SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π Google confirms their system has favoured larger sites and they didnβt intend this but thatβs how the algorithm has evolved. Google also stated that they're actively trying to correct this but fixes can take months to implement. π₯οΈ AI Overviews appear for over 13% of all queries. Unsurprisingly, over 88% of the queries that trigger AIOs are informational. There has also...
10 days agoΒ β’Β 7 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know ποΈ ChatGPT Search adds new shopping features. Product suggestions can now appear in carousels and will pull details from structured data. OpenAI also confirmed that these are organic results, not ads or sponsored products. π₯οΈ Google's AI Mode expands to include local results and products cards. AI Mode is also being tested for users who haven't opted in and, if you do want...
17 days agoΒ β’Β 5 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know βΆοΈ Google is testing AI Overviews on YouTube. Video carousels featuring AI highlight clips may appear for product searches and even some local searches. This continues Google's expansion of AIOs into every corner of Search. π€³ Users can now review their video verification recordings for Google Business Profile. Video verification can be difficult to get right the first time...
24 days agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π§ͺ AI Overviews reduce clicks by 34.5% according to a new study of 300,000 keywords by Ahrefs. The test backs up reports of site owners suggesting a 20-40% reduction in clicks as AIOs rolled out. π Site Stats Database has released a free version with data on 10,000 domains, allowing you to find low DA/high traffic sites, filter for HCU/Core Update recoveries, sort by...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 5 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πΌοΈ 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'. π 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,...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π GeeksForGeeks, a 70M per month traffic "computer science portal for geeks" website has been deindexed from Google with little surprise from SEOs, although the site is calling it a "temporary issue with Google Search". π
Danny Sullivan says Google don't measure brand, but lists some things Google do care about, which are for all intents and purposes the definition of...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π The March 2025 core update completed on 27 March 2025. This roll out took 14 days and is likely the first of many Google updates this year. This update seemed relatively calm, if the discussion online is to go by. π
Google has removed the 'AI while browsing' feature. This very controversial feature was announced in 2023 and worked as a type of overlay that could...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π AI Overviews have been found linking to Google SERPs rather than directly to website. This is, understandably, very controversial in the eyes of publishers and feels similar to the recently-discontinued Page Annotations feature. π
If users don't use your pages in search, they may fall out of the index. This answer to a user's questions seems to reaffirm Google's Navboost...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 5 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π Google's March 2025 core update has begun rolling out. The rollout started on 13 March 2025 and is the first core update of 2025. As always, Google says it may take up to 2 weeks to complete. π
LLMs provide "confidently wrong" answers to more than 60% of queries. These inaccuracies range from Perplexity's 37% to Grok 3's staggering 94%. Also, ChatGPT Search was found to...
2 months agoΒ β’Β 5 min read