In this episode, we explore signs of a potential Google core update affecting rankings, Reddit’s sneaky ranking successes using AI, and Google’s new AI-generated summaries in Knowledge Panels. We also discuss an exciting opportunity for an AI crawler version of the robots file called LLM.text.
Show Notes:
NON SEO NEWS
- Google Settles Ad Lawsuit
- Google to pay $100 million to settle a class action lawsuit regarding ads served outside targeted geographic regions.
- Affected users: Those who used AdWords from Jan 1, 2004, to Dec 13, 2012.
- Expect reimbursement after deducting $37 million for legal fees.
SEO NEWS
- Potential New Core Update
- Increased volatility in Google rankings suggests a possible new update is underway.
- No official confirmation from Google; monitoring ongoing.
- AI Translated Pages Ranking High
- Reddit’s use of AI for translating pages has resulted in significant search traffic and rankings.
- This may conflict with Google’s content policy against low-value automated transformations.
- Testing of AI Overviews Disclaimers
- Google testing a disclaimer on AI Overviews saying “Check important info. Learn More.”
LOCAL SEO NEWS
- AI Summaries in Google Knowledge Panels
- Google now displaying AI-generated summaries for businesses in Knowledge Panels.
- Options to report summaries or learn more about them are available.
- Recommended Local SEO Tool: PlePer
- Chrome extension providing detailed info on Google My Business listings and various analysis tools.
- Resurfacing of Old Reviews Bug
- Google confirms bug causing old, fake, and removed reviews to reappear on some business profiles.
AI NEWS
- Proposed Standard: LLMs.txt
- Jeremy Howard proposes LLMs.txt for standardized AI website content crawling.
- Aims to enhance control for content creators over how their data is used by AI.
- Benefits: Protects content, improves AI interaction, and may enhance visibility in AI searches.
- Challenges: Varied adoption, potential conflicts with existing standards, and exposure of content to competitors.
- Currently, it’s under discussion with no universal adoption yet.
QUESTIONS & COMMENTS
- Caution with Redirects
- Importance of ensuring correct status codes when implementing redirects.
- Example of mislabeling a page as 404 instead of 401, which caused access issues for logged-in users.
- Need for safeguards to prevent similar occurrences in the future
Sources:
Google To Pay $100 Million To Settle Old Ad Lawsuit On Clicks Outside Geo Target – Overview of Google’s $100 million settlement regarding ads served outside targeted geographic areas.
Google April Post Core Update Ranking Volatility Heats Up – Discussion on recent ranking volatility suggesting a potential new Google core update.
Google Ranking Reddit AI Translated Pages Too Well – Analysis of Reddit’s AI translations leading to improved search rankings and traffic.
Google AI Overviews is testing a “check important info” disclaimer
Information on Google’s testing of a disclaimer in AI Overviews.
Google AI Summaries Now In Local Knowledge Panels – Announcement of AI-generated business summaries appearing in Google Knowledge Panels.
Recommended Local Tool Chrome Extension: PlePer – Details about the PlePer extension for local SEO insights and analysis.
Google Business Profiles Bug Resurfacing Old Fake Removed Reviews
Confirmation of a bug causing old, fake reviews to resurface on business profiles.
Meet LLMs.txt, a proposed standard for AI website content crawling – Overview of the proposed LLMs.txt standard for improving AI interactions with website content.