Google’s John Mueller said it again, he said on LinkedIn, “We’ve been pretty clear that Core Web Vitals are not giant factors in ranking, and I doubt you’d see a big drop just because of that.” Google has been saying Core Web Vitals are important in general but when it comes to search rankings, they … Read more
A new study by search industry expert Rand Fishkin has revealed that Google’s rollout of AI overviews in May led to a noticeable decrease in search volume, particularly on mobile devices. The study, which analyzed millions of Google searches in the United States and European Union, sheds light on the unexpected consequences of AI integration. … Read more
Several site owners have reached out to me recently about a scary spike in indexing that then drops back down to normal levels. This is showing up in the coverage reporting in Google Search Console and the site owners thought it could be a sign of something terrible happening SEO-wise. For example, Google suddenly indexing … Read more
A few months ago I posted about a possible bug with Google Maps where Google Map pins were being moved around into one location. I later updated the post to suggest it was more of a spam or **** exploit. Yep, spammers are hijacking the location of businesses on Google Maps by moving their map … Read more
In a recent Twitter exchange, Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, provided insight into how the search engine handles algorithmic spam actions and ranking drops. The discussion was sparked by a website owner’s complaint about a significant traffic loss and the inability to request a manual review. Sullivan clarified that a site could be affected by … Read more
Google updated their guidance with five changes on how to debug ranking drops. The new version contains over 400 more words that address small and large ranking drops. There’s room to quibble about some of the changes but overall the revised version is a step up from what it replaced. Change# 1: Downplays Fixing Traffic … Read more
Rebranding happens when companies grow or face big PR problems. As a marketer and SEO expert, you’ll deal with it due to acquisitions, executive decisions or investor demands. Regardless of the reason, traffic will drop when things go wrong. But don’t panic. Both branded and non-branded traffic can be recovered. It depends on the cause … Read more
Google has issued a correction from its previous statement in early February that Web Stories no longer showed in Google Image search results, that is not true. What is true is that Google stopped showing the Web Stories icon in the image search results. Plus, Google Search Console had a reporting glitch with Web Stories … Read more
Gartner’s predictions that AI Chatbots are the future and will account for a 25% drop in search market share got a lot of attention. What didn’t get attention is the fact that the claim fails to account for seven facts that call into question the accuracy of the prediction and demonstrates that it simply does … Read more
For the original iTunes version, click here. This week, we covered another unconfirmed Google search ranking update that hit on February 14th and 15th. Google has some bugs or changes that really hurt recipe bloggers big time right before the Super Bowl. Google’s featured snippets disappeared for a couple of hours on Thursday. Google’s … Read more
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