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 still seeing really big and heated Google search ranking volatility. Tons of searchers do not want the AI Overviews in the Google Search results but there is no way to turn them off. Google Local Service Ads now lets you text multiple advertisers at the same time. Google said sites hit by the helpful content update, if they fix everything, can recover with the next core update. Service areas may be a new Google local ranking factor. Google AdSense will not change the minimum reporting thresholds.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Continued Heated Google Search Ranking Volatility Through May 16th
I have been continuing to update the May 9th Google ranking volatility story, but it is super unusual to see such heated volatility for such a long period within the Google Search rankings. This continued Google search ranking update of sorts kicked off with May 3rd but then spiked with May 9th and has really not let up much since. -
Google Local Service Ads Tests Message Multiple Businesses
Google is testing a new button for the Local Service Ads to “message multiple businesses” instead of just messaging one business at a time. We saw something like this before, but it only showed up after you messaged the first business. -
Google: Sites Hit By Helpful Content Update Could See Improvements With Next Core Update If…
Google’s John Mueller was asked when can a site expect to recover from the September 2023 helpful content update, assuming the site took all measures to “fix” their site. John Mueller said you can assume “bigger changes would be visible when the next core updates happen.” -
Is Service Areas A New Google Local Ranking Factor?
A bunch of local SEOs are buzzing about a possible new local SEO Google ranking factor and are looking to confirm it. Darren Shaw posted on X that while setting the service area historically had no influence on your Google local rankings, that may now have changed. -
Google AdSense Will Not Change Minimum Reporting Thresholds
Google AdSense planned on changing the minimum reporting thresholds for Custom Channels and Search Styles to 100 clicks per day on May 15th. But Google sent an email to AdSense publishers that it will not make those changes. -
Many Searchers Want To Turn Off Google AI Overviews
There are many searchers who have been using Google daily that are heading to the Google Web Search Help forums to ask how they can turn off the new AI Overviews within the Google Search results. As you know, AI Overviews started to roll out on Tuesday and some searchers simply do not want it. -
Google Level 5 Local Guide Banana Hat
It looks like GooGler biG miG, which is a stuffed banana, has reached level 5 as a Google Local Guide. I never heard of this banana before but this banana seems to take photos at a lot of local places and posts them as reviews as a local guide.
Other Great Search Threads:
- You’ll likely see ‘unknown’ in ad destination segment reporting for a couple of reasons: – Traffic landing in channels such as Gmail that don’t get segmented further by ad destination…, AdsLiaison on X
- Google was testing a ‘Define’ option for words directly on the SERP. Previously, there were two options: ‘Copy’ and ‘Define’. However, it appears that now only the ‘Define’ option is available., Shameem Adhikarath on X
- I’m also not flagging it as an issue to the Search Console folks, since hints like this are useful for site owners even if they’re not consistently used, John Mueller on X
- I imagine that we don’t use a cache when fetching sitemaps, it would be the reasonable thing to skip for something machine-readable like a sitemap file, or robots.txt, etc., John Mueller on Mastodon
- The most impressive and long-term impactful facet of GPT-4o is the two-way, streaming, interruptible, low-latency, full-duplex native speech. That is REALLY hard – possibly the first model that genuinely will be easier to talk to than type., Mikhail Parakhin on X
- When folks say that SEO is dead, will die, or go away, it would help to understand what they consider SEO to be. People do so many different things in the name of SEO – which of those things do they expect to change? (And there’s always change :-)), John Mueller on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Other Search
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