Industry News

Google's December 2024 spam update was completed yesterday at 2pm ET, but it had a busy and volatile week, burning through Christmas and the week. Google rolled out new AI-organized search results for restaurants. Google Ads is testing...

Google Search is testing showing a "nearby stores" section that has an embedded map with a "more options" button that leads to a local pack. This is instead of showing the local pack immediately, instead you need to click on the "more options" button to have Google load the local pack.

I always find it funny how I have so much to write about, day in and day out, on the topic of SEO and search marketing. I mean, fundamentally SEO hasn't really changed much over the years, but maybe the details have...

Google is testing showing a section under the Local Service Ads for call out extensions or other extensions. This increases the visibility of these already super-visible Local Service Ads.

Google Ads has quietly launched a new brand report. The brand report "is a dedicated brand advertiser experience that provides you with deduplicated reach and frequency metrics across your campaigns," Google wrote.

Microsoft is testing a squared off search bar on the Bing home page. Normally the search bar is curved around the edges but for some reason Bing wants to try a more edged off approach.

Google has completed the rollout of the December 2024 spam update after a seven-day rollout cycle. This update started on December 19, 2024 and 12 pm ET, and was completed on December 26, 2024. This was a broad spam update, not a link spam update and was a pretty big and widespread update.

This is lovely post by John Arundel (“Come for the schadenfreude, stay for the thought-provoking advice” indeed!). I especially like the section on how to become a good manager:

If you want to become a great manager, which I think is the only kind worth being, start practicing now. Learn people skills, communication, collaboration, psychology. Work on understanding the things that make different kinds of people tick. Manage yourself excellently. If you can’t organize yourself, how do you...

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google's December 2024 spam update is still heated...

The Google December 2024 spam update seems to have burned through the Christmas holiday, with high volatility on Christmas eve and day. I saw comments from site owners and creators about how devastated they were through the holidays and it was gut-wrenching to read those comments.