Google sent out an update to its Customer Match policy to advertisers yesterday, going into effect in January 2025. Customer Match allows advertisers to use their first-party data to reach people across many different campaign types, making it one of the most valuable features available for brands. The new policy change introduces new standards designed … Read more
Google has released its latest broad core algorithm update for November 2024. This update continues Google’s refinement of search systems to enhance the quality of results. On X, Google states: “Today we released the November 2024 core update. We’ll add it to our ranking release history page in the near future and update when the … Read more
Google continues updating AIO rankings, increasing the presence of larger shopping-related panels and ads that push organic search results lower on the page. The good news for search marketers is that AIO volatility in shopping queries is stabilizing, with AIO rankings increasingly matching sites typically ranked in organic search. Arguably the most important change is … Read more
If you’re just getting started with local SEO, this Google My Business guide is the perfect spot to kick things off. Even though GMB looks simple and pretty intuitive, there are a lot of things to pay attention to. You’ll really benefit from it only if your listing is set up right. Remember — when … Read more
A recent investigation finds that Google’s Featured Snippets may display conflicting information from the same source material, depending on how users phrase their search queries. This raises concerns about the search engine’s ability to interpret content accurately. Sarah Presch, director at Dragon Metrics, discovered that Google’s Featured Snippets pull opposing statements from the same articles … Read more
ChatGPT Search (CGS) is a landmark launch in the shift from traditional to AI Search. Now, OpenAI competes with Google (Search) heads-on. Note the subtle elbow hit between the lines in the announcement: Getting useful answers on the web can take a lot of effort. It often requires multiple searches and digging through links to … Read more
Since the first broad core algorithm update, there has been much confusion, debate, speculation, and questions about what exactly it is. How does a core update differ from a named update that many SEO pros are used to? Google’s acknowledgment of core updates is usually vague, offering little detail beyond the fact that the update … Read more
The role of AI in SEO has kept rapidly evolving over the past few months. Google formally launched AI Overviews in May, and Bing launched its generative search pilot in July, with a full launch at the start of October. On July 25, OpenAI announced a SearchGPT prototype. Then, on October 31, it launched ChatGPT … Read more
Google has updated its crawl budget guidelines, stressing the need to maintain consistent link structures between mobile and desktop websites. Large websites must ensure mobile versions contain all desktop links or risk slower page discovery. The update mainly impacts sites with over 10,000 pages or those experiencing indexing issues. Link structure consistency across mobile and … Read more
Chrome introduces new debugging tool in Canary build, helping developers identify and fix website layout stability issues. Chrome Canary has added a new “Layout Shift Culprits” feature that visually identifies page layout problems. Developers can now see and replay layout shifts in real-time to pinpoint specific issues. The tool will move from Chrome Canary to … Read more
Meta is reportedly developing a search engine index for its AI chatbot to reduce reliance on Google for AI-generated summaries of current events. Meta AI appears to be evolving to the next stage of becoming a fully independent AI search engine. Meta-ExternalAgent Meta has been crawling the Internet since at least this past summer from … Read more
Alphabet Inc. reported its third-quarter earnings, with revenues reaching $88.3 billion, a 15% increase from last year. The Google parent company’s operating margin expanded to 32% from 27.8% year-over-year, while net income rose 34% to $26.3 billion. During the earnings call, the company highlighted the growing role of AI across its products and services. Google … Read more
A British couple’s legal battle against Google’s search practices has concluded. Europe’s highest court upheld a €2.4 billion fine against Google, marking a victory for small businesses in the digital marketplace. Background Shivaun and Adam Raff launched Foundem, a price comparison website, in June 2006. On launch day, Google’s automated spam filters hit the site, … Read more
Google published a proposal in the Schema.org Project GitHub instance that proposes proposing an update at Schema.org to expand the shopping structured data so that merchants can provide more shipping information that will likely show up in Google Search and other systems. Shipping Schema.org Structured Data The proposed new structured data Type can be used … Read more
Google expands AI-powered search summaries globally, now reaching over 100 countries with support for six different languages. Google’s AI Overviews is expanding from US-only to over 100 countries, reaching 1 billion monthly users. The feature now supports six languages and includes new ways to display website links. Google has started showing ads in AI Overviews … Read more
Google Search Central published new documentation on Google Trends, explaining how to use it for search marketing. This guide serves as an easy to understand introduction for newcomers and a helpful refresher for experienced search marketers and publishers. The new guide has six sections: About Google Trends Tutorial on monitoring trends How to do keyword … Read more
In a recent update to its Search Central documentation, Google has added specific guidelines for URL parameter formatting. The update brings parameter formatting recommendations from a faceted navigation blog post into the main URL structure documentation, making these guidelines more accessible. Key Updates The new documentation specifies that developers should use the following: Equal signs … Read more
Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, shared insights on diagnosing widespread crawling issues. This guidance was shared in response to a disruption reported by Adrian Schmidt on LinkedIn. Google’s crawler stopped accessing several of his domains at the same time. Despite the interruption, Schmidt noted that live tests via Search Console continued to function without error … Read more
