Category: SEO

Google AI Mode is testing a new follow-up format that directly asks users what they want before generating a new query, a shift from the previous click-to-generate box style.

The post Google AI Mode tests another new follow-up question format appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Google is showing a more detailed Citations Panel at the bottom of AI Mode results, featuring titles, descriptions, and images for cited websites a format first spotted back in July.

The post Google moves Citations Panel toward the bottom of AI Mode appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

A user asked how to decide between expanding an article or creating a new supporting one. John Mueller answer: there’s often no absolute right answer but you can pick one and make it right

The post Google answers a common content structure dilemma appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

John Mueller clarified on Reddit how Google Search Console counts impressions for AI Overviews, explaining they’re tracked as a block rather than by individual position — and he’s open to feedback on what tracking would actually be useful.

The post Google clarifies how AI Overview impressions get counted appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Google is testing a new hover design for anchor text links in AI Mode, showing a different format than the website icon and title style spotted back in May 2026.

The post Google tests new title box when hovering over links in ai mode appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

A new table format in Google’s AI mode will reduce more clicks to publishers

The post Google AI Mode tests follow-up questions in table format appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Exactly the day Google started rolling out AI Overviews in France search results on 21 July 2026. There was significant dip in impressions/clicks of this domain. Lily Ray shared this screenshot showing search console performance report. If in case you’re also aiming to rank in France search results and noticed this kind of dip then […]

The post Impressions/Clicks dipped the day – AI Overviews rollout in France appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Google Business Profile now has a new way to submit a business photo as part of verification. Ben Fisher spotted this and shared it on LinkedIn along with screenshots. He wrote: “New: This could be a pretty significant change in Google Business Profile verification. We’re now seeing ‘Submit a business photo’ appear as a verification […]

The post Google Business Profile adds new photo verification method appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Recently Google Search Console is showing some weird queries, which are highly unlikely to be something which a real human user is going to do like a Google Search. And it might be possible that those queries are from some AI Search systems (like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude) and while doing SEO Analysis it’s important to […]

The post Using Fable 5.1 to filter Search Console data and find Real Human Queries!! appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

A user posted on Reddit describing a ranking drop after using Google’s Disavow Tool, asking for advice on recovery. Here’s what he wrote on reddit: “Accidentally Disavowed Valuable Backlinks — Lost My #3 Ranking. How Can I Recover?” John Mueller replied on reddit: There’s a lot of hate on the disavow tool here – but […]

The post Google responds to user who lost ranking after disavowing backlinks appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Google Search Console recently introduced a new feature that allows property owners to see performance data for their social accounts. This property type includes query, post, country, device, search appearance, and date data. Gagan Ghotra posted something interesting related to on X, wrote: “Social properties in search console – it’s showing really really weird queries….. […]

The post Google Search Console social properties show strange search queries appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Google Analytics appears to be missing data for September 1. We’re seeing complaints about this on Google Analytics Forums, and after checking our own GA4 account, the complaints seem to be accurate. Here is a graph showing 0 users for yesterday. Barry Schwartz also reported this on SER, wrote: “Google Analytics September 1 Data Missing.” […]

The post Google Analytics missing data for September 1 appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Bing is testing the removal of site names from its search results. Instead, it’s just showing favicons followed by website URLs with breadcrumbs. This reminds us of a similar test Google ran back in May 2025, where Google also removed website names and showed just the URL instead. Here is a screenshot of how it […]

The post Bing tests removing site names from search results appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Google’s John Mueller replied on Reddit to a user asking whether Google would penalize a website for old outbound links pointing to a site that once hosted good-quality content but has since changed ownership and now hosts shady content. Here’s the user’s question on Reddit: “So the question is, how does Google treat OLD backlinks […]

The post Google answers whether old backlinks to hijacked domains hurt rankings appeared first on Search Engine Watch.