In this episode of the SEO 101 Podcast, hosts Ross Dunn and Scott Van Achte discuss Google’s removal of mobile breadcrumbs, disruptions to SEO tools from JavaScript requirements, DeepSeek updates, site reputation abuse enforcement in Germany, and Google AI Overviews offering coding assistance. Tune in for essential SEO insights!
Show Notes:
- Google Removing Breadcrumbs from Mobile SERPS
- Breadcrumbs removed from mobile search; retained on desktop.
- Introduced in 2009; removal simplifies URL display on mobile.
- Yahoo Search and AI
- Yahoo hinted at search revival in 2023 but has made little progress.
- New banner indicates updates are coming; currently not available in Canada.
- AI Chat features and AI Answers integrated into Yahoo Search, powered by OpenAI.
- Google Change Disrupts SEO Tools
- Change on January 15, 2025, caused data blackouts for SEO tools.
- Users must enable JavaScript to access search; affects many data tracking tools.
- Change aimed at protecting against LLMs (Large Language Models) training on Google data.
- Most tools back online by January 20; increased costs for SEO tools anticipated.
- Google Expands Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement to Germany
- Enforcement expanded to Germany after starting in other European countries.
- Manual actions taken against site reputation abuse; reduced third-party content in SERPs.
- Site reputation abuse involves leveraging established site rankings for third-party content.
- AI News: Google AI Overviews Providing Programming Help
- AI Overviews now displaying coding help in search results.
- Example code provided for programming queries, enhancing user experience.
- Potential impact on coding sites like Stack Exchange.
- DeepSeek – The AI Disruptor
- Utilizes MoE (Mixture of Experts) architecture for cost-efficient AI training.
- DeepSeek’s AI Assistant ranked top free app on Apple’s App Store.
- Open-source models encourage innovation among smaller organizations.
- Concerns raised about data privacy and censorship with Chinese-developed AI.
- Mueller Files: Do Not Dynamically Update Robots.txt**
- John Mueller advises against dynamically updating robots.txt files.
- Google caches robots.txt for up to 24 hours; recommends using status codes 503 or 429.
- Crawl-delay rule in robots.txt is no longer recognized by Google.
Sources:
Google Removing Breadcrumbs from Mobile SERPS – Discusses Google’s decision to remove breadcrumbs from mobile search results while retaining them on desktop, aiming to simplify URL displays.
Yahoo Search and AI – Covers Yahoo’s efforts to revitalize its search platform, including new AI features integrated into search results powered by OpenAI.
Google Change Disrupts SEO Tools – Details a significant change from Google that required users to enable JavaScript, causing disruptions and data blackouts for various SEO tools.
Google Expands Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement to Germany – Discusses the expansion of Google’s enforcement against site reputation abuse in Germany, aimed at reducing third-party content in search rankings.
Google AI Overviews is Now Providing Programming Help – Highlights Google AI Overviews now offering coding assistance directly in search results, enhancing user experience for programming queries.
DeepSeek – The AI Disruptor – Introduces DeepSeek, an AI player utilizing cost-efficient architectures, raising significant attention in the market while addressing data privacy concerns.
Do Not Dynamically Update Robots.txt – John Mueller’s advice against dynamically updating robots.txt files, emphasizing the importance of using appropriate status codes for managing crawl rates.