, click here to learn…

Microsoft Bing seems to be testing a feature to translate your query. Frank Sandtmann sent me a screenshot of Bing in Germany where it offers the option to translate his…

It looks like Google is testing a more empty style for its search bar. The search bar has no apparent box to enter your query after your query is in…

Google said that as of December 14th and onwards that the reviews snippet rich results report in Google Search Console may show fewer review objects. This is because Google is…

A few weeks ago, Google announced a new feature named busy area – well, that feature now seems to be rolling out. Several folks started to notice this roll out…

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…

In part one, we spoke about Joseph Goldsmith and video production topics. In part two, we spoke about his views of SEO as a video guy. In part three, I…

Pretty much all the tools that automatically track the volatility and changes in the Google search results are still showing major volatility. It is unusual because the November core update…

It seems like Google also has made the full width image pack results live over the past few days. Brodie Clark said this went live when Google went live with…

In July we saw a number of hotels and hospitality business listings say they are seeing the ability to use Google Posts but Google we were told it might be…

Google has been testing showing more in the autocomplete search suggestions drop down bar as you type since September 2020 and then more so again in August 2021. Now it…

As you know, Google has dropped its deadline to switch all sites to mobile-first indexing after missing its self-directed deadlines multiple times in the past. But John Mueller of Google…

Over the past 24 hours or so, Google has sent me dozens of notices from sites I have verified Google Search Console properties with. The notices say “New Coverage issue…

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

Back in the early 2000s we use to cover Alexa, an Amazon related website ranking service here a lot. SEOs use it like they used PageRank, and how they now…

Google has told us that you want to avoid buying a domain name that was filtered by the Google SafeSearch adult filter. Well, servers.com had this issue and after asking…

After many months of testing, Google has confirmed it is moving the local pack results to the top and the map on the right of those local results on desktop…

Google’s John Mueller said putting the category name or topic name in your URL slug has zero impact on your rankings. I am not 100% sure if he really meant…

This week, I did a bit of a look at what we are seeing around this big December 2021 Google products reviews update. I also spoke about a possible, unconfirmed,…

In September, Microsoft Advertising added 32 new attributes for its Bing Search Ads, and now, Microsoft added four more new attributes. These new attributes include Asian-owned, Latin-owned, Women-owned and Diabetic-friendly…

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…

PPCGreg posted on Twitter that Google Ads has updated the design and look for the custom columns and also added some new metrics and the ability to use functions.

Google is now showing up to two ads in the local search results – the local pack. Joy Hawkins spotted it the other day for a search on [lawn care…

Now that some publishers, like Search Engine Land, are removing AMP because it is no longer a requirement for top stories inclusion, some are noticing weird changes to the publisher’s…

Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that when it comes to Google understanding and ranking documents, Google looks at more than just text on a page. He aimed this comment…

Google may have also pushed out a local search and map algorithm and ranking update over the past week or so. There has been some recent chatter and the Bright…

Google has made some changes to the Google Search Console performance report for Google News where your impressions may drop. Google said this is just a reporting change and the…

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 released their…

Google has published this years year in review for the top searches it saw in 2021. From COVID vaccine, to Dogecoin and AMC stock to Alec Baldwin to Simone Biles…

Google’s John Mueller confirmed that Googlebot is not yet crawling over HTTP/3 yet. He said if you do implement HTTP/3 for your site, it doesn’t mean it won’t benefit your…

Google’s John Mueller and Martin Splitt had two special guests on their podcast show this week to talk about how Google approaches inclusive language in search – a topic we…

Azeem posted a Twitter poll a while back asking the digital marketing community if they prefer to specialize in a specific niche of marketing or be more of a generalist…

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 had another…

We have yet another Google Ads spending bug to report, this one was related to Google advertisers using Target ROAS or Maximize Conversion Value bid strategies on some campaigns on…

Google is testing a new layout for the key moments video featured snippets layout in Google Search results. Instead of placing a wider video at the top with the text…

Bing announced last week that you can now search Bing and Bing Local for store stock availability and choose to buy online and pick up in-store. I honestly wasn’t sure…

Sometimes people change their names, for legal reasons, maybe when they get married, maybe they go from a pseudonym to using their real name. What do you do if you…

As expected, Google is now letting health providers and facilities to go into their Google Business Profile and select the insurances they accept. This option should be under the info…

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 posted a number of new Google Ads policy changes that take place in January and February 2022 around political and election based content in ads. Google is ending the…

Google seems to be rolling out a new Google Ads experiments workflow that drops the need to use campaign drafts. George Nguyen reported this at Search Engine Land with the…

Google is once again testing new layouts for the top stories section of the Google Search results. This includes not just the box carousel at the top but also double…

Google Image Search seems to be testing a new feature to group images by type of search filter. Here is a screenshot from Mordy Oberstein showing a new section for…

Google is once again deactivating accounts for inactivity. Google AdSense sent out emails last week to AdSense publishers and YouTube publishers saying your AdSense account has been deactivated due to…

In part one, we spoke about Joseph Goldsmith and video production topics. In part two, we speak more about SEO topics, mostly about what his clients do around SEO…

As you all know, Google launched a new algorithm update on December 1st named the December 2021 product reviews update. Since then, the tracking tools have been off the charts…

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

Google has confirmed a bug with Google Ads Editor version 1.8 and the image ad uploads feature. The AdsLiaison said on Twitter “the team is aware of a recent issue…

An insane week to end an insane month of Google changes is how to sum up this SEO video recap. Google finished rolling out the November 2021 core update on…

John Mueller of Google gave a nice one liner of SEO advice using the movie Jurassic Park. He said on Twitter “It’s a bit like Jurassic Park. Technically, you can…

Google now lets searchers filter the local search listings for healthcare providers; facilities, doctors, etc by the types of insurances accepted and if they speak your language. So make sure,…

Zac Stafford posted a screenshot on Twitter of his client’s ads showing negative prices in the Google Search shopping ad results. He said Google auto generated promotions using old codes…

Praveen Sharma shared a screenshot of a new carousel in the Google mobile search results that shows localized language content based on the location of the searcher, despite the language…

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…

For the past 18 years I’ve been writing on this site, covering what you – the search marketers are chattering about. Today marks the 18th anniversary of the Search Engine…

Google is rolling out yet another confirmed Google search ranking algorithm update – the second Google Product Reviews Update of the year. So if you were hit by the April…

What an insanely busy month we had with Google in November 2021! We had a big core update named the November 2021 core update, we had a spam update named…

Marie Haynes posted another poll asking SEOs what they saw from the Google November 2021 Core Update now that the update is finished rolling out. Most, like 60% of the…

Google’s John Mueller said for some sites, you can ignore the Google Webmaster Guidelines that says you should have “a page with a human-readable list of links to these pages…

Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that the Google Product Experts do not get access to any ranking or SEO secrets. Nor do these Product Exerts get any sort of…

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

Google’s John Mueller said again that Google does not index parts of a page – like the header versus the footer versus the main area of the content. Google indexes…

Google Merchant Center seems to be rolling out a new report named the competitive visibility report. The competitive visibility report helps you understand your competitive landscape on product category level…

Google’s John Mueller gave his blessing to the links on or from new and small sites. John said that getting links from small or new sites is fine and doesn’t…

If you search for Hanukkah, Chanukah, Menorah and other related searches, you will not only see the annual Google Chanukah decorations but you may also see the pagination tool at…

Google Ads has updated the performance planner to add some new features it says will help you better understand Performance Planner’s bid and budget recommendations. These updates include the ability…

Google’s John Mueller responded to an SEO asking if he should undo the URL site migration changes made a year ago to restore the traffic the blog had previously. In…

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

Google’s Danny Sullivan said that the Google November 2021 core update is mostly done rolling out but not done yet. He said this yesterday at 12pm ET yesterday, November 29th.

Google Merchant Center can now show you which products are automatically eligible for badges. Krik Williams shared a screenshoot showing off this new feature and Search Engine Land received confirmation…

Tons of people are seeing the expandable snippet carousel in Google’s desktop search results. We first reported on this test back in August 2021 but now it seems like Google…

Google’s John Mueller said when it comes to repurposing old domains that may have not been used but were being redirected elsewhere, it is fine for the most part. The…

Brett Bodofsky, a Google Ads specialist, shared a screenshot on Twitter of a new report tab that shows “Extensions “upgraded).” Then within each extension, you have the word upgraded next…

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 John Mueller said in this past Friday’s hangout that in rare situations some sites can get stuck in some sort of algorithmic penalty limbo or black hole state and…

The other day we shared a screenshot of an email of an email notification when a website is no longer in violation of Bing’s webmaster guidelines and thus is no…

Google has once again said that if you see significant changes in your Google search visibility it likely has nothing to do with how fast or slow your site is….

If you visit the Google Support pages, any of them, at support.google.com, you will see a banner at the top come up again. The banner says “as a precautionary health…

On Friday, Google’s John Mueller announced Google is doing away with the deadline for sites to switch over to mobile-first indexing. Some sites just can’t move over yet and Google…

This is a very special vlog, I interviewed the very person who has been editing these videos for the past couple of years, Joseph Goldsmith. And we did it overlooking…