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 is cutting their SEO starter guide in half, which will raise some eyebrows. Google said HTML structure doesn’t matter much for ranking. Google is testing a price slider in the mobile search results. Google driving direction reports showed a huge increase after Google said it would show a decrease. Microsoft is testing replacing the Bing logo with a Copilot logo. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Google SEO Starter Guide To Be Cut In Half
Google is in the process of reworking its popular SEO starter guide, which it initially released in 2010. The starter guide is about 8,500 words right now, but it will be less than half that when the revised SEO starter guide comes out.
Google Tests Price Slider Filter In Search For Product Results
Google is testing a price slider for some queries where narrowing by price may make sense. We’ve seen Google show price range sliders for products and price slider filters for hotels but now we are seeing a price slider filter for normal product results.
Google: HTML Structure Doesn’t Matter Much For Ranking
Gary Illyes from Google said that the HTML structure for your web pages does not matter much for rankings. He said this on the latest Search Off The Record podcast, saying, “I know that some people like to think that HTML structure matters all so much for rankings, but in fact, it doesn’t matter that much.”
Bing Home Page Swapping Out Bing Logo With Copilot Logo
Just like Microsoft has been testing swapping out the Bing Chat link with the Copilot link within the Bing Search results pages, now Microsoft is testing swapping out the Bing logo with a Copilot logo. This is all for the rebranding of Bing Chat to Copilot, which started two months ago.
Huge Increase In Google Business Profiles Driving Directions
Earlier this week, we reported that Google said we should expect a decline in the number of driving directions reported in the Google Business Profiles performance reporting tool. Well, the opposite happened. Everyone is seeing a significant increase in the number of driving directions reported in that Google tool.
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Confirmed Ranking Bug, Ranking Volatility, Quality Raters Cut & Google Ads AI Goes Live
Google has confirmed that issue where sites would rank during the week and then not rank on the weekends – just wild. We had an unconfirmed Google ranking update this week after having a calm weekend. Google has dropped Appen…
