Search Engine Roundtable

5/1/2026

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

5/1/2026

This week in search, we are seeing yet again more Google search ranking volatility. Google sent out notifications about back button hijacking penalties to those sites that have the problem. Google AdSense vignette ads may trigger the penalty...

5/1/2026

SEOs and site owners are always complaining about indexing issues with Google Search. Why is this page not indexed, why is that page not indexed. But some seasoned SEOs are asking if Google is more picky about what it indexes in the past month or so, than it was maybe a year ago.

5/1/2026

Google annnounced a number of new updates for AI Max within Google Ads. These include (1) AI Brief, (2) text disclaimers and (3) Expansion with AI Max for shopping and Search Campaigns for travel.

5/1/2026

Back in December, Google expanded Preferred sources globally, but only for English-language content. Now, according to The Verge, Google's preferred sources support all languages globally.

5/1/2026

Google is showing a new label on the Discover feed that says "You asked to see." This label is added to items in your feed that are customized based on the Tailor Your Feed feature.

5/1/2026

I missed last month's Google Webmaster Report, so I am combining both April and May into one big report. Google completed rolling out the March 2026 spam update in March, and started the March core update, which completed in April. We also had a lot of other ranking volatility throughout.

4/30/2026

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 and Microsoft reported earnings...

4/30/2026

Microsoft Advertising has added conversion and spend metrics to the PMax Website Publisher URL report. So if you check out the report, you will see a bunch more insight and data into the performance of those ads.

4/30/2026

Google may be testing showing more links and citations within the AI Mode results. Google has done this with AI Overviews a year or so ago and now may be testing it with AI Mode results.

4/30/2026

Google Ads is testing more transparency around its partner network, letting some advertisers select if they want to run their ads on the search partner network and/or Google Display Network. It is labeled Partners in Alfa.

4/30/2026

Google Ads seems to have added a new tab to the recommendations section named "results." I assume this section will show the results of any implemented recommendations you selected within your Google Ads campaigns.

4/29/2026

Google reported its earnings today, its Q1 2026 earnings report showed ad revenues up by 15.5% at $77.3 billion and overall revenue was up 22% at $109.9 billion...

4/29/2026

Microsoft reported its third quarter 2026 earnings and it showed that its search and advertising revenue was up for 12% and that means its ad growth is growing again. The previous quarter it was up 10% before that, up 16% and the one before that was 21% and this quarter...

4/29/2026

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. Some Google AdSense vignette ads may trigger the new back button hijacking search penalty...

4/29/2026

Generally, when Google wants to take you into AI Mode from an AI Overview, it uses a button that says see more or some variation of that. But now Google is testing "Enter AI Mode" as the call to action.

4/29/2026

Just a heads up, that a small setting within Google AdSense under the vignette ads may trigger your site to get a Google search penalty - specifically for the new back button hijacking search spam rule.

4/29/2026

Google is testing removing some of the action buttons on local panels, Google Business Profiles, including call and share, and replacing it with a numbered show more button. Clicking on that button opens up those additional action options.

4/29/2026

Google is testing having the AI Overview box "Ask Anything" section stick to the bottom of the Google Search box as you scroll down the AI Overview and the search results. This keeps AI Mode in your face during the whole search experience.

4/29/2026

Google Ads is testing a way for advertisers to preview the impact of a change, like adding negative keywords. It seems to be called "Preview impact estimates" and lets you estimate the impact of, in this case, adding specific negative keywords.

4/28/2026

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

4/28/2026

Krishna Madhavan from Microsoft Bing demo'ed some new AI reporting features that should launch within Bing Webmaster Tools soon. They include citation share, grounding query intent, semantic topic label, and GEO-focused recommendations.

4/28/2026

As you know, Google announced a new search spam penalty for back button hijacking. Site owners have until June 15, 2026 to remove any such functionality from its site or it will be subject to a manual action and/or automated algorithmic adjustment. Now, Google is sending email notifications through Search Console as reminders.

4/28/2026

Google is now showing the number of reviews that were deleted on a specific Google Business Profile due to defamation complaints. This seems to be live in Germany and not other countries right now.

4/28/2026

I am seeing new signs of the Google search ranking volatility heating up. When I reported on it last week, the tools began to show volatility trend upwards. But now, while some of the tools are calm, the chatter within the forums has spiked over the past 24 hours or so.

4/28/2026

Google is testing using a superscript font for the cents portion of the pricing in the Shopping Ads. So when you see a price for a product and it is listed for $99.99, the 99 cents is in superscript.

4/27/2026

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

4/27/2026

Google may be doing something right with improving the click-through rates from the organic search results page that contain AI Overviews. An update report shows the CTR is improving, after numerous times showing the CTR has been declining.

4/27/2026

Google's Ginny Marvin, the Ads Liaison, has confirmed there are delays for some Demand Gen Image ads to be approved. Some of these delays are several days pending, not hours, but several days.

4/27/2026

Microsoft Bing is testing making the links within the AI results, the Copilot Search results, less clickable. Typically, the whole line of text is clickable to the citation but here, Bing is testing only linking the citation mark at the end.

4/27/2026

Google is testing adding an AI label to some of the search ads, the sponsored results, within the search results. Clicking on the AI label does nothing, according to Brodie Clark who spotted this.

4/27/2026

Google now lets you edit videos within your Google Business Profiles, directly in the Google app. There are basic editing tools, probably more than most businesses require, to update and edit the videos that they want to show in Google Maps and Google Search.

4/24/2026

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 now won't use spam reports with personal identifiable information. Google's head of search...

4/24/2026

This week, we covered new heated Google search ranking volatility. Google's Danny Sullivan spoke about commodity versus non-commodity content. Google now wont use spam reports with personality identifiable...

4/24/2026

Here is another interview from Google's head of search, Liz Reid. This one was done on the Odd Lots Bloomberg podcast and is titled "Google's Liz Reid on Who Will Own Search in a World of AI."

4/24/2026

Google is working to fix a bug in AI Mode where it is changing the title links and citations. This bug was spotted by Lily Ray who wrote on X, "Google is changing title links / citations in AI Mode - just the name of the person, with a link to the place they were mentioned."

4/24/2026

A couple of weeks ago, Google stunned many by saying that they updated their spam report to pass along all information to the site that you enter in the spam report. There was a lot of backlash to that and Google reverted, now saying if there is personally identifying information, it won't process the spam report at all.

4/24/2026

About a year ago, Google announced you can opt in, within Search Labs, to see Audio Overviews within the Google Search results. But now, I saw two different people say they saw it without opting into the experiment. So Google may be testing this in the wild.

4/24/2026

Google Business Profiles lets you upload photos of your business to your Business Profile. Those photos can be viewed on Google Search and Google Maps. And now, these photos are reportedly sorted by most recently uploaded.

4/23/2026

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. We are seeing Google volatility get heated again...

4/23/2026

Danny Sullivan from Google spoke at the Google Search Central event in Toronto a couple of days ago and a few of his slides spoke about it is important to produce "unique, authentic and non-commodity content." And then Sullivan dug into what commodity content is.

4/23/2026

Google may now hold your review replies for approval before showing them in Google Maps or Google Search. Previously, those replies were immediately shown but that may have changed.

4/23/2026

I know it has been a while since I covered the Google Search ranking volatility and algorithm twitches but I am now seeing signs of the volatility heating up. These signs are mostly coming from the tools; the community seems busier with other things.

4/23/2026

Google is experimenting with the new tab view in Chrome. This view brings more Gemini features to the forefront, such as Deep Search and Create Images.

4/23/2026

Google recently posted a new job listing for a GEO Partner Manager. The position calls for you to be responsible for the "transition Google's engagement model from Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) discovery to formal ecosystem advocacy."

4/23/2026

Google has released version 24 of the Google Ads API, this is a major release with dozens of updates. This update includes changes to Demand Gen, travel feeds, conversion types, shopping, reporting, videos, and much more.

4/22/2026

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

4/22/2026

We've been keeping track of the bots, spiders, OpenAI has been releasing. OpenAI just posted about a new bot for ads, it is named OAI-AdsBot.

4/22/2026

Here are some early screenshots and videos of the ChatGPT ad management interface that some OpenAI advertisers have access to. You can see that you can create campaigns, ad groups, budgets, CPC limits, conversions and much more.

4/22/2026

Microsoft Advertising has announced the launch of several new AI features and upgrades across the ad platform. This is to "To help businesses succeed across all three eras of the human, LLM, and agentic web," Microsoft wrote.

4/22/2026

Google Ads has a new help document on AI-Qualified Call Conversions. Google says AI-qualified call leads use Google AI to evaluate call recordings to determine the actual quality of the conversation.

4/22/2026

Google Ads Advisor, which officially began rolling out last November, is rolling out three new features. These features include proactive troubleshooting, 24/7 security monitoring and instant certifications.

4/21/2026

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 says when it comes to SEO...

4/21/2026

Google's John Mueller said the other day that "SEO is not belief-based, nobody knows everything, and it changes over time." Super true, I've been covering SEO changes over the years and I spot this all the time.

4/21/2026

Google's John Mueller said that since SEO is complex, multifaceted, and resilient, you "can do a lot of things that don't work & still do ok." Meaning, you can mess up on several SEO things and still do well with search rankings.

4/21/2026

Google is reportedly showing shopping ads in the free listing grid in the Google Shopping tab. Previously, Google was better at showing more free listings but that seems to have changed.

4/21/2026

Google Search Console seems to have a bug with the performance report, specific to the jobs listing and jobs search appearance filter. The report is showing zero impressions and clicks since the 16th of this month.

4/21/2026

Several months after Google launched the Read more links within the Google search results snippets, Google decided to post some best practices how Read more links work. These should help you encourage Google to show the read more links and thus help increase click-through rates from Google Search.

4/20/2026

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

4/20/2026

Google is reportedly testing opening search results in a new window. Yes, there is a setting to turn this on or off, but the setting is turned off and Google is testing opening these clicks in a new window.

4/20/2026

Google is testing showing video ads within the local pack ads. This is also known as immersive map view videos, I am told.

4/20/2026

A Reddit thread asks if there are any issues with Google Search handling a domain name that has a single letter change in the domain name from another domain name. John Mueller from Google said that usually this is not a problem from Google Search.

4/20/2026

Are ChatGPT ads allowing advertisers to go after competitors with greater specificity, or is this just a topical fluke?

4/20/2026

The folks at the Internet Archive are having issues with archiving the web. Something it has done since 1996 and is such a foundational website that it is sad to see. That being said, Fabrice Canel from Microsoft Bing wants to help.

4/17/2026

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

4/17/2026

This week we covered a new Google Search spam penalty for back button hijacking. Google also updated its spam report, it may now be used for manual actions. Google is aware of self-serving listicles and warns not to...

4/17/2026

Google also released the annual Google Maps safety report saying blocked or removed over 292 million policy-violating reviews and removed over 13 million fake Business Profiles. Google also said it blocked 79 million inaccurate or unverified edits and placed posting restrictions on more than 783,000 policy-violating accounts.

4/17/2026

Google has released its annual Google Ads safety report and the big number that stands out to me is that Google removed 8.3 billion ads, which is up almost 63% from last year's number of 5.1 billion. Google did say that 99% of those were removed before serving the ad, thanks to Gemini.

4/17/2026

Microsoft is testing animating the Bing "people also search for" boxes. Bing will run this animated outline around the boxes when it loads, to give it more attention to the searcher.

4/17/2026

Google rolled an important change with how AI Mode works yesterday and it can have a big impact on the experience for desktop users. Now when users click a link in AI Mode...

4/17/2026

Google has updated its reviews policy to add two items; (1) do not have your staff solicit a certain number of reviews and (2) the content of the review should not mention the staff member's name and information.

4/17/2026

Google sent out emails to some of its Local Service Ads advertisers introducing "rich content" that can be pulled from your URLs. Rich content includes service descriptions and special offers.

4/16/2026

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

4/16/2026

Google Ads has rolled out a new update to the channel performance report on the insights report that shows spend over time per channel. This shows you more clarity over your spending and if there are spikes or other reasons for those changes.

4/16/2026

Wikipedia says famed SEO news journalist is "non-notable" as the industry rages in response on platform known for reliable information, X, formerly known as Twitter.

4/16/2026

Google has made a number of updates to its Merchant Center product data specifications. Some changes went into effect on April 14, 2026 and others happen June 30, 2026 and January 31...

4/16/2026

Google Ads announced that starting in September Dynamic Search Ads will automatically upgrade to AI Max. This includes automatically created assets (ACA) and campaign-level broad match setting will automatically be upgraded to AI Max.

4/16/2026

Google announced this week that Offerwall is now generally available on AdSense. Google has been expanding access to its publishers for Offerwall and now, it should be available to all.

4/15/2026

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

4/15/2026

Google has posted a clarification that says it now "Google may use spam report submissions to take manual action against violations." The update was posted here and added to the report spam page.

4/15/2026

A few months ago, we saw Google testing recurring, repeating Google Posts options. Well, now that option is officially live. This is in addition to the ability to schedule Google Posts.

4/15/2026

Google sent out emails the other day to some advertisers that may be impacted by changes coming to enhanced conversions for web or enhanced conversions for leads. Google said they will be simplifying this by consolidating enhanced conversions for web and enhanced conversions for leads into a single, unified setting.

4/15/2026

A bug has triggered scores of emails from Google saying it is collecting impressions on sites long since verified in Search Console. Do not be alarmed, it is a bug.

4/15/2026

Microsoft Advertising will be transitioning from its SOAP to REST API and with that, on January 31, 2027, the SOAP API will be fully retired on January 31, 2027.

4/14/2026

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

4/14/2026

It's been a while since Google has come out with a new search spam policy and penalty to accompany it with and now we have a new one, "back button hijacking." Back button hijacking is something many of us were surprised Google didn't specifically disallow but now, Google said it is on the rise and it is adding it to the list - officially.

4/14/2026

Google's John Mueller said on Reddit that Google can handle and deal with having multiple URLs for a single web page, but it is not a good practice. He said it makes it harder for Google and Google will just pick one URL anyway.

4/14/2026

Google has made some changes to the Google Business Profile policy document, specifically the identity change section. It is now much more descriptive than before.

4/14/2026

As part of an article from The Verge taking aim at SEOs, Google says that they are aware of self-serving listicles and work to prevent this abuse from impacting results.

4/14/2026

Google posted an update for the Google Ads and Google Analytics data controls yesterday where changes will be coming to the sources of the data. Google said this is to "simplify data controls and remove redundant settings between Google Analytics and Ads, we are planning to consolidate controls based on where the data is used."

4/13/2026

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. Catching up on the newsletter...

4/13/2026

The NY Times commissioned a study that says AI Overviews have holes in both grounding and accuracy.

4/13/2026

Google announced that on August 20, 2026 it will experiment with an updated set of commonly used ad technology partners. If the experiments go well, Google will switch it "on or after June 5, 2026."

4/13/2026

It looks like Google is testing a new report within Google Search Console named AI contribution. I have no clue what it looks like but I suspect it is a lot like the Bing Webmaster Tools AI performance reports.

4/13/2026

Google was asked if it is possible to add a new status to the XML sitemap statuses for "still processing." John Mueller from Google responded on Blueshy saying, "I've chatted with the teams involved about this on & off, I've seen that it can be annoying." But he added he has nothing to announce.

4/13/2026

Google's John Mueller reconfirmed that Google Search may simply ignore outbound links from sites that violate its search spam policies. This is not new, Google has been doing this manually and algorithmically for years now but he reiterated this on Bluesky.

4/10/2026

On the latest Search Off The Record Podcast, Martin Split and Gary Illyes discussed the growing page weight issue and how that impacts users and Googlebot crawling. This follows Google updating its documentation to clarify file size limits for Googlebot (and various versions of Googlebot).

4/9/2026

If you're using Gemini in Chrome (the sidebar you can summon via a button in Chrome), then you might be happy about the latest feature that showed up in Chrome Canary. After running a prompt...

4/8/2026

Google's March 2026 broad core update has officially completed rolling out. Google announced this via X this morning and the Search Status Dashboard has been updated to document the rollout. The update took 12 days and 4 hours to complete...

4/8/2026

In January Google announced a change to how AI Overviews worked where clicking the "Show more" button at the end of an AIO would directly take you into AI Mode. But that was only on mobile. Now it seems Google is testing that functionality, but on desktop...