Daily Search Forum Recap: November 6, 2025
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 dropped a number of search features and structured data types…
Last-minute Black Friday SEO prepping for ecommerce stores
Black Friday is three weeks away, so it’s time to finalize the last adjustments. Here’s what to focus on now, based on two Yoast Black Friday coffee chats with our own principal SEOs, Carolyn Shelby and Alex Moss. Alex states, “Black Friday isn’t one day anymore, but a season. If you’re not visible to AI […]
The post Last-minute Black Friday SEO prepping for ecommerce stores appeared first on Yoast.
Google Drops Support For More Structured Data Types & Search Features
Google’s John Mueller announced Google is “simplify the search results page” by removing “some features that aren’t being used very often and aren’t adding significant value to users.” This means more structured data types will be removed, but for some…
Google Search Tests Tinted Colored Background
Google is testing a tinted brownish/yellowish background color for the search results page. It turns the white background into a brownish/grayish/yellowish background and then the gray boxes into a darker color.
Google Ads Fake Info For Advertiser Verification Programs Disallowed
Google updated its Circumventing systems policy to add a new section for Advertiser verification. In short, and as Google wrote, “Providing false or fraudulent information as part of our Advertiser verification programs is not allowed.”
Google Definitions Box Tests Swapping In AI Overviews
Google is testing replacing the definitions box in the search results with AI Overviews. I am personally able to replicate this but this was posted in Reddit a couple of months ago – I didn’t think it was new, but yea, this is been an ongoing test for…
Google Ads Editor Version 2.11 Is Now Available
Google has released version 2.11 of the Google Ads Editor, which includes over 15 new features and removes a couple of older features.
Gemini Coming To Google Maps For Directions, Traffic & Places
Google Maps is getting an update from Gemini where you can ask Google Maps questions about locations, where Google Maps can give you more human directions and Google Maps with Lens can tell you more about a store or location.
Daily Search Forum Recap: November 5, 2025
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 AI Overviews continue to shift click-through rates down…
Report: Google AI Overviews Continue To Drive CTR Downwards
Earlier this year, we covered that Google’s AI Overviews are killing click-through rates from the Google Search results. Well, Seer Interactive updated the numbers and that CTR decline has continued to decline and get even worse.
Google Tests A New Version Of AI Mode
Google is testing a new version of AI Mode responses in the wild, directly in the Google Search AI Mode interface. Google even tells the searcher, “You’re giving feedback on a new version of Al Mode. Which response do you prefer?”
Google Merchant Center Adds Promotions For Top Performing Products
Google added a new promotion method in Google Merchant Center for Top-performing products. This lets you just promote your best performing products in Google Shopping and Google Search.
Google Reviews Updates Services Summary Box
Google is testing an update to the reviews services summary box. We know Google does ask for services attributes and other attributes from both the business owner and reviewers but this review box seems newish.
Google AI Mode Gains 3 New Agentic Capabilities
Google’s Robby Stein announced three new agentic capabilities within AI Mode – (1) booking event tickets (2) booking beauty appointments and (3) wellness appointments.
Here’s an update on our efforts to simplify the search results page
We’re constantly working to simplify the search results page,
so that it’s quick and easy to find the information and websites you’re looking for. As part of
this effort, we regularly evaluate all of our existing features to m…
Daily Search Forum Recap: November 4, 2025
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 added a new user agent to the list…
Google Discover Tests Infinite Endless Scroll
Google is supposedly testing an endless, infinite scroll for Google Discover. When I scroll through Google Discover, it eventually just stops and doesn’t keep going. But Gagan Ghotra said he is seeing it go on and on forever.
Google Merchant Center Smart Cropping – You Can Opt Out
Did you know that Google Merchant Center will automatically crop your product images in Google Shopping if it thinks it will look better in Google Search? Did you know that you can also opt out of what they call “Smart Cropping”?
November 2025 Google Webmaster Report
We had a few unconfirmed but big Google search ranking updates but we are still waiting on an official core update…
Ongoing Google Search Console API Bug Impacts Search Appearance Filter
Google Search Console has a bug with its API when filtering on the searchAppearance dimension. This bug occurs when using the notEquals or notContains operators, it will only return rows with the excluded value, instead of excluding those rows.