Search marketers assert that Google’s new long-form AI Overviews answers have become the very thing Google’s documentation advises publishers against: scraped content lacking originality or added value, at the expense of content creators who are seeing declining traffic. Why put the effort into writing great content if it’s going to be rewritten into a complete … Read more
A Google engineer’s redacted testimony published online by the U.S. Justice Department offers a look inside Google’s ranking systems, offering an idea about Google’s quality scores and introduces a mysterious popularity signal that uses Chrome data. The document offers a high level and very general view of ranking signals, providing a sense of what the … Read more
One thing I need you to understand about the groundbreaking data I’m about to show you is that no one has ever done this kind of analysis before. Ever. To our knowledge, no other independent usability study has explored a major web platform at this scale. AI changes everything, and search is at the forefront. … Read more
Last week, in Part 1 (find it here), we examined whether Google’s AI Overviews are actually changing how people use Search. The data revealed that while users visit Google more frequently with AI Overviews, they: Spend less time per visit. Aren’t crafting significantly longer or more complex queries. Now we turn to an even more … Read more
New data shows Google keeps users on its site longer. Visitors now make 10 clicks on Google’s site before leaving for another website. This finding comes from a 13-month study comparing Google and ChatGPT traffic patterns. Google Keeps Users In, ChatGPT Sends Them Out Tyler Einberger of Momentic analyzed Similarweb data showing that Google’s “pages … Read more
A major update to Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines (QRG) clarifies and expands on multiple forms of deception that Google wants its quality raters to identify. This change continues the trend of refining the guidelines so that quality raters become better at spotting increasingly granular forms of quality issues. TL/DR Authenticity should be the core … Read more
Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines were updated a few months ago, and several of the changes closely track the talking points shared by Googlers at the 2025 Search Central Live events. Among the most consequential updates are those to the sections defining the lowest quality pages, which more clearly reflect the kinds of sites Google … Read more
Google claims AI Overviews are revolutionizing search behavior. But the data tells a different story. Since launching AI Overviews in 2024, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has repeatedly claimed they’re transforming search behavior: People are using it to Search in entirely new ways, and asking new types of questions, longer and more complex queries… and getting … Read more
Google’s John Mueller clarifies that automatically changing XML sitemap dates doesn’t boost SEO and could make it harder for Google to find actual content updates. The “Freshness Signal” Myth Busted On Reddit’s r/SEO forum, someone asked if competitors ranked better by setting their XML sitemap dates to the current date to send a “freshness signal” … Read more
Google’s AI search features have reached widespread adoption. The company announced that AI Overviews in Search now reach 1.5 billion users per month. This information was revealed during Alphabet’s Q1 earnings call. Alphabet Earnings Show Growth Across Core Products Alphabet announced strong financial results for Q1, highlighting the adoption of AI across its products. The … Read more
Google’s Search Relations team has released a new SEO Office Hours video with Martin Splitt. He tackles a common problem many website owners face: unwanted noindex tags that keep pages out of search results. In the video, Splitt helps a user named Balant who couldn’t remove a noindex tag from their website. Balant wanted their … Read more
A glitch in Google’s AI Overviews may inadvertently expose how Google’s algorithm understands search queries and chooses answers. Bugs in Google Search are useful to examine because they may expose parts of Google’s algorithms that are normally unseen. AI-Splaining? Lily Ray re-posted a tweet that showed how typing nonsense phrases into Google results in a … Read more
Google is making a big change to its domain structure. Soon, all country-specific Google domains will redirect to Google.com. This change ties into earlier hints that Google may rely less on hreflang markup, showing how Google is changing its approach to international search. Google Consolidates Domain Structure Google announced plans to phase out country-specific domains … Read more
Google’s Martin Splitt recently shared insights on how JavaScript mistakes can hurt a website’s search performance. His talk comes as Google Search Advocate John Mueller also urges SEO pros to learn more about modern client-side technologies. Mistake 1: Rendered HTML vs. Source HTML During the SEO for Paws Conference, a live-streamed fundraiser by Anton Shulke, … Read more
Google’s Search Liaison answered a question at Google Search Central Live NYC about whether Google prefers brands. Sullivan took that as an opportunity to affirm that Google is working to show more independent sites and also offered insights into how independent sites can improve their search performance. Google Wants Good Independent Sites To Rank Someone … Read more
Google’s March 2025 Core Update, announced on March 13th and expected to complete its rollout this week, is creating turbulence in search results according to multiple industry tracking tools. Data from Local SEO Guide and SISTRIX indicate this may be a highly impactful update. “Most Volatile” SERPs in 12 Months According to tracking data from … Read more
Website owners and SEO professionals are facing a new problem. AI content generation tools are creating fake URLs when referencing real websites. This issue was discussed in a recent social media conversation between industry professionals. Hallucinated Links Causing 404s On Bluesky, agency owner Dan Thornton pointed out a pattern of 404 errors from non-existent URLs … Read more
John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, suggests that SEO professionals should reconsider how their work fits into the modern web stack. He references a “vibes-based” visualization highlighting how developers’ focus areas have shifted. Mueller notes a disconnect between what industry pros pay attention to (such as JavaScript frameworks, performance optimizations, or new AI-driven tech) and … Read more
