Adam Hafez

Google adds UGC Fresh Data Program for large platforms

Google's UGC Fresh Data Program lets approved platforms push user-generated content to Search outside crawling and the Indexing API.

Oct 8

SEOs report more manual actions as Google stays silent

Marie Haynes and Daniel Foley Carter say manual action cases are rising. It is anecdotal, with no Google data, and the spam update finished the same day.

Oct 8

Merchant Center may disapprove products that change often

Google's Merchant Center help page now warns that products whose price or stock changes more than daily may be disapproved instead of auto-updated.

Oct 8

The September 2026 spam update finished after 13 days

Google's September 2026 spam update finished on 8 October after 13 days and 16 hours, the longest of its 2026 spam updates. What it means for your data.

Oct 8

Google's local panel now shows a WhatsApp button

Google is showing a WhatsApp button in local panel results, beside or instead of chat. Google has made no statement and no rollout detail exists.

Oct 7

Google opens its SynthID detector to everyone

Google's SynthID Detector is now open to anyone, globally in English. It checks images, video and audio for watermarks, and nothing ties it to rankings.

Oct 7

Healthcare review snippets have dropped, Schema App reports

Schema App says review snippets fell for its healthcare customers since late May. Google has announced no change and its docs do not mention healthcare.

Oct 7

Merchant Center adds a UCP integration hub for US merchants

Google's Merchant Center is rolling out a UCP integration hub in the US, with checkout buttons for AI Mode and Gemini behind an interest form.

Oct 7

ChatGPT tests green and gray labels on product results

OpenAI is testing labels such as best all-rounder and best for beginners on ChatGPT product results, in green and gray. OpenAI has not commented.

Oct 6

Google Maps policy now limits promotions and pricing in listings

Google expanded the advertising and solicitation rules for Maps and Business Profiles: no time-bound promotions, pricing or calls-to-action in the listing.

Oct 6

Mueller: why a large aggregator is crawled but barely indexed

John Mueller told a site owner that URLs indexed from a large product aggregator redirect to the homepage, and that such sites are hard to justify.

Oct 6

Mueller: AI crawlers read sitemaps, Couldn't fetch explained

Google's John Mueller says AI crawlers can't submit sitemaps and that Couldn't fetch on a valid sitemap often comes down to host load or crawl demand.

Oct 6

OpenAI will watermark ChatGPT text in the EU

OpenAI adds an invisible watermark to ChatGPT and Codex text in the EU, with an API opt-in worldwide. Edits weaken it, and Google does not use it.

Oct 6

Search Console flags child property AI control overrides

Google's help page now says top-level domain owners see a notice on the Search generative AI control page when a child property overrides the parent.

Oct 6

Search Console now groups multiple countries in one filter

Search Console's performance report now lets you tick several countries and see their combined Google Search traffic, per two trade outlets.

Oct 6

Google ties more spam updates to a flood of new content

At Search Central Live, Google said spam updates target much new content, AI helps catch it, and scaled content now worries it more than link spam.

Oct 5

Search Console dark mode was a joke, per John Mueller

A dark mode mock-up shown at Search Central Live in Barcelona was first reported as coming, then described as a joke. Here is what each source says.

Oct 5

How long Google takes to crawl, index and update results

All 23 typical and slowest times Gary Illyes showed at Search Central Live Barcelona, as recapped by ROAST, plus caveats and Google's own docs.

Oct 5

RSS feed validator: check RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds

RSS feed validator: paste feed XML to check RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 for parse errors, required elements, dates, guids, enclosures and URLs. Runs in-browser.

Oct 4

UTM link builder

UTM link builder: add utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign to any URL, keep its query string and fragment, and copy the link. Free, in your browser.

Oct 3

Bing tests a Recommended by label on product results

Bing is testing a Recommended by section that names a company beside product thumbnails, with no link to it. Microsoft has not commented.

Oct 2

Google Discover eligibility gate: what Google's analyst said

Google's Discover trust and safety analyst described a three-way eligibility gate and image rules at Search Central Live Barcelona, per a ROAST recap.

Oct 2

Google warns against fake author profiles in its guidance

Google's helpful content page now calls fabricated creator profiles deception: AI headshots, made-up names and false credentials.

Oct 2

Google adds a main content section to its helpful content page

Google's people-first content page now defines main content and lists four attributes raters assess: effort, originality, talent or skill, and accuracy.

Oct 2

How Google turns a query into results, per a Barcelona recap

A ROAST recap of Mueller and Illyes in Barcelona: synonym expansion, AI fan-out queries missing from Search Console, and retrieval before ranking.

Oct 2

Shopify auto-enrols stores in new AI shopping channels

Shopify's Agentic setting shares eligible stores' products with AI chat apps by default, and in-chat checkout can bypass your own tracking code.

Oct 2

Google's AI contribution pilot pays about 100 publishers, report says

The Information reports Google pays about 100 publishers in its AI contribution pilot, with payments for several smaller sites under 0.1% of ad revenue.

Oct 1

Google rolls out AI Mode monitoring to everyone worldwide

Google is rolling out AI Mode monitoring to all users globally, after Ultra and Pro subscribers. It watches sites, forums, social posts and Shopping Graph.

Oct 1

Bing tests editable labels on images in search results

Bing is testing an Editable label and an edit icon on images in Bing Search that open its AI image creation tool. Microsoft has not commented.

Oct 1

Bing tests product feature labels on product listings

Bing is testing short feature labels such as lightweight and performs well on product grid listings, shown as a hover overlay. Microsoft has not commented.

Oct 1

ChatGPT adds virtual try-on and Favorites for shopping

OpenAI launched virtual try-on for clothing and accessories and a Favorites library in ChatGPT on mobile and web, announced on October 1, 2026.

Oct 1

Cloudflare moves Monetization Gateway and Pay Per Use into beta

Cloudflare put two AI payment products into beta on 30 September 2026: per-request charges for agents, and monthly payouts to publishers for reported use.

Oct 1

Google Analytics adds app conversions to cross-channel reports

Google Analytics now supports app conversions in its performance, attribution analysis and attribution models reports. Not every property has it yet.

Oct 1

Google Business Profile policy adds a misuse of support channels rule

Google added a Misuse of support channels section to its Business Profile policies: repeated unfounded complaints can be rejected without assessment.

Oct 1

Google Ads allows business name mismatch with domain

Google Ads updated its business name requirements policy, permitting name differences from destination domains for verified brands while barring resellers.

Oct 1

Google says fact-checking AI content is critical before publishing

Google updated its generative AI content guide on 1 October 2026: manually fact-check and review AI output, including titles, alt text and structured data.

Oct 1

Google tests AI Overview citations at the bottom and a loading button

Google is testing AI Overview citation cards below the answer instead of on the right, and a loading state in place of Show more. Neither is confirmed.

Oct 1

Google AI Overviews now show for many large brand queries

Chris Long found AI Overviews on 93% of about 100 large brand queries he tested. Most sit mid-page, and Google and news sites are exceptions.

Oct 1

Google Analytics outage on 29 September 2026 is resolved

Google confirmed a Google Analytics issue at 8:57 pm ET on 29 September and marked it resolved under an hour later. Google gave no cause.

Oct 1

Google appeals the EU order to share search data with rivals

Google appealed two EU Digital Markets Act decisions on 29 September 2026. Nick Fox says Europe's Search is degraded and spam checks were pulled back.

Oct 1

Google tests two rows of buttons in the mobile local panel

Google is testing two rows of action buttons in the mobile local panel, after earlier tests of a scrollable row and a numbered show more button.

Oct 1

Google Maps bug puts some business pins in the ocean

A reported Business Profile bug puts map pins in the ocean for some service area businesses that hide their address. Google has not commented.

Oct 1

Google Maps now asks you to sign in to read all reviews

Google Maps now asks for a Google account to read all reviews, sort them or leave one. Search Engine Roundtable guesses it aims at scrapers.

Oct 1

September 2026 spam update: tools show a heavy weekend

Rank tools showed heavy movement from 25 to 27 September 2026, days into the spam update's rollout. Google's dashboard still shows no completion entry.

Oct 1

Google tests sponsored products styled like the organic grid

Google is testing a sponsored products block laid out like the free product grid, with a small title as the main label. Google has not confirmed the test.

Oct 1

Google removes Web Search Service API documentation

Google's partner-only Web Search Service API docs were refreshed in September and now return a 404. An archived copy shows them. Google has not commented.

Oct 1

Google rewrites its Merchant Center API help page

The help page is now Google Merchant Center API, with setup steps, benefits and a note that Content API for Shopping is deprecated. We compared versions.

Oct 1

Publishers with OpenAI deals get 48% more ChatGPT citations

A study joining licensing-deal records to 129.3 million AI citations finds a ChatGPT premium for OpenAI partners, but no matching edge on Google.

Oct 1

Court dismisses Penske's AI Overviews lawsuit against Google

A court dismissed Penske Media's AI Overviews suit because it pleaded no actual agreement with Google. It did not rule on AI Overviews themselves.

Oct 1

Google removes the Search profile Follow button on desktop

Google appears to have dropped the Follow button for Search profiles on desktop results, though it stays on mobile. It reportedly returned days later.

Oct 1

SearchPilot: brand links on PDPs lift PLP traffic by 18%

SearchPilot split-tested turning unlinked brand text on product detail pages into links to brand category pages, finding an 18% uplift in organic traffic.

Sep 30

Merchant Center policy rewrite: which violations now get a warning

Google rewrote seven Shopping policy pages. Our diff shows which violations now get a 7-day warning, which still suspend at once, and the new examples.

Sep 28

Google research makes query fan-out an order of magnitude faster

Google's R4T research cuts query fan-out latency by an order of magnitude, tested on fashion and music benchmarks. Google has not said it runs in Search.

Sep 27

Google's SAFE paper targets AI slop channels, not web pages

Google's three-page SAFE paper describes AI agents that investigate clusters of channels posting AI slop. It never mentions web search or the spam update.

Sep 27

Bing tests calling its Copilot Search tab AI Mode

Bing is testing an AI Mode label on the search tab normally named Copilot Search, a month after testing Google's AI Overviews name for its answer box.

Sep 26

Google Business Profile posts now allow verified contact details

Google's posts policy no longer bans every phone number. It now removes unverified phone numbers, emails and social handles from Business Profile posts.

Sep 26

Google documents creator for VideoObject structured data

Google's video structured data docs now list creator, or author, as a recommended property and name the four interaction types it supports.

Sep 26

Google's September 2026 spam update: the fourth of 2026

Google started the September 2026 spam update on 24 September. It is the fourth spam update of 2026, 37 days after August's, with a two-week window.

Sep 26

What to do after a Google core update: Google's recovery steps

Google's own recovery steps after a core update: wait a week, compare the right dates, size the drop, self-assess and avoid quick fixes.

Sep 26

How to tell which Google update hit your site: a 5-step method

Match a Search Console drop to confirmed Google update dates using 7-day windows, search types and a manual actions check, then rule out overlaps.

Sep 26

Structured Data Markup Helper: is Google's tool still available?

What Google's Structured Data Markup Helper does, whether it still works, and what Google recommends for writing and testing structured data.

Sep 26

SearchPilot: adding 'The Best' to title tags lifted traffic 10%

SearchPilot split-tested putting 'The Best' at the start of an editorial site's title tags. The variant pages gained 10% more organic traffic.

Sep 26

AggregateRating schema checker for review snippets

AggregateRating schema checker: test JSON-LD against Google review snippet rules for ratingValue, counts, scale and item type. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 26

Google algorithm update checker: overlay updates on your traffic

Upload your Search Console clicks and see every Google-confirmed update on the same chart, with a week-before and week-after comparison for each. Free.

Sep 26

humans.txt generator

humans.txt generator: build a humans.txt file with TEAM, THANKS and SITE sections from the humanstxt.org template. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 26

Organization logo structured data generator

Logo structured data generator: build Organization JSON-LD with logo, url, name and sameAs, and check Google's logo rules. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 26

Reading age calculator: Flesch-Kincaid grade level

Reading age calculator: get the Flesch-Kincaid grade level of your text, the reading age it implies and its longest sentences. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 26

April 2018 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google released a broad core algorithm update on Monday 16 April 2018 and confirmed it on Twitter four days later. It gave no completion date.

Sep 26

April 2021 product reviews update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's first product reviews update launched on 8 April 2021 for English reviews and finished on 22 April. What it rewarded and what to do now.

Sep 26

April 2023 reviews update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's April 2023 reviews update ran 13 days from 12 to 25 April 2023 and widened the reviews system beyond products to services and things.

Sep 26

August 2018 core update (Medic): dates, what changed, what to do

Google's August 2018 broad core update was confirmed on 1 August 2018 and complete by 8 August. The industry nicknamed it Medic; Google said it was global.

Sep 26

August 2022 helpful content update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's first helpful content update ran 15 days from 25 August to 9 September 2022, adding a site-wide signal against unhelpful content.

Sep 26

August 2023 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's August 2023 core update ran 16 days from 22 August to 7 September 2023, announced on the Search Status Dashboard without a blog post.

Sep 26

August 2024 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's August 2024 core update ran 19 days from 15 August to 3 September 2024 and aimed to reward useful content, including small sites.

Sep 26

August 2025 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's August 2025 spam update ran just under 27 days from 26 August to 22 September 2025 and applied globally and to all languages.

Sep 26

August 2026 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's August 2026 spam update ran from 18 to 21 August 2026, about three days, globally and in all languages. Dates and what to do.

Sep 26

Austin update (2004): what was reported and what it means now

Austin was an unconfirmed Google ranking shake-up first reported on 24 January 2004. Google never confirmed it; WebmasterWorld named it.

Sep 26

BERT update (2019): what it changed and what it means now

Google announced BERT on 25 October 2019. It first helped with 1 in 10 US English searches and by 2020 was used in almost every English query.

Sep 26

Big Daddy update (2005): what changed and what it means now

Big Daddy was Google's 2005 to 2006 crawling and indexing upgrade. Matt Cutts named it and said it was fully deployed by 29 March 2006.

Sep 26

Bourbon update (2005): what changed and what it means now

Bourbon was a staged 2005 Google update that a Google employee described in forum posts as 3.5 improvements in search quality.

Sep 26

Domain diversity update (2010): more results from one site

On 20 August 2010 Google began showing more results from a single site when a query signalled strong interest in that domain. What it changed.

Sep 26

Caffeine indexing system (2010): what changed and what it means now

Google announced Caffeine complete on 8 June 2010: a new web index Google said gave 50 percent fresher results. It was an indexing change.

Sep 26

December 2017 updates (Maccabees): what Google said and what to do

Google confirmed several minor search improvements in mid-December 2017, not one update. Search Engine Roundtable nicknamed the changes Maccabees.

Sep 26

December 2020 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's December 2020 core update ran from 3 December to 16 December 2020, seven months after the May 2020 core update.

Sep 26

December 2021 product reviews update: dates and what to do

Google's December 2021 product reviews update ran 20 days, 1 to 21 December 2021, and added two new best practices for review content.

Sep 26

December 2022 helpful content update: dates and what to do

Google's December 2022 helpful content update ran 38 days from 5 December 2022 to 12 January 2023, improved the classifier and covered all languages.

Sep 26

December 2022 link spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's December 2022 link spam update ran 29 days from 14 December 2022 to 12 January 2023 and used SpamBrain to neutralize unnatural links.

Sep 26

December 2024 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's December 2024 core update ran 6 days from 12 to 18 December 2024, a week after the November core update and just before a spam update.

Sep 26

December 2024 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's December 2024 spam update ran 7 days from 19 to 26 December 2024, starting the day after the December 2024 core update finished.

Sep 26

December 2025 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's December 2025 core update ran 18 days, from 11 to 29 December 2025. Dates, what Google said, and how to check your own data.

Sep 26

Deepfake ranking update (2024): how Google demotes explicit fakes

On 31 July 2024 Google updated its ranking systems to demote explicit non-consensual fake content and sites with many removals for it.

Sep 26

Dewey update (2008): what was reported and what it means now

Dewey was a Google ranking shuffle first reported on 31 March 2008. Google never confirmed a change; the industry named it after a feedback keyword.

Sep 26

Exact match domain update (2012): what changed and what applies now

Google's exact match domain update of September 2012 reduced low-quality exact-match domains in results, affecting 0.6% of English-US queries.

Sep 26

Featured snippet deduplication (2020): what changed and what to do

From 22 January 2020, Google stopped repeating a page in the first page of results once it was shown as the featured snippet.

Sep 26

Page experience update for desktop: dates and what to do

Google's page experience update for desktop ran 9 days, 22 February to 3 March 2022, bringing mobile's page experience signals to desktop ranking.

Sep 26

February 2023 product reviews update: dates and what to do

Google's February 2023 product reviews update ran 14 days from 21 February to 7 March 2023 in 11 languages. Dates, scope and review guidance.

Sep 26

February 2026 Discover update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's February 2026 Discover core update ran about 22 days, 5 to 27 February 2026, for English-language users in the US. What changed and what to do.

Sep 26

Florida update (2003): what was reported and what it means now

Florida was an unconfirmed Google ranking shake-up first reported on 14 November 2003. Google never confirmed it; the industry named it.

Sep 26

Fred update (2017): what Google said and what it means now

Fred is the name attached to a March 2017 Google ranking change. Google acknowledged an update but never detailed it; here is what is on record.

Sep 26

Freshness update (2011): what it changed and what it means now

Google's freshness update of 3 November 2011 changed when recent results rank. Google said it noticeably impacted 6 to 10% of searches.

Sep 26

September 2026 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's September 2026 spam update ran 13 days and 16 hours, from 24 September to 8 October 2026. The dates, what Google said and what to do.

Sep 26

Hawk update (2017): the unconfirmed local filter change

Hawk is the industry name for a local search change observed on 22 August 2017 that loosened Possum's proximity filter. Google never confirmed it.

Sep 26

HTTPS ranking signal (2014): what changed and what applies now

On 7 August 2014 Google made HTTPS a lightweight ranking signal, affecting fewer than 1% of global queries. What it changed and what applies today.

Sep 26

Hummingbird (2013): what Google changed and what it means now

Hummingbird was Google's rebuilt ranking algorithm of August 2013, revealed on 26 September 2013 and aimed at the meaning of whole queries.

Sep 26

Intrusive interstitials update (2017): what changed and what now

From 10 January 2017, Google said mobile pages whose content is hidden behind intrusive interstitials may not rank as high. Here is what applies today.

Sep 26

Jagger update (2005): what changed and what it means now

Jagger was a three-part Google update from October 2005 that Matt Cutts tracked on his blog. The industry named it; Google asked for spam reports.

Sep 26

January 2016 core update: what Google confirmed and what to do

Google confirmed on 12 January 2016 that ranking changes seen that weekend were a core algorithm update, not Penguin. It gave the update no name.

Sep 26

January 2020 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's January 2020 core update went live on 13 January 2020. Google said on 16 January it was mostly done, but never gave a finish date.

Sep 26

July 2021 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's July 2021 core update ran from 1 to 12 July 2021 and delivered the improvements Google held back from the June 2021 core update.

Sep 26

July 2021 link spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's link spam update ran from 26 July to 24 August 2021, nullifying link spam across languages. What Google said about affiliate and guest post links.

Sep 26

July 2022 product reviews update: dates and what to do

Google's July 2022 product reviews update ran 6 days, 27 July to 2 August 2022, for English-language product reviews. What Google confirmed.

Sep 26

June 2019 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's June 2019 core update ran from 3 to 8 June 2019. It was the first core update Google announced before it went live.

Sep 26

June 2021 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's June 2021 core update ran from 2 to 12 June 2021 as the first half of a two-part release completed by the July 2021 core update.

Sep 26

June 2021 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's June 2021 spam update ran in two one-day parts, on 23 and 28 June 2021. What Google confirmed about it and what its spam policies say today.

Sep 26

June 2024 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's June 2024 spam update ran 7 days from 20 to 27 June 2024. Google gave no figures; sites that dropped should review its spam policies.

Sep 26

June 2025 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's June 2025 core update ran just under 17 days from 30 June to 17 July 2025, inside the up-to-three-weeks estimate Google gave at launch.

Sep 26

June 2026 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's June 2026 spam update ran from 24 to 26 June 2026, about two days, globally and in all languages. Dates and what to do.

Sep 26

March 2018 core update: what Google confirmed and what to do

Google confirmed on 12 March 2018 that it released a broad core algorithm update the previous week. It said there was no fix for pages that lost ground.

Sep 26

March 2019 core update: dates, the Florida 2 name and what to do

Google's March 2019 core update began on 12 March 2019. Google confirmed it on X and named it after the industry called it Florida 2.

Sep 26

March 2022 product reviews update: dates and what to do

Google's March 2022 product reviews update ran 14 days, 23 March to 6 April 2022, and clarified how ranked lists and best-of reviews are judged.

Sep 26

March 2023 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's March 2023 core update ran 13 days from 15 to 28 March 2023. Google published no impact figures; here is what is known and what to do.

Sep 26

March 2024 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's March 2024 core update ran 45 days from 5 March to 19 April 2024, changed multiple core systems and folded helpfulness into core ranking.

Sep 26

March 2024 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's March 2024 spam update ran just under 15 days from 5 to 20 March 2024, launched with the March 2024 core update and three new spam policies.

Sep 26

March 2025 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's March 2025 core update ran just under 14 days from 13 to 27 March 2025, matching the up-to-two-weeks estimate Google gave at launch.

Sep 26

March 2026 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's March 2026 core update ran 12 days, from 27 March to 8 April 2026, starting two days after the March 2026 spam update ended.

Sep 26

March 2026 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's March 2026 spam update ran from 24 to 25 March 2026, about a day, globally and in all languages, just before the March core update.

Sep 26

May 2020 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's May 2020 core update ran from 4 May to 18 May 2020. Google confirmed the start and the completion on X.

Sep 26

May 2022 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's May 2022 core update ran 15 days, from 25 May to 9 June 2022. What Google confirmed and what its core update guidance says to do.

Sep 26

May 2026 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's May 2026 core update ran just under 12 days, from 21 May to 2 June 2026. The dates, what Google said, and how to check your own data.

Sep 26

Mayday update (2010): what changed and what it means now

Mayday was a 2010 Google ranking change for long tail queries, named by WebmasterWorld users and confirmed by Matt Cutts on video.

Sep 26

Merchant reviews update (2010): demoting bad merchants

On 1 December 2010 Google added an algorithm to demote merchants giving an extremely poor user experience, after a New York Times story. What changed.

Sep 26

Mobile-friendly update (2015): what changed and what applies now

Google's mobile-friendly update began on 21 April 2015, boosting mobile-friendly pages in mobile results. The industry called it Mobilegeddon.

Sep 26

Mobile-friendly update (2016): the ranking boost and what applies now

Google strengthened its mobile-friendly ranking signal in May 2016, fully rolled out by 12 May. Some in the industry called it Mobilegeddon 2.

Sep 26

MUM (2021): what Google's Multitask Unified Model does in Search

Google announced MUM on 18 May 2021 as an AI model, not a ranking update. It is used for specific tasks, not for general ranking in Search.

Sep 26

November 2021 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's November 2021 core update ran 13 days, from 17 to 30 November 2021. What Google confirmed and what its core update guidance says to do.

Sep 26

November 2021 local search update (Vicinity): dates and what changed

Google's November 2021 local search update ran from 30 November to 8 December 2021 and rebalanced local ranking factors. SEOs called it Vicinity.

Sep 26

November 2021 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's November 2021 spam update ran from 3 to 11 November 2021. What Google confirmed, what it did not, and what spam policies say to do.

Sep 26

November 2023 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's November 2023 core update ran just under 26 days from 2 to 28 November 2023 and improved a different core system than the October 2023 update.

Sep 26

November 2023 reviews update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's November 2023 reviews update ran 29 days from 8 November to 7 December 2023, the last reviews update Google announced on its dashboard.

Sep 26

November 2024 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's November 2024 core update ran about 23 and a half days from 11 November to 5 December 2024, longer than the two weeks Google first estimated.

Sep 26

October 2022 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's October 2022 spam update ran two days, 19 to 21 October 2022, in all languages. Dates, what Google said and how to review your site.

Sep 26

October 2023 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's October 2023 core update ran just under 14 days from 5 to 19 October 2023, overlapping the October 2023 spam update almost exactly.

Sep 26

October 2023 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's October 2023 spam update ran from 4 to 19 October 2023 and targeted cloaking, hacked, auto-generated and scraped spam in many languages.

Sep 26

Openness local ranking change (2023): what Google confirmed

Google confirmed in December 2023 that whether a business is open became a stronger local ranking signal for non-navigational queries.

Sep 26

Page experience update (2021): what it changed and what it means now

Google's page experience update rolled out on mobile from 15 June to 2 September 2021, adding Core Web Vitals to ranking. What it means today.

Sep 26

Page layout algorithm (2012): what it changed and what it means now

Google's page layout algorithm of 19 January 2012 demoted pages with too many ads above the fold. It affected less than 1% of searches, Google said.

Sep 26

PageRank paid links update (2007): what changed and what it means now

In October 2007 Google confirmed it was lowering toolbar PageRank for some sites that sold links passing PageRank.

Sep 26

Panda 2.0 (2011): global English rollout and blocked-site data

On 11 April 2011 Google rolled Panda out to all English-language users and began using data on sites users blocked. About 2% of U.S. queries were affected.

Sep 26

Panda 4.1 (2014): a slow Panda rollout, 3% to 5% of queries

Google confirmed Panda 4.1 on 25 September 2014, a slow rollout Google said would affect about 3% to 5% of queries depending on location.

Sep 26

Panda 4.2 (2015): the slow Panda refresh and what it means now

Google confirmed a Panda refresh in July 2015 that hit 2% to 3% of English queries and took months to roll out. It was the last numbered Panda.

Sep 26

Panda 4.0 (2014): a new Panda algorithm, 7.5% of queries

Matt Cutts announced Panda 4.0 on 20 May 2014, a new version of the Panda algorithm that Google said affected about 7.5% of English queries.

Sep 26

Panda update (2011): what it changed and what it means now

Google's Panda update of 24 February 2011 cut rankings for low-quality sites and noticeably affected 11.8% of queries. It is now in core ranking.

Sep 26

Passage ranking (2021): what it changed and what it means now

Google's passage ranking went live for US English queries on 10 February 2021. What Google said it does, its stated reach, and what to do today.

Sep 26

Payday loan update (2013): what it changed and what it means now

Google's June 2013 ranking update for spammy queries such as payday loans, which the industry named the Payday loan update. What applies today.

Sep 26

Penguin 2.0 (2013): the next generation of Google's link spam fix

Google rolled out Penguin 2.0 on 22 May 2013, an updated webspam algorithm that affected about 2.3% of English-US queries. What changed and what it means.

Sep 26

Penguin 3.0 (2014): the link spam refresh and what it means now

Google confirmed a Penguin refresh on 17 October 2014, affecting less than 1% of English queries. Search Engine Land numbered it Penguin 3.0.

Sep 26

Penguin 4.0 (2016): real-time link spam and what it means now

Google's Penguin 4.0 launched on 23 September 2016, made Penguin real-time and more granular, and folded it into Google's core ranking systems.

Sep 26

Penguin update (2012): what it changed and what it means now

Google's Penguin update launched on 24 April 2012 to demote webspam such as link schemes and keyword stuffing. What changed and what applies today.

Sep 26

Pigeon update (2014): what it changed and what local SEO needs now

Google's July 2014 local search algorithm update tied local results to web search signals. Search Engine Land named it Pigeon. What applies today.

Sep 26

Pirate update (2012): what it changed and what it means now

In August 2012 Google began demoting sites with many valid copyright removal notices. The industry called it the Pirate update. What applies today.

Sep 26

Possum update (2016): the unconfirmed local search change

Possum is the industry name for a local search ranking change first observed on 1 September 2016. Google never confirmed it.

Sep 26

May 2015 quality update: what changed and what it means now

In May 2015 Google confirmed a change to how its core algorithm processes quality signals. The industry called it the Quality update, or Phantom 2.

Sep 26

RankBrain (2015): what Google's first AI ranking system does

Google disclosed RankBrain on 26 October 2015 as a machine-learning system for interpreting searches. It is still one of Google's ranking systems today.

Sep 26

Scraper filter (2011): Google's change against copied content

In late January 2011 Google launched an algorithm change favouring original content over sites that scraped or copied it. What changed.

Sep 26

September 2019 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's September 2019 core update went live on 24 September 2019. Google said it would not post when the rollout ended.

Sep 26

September 2022 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

Google's September 2022 core update ran 14 days from 12 to 26 September 2022 and overlapped a product reviews update. Dates and what to do.

Sep 26

September 2022 product reviews update: dates and what to do

Google's September 2022 product reviews update ran six days, 20 to 26 September 2022, on English-language reviews, overlapping a core update.

Sep 26

September 2023 helpful content update: dates and what to do

Google's September 2023 helpful content update ran about 13 and a half days from 14 to 28 September 2023 and improved the helpful content classifier.

Sep 26

Site reputation abuse policy (2024): dates, rules and what changed

Google's site reputation abuse spam policy took effect on 5 May 2024, was tightened in November 2024 and changed for the EEA in August 2026.

Sep 26

Speed update (2018): page speed in mobile ranking, then and now

Google's Speed Update made page speed a mobile ranking factor from 9 July 2018, affecting only the slowest pages. Core Web Vitals now carry that role.

Sep 26

Topic authority system (2023): how Google ranks expert news sources

Google described its topic authority system on 23 May 2023. It helps surface expert and local publications for news queries in Search and News.

Sep 26

Venice update (2012): what it changed and what it means now

Venice was Google's February 2012 launch codename for a local search change that relied more on main search ranking to trigger local results.

Sep 26

Vince update (2009): what changed and what it means now

The Vince update was a 2009 Google ranking change that Matt Cutts confirmed on video and said was about trust, not a push for big brands.

Sep 26

Bing tests another expandable sitelinks interface

Bing is testing a sitelinks variant that reveals a description under a sitelink only when the cursor hovers over it, per a 24 September 2026 report.

Sep 25

Google Business Profiles tests setting your hours automatically

Google is testing a Business Profile tool that reads a plain-text description of opening hours and fills in the schedule, per a report on X.

Sep 25

Google Ads adds raw IP addresses to Customer Match

Google Ads expanded Customer Match to eight columns, accepting raw IP addresses and interaction timestamps outside Europe to improve account match rates.

Sep 25

Google tests AI Overviews in the hotel side panel

Google is testing AI Overviews at the bottom right of hotel results, under the knowledge panel, not at the top of the page. Google has not confirmed it.

Sep 25

Ranking volatility hits September 23-24, spam update confirmed

Search Engine Roundtable tracked rank-tool volatility on 23 and 24 September 2026, and its report carries a note that Google confirmed a spam update.

Sep 25

Search Console splits web results into text and multimodal

The Performance report now has a Web: Multimodal search type for image-based searches, separate from Web: Text-based, and it has no query data.

Sep 25

Pages with no backlinks and Google traffic: Ahrefs' 14B-page data

Ahrefs found ~20 million indexed pages with no referring domains, and only 2,997 of them earn over 1K monthly search visits.

Sep 25

Search engine market share, August 2026: Statcounter

Statcounter puts Google at 91.02% of worldwide search in August 2026, ahead of Bing at 4.55%, against 90.37% across the prior twelve months.

Sep 25

Median home page weight 2025: 2.86 MB desktop, 2.56 MB mobile

The 2025 Web Almanac puts the median home page at 2.86 MB on desktop and 2.56 MB on mobile, with images and JavaScript the two largest parts.

Sep 25

YouTube citation share across AI search platforms, BrightEdge

BrightEdge measured YouTube's citation share in Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity and ChatGPT from May 2024 to September 2025. Here are its figures.

Sep 25

Ahrefs 600,000-page study: AI content and Google rankings

Ahrefs checked the top 20 Google results for 100,000 keywords with its AI detector and found almost no link between AI share and ranking position.

Sep 25

Title tags, H1s and content grade: what Backlinko found

Backlinko's 11.8M-result study found exact-match titles and H1s common on page one but unrelated to rank, while Clearscope content grade tracked position.

Sep 25

Does Google use Analytics bounce rate to rank pages?

John Mueller said on record that Google does not use Analytics bounce rate for ranking. What that statement covers, and what it leaves open.

Sep 25

Mobile vs desktop parity in the 2024 Web Almanac SEO chapter

HTTP Archive's 2024 Web Almanac SEO chapter compared mobile and desktop crawls. Titles, canonicals and word counts nearly match; a few gaps remain.

Sep 25

Subdomain vs subfolder: what Ahrefs found in Mention.com

Ahrefs checked Mention.com's January 2016 move from subdomain to subfolder in Site Explorer. Traffic shifted, and only new content produced growth.

Sep 25

Backlinko content relaunch: one post, organic traffic up 260.7%

Brian Dean reports a 14-day content relaunch of Backlinko's White Hat SEO post: organic traffic up 260.7% and the target keyword from 7th to 4th.

Sep 25

BODYBAR Pilates: unique studio pages lifted organic sessions 116%

Oneupweb rewrote 17 duplicate franchise studio pages for BODYBAR Pilates. Organic sessions rose 115.9% and conversions 198.1% year over year.

Sep 25

NFON merged its country domains into one gTLD, and Austria grew

searchviu's client case: NFON merged nfon.at into nfon.com/at/ and saw Austrian organic traffic up 90% in five months, with a Germany dip.

Sep 25

Brafton's accidental sitewide noindex: a six-week recovery

A sprint pushed noindex onto every Brafton page in August 2019. Search traffic fell 33.2% at the peak and took six weeks to return to baseline.

Sep 25

Rootly's AI citation rate rose from 3% to 30% in AthenaHQ case

AthenaHQ says Rootly's citation rate across tracked AI prompts rose from 3% to 30%. Here is what it reports, and what a vendor case cannot prove.

Sep 25

Course schema validator for Google course lists

Course schema validator: paste Course JSON-LD and check name, description, provider and the 60 character display limit. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 25

FAQ schema validator for FAQPage JSON-LD

FAQ schema validator: check FAQPage JSON-LD so every Question has a name and acceptedAnswer text. Notes Google's FAQ rich result removal. Free, in-browser.

Sep 25

LocalBusiness schema checker for required fields

LocalBusiness schema checker: tests JSON-LD for name, address, geo precision, priceRange and hours against Google's docs. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 25

Sitemap lastmod checker: W3C Datetime format audit

Sitemap lastmod checker: audit every lastmod in an XML sitemap against W3C Datetime and flag future and identical dates. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 25

Video schema validator: VideoObject required fields

Video schema validator: check VideoObject JSON-LD for Google's required and recommended properties, ISO 8601 dates and durations. Free, in your browser.

Sep 25

AdSense drops its identity verification threshold to $0

AdSense now asks for identity verification before an account can show ads or receive payments. The address verification threshold stays at $10.

Sep 24

Google auto-enables native checkout for Merchant Center stores

Merchants are getting emails saying products are eligible for checkout inside AI Mode and Gemini, with opt-out handled on the platform side.

Sep 24

AI shoppers now convert 54% better than non-AI traffic, Adobe finds

Adobe's May 2026 data shows AI-referred retail visits converting 54% better than non-AI traffic, a reversal from a year earlier.

Sep 24

Mobile vs desktop request share: Cloudflare Radar 2025

Cloudflare Radar's 2025 Year in Review puts mobile at 43% of global requests, up from 41%, with mobile ahead in 117 countries and regions.

Sep 24

Did sites recover after the HCU? Amsive's 400-site tracking

Amsive tracked about 400 sites hit by the September 2023 Helpful Content Update and found no known significant recoveries by late March 2024.

Sep 24

Does adding JSON-LD schema raise AI citations? Ahrefs test

Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD against matched controls. Here is the method, the citation changes by platform and the limits.

Sep 24

Digital PR case: 12 links, 143k visits in 6 weeks, per OneLittleWeb

OneLittleWeb reports a six-week Canadian digital PR campaign earned a finance blog 12+ editorial links and 143k+ new organic visits. What the case shows.

Sep 24

Product schema on a B2B store: +111% clicks, per Simplified Search

Simplified Search reports Product markup on one unnamed B2B ecommerce site lifted impressions 119% and clicks 111%, with no control group.

Sep 24

Image lazy loading and width/height checker

Image lazy loading checker: paste HTML to test every img tag for width and height, lazy loading on the likely LCP image. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 24

X-Robots-Tag header checker and validator

X-Robots-Tag header checker: validate rules, user-agent prefixes, max-snippet and preview values, dates and conflicts. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 24

Report: Google AI Overviews now carry far more external links

Peec AI data says AI Overviews with external links rose from close to 0% to over 25%. Search Engine Roundtable shares it with doubt.

Sep 23

Google switches hreflang doc examples to uppercase codes

Google now writes region codes in uppercase in its hreflang examples, such as en-GB, but its documentation says case does not matter to Google.

Sep 23

Google's Page Experience docs now list CrUX ad metrics

Google's Page Experience documentation now lists experimental CrUX ad metrics: ad count, ad density and ad weight. It does not call them a ranking signal.

Sep 23

Google AI Mode adoption and zero-click rate, Semrush 2025

Semrush clickstream data on Google AI Mode's first two months: usage grew about 4x to just over 1% of sessions, and 92-94% ended without an external click.

Sep 23

Google Discover now drives 67.5% of Google traffic to news sites

NewzDash's analysis of 400+ news publishers shows Discover's share of Google traffic rising from 37.03% in 2023 to 67.51% in Q4 2025.

Sep 23

Which SERP features sit next to AI Overviews, per Semrush

Semrush's refreshed study: Related searches (95.32%) and People Also Ask (90.03%) almost always appear beside an AI Overview, and ads now reach 25%.

Sep 23

HTTPS adoption in the 2025 Web Almanac: 97% of homepages

HTTP Archive's 2025 Web Almanac measured HTTPS on 97.3% of mobile homepages and 98.8% of requests. What the crawl method can and cannot show.

Sep 23

How old are the pages that rank in Google's top 10?

Ahrefs checked the age of top 10 pages for 1.3 million US keywords: 72.9 percent are over three years old, and the average number one page is five.

Sep 23

URL length and rankings: what the Backlinko study found

Backlinko's 11.8M-result study found shorter URLs correlate with slightly better Google rankings. Here is the method, the numbers and the limits.

Sep 23

One publisher's Discover-driven traffic and revenue, per Adsterra

Adsterra's case study of an independent Indian publisher: 8.45 million impressions, 703,948 clicks and $6,976.06 in revenue, about 95% from Discover.

Sep 23

On reports +67% Google traffic after prerendering its JavaScript site

On's Prerender.io case study reports +67% Google traffic and +98% Bing traffic after prerendering a JavaScript front end instead of building SSR.

Sep 23

Pillar pages lifted an agency's organic traffic 744% in 13 months

Campaign Creators reorganized six years of blog posts into three pillar pages and reports organic visits rising from 1,091 to 9,214.

Sep 23

Event schema validator for required fields and dates

Event schema validator: check Event JSON-LD for Google's required fields, UTC offsets, eventStatus and priceCurrency. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 23

Product schema checker for product snippets

Product schema checker: test Product JSON-LD against Google product snippet rules for name, offers, price, currency and stock. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 23

Recipe schema checker for required and recommended fields

Recipe schema checker: test Recipe JSON-LD for the required name and image, the calories and yield rule and ISO 8601 times. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 23

Google tests AI Overview links that lead into AI Mode, not a webpage

Google is testing anchor links inside AI Overviews that look like normal web links but open a follow-up question in AI Mode instead of a website.

Sep 22

Merchant Center documents Store ratings' review and star bar

Google added a requirements section to Merchant Center's Store ratings doc: a 100-review minimum, a 3.5-star floor, a 24-month window, per-country scoring.

Sep 22

Spammers are getting NotebookLM public pages indexed by Google

Black hat SEOs published spam through public Gemini NotebookLM notebooks and Google indexed over 12,000 pages; it removed the directory the next day.

Sep 22

Shopping Graph grew from 45 to 60 billion listings in 19 months

Google's own disclosures put the Shopping Graph at 45 billion listings in October 2024, 50 billion in January 2026, and past 60 billion by May 2026.

Sep 22

Does anchor text type actually correlate with Google rankings?

Ahrefs' 384,614-page study isolated exact, phrase, partial and random-match anchor text and found every correlation with rank was weak.

Sep 22

Italiaonline: 841% video click growth after schema fixes

Google's case study on Italiaonline reports an 841% rise in video clicks and 353% more impressions after fixing VideoObject structured data errors.

Sep 22

Noindex, canonical and sitemap conflict checker

Noindex, canonical and sitemap conflict checker: see where one page's three signals contradict Google's own guidance. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 22

Whitespark's 2026 local ranking factors: what actually moved

Whitespark surveyed 47 local search experts on 187 ranking factors for 2026. Here is the verified top 10 for the local pack and what changed since 2023.

Sep 21

Page weight and rankings: what the Backlinko study actually found

Backlinko and Ahrefs analyzed 11.8 million search results and found no correlation between page HTML size and Google rankings.

Sep 21

Silly Santa's 7-country hreflang rollout: a Skalum case study

Skalum's case study on Shopify brand Silly Santa: hreflang across 7 ccTLDs, with UK organic users up 297.5% and Norway's local traffic share up to 93%.

Sep 21

JobPosting schema checker: required and recommended fields

JobPosting schema checker: test job posting JSON-LD for Google's 5 required and 7 recommended fields, employmentType, expiry. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 21

Google Web Guide's classic search button doesn't work

A reported bug in Google Web Guide keeps the classic search button from exiting the feature. It reloads Web Guide instead of returning to normal search.

Sep 20

Which AI crawlers do news sites block most? CCBot tops 75%

A robots.txt scan of 100 top UK and US news sites finds CCBot blocked by 75%, the most of any AI bot. Google-Extended is the least-blocked training bot.

Sep 20

A year of SearchPilot split tests on adding FAQ schema

SearchPilot's aggregate split tests found FAQ schema was positive 67% of the time, with organic traffic uplifts of 4-15% while the rich result existed.

Sep 20

Valery Real Estate: 324,580 404s, then a 1,379% traffic recovery

Croton Content's audit found 324,580 broken URLs after a rebrand with no redirects. Fixing them took weekly organic sessions from 974 to a 12,276 peak.

Sep 20

Open Graph tag checker for required og properties

Open Graph tag checker: tests pasted og meta tags for the four required properties, relative URLs, duplicates and og:type. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 20

Google appears to be blocking scrapers and rank trackers harder

Since around September 13, 2026, rank-tracking and tracking tools report Google blocking more of their scraping, Nozzle citing an 80 percent data drop.

Sep 19

Portent: 1-second e-commerce sites convert 2.5x higher

Portent's aggregate analysis of 100 million page views across 20 sites found B2C conversion falls from 3.05% at 1 second to 0.67% at 4 seconds.

Sep 19

Does faster backlink growth move rankings faster?

Ahrefs tracked backlink growth for 200,000 pages across 10,000 keywords and found no observable link between acquisition pace and ranking movement.

Sep 19

REI cut 34 million URLs down to 300,000

REI's technical SEO team told Botify's Crawl2Convert summit how it cut its site from 34 million URLs to 300,000, including faceted navigation.

Sep 19

Meta viewport tag validator for mobile and zoom

Meta viewport tag validator: checks the content string for unknown keys, width=device-width and zoom blocking under WCAG 1.4.4. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 19

Bing now asks some searchers to verify they are human

Search Engine Roundtable reports Bing showing a verify-you-are-human checkbox before results. The trigger is unknown and the check was not reproduced.

Sep 18

OpenAI tests Sponsored Agents as a new ChatGPT ad format

OpenAI is testing Sponsored Agents: labeled conversations with a business agent that users start after clicking a ChatGPT ad, with select US advertisers.

Sep 18

Google Discover on desktop has disappeared, and Google is silent

Search Engine Roundtable reports Discover no longer appears on desktop Google.com, with no explanation from Google. What is verified and what is not.

Sep 18

Google tests an AI Mode button in the results page search bar

Google is testing an AI Mode button in the search bar on results pages, not only the home page. The button is inconsistent and regular search still works.

Sep 18

Google Search profiles get new article cards and a lower bar

Google cut the follower requirement for Search profiles to 10,000, added richer article views, and lets one account manage up to 10 profiles.

Sep 18

AI Overview trigger rate by query type: comparison queries hit 95%

Seer Interactive tracked 49,358 queries and found comparison searches trigger an AI Overview 95.4% of the time, versus 27.3% for single words.

Sep 18

Canonical tag adoption, 2025: 68% of desktop pages set one

The 2025 Web Almanac SEO chapter puts rel=canonical on 68% of desktop and 67% of mobile pages, up from 65%, with mismatches under 1%.

Sep 18

AI training now drives 52% of crawler requests, Cloudflare says

Cloudflare reports AI training made up 52% of identified crawler requests in June 2026, up from 22% in Spring 2025, with search crawling shrinking.

Sep 18

Where desktop Google searches end: Datos Q4 2025 data

Datos and SparkToro's Q4 2025 clickstream shows 24.5% of US desktop Google searches ended with no click in December, versus 25.1% a year earlier.

Sep 18

INP in 2025: 77% of mobile sites pass, but the top 1,000 lag at 63%

The 2025 Web Almanac's INP data: 77% of mobile sites have good INP, popular sites trail at 63%, and mobile home pages beat inner pages 80% to 69%.

Sep 18

llms.txt fetch counts: what AI crawlers requested on 83 sites

EZY Research's 12-week server-log panel shows OpenAI and Anthropic crawlers fetching llms.txt in single digits while pulling robots.txt thousands of times.

Sep 18

What correlates with AI brand mentions? Ahrefs' 75,000-brand study

Ahrefs correlated 12 metrics with brand mentions in ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overviews: web mentions beat backlinks, and it warns of no causation.

Sep 18

How accurate are sitemap lastmod values? Bing's study

Bing's study found 18% of sitemaps with lastmod set it wrongly, usually to the generation date, and Google says it uses only accurate ones.

Sep 18

How you chunk a page changes whether AI retrieves it at all

A 36-method academic benchmark found paragraph-based chunking nearly doubles retrieval accuracy over naive fixed-size splitting across six domains.

Sep 18

Do AI assistants cite fresher content than Google? Ahrefs data

Ahrefs compared the age of 16.975 million URLs cited by AI assistants against organic Google results. Here is the method, the numbers and the limits.

Sep 18

Reddit's top-3 share after the May 2026 core update

SE Ranking tracked 100,000 keywords in 20 niches and measured Reddit's share of Google's top three results. This piece reviews its method and limits.

Sep 18

Sistrix CTR study: how SERP layout changes position-1 clicks

Sistrix analyzed 80 million keywords and found position 1 averages 28.5% CTR, ranging from 13.7% to 46.9% depending on the SERP layout.

Sep 18

GBP overhaul at an auto detailer: calls up 471% year on year

A Map Ranking case study on CDC Detailing LLC in Pitman, NJ: Google Business Profile calls rose from 21 to 120 a month, March 2026 against March 2025.

Sep 18

Merchant Center feed fixes and three click gains, per Uproer

Uproer's published case study reports feed-level Google Merchant Center changes lifted clicks 130%, 116% and 3,500 for three unnamed ecommerce brands.

Sep 18

JunkCarsUs: HCU recovery from 30-50 to 400-500 clicks a day

SeoProfy's case study on JunkCarsUs: after the September 2023 HCU, pruning pages and rewriting templates preceded a rise to 400-500 daily clicks.

Sep 18

Log analysis cut a jewelry site from 16M to 730K crawlable pages

A JetOctopus case study: log files showed Googlebot spending crawl on filter, sort and pagination URLs, and closing them shrank the site to 730K pages.

Sep 18

Nuvemshop lifted good LCP from 57% to 96% by fixing image loading

Nuvemshop's web.dev case study: removing lazy loading on top images and adding fetchpriority took good LCP from 57% to 96% across its stores.

Sep 18

Programmatic SEO case: 100 pages, 398% traffic, per Suso Digital

Suso Digital reports a software supply chain client grew organic traffic 398.49% in 18 months from about 100 template pages. What the case shows.

Sep 18

Canonical chain and loop checker

Canonical chain and loop checker: paste url -> canonical pairs, follow every hop and catch loops and multi-hop chains. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 18

Hreflang XML sitemap generator

Hreflang sitemap generator: turn language codes and URLs into sitemap XML with xhtml:link alternates, and check codes and URLs. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 18

HTTP status code lookup for Google crawling

HTTP status code lookup: see how Google's crawlers handle each code you paste, plus a redirect hop count against the 10-hop limit. Free, runs in browser.

Sep 18

Nofollow link checker: rel sponsored and ugc audit

Nofollow link checker for pasted HTML: audits every link's rel against Google's sponsored, ugc and nofollow rules. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 18

Robots meta tag validator with combined Googlebot result

Robots meta tag validator: check meta robots and X-Robots-Tag rules against Google's list, and catch bad values and conflicts. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 18

URL normalizer: find duplicate URL variants

URL normalizer: paste a list of URLs, normalize them by RFC 3986 and your site policy, and find duplicate variants of one page. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 18

Google Analytics rolls out drag-and-drop custom dashboards

GA4 Dashboards let you drag dimensions and metrics onto a grid canvas, combining six chart types into one KPI page instead of separate reports.

Sep 16

Search Central Live returns to India for a Bengaluru date in October

Google's Search Central team holds a free, one-day Search Central Live event in Bengaluru on October 30, 2026, its first India event since 2023.

Sep 16

Logging bug undercounted impressions in Search Console's AI report

A logging error cut reported impressions in Search Console's Generative AI report from August 13, 2026, Google says, with no real drop in visibility.

Sep 16

Google ranking volatility spikes sharply, no update confirmed

SEO chatter spiked on 15 September 2026 and rank-trackers may be heating up. Barry Schwartz suspects an update is starting; Google has confirmed nothing.

Sep 16

An unconfirmed September update hit big sites, then fully reversed

Glenn Gabe tracked large sites dropping hard around September 3-4, 2026, then surging back on September 13. Google confirmed neither move.

Sep 16

How much AI Overview citations overlap with the top 10

BrightEdge's tracking: only 17% of AI Overview citations also rank in the organic top 10, a figure flat for months, with wide swings by industry.

Sep 16

AI referral traffic to publishers doubled in a year, Similarweb finds

Similarweb measured 770.7 million monthly AI referral visits worldwide, up 117.4% year over year, led by marketplaces and news.

Sep 16

Core Web Vitals by CMS, 2025: Duda and Wix lead, WordPress lags

The 2025 Web Almanac's CMS chapter breaks Core Web Vitals pass rates down by platform: Duda at 85%, Wix up from 55% to 74%, WordPress at 45%.

Sep 16

WebSite leads schema.org type adoption at 12.73% of mobile pages

The 2024 Web Almanac breaks JSON-LD down by schema.org type: WebSite tops out at 12.73% of mobile pages, Organization at 7.16%, Product at just 0.77%.

Sep 16

Google SERP volatility by category, mid-September 2026

Semrush Sensor's live index reads 2.1 out of 10 for mid-September 2026, but News and Finance run far hotter than Science or Health.

Sep 16

A randomized field experiment on AI Overviews and organic clicks

A randomized Chrome-extension experiment hid AI Overviews for 1,065 searchers. This piece analyzes Agarwal and Sen's SSRN study of the CTR impact.

Sep 16

What happened when someone actually A/B tested author bylines

SearchPilot ran a real controlled SEO split test on author bylines and bios. Result: no detectable ranking gain, and possibly a small loss.

Sep 16

SearchPilot test: a redirect over a canonical, inconclusive

A SearchPilot split test added 301 redirects atop an existing canonical tag for trailing-slash duplicates. The result stayed inconclusive.

Sep 16

What a 10M-page site shows about links and crawl budget

Botify's case study of a US auto marketplace: 99% of pages uncrawled, then 19x more crawl activity after linking, robots.txt and sitemap fixes.

Sep 16

Why title rewrite rate studies disagree: 33% vs 61% vs 76%

Ahrefs found a 33.4% title rewrite rate, far below Zyppy's 61.6% and Search Engine Land's 76%. The gap traces to how each study defines a match.

Sep 16

CoinStats: Good URLs and impressions up 3x

DebugBear's case study: CoinStats updated about 15,000 pages and moved off Base64 images; it reports Good URLs and their impressions up 3x.

Sep 16

Home Science Tools: pruning 200 blog pages, organic sessions up 104%

Inflow's case study on HomeScienceTools.com: removing roughly 200 low-value blog pages preceded a 104% rise in sessions and 102% rise in transactions.

Sep 16

IFTTT's internal linking fix and its 33% YoY traffic gain

Uproer's case study on IFTTT: searchbots reached only 59 pages via internal links until a fix, after which the site saw 33% YoY organic traffic growth.

Sep 16

Marshfield Clinic: 454% CTR gain from schema markup

Schema App's customer story on Marshfield Clinic reports a 454% CTR increase when a Review Snippet was awarded, plus 32% from entity linking.

Sep 16

Simms Fishing's Magento to Shopify migration: the real numbers

Inflow's case study: Simms Fishing saw organic traffic up 126% YoY and non-brand category traffic up 5,642% after a Magento to Shopify move.

Sep 16

Faceted navigation URL parameter checker

Faceted navigation URL checker: test a filtered URL's parameters against Google's crawling guidance and get a robots.txt block. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 16

ccTLD vs subdomain vs subdirectory planner for international SEO

ccTLD vs subdomain vs subdirectory: rank four international URL structures against Google's documented pros and cons for you. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 16

Meta refresh redirect checker: permanent or temporary

Meta refresh redirect checker: parses the delay and target, then shows whether Google reads it as permanent or temporary. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 16

Pagination canonical tag checker

Pagination canonical tag checker: catch later pages canonicalized to page 1, repeated URLs and page numbers after a #. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 16

Robots.txt validator: whole-file syntax checker

Robots.txt validator: lint every line for syntax errors, unsupported fields, bad paths and relative sitemap URLs. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 16

Google documents its EEA-only aggregator and supplier units

Google's September 2026 changelog documents aggregator units, supplier units and carousels: result formats limited to the EEA, South Africa and Turkiye.

Sep 12

How many confirmed Google updates ship a year, 2015 to 2026

85 confirmed major Google updates since 2015, counted year by year, next to Google's own figure for total changes, and why the two must stay separate.

Sep 11

JSON-LD validator for schema.org structured data

JSON-LD validator: find syntax errors by line and column, then check the fields Google requires for 7 schema types. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 11

Google splits site reputation enforcement along the EEA border

From 30 August, a site reputation manual action changes results only outside the EEA. Inside it, the section is separated and left to rank on its own.

Sep 10

llms.txt and robots.txt have two separate, unrelated standards tracks

A W3C tracking issue on llms.txt and an unrelated IETF working group on robots.txt-adjacent AI signals are getting blended into one false headline.

Sep 10

Every confirmed Google ranking update since August 2025

Eight confirmed updates, with Google's own start dates and rollout durations, and what the pattern says about when to judge a decline in your data.

Sep 10

Who blocks AI crawlers: 60 robots.txt files, read in full

We read the robots.txt of 60 publishers and SEO vendors. News sites block AI crawlers almost universally. The SEO industry does not.

Sep 10

llms.txt is a vendor standard, not a publisher one

Only 14 of 60 major sites serve an llms.txt. Half of them sell SEO or hosting software. One is a news publisher. The file has an audience problem.

Sep 10

Redirect chain checker for hops, loops and mixed codes

Redirect chain checker: paste the hops you collected and check hop count, loops, mixed 301 and 302 codes and https drops. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 10

Bing reports how often AI answers cite your pages

AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools counts citations in Copilot and AI answers, names the cited URLs, and shows the queries behind them.

Sep 9

Search Console now reports impressions from Google's AI features

Google added a generative AI performance report to Search Console, showing how often your pages surfaced inside AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover.

Sep 9

Search Console now measures your TikTok, X and YouTube posts

Platform properties let a creator see the queries that lead people to their Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube content on Google Search and Discover.

Sep 9

AEO checker: AI answer readiness score for articles

AEO checker that scores an article's opening answer, headings, ids, lists, citations, schema and date for AI answers. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 9

Image alt text checker

Image alt text checker: paste HTML to find missing, empty, generic and keyword-stuffed alt attributes on every img tag. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 9

robots.txt and llms.txt generator for AI crawlers

robots.txt and llms.txt generator for AI crawlers: allow or block GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended and 11 more by purpose. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 9

Structured data markup helper: JSON-LD schema generator

Schema markup generator: build JSON-LD for Article, NewsArticle, FAQPage, VideoObject, Organization and BreadcrumbList. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 9

Meta title and description checker with SERP preview

Meta title and description checker: measure title and meta description length in pixels and characters with a Google preview. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 9

The August 2026 spam update finished in under 3 days

Google's August 2026 spam update ran from 18 to 21 August. Here is how to tell a spam-update drop from a core-update drop in your own data.

Sep 8

Search Central Live expands to Bogota and Ciudad de Mexico

Google's Search Central team adds Bogota to its live event roster and returns to Ciudad de Mexico in October, alongside a three-day Deep Dive in Barcelona.

Sep 8

How often Google rewrites a title tag: 61.6% to 76%

Two independent studies measured how often Google rewrites a title tag rather than using it as written: 61.6% in 2022, 76% by 2025.

Sep 8

Breadcrumb schema generator (BreadcrumbList JSON-LD)

Breadcrumb schema generator: build BreadcrumbList JSON-LD row by row, with position, name and URL checks from Google's docs. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 8

Google opens AI Mode ads to exact and phrase match keywords

Google confirmed on 4 September 2026 that exact and phrase match keywords can serve text ads in AI Mode, once reserved for AI Max and Performance Max.

Sep 7

Why four 2026 'ChatGPT market share' numbers do not agree

StatCounter, Similarweb, Sensor Tower and OpenAI itself all published a 2026 ChatGPT usage figure. None of the four is measuring the same thing.

Sep 7

Redirect map generator: CSV, .htaccess and Nginx

Redirect map generator for site migrations: map old URLs to new and export CSV, .htaccess Redirect 301 or Nginx rewrite rules. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 7

Bing tests bolded HTTPS and snippets without site names

Two separate September 2026 Bing tests change result snippets: one bolds the https segment of the URL, the other drops the site name line.

Sep 6

Publisher reports Google News sitemap data stuck in Search Console

A publisher says the indexed pages report for its news sitemap has not moved since August 28, even though new articles are indexed and visible.

Sep 6

Core Web Vitals checker for LCP, INP and CLS scores

Core Web Vitals checker: rate LCP, INP and CLS values as Good, Needs improvement or Poor and see if all three pass. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 6

SearchPilot: removing a breadcrumb link cut organic traffic 5.5%

SearchPilot split-tested removing a self-referential breadcrumb link on PLPs. Traffic fell 5.5%, likely from a schema markup mismatch left behind.

Sep 5

Canonical tag checker for rel=canonical URLs

Canonical tag checker: test a page URL and its rel=canonical for absolute URL, HTTPS, self or cross reference, domain and tracking. Free, in your browser.

Sep 5

Robots.txt tester: check if a URL is blocked for a bot

Robots.txt tester: check if a URL path is blocked for Googlebot, GPTBot or any bot, and see the exact rule that decides it. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 4

Does llms.txt do anything? Three studies say mostly no

97% of published llms.txt files get zero requests. A 10-site traffic test found no effect in 8 cases. The one positive figure has its own confound.

Sep 3

Sitemap vs robots.txt checker: find blocked sitemap URLs

Sitemap vs robots.txt checker: find sitemap URLs that a robots.txt Disallow rule blocks for Googlebot or any user-agent. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 3

Flesch reading ease and reading time calculator

Flesch reading ease calculator with reading time: score pasted text and see its band, word, sentence and syllable counts. Free, runs in your browser.

Sep 2

Google confirms AI Overviews now auto-expand on some queries

Google confirmed on 28 August 2026 that AI Overviews can dynamically expand into a full, detailed answer for some queries, dropping the Show more control.

Aug 31

Keyword cannibalization checker for page titles and H1s

Keyword cannibalization checker: compare titles or H1s across your pages and flag near-duplicate pairs by word overlap. Free, runs in your browser.

Aug 31

SearchPilot: canonicalizing to a variant lifted variant traffic 22%

SearchPilot canonicalized product pages to a variant's URL instead of self-referencing. Variant pages gained 22%; main pages stayed inconclusive.

Aug 30

Bulk meta title and description length checker

Bulk meta title and description length checker: paste many pages and see which titles and descriptions truncate, in pixels. Free, runs in your browser.

Aug 29

How Google's scaled-content spam enforcement moved through 2026

From the May 2026 spam-policy revision to the August spam update, tracing enforcement against mass-produced, low-value content across 2026.

Aug 28

Site reputation abuse: what the evidence actually shows

Google has enforced its site reputation abuse policy since May 2024. Here is what is documented versus what is anecdotal case tracking.

Aug 28

DOM.RIA's internal linking rebuild and its Googlebot crawl visits

JetOctopus's case study on real estate site DOM.RIA, reworking links to poorly-crawled directory pages more than doubled Googlebot visits.

Aug 27

Hreflang tag generator and checker

Hreflang tag generator: build link rel=alternate hreflang tags for localized URLs and check codes, self-references and x-default. Free, runs in browser.

Aug 27

Social media link preview for Facebook, LinkedIn and X

Social media link preview: see how your og:title, description and image look as a shared card on Facebook, LinkedIn and X. Free, runs in your browser.

Aug 25

Google fixes a favicon bug and a Search Console crawl stats gap

Google fixed a bug replacing site favicons with a default globe icon in search results, and separately restored a two-day gap in Crawl Stats data.

Aug 24

AI citation patterns shift sharply by search intent, Wix data shows

Wix Studio's AI Search Lab found articles win informational queries 2.7x more, and listicles and product pages win commercial and transactional ones.

Aug 24

How five llms.txt trackers reported five different adoption rates

Five independent trackers measured llms.txt adoption since late 2025 and reported 7.4% to 28%, because none counted the same thing.

Aug 23

SEO-friendly URL checker and structure analyzer

SEO-friendly URL checker: test a URL's separators, parameters, length, depth and opaque IDs against Google's URL guidance. Free, runs in your browser.

Aug 23

Three named companies with real, checkable traffic declines

Chegg, Business Insider and HubSpot all show real, checkable declines. A widely repeated CNN figure does not survive a source check.

Aug 21

XML sitemap validator: syntax, limits and tags

XML sitemap validator: check sitemap XML for parse errors, namespace, loc, lastmod, changefreq, priority and URL limits. Free, runs in your browser.

Aug 21

Google adds a custom button for preferred sources in Search

Google's docs now explain how to add an interactive button that lets readers pick your site as a preferred source. Here is what the documentation says.

Aug 20

How long domain migrations take to recover organic traffic

A 892-migration study found the average new domain took 523 days to match the old domain's organic traffic, and 17% never did within 1,000 days.

Aug 19

Meta robots tag generator and X-Robots-Tag builder

Meta robots tag generator: build noindex, nofollow, max-snippet and other rules as a meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header. Free, runs in your browser.

Aug 19

IETF's AI Preferences group is still drafting, not shipping

The IETF's AI Preferences group is standardizing AI training and search signals that extend robots.txt. Still an Internet-Draft, not a shipped standard.

Aug 18

Google's own data: Rakuten and Vodafone Core Web Vitals A/B tests

Google's web.dev logged two named A/B tests: Rakuten 24 saw 53.37% more revenue per visitor, Vodafone saw 8% more sales after a 31% LCP gain.

Aug 17

Google search operators query builder

Google search operators builder: combine site:, filetype:, quotes, minus, intitle: and OR into one query and open it in Google. Free, runs in your browser.

Aug 17

Do internal links still track with Google Search traffic in 2026?

Zyppy's 23-million-link study and Google's own crawling documentation show why pages with few internal links struggle to get discovered and clicked.

Aug 15

Anchor text ratio and diversity calculator

Anchor text ratio calculator: sort backlink anchors into exact, partial, branded, generic, naked URL and other, with shares. Free, runs in your browser.

Aug 15

Gemini 3.7 Flash reaches AI Mode, a day after its release

Google added Gemini 3.7 Flash to AI Mode's model picker on 14 August 2026, limited to AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, one day after the model shipped.

Aug 14

Keyword density checker with word count

Keyword density checker: count words and whole-phrase keyword matches in your draft, then see density as a percentage. Free, runs in your browser.

Aug 13

French publishers file complaint over Google AI Mode

French press alliance APIG asked the competition authority on 11 August 2026 to enforce 2022 commitments after Google launched AI Mode in France.

Aug 11

SearchPilot: promoting an H2 to H1 lifted organic traffic 4.5%

SearchPilot split-tested changing a travel site's top heading from an H2 to an H1. The change produced a statistically significant 4.5% traffic increase.

Aug 11

JSON-LD structured data adoption grew from 34% to 41% of pages

HTTP Archive's Web Almanac found JSON-LD on 41% of pages in 2024, up from 34% in 2022, while RDFa and Open Graph stayed the most common formats.

Aug 11

ChatGPT Ads adds oCPC bidding and a product carousel

OpenAI added beta conversion bidding, dynamic URL macros and a multi-product carousel to ChatGPT Ads, reported on August 7, 2026.

Aug 10

One publisher's Google Discover traffic loss and recovery

A consultant's self-reported case: a client site's Discover impressions hit zero for weeks, then recovered after a quality fix. One case, not a study.

Aug 9

Deloitte: 0.1s faster mobile speed lifted retail conversion 8.4%

Deloitte's 2019 study of 37 brand sites found a 0.1s mobile speed gain lifted retail conversion 8.4%. Shopify data adds a 100ms benchmark.

Aug 8

Ahrefs: AI Overviews cut position-1 CTR by 58%

Ahrefs analyzed 300,000 keywords via Google Search Console and found AI Overviews now cut position-1 desktop CTR by 58%, up from 34.5% in April 2025.

Aug 6

SearchPilot: FAQ content lifted traffic, FAQ schema did not

SearchPilot split-tested FAQ content and FAQ schema. Content added 9.7% more organic clicks; removing schema alone changed nothing.

Aug 5

Review and AggregateRating schema: Google's real required fields

Google's own review-snippet documentation names exact required properties and abuse rules. Markup that passes a property check can still break the rules.

Aug 4

Zero-click Google searches hit 68% in the US

SparkToro and Similarweb's June 2026 report puts US Google zero-click search at 68.01%, up from 60.45% in 2024.

Aug 4

Mobile vs desktop Core Web Vitals: INP gap widest, CLS flips

HTTP Archive's July 2025 data broken down by metric: INP splits mobile and desktop by 20 points, LCP by 12, and CLS reverses the pattern entirely.

Aug 2

Pagination and infinite scroll: what Google actually indexes in 2026

rel=next/prev has been dead as an indexing signal since 2019, per Google's own words. Infinite scroll without real URLs is the same mistake in new clothes.

Aug 1

Do backlinks still correlate with rankings in 2026?

Backlinko's 11.8M-result study and Ahrefs' 1M-keyword study both find a positive link between referring domains and rank, but the coefficient is weak.

Jul 31

AI citation hallucination rates: what three real studies found

GPTZero, the Tow Center and a Cureus study each measured AI citation hallucination differently, and none of their numbers agree with each other.

Jul 30

Hreflang error rates: what's actually sourced, and what isn't

Two widely repeated hreflang error statistics do not trace to any real source. Here is what could be verified instead, from Google's own documentation.

Jul 29

SearchPilot: nearby-region links lifted organic traffic 7%

SearchPilot split-tested linking each of 8,000 regional pages to its 6 nearest neighbors. Linked pages saw a 7% organic traffic uplift over controls.

Jul 28

Google's own numbers: structured data lifted CTR 25-82%

Google's own documentation reports Rotten Tomatoes at 25% higher CTR and Nestle at 82% higher CTR from structured data. Here is what each figure measures.

Jul 27

What academic research actually says about AI citation factors

Three 2026 studies measured what predicts citation by AI search engines. Position and relevance win; most citations skip brand domains entirely.

Jul 25

Google adds review snippet rule on fake and incentivized reviews

Google's review snippet docs now bar fake reviews and undisclosed incentivized ones from your page and markup. Logged in the updates log on 24 July 2026.

Jul 24

Noindex does not save crawl budget, per Google's own documentation

A common crawl-budget fix is backwards. Google's own documentation says noindex still costs a full request before the page gets dropped from the index.

Jul 23

NavBoost: what the DOJ trial and the API leak actually confirmed

Court testimony and a leaked Google document, read together, describe a click-based ranking system Google spent years declining to confirm in public.

Jul 21

VideoObject schema: the required properties Google actually documents

Google documents three required VideoObject properties, not the four often claimed, plus exact date and duration formats and a rich-result caveat.

Jul 21

Core Web Vitals and rankings: what the correlation shows

CrUX data and a 20,000-URL ranking study both show a link between Core Web Vitals and rank, but Google's own docs put content relevance first.

Jul 19

Googlebot's two-wave rendering: how long JS content actually waits

A 2024 Vercel and MERJ study measured the real gap between crawl and render at scale. The median was seconds; the tail stretched to a full day.

Jul 17

E-E-A-T and author schema: what is actually verifiable

SEO content repeats precise E-E-A-T ranking-weight percentages. We checked the two most-cited figures against their sources and Google's own documentation.

Jul 15

Does content length correlate with rankings and AI citations?

Ahrefs' December 2025 study puts the word count to AI Overview citation correlation at 0.04. Backlinko's 11.8M-result study finds no ranking edge either.

Jul 15

AI Overview traffic decline: seven claims, four hold up

Studies put the AI Overview traffic hit from 24% to 80%. We traced seven quoted figures to source; four hold up, and they measure different things.

Jul 14

What Google actually names in its own ranking systems guide

Google publishes a real, maintained list of the named systems behind Search ranking. Read directly, not summarized secondhand.

Jul 14

AI citation rate by content format: what checks out

Six precise stats on AI citation rates by content format circulate online. Two trace to real studies, one to a paper. Three fail verification.

Jul 13

Local ranking factor percentages: what's real, what's not

A specific local ranking percentage breakdown circulates widely. It doesn't match Whitespark's real 2026 chart, and Google names no percentages at all.

Jul 13

How three CTR trackers reported three different position-1 rates

Three trackers measured 2026 organic CTR by position and reported position 1 anywhere from 27.6% to 39.8%, because none used the same method.

Jul 11

How often AI Overviews actually appear, January 2025 to April 2026

Semrush's own tracking: 6.49% of keywords in January 2025, a July peak near 24.61%, then 15.69% in November - the real trend, not a snapshot.

Jul 6

Mobile-first indexing, from 2016 test to 2023 completion

Tracing Google's mobile-first indexing announcements from 2016 to the 2023 completion notice, and its documentation on mobile-desktop content parity.

Jul 6

x-default's real history: what Google has actually said, on record

x-default has been explained by Google at least three times since 2013. Here is the real, dated wording each time, and what current documentation says.

Jul 6

HTTPS as a Google ranking signal in 2026

Google called HTTPS a very lightweight ranking signal in 2014 and has never revised that number. Adoption data now shows why it barely needs to.

Jul 3

Bot traffic passes human traffic on Cloudflare's network

Cloudflare's CEO says automated requests for HTML pages now outnumber human ones, ahead of his own 2027 forecast.

Jul 1

AI crawler block rate: how often a 403 actually stops the bot

Cloudflare network data: 7.9% of AI crawler requests got a 403 in H1 2026, and crawler 4xx rates tripled in a year, unlike robots.txt rule counts.

Jul 1

What Google's own Discover documentation actually says

Google's Discover eligibility page sets an exact image-size floor and a named list of content policies. Here is what it says, word for word.

Jun 30

What Google has actually said about Google Lens search volume

Google's own dated numbers: 12 billion Lens searches a month in June 2023, nearly 20 billion by October 2024 - and why the 22%/26% claims don't check out.

Jun 30

How much link equity does a 301 redirect actually pass?

Google has never published a percentage for how much link equity a 301 redirect passes. The 90-99% figure in circulation comes from somewhere else.

Jun 29

Search Console configures Performance reports from a prompt

AI-powered configuration turns a natural-language request into Search Console filters, comparisons and metric choices, no manual setup required.

Jun 28

Featured snippet stats: which numbers are real, and which aren't

Featured snippet prevalence and CTR figures vary by nearly 2x across sources. Here is which trace to a real, dated study, and which don't trace anywhere.

Jun 25

Google removes FAQ rich results from Search

FAQPage markup no longer earns an expanded snippet in Google Search as of 7 May 2026, though the markup stays valid and Google says leaving it is harmless.

Jun 22

Article schema has no required properties, only recommended ones

Google's own Article structured data documentation names zero required properties, only recommended ones, which changes how schema work gets prioritized.

Jun 22

How often Google rewrites a meta description: three studies compared

Portent, Ahrefs and Search Engine Journal put Google's meta description rewrite rate at 71%, 62.78% and over 70% in 2020. Only two are real studies.

Jun 19

IndexNow keeps growing, but Google stays out

Bing's own published numbers show IndexNow submissions climbing steadily since 2022, yet Google still has no roadmap to join the instant-indexing protocol.

Jun 16

What Google and Bing actually say about schema and AI

Schema.org's own numbers, Google's AI documentation and Bing's public statements, separated from unverified SEO claims.

Jun 14

The page experience update: the real 2021-2022 rollout timeline

Google's own dated posts trace the page experience rollout from 2020 to its 2022 desktop finish, and what the 2026 docs now drop.

Jun 13

The May 2026 core update finished after 11 days, its second this year

Google's May 2026 broad core update ran 21 May to 2 June, its second confirmed core update of 2026. What the dates mean for reading your own traffic.

Jun 10

Search Console adds a branded vs non-branded query filter

A new Performance report filter splits branded and non-branded queries using an AI-assisted classifier, not manual keyword rules.

Jun 10

AMP's traffic record: five publishers, five different outcomes

Independent.ie gained 55% mobile traffic on AMP. Kinsta lost 59% of its leads. Here is what really happened across five documented, named case studies.

Jun 5

Schema.org's vocabulary hit 823 types with version 30.0 in 2026

Schema.org's own release notes put the vocabulary at 823 types and 1,529 properties as of version 30.0, alongside a new Google-backed usage dataset.

Jun 4

Merchant Center adds AI Performance Insights for share of voice

A new Merchant Center report benchmarks brand visibility on AI Mode and AI Overviews, plus shopping funnel and attribute-gap data.

May 20

AI Overview citations are decoupling from search rank

Ahrefs data shows top-10 pages went from 76% to 38% of AI Overview citations in eight months. Ranking well no longer guarantees a citation.

May 6

Google's review-fraud scale, and its April 2026 policy tightening

Google's own Maps blog states 2025 review-fraud enforcement scale, and its April 2026 update bans staff review quotas and naming employees in reviews.

Apr 17

Google's 2026 Merchant Center product spec, three effective dates

New shipping and video attributes, a higher minimum image resolution and a longer rollout: what changes on 14 April 2026, 30 June 2026 and 31 January 2027.

Apr 16

Google ships its first Discover-only algorithm update

Google's first Discover-only core update ran three weeks, targeted clickbait and thin republishing. Discover clicks arrive fast: over 70% land on day one.

Mar 31

Penske Media v. Google: the antitrust timeline so far

Penske Media sued Google over AI Overviews in 2025. The dated record: the complaint, Google's dismissal motion, Penske's opposition, and an EU complaint.

Feb 12

AI Mode passed 200 countries and territories, and entered the EU

Google added more than 35 languages and 40 countries to AI Mode, reaching EU markets including Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland.

Oct 9

SearchPilot: breadcrumb placement has no impact on SEO

SearchPilot split-tested moving breadcrumbs to the top and bottom of listing pages. Both tests were inconclusive, showing placement does not alter rank.

Apr 18