Google announced the rollout of the December 2024 spam update. The update, expected to be completed within a week, arrives amid ongoing industry discussions about the effectiveness of Google’s spam-fighting measures. This December update caps off a year of spam-fighting measures, including the June Spam Update and the March Core Update, which targeted policy-violating websites … Read more
Shortly after news spread that Google was pushing back the release of its long awaited AI model called Gemini, Google announced its launch. As part of the release, they published a demo showcasing impressive – downright unbelievable – capabilities from Gemini. Well, you know what they say about things being too good to be true. … Read more
Google has updated its guidelines on faceted navigation by turning an old blog post into an official help document. What started as a blog post in 2014 is now official technical documentation. This change reflects the complexity of ecommerce and content-heavy websites, as many sites adopt advanced filtering systems for larger catalogs. Faceted Navigation Issues … Read more
Google has updated its Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy to clarify the proper use of its generative AI products and services. The update simplifies the language, and lists prohibited behaviors with examples of unacceptable conduct. Key Updates To Policy The updated policy clarifies existing rules without adding new restrictions. It specifically bans using Google’s AI … Read more
In just two years, ChatGPT has managed to do something no company has done in the last 20 years: present a viable challenge to Google. There’s evidence that people are using it instead of traditional search in an increasing number of cases. For example, ChatGPT’s traffic recently surpassed Bing, and its referral traffic has been … Read more
Google’s Developer Advocate, Martin Splitt, warns website owners to be cautious of traffic that appears to come from Googlebot. Many requests pretending to be Googlebot are actually from third-party scrapers. He shared this in the latest episode of Google’s SEO Made Easy series, emphasizing that “not everyone who claims to be Googlebot actually is Googlebot.” … Read more
Google announced it’s rolling out the December core algorithm update, which the company expects to complete over the next two weeks. The news comes just a week after Google finished rolling out the November core update. Google’s Announcement In a post on X, Google stated: “The Dec. 2024 core update is rolling out, and we … Read more
Google launches 24-hour data view in Search Console, offering near real-time insights for website performance monitoring. Google Search Console now shows performance data from the last 24 hours with minimal delay. The new feature includes hourly data breakdowns and works across Search, Discover, and News reports. Google has cut data delay times by nearly half, … Read more
This year brought a steady stream of updates in Google Ads that spanned across campaign types and creative, media activation, and measurement solutions – many informed directly by advertiser feedback. I won’t cover every big update here, but building on a talk I gave at Hero Conf in San Diego recently, I’ll highlight some of … Read more
A new study shows that Google’s AI Overviews appear in nearly half of all search results and take up to 48% of mobile screen space. Conducted by Botify and DemandSphere, the research analyzed over 120,000 keywords across 22 websites. The study, conducted between August and September, finds that traditional SEO metrics like click-through rates may … Read more
Google has released FAQ guidance on its site reputation abuse policy. The update covers important points about managing third-party content and recovery processes. Breaking Down Third-Party Content Rules Google wants to clarify what counts as a violation. Using third-party content is not a problem in itself. A violation happens when that content is used to … Read more
Google streamlines Search Console Insights by removing Google Analytics data, focusing solely on Search Console metrics for simplicity. Google updates Search Console Insights, removing Google Analytics data. Search Console Insights now focuses solely on Search Console metrics. Google Analytics data still accessible through its dedicated platform. Source link
Google confirms widespread search indexing delays affecting a “small number” of websites. Google Search is experiencing indexing delays. The company says only a small number of sites are affected and is investigating the root cause. Google will provide an update on the situation soon. Source link
Google just expanded Google Product Studio, its AI-powered tool for creating better product images, to more countries. Originally launched in May 2023, this handy feature is built right into Merchant Center Next, the revamped hub for managing product listings. It’s a game-changer for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and retailers looking to level up their … Read more
Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, was interviewed by Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times DealBook Summit, where he discussed what to expect from Google Search in 2025 but also struggled to articulate Google’s concern for content creators. When asked to compare where Google is today relative to the rest of the industry and whether … Read more
Google simplifies analytics tracking with new one-click key event features in GA4, powered by machine learning. Google released one-click event tracking in GA4 with two features: “Mark as key event” and “Create key event.” Machine learning identifies important site events automatically, eliminating manual setup time. These features are now available for all GA4 properties and … Read more
Google stresses the importance of using actual user data to assess Core Web Vitals instead of relying only on lab data from tools like PageSpeed Insights (PSI) and Lighthouse. This reminder comes as the company prepares to update the throttling settings in PSI. These updates are expected to increase the performance scores of websites in … Read more
In a recent episode of Google’s Search Off the Record podcast, Allan Scott from the “Dups” team explained how Google decides which URL to consider as the main one when there are duplicate pages. He revealed that Google looks at about 40 different signals to pick the main URL from a group of similar pages. … Read more
