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 released the much anticipated August 2024 core update, it will take a month to roll out and may help smaller publishers. Google has a massive search ranking bug going on today, the same time Google released the core update but they are unrelated. Google AI Overviews launches its new links, expands to more countries and more. Google does not follow links, at least not technically. Google is testing showing review snippets. The FTC banned fake reviews. And I posted my weekly SEO video recap with a new camera. What an insane 24 hours – a core update, huge ranking bug and AI Overviews being expanded.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google August 2024 Core Update Rolling Out – Will Small Sites Rank Again?
The time has finally arrived; the day you all have been waiting for is here – the Google August 2024 core update started rolling out on Thursday at 11 am ET. Yea, you all saw it coming, Google told us it was near and now it has finally landed. It will take about a month to fully roll out and “useful” small and independent publishers will see their rankings improve with this one – at least that is what Google implied.
Confirmed: Google Search Ranking Bug Impacting Large Number Of Results
This morning at 1:48 am ET, Google confirmed a Google Search ranking bug impacting a large number of the Google Search results. Google wrote, “There’s an ongoing issue with ranking in Google Search that’s affecting a large number of search results. We’ve identified the root cause and this issue is unrelated to the ongoing core update rollout.”
Google AI Overview New Links UI, Save, Simpler Mode & More Countries
Google announced a number of new features across its AI Overviews, including the new links test we saw going live. Google also is adding new Search Labs features and is expanding AI Overviews to more countries.
Google Doesn’t Technically Follow Links, It Extracts, Collects & Checks Later
Google’s Gary Illyes clarified on the Search Off The Record podcast that Google technically does not follow links. Instead, Google will extract the links, collect them in a database, and then check them later. Of course, most of you know this already and it doesn’t really matter much for SEO to know the difference but hey.
FTC Banned Fake Reviews
You may have heard, the Federal Trade Commission announced that they have officially banned fake reviews and AI-generated fake reviews. But will this actually end up doing anything?
Google Highlighting Review Content In Search Result Snippets
Google is highlighting review content within its search results snippets for some queries that ask for reviews. At least, Google is testing this – since I cannot replicate it.
