🖼️

​AI Mode is now multimodal, allowing users to search using images as well as text and speech. AI Mode can identify multiple objects in an image to build a multi-layered response using Google's 'query fan-out technique'.

📑

​Google has filed a new patent for search based on a user's browsing and email history. This uses NLP to help users retrieve previous search results, even if the user's search is vague. e.g. "Where did I buy that cat food from last week?"

🖥️

​Google confirms that Discover is coming to Desktop. Discover has been tested on Desktop previously and it appears that a rollout will be starting sooner rather than later.

🔗

​Google confirms that AI Overviews link to other Google search results on purpose. This controversial addition to AIOs discovered a few weeks ago and Google has stated that they will continue to "expand links out to the web."

🛍️

​Google is updating the Search Console Shopping tab to the Merchant Opportunities report. New additions include new ways to manage payment methods, customer reviews and international shipping and returns.

📊

​Google's Search Analytics API now supports hourly data. The API data also returns data for up to 10 days with an hourly breakdown which is a much broader timeframe than using Google Search Console direct 24-hour view.

📍

​Google Maps now uses Gemini to detect fake reviews and suspicious profiles. Google blocked or remove over 240 million policy-violating review in 2024 alone and highlight fake five-star reviews as an issue they're prioritising.

📝

​Google is testing new SERP features more frequently than ever. In the last 4 years, over 48% of new SERP features aim to 'Keep Users on Google' (i.e. AI Overviews, Knowledge Panels), in theory leading to fewer clicks.

🖁

​Chrome DevTools has added CPU throttling calibration to give more accurate device performance reports. This allows developers to more accurately test their sites by simulating performance on lower-CPU devices.

🧠

​ChatGPT has improved its memory, allowing the LLM to recall all of a user's past chats. The depth of memory depends on the user's subscription level and can still be opted out of.

✍️

​Google explains how the user feedback process works for Search. 'Generic feedback' is categorised and grouped to provide broader improvements while specific feedback is handled differently.

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​SEO pros, we need your insights!

​
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Deindexed sites can still appear in SERP features

Here's a super interesting observation that we can overlay with some existing facts to get closer to determining how Google works in specifics situations ⤵️
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🔥 The site geeksforgeeks[.org] was recently deindexed from Google. You can see the dramatic fall of visibility from Ahrefs
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🤔 However, looking at AlsoAsked data, I can see the domain is still currently visible today in hundreds of PAA boxes - maybe not what you would expect!
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Some things we know:
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1/ "Feature generation" - i.e. making things like People Also Ask boxes and Featured Snippets happens in post-ranking stage.
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2/ We know certain metrics site as "site quality" are passed to Google's front end to qualify sites for these features.
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3/ A site quality score <0.4 means you are not eligible for featured snippets.
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Knowing these things we can narrow our understanding of how Google is working to these options:
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1/ Site quality scores may take time to update (much like how a PageRank score might update), so it might take days/weeks to see the site drop from PAAs. So it may be the case as this happens (the click data for those terms disappear), the site naturally drops out of searches.
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2/ The nature of the penalty may suggestion that rather than setting certain scores to zero, there is an additional flag that has been added to the site to remove/supress it from search, which keeps other metrics in tact. This would also make it easier to reinstate a site after other corrective action was taken.
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3/ There is some disconnect between the "backend" systems that are responsible for rankings and the "front end" systems such as the Twiddler framework which work in isolation to do re-ranking.
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All interesting - would love to hear any other theories, and big thank you to the super smart Trevor Stolber who discussed this with me while I was on holiday at the weekend and gave my brain something to stew on! 🍲

Make your page title specific and descriptive

One of the best ways to tell if you've got a good page title is if you can tell specifically what is on the page with no other context. Ignoring the brand name, let's look at an example: 🎣
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👎 "Jackets" - Likely a poor page title, you're unlikely to rank for just "jackets" and it doesn't tell the user specifically what is on the page.
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👌 "Waterproof jackets" - Getting better, you've massively narrowed it down to a more specific (and likely higher converting) search, and you are likely to have a better chance to rank.
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👍 "Waterproof fishing jackets" - Now we know you're a fishing brand, and you're specifically selling waterproof jackets. This massively increases your chances of ranking and it still has 1,000 searches per month in the UK!
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Be as specific and descriptive as you can!

Query counting - #brightonSEO edition

​Daniel Foley Carter suggests would on the best ways you can gauge how much Google likes your site is by 'query counting'. This involves simply seeing how many queries your site, or even an individual URL ranks for. Daniel has seen dropping query counts as a precursor to wider impacts, such as Google algorithm updates.

Default GA4 metricsf for SaaS - #brightonSEO edition

​Bengu Sarica Dincer: Default metrics on GA4 tell you where users go, but custom events reveal what they do and why they convert or drop off. For SaaS platforms, tracking actions and having the right data that matter gives you the real story behind user behavior. These micro-interactions drive product adoption, improve SEO strategies, increase quality lead generation and help you make smarter decisions to grow.

GTM Containers - #brightonSEO edition

​Kyle Rushton McGregor recommends setting up "base containers" within your Google Tag Manager. This means having a "template" to go ready for clients to reduce the amount of time to roll out a setup. You can have multiple different templates setup to work from, such as e-commerce, lead gen and so on.

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