Daily Search Forum Recap: May 28, 2026
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 Mode and AI Overviews gain preferred sources…
Google AI Mode & AI Overviews Add Preferred Sources & New Carousel
Google is officially rolling out preferred source labels within AI Mode and AI Overviews and adding a new carousel to AI Mode and AI Overviews, as well. Plus, Google said the highly cited label is expanding to more search results (which is not specific…
Google Strongly Warns Against Manipulating Mentions For AI
Gary Illyes from Google reportedly said at the Search Central Live Shanghai 2026 event on May 15th that he and Google strongly warns against buying or manipulating mentions brand mentions to try to show up in the AI responses, AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Google Tests New Sitename & Favicon Layout In Search
Google is testing shifting the sitename and favicon in the search results around, where it is on one line with the favicon, then a bold sitename and then the URL, followed by the rest of the snippet; the title and description and sitelinks. Typically,…
ChatGPT Ads Conversion-Optimized Campaigns Coming June 5th
OpenAI sent out an email to some early advertisers offering them early access to conversion-optimized campaigns. Conversion-optimized campaigns are going to be available to some advertisers starting on June 5, 2026.
Google Ads To Delete Short Term Performance Data June 1st
As you know, Google updated its Google Ads data retention policy recently, which changed how long it will store some of its shorter-term performance data. Specifically, the data hourly, daily, and weekly reporting data…
New Google Merchant Center AI Performance Insights
Google is rolling out a new AI performance report within Google Merchant Center named AI performance insights. Google said the “AI performance insights can help provide you with a view into your brand’s performance on AI surfaces and how you can optimi…
New: Track your brand visibility in Claude with Yoast AI Brand Insights
Yoast AI Brand Insights, part of the Yoast SEO AI+ plan now lets you scan how your brand appears in answers generated by Claude. You can see your Claude data alongside ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, all in one dashboard. Why Claude is worth paying attention to Think about how your own customers are making decisions […]
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Interviews Of Google’s Sundar Pichai & Nick Fox
There are two interviews that is probably worth a listen of Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai and Google’s SVP of Knowledge & Information, out of Google I/O and Google Marketing Live. If you listen, you can see the direction Google Search is headed – and du…
Google Local Results Tests Check Real-Time Stock
Google is testing letting searchers check for real-time stock, inventory, of products through the local pack in the search results. There is this new button being tested next to view “more places” in the local pack that says, “Check real-time stock.”
Google Discover Report Bug Cause Decrease In Clicks/Impressions May 21
Google has confirmed another bug with the Search Console Discover performance report on May 21st. Google said there was another data logging issue that may cause a decrease in clicks and impressions for May 21, 2026.
Google Ads Real-Time Policy Reviews During Ad Creation
Google is rolling out what it calls Real-Time Policy Reviews within Google Ads for Responsive Search Ads and rolling out to other campaign types later in the year. Google wrote, “this feature provides instant feedback during the ad creation process, si…
Similarweb: ChatGPT Shows More Links Leading To 150% Increase In Referrals
New data out of Similarweb says that since OpenAI began surfacing more prominent links to brands in the ChatGPT answers, referral traffic is up 150%. Also pageviews per visit is up 24% and time on site is up 11%.
EU May Fine Google Triple Million Euros Over Favoring Itself In Search Results
The European Union may fine Google its largest fine for a breach of the ‘new Digital Markets Act (DMA). It would be in the triple millions of Euros and would be done because Google allegedly favors its own services in its own search results.
Google Shopping Ads In AI Mode Tries New Styles?
We know Google said it was expanding shopping ads into AI Mode and saw some examples of that. We also know about the new conversational discovery ads and highlighted answer ads. So I am not sure if this is another new format or part of those, but this …
Google Tests Growing Expanding Shopping Ads
Google is testing Shopping ads that enlarge, grow and expand when you hover your mouse cursor over the ad unit. We saw something like this for another Google ad format in March and now we are seeing a variation of this for Google Shopping ads.
Google Merchant Center Conversational Attributes For AI-Driven Surfaces
Part of Google Marketing Live was a small note about conversational attributes, a way to add more attributes to your product feeds within Google Merchant Center that can be used “to update their product descriptions to reflect the more conversational w…
Google Business Profiles Photos / Videos Add View Counts
Google is now showing the number of times a photo or video was viewed and seen by users in the Google Business Profiles photos/videos section. So now, business owners can see if the images and videos that they are uploading are being seen by searchers…
Security patch: Yoast SEO Premium 27.6.1
Yoast SEO Premium 27.6.1 is out now. This release contains a security fix affecting the Redirect Manager in Yoast SEO Premium. The good news: the vast majority of users are not impacted. If you’re a customer of Yoast SEO Premium, Yoast WooCommerce SEO, or Yoast SEO AI+, please read on. Are you affected? The vast majority of customers are not impacted. Your site is only potentially […]
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Google May 2026 Core Update Landed Over The Weekend
As you know, Google announced the May 2026 core update on Thursday afternoon and it didn’t take long for the update to be felt by the SEO community. Many, not all, but many, started to feel the impact of this core update over the weekend.