Search Engine Roundtable https://www.seroundtable.com en-us Barry Schwartz Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:00:00 -0400 Daily Search Forum Recap: April 13, 2026 https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-04-13-2026-41154.html Barry Schwartz 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.

Catching up on the newsletter, there is a lot below - sorry about that.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News, add as a preferred source on Google and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or just contact us the old fashion way.

]]> Search Forum Recap Barry Schwartz Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:00:00 -0400 New Study Points to Holes In AI Overviews https://www.seroundtable.com/times-reports-ai-overviews-are-inaccurate-41152.html Mordy Oberstein Google Robot Covering Eyes

The New York Times reported on a study conducted by Oumi that claims Google's AI Overviews can contain inaccuracies.

Say it ain't so.

What is interesting is that the study found that out of 4,326 AI Overviews, 85% were 'accurate' when powered by Gemini 2. Since Google made the jump to Gemini 3, that number increased to 91%.

That doesn't seem like a very 'inaccurate' amount. The assertion, however, is that by sheer volume, millions of people are getting inaccurate information as part of that 9% of shoddy AIOs.

Also of interest, The Times claims that over 50% of the responses lacked grounding.

'More than half of the accurate responses were 'ungrounded,' meaning they linked to websites that did not completely support the information they provided. This makes it challenging to check AI Overviews' accuracy.'

What is really interesting is that this seems to be happening more often with Gemini 3 powering AIOs:

'But with Gemini 3, Google's A.I.-generated answers were more likely to be ungrounded than when the system was based on Gemini 2'

Google did reply to the analysis, according to the article, with a spokesperson saying:

'This study has serious holes.'

So does a donut.

Lily Ray was not only quoted in the article but also has a fabulous roundup of the comments from the article over on X.

Forum discussion at Dunkin'.

]]> Google Mordy Oberstein Mon, 13 Apr 2026 07:51:00 -0400 Google AdSense Will Experiment With New Ad Technology Partners https://www.seroundtable.com/google-adsense-new-ad-technology-partners-41151.html Barry Schwartz Google Adsense

Google announced that on August 20, 2026 it will experiment with an updated set of commonly used ad technology partners. If the experiments go well, Google will switch it "on or after June 5, 2026."

Google wrote, "Starting on or after April 20, 2026, Google AdSense will experiment with an updated set of commonly used ad technology partners." Google added, "If this experiment is deemed beneficial for publishers, the list will be updated on or after June 5, 2026."

Google said that "this update will reflect the partners that work most closely with publishers globally, determined by data collected from all programmatic demand sources, as well as meeting our privacy standards."

Here is the list of those partners.

Plus, AdSense publishers will be able to find the up-to-date version of the list published at Manage your ad technology partners (ATPs). You can view the controls, the list of current ad technology partners and, once the experiment starts, those who are part of the experiment in your account in Privacy & messaging, on the European regulations settings page, in the "Your ad partners" menu.

If you want to prevent automatic updates or do not want to participate in the experiment, select "Do not automatically include commonly used ad partners". This will create a custom list pre-filled with your current selections, which you can then modify as needed. If you're using a third-party CMP to collect GDPR consent, your list of ad tech partners is managed through your CMP provider.

Forum discussion at X.

]]> Google AdSense Barry Schwartz Mon, 13 Apr 2026 07:41:00 -0400 Google Search Console Testing AI Contribution Report https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-console-ai-contribution-41153.html Barry Schwartz Google Ai Reporting

It looks like Google is testing a new report within Google Search Console named AI contribution. I have no clue what it looks like but I suspect it is a lot like the Bing Webmaster Tools AI performance reports.

John Mueller from Google dropped a non-hint about this in early February and now I am seeing some links in the Google support documentation to AI contribution pilot. I see no screenshots or any details about what the report shows.

I suspect Google is testing this report with a limited number of users right now and I suspect it shows similar metrics to Bing Webmaster tools like citations, cited pages, grounded queries and maybe more. Again, I highly doubt it shows any click data.

Do any of you see any details on this report? Can you share screenshots?

This is what I see:

Google Search Console Ai Contribution Help Doc

Previously, John's only comment on this type of report was:

Kinda like the rest of search, many things aren't permanent decisions that are never discussed. Things change - SEOs write about what changed - while I have nothing to announce, I can say for sure that very few things online are permanent. It's also good to have input from others, like you all.

Forum discussion at X.

]]> Google Search Engine Optimization Barry Schwartz Mon, 13 Apr 2026 07:31:00 -0400 Google Still Processing Status To XML Sitemaps - Nothing To Announce https://www.seroundtable.com/google-processing-status-xml-sitemaps-41149.html Barry Schwartz Google Processing

Google was asked if it is possible to add a new status to the XML sitemap statuses for "still processing." John Mueller from Google responded on Blueshy saying, "I've chatted with the teams involved about this on & off, I've seen that it can be annoying." But he added he has nothing to announce.

The question was from Kyle Risley who wrote:

Is Google open to introducing a "still processing" or similar status for sitemaps that have indeed been crawled, but perhaps are not fully processed? "couldn't fetch" doesn't seem to accurately represent this state and leads site operators to think there's an access issue (there isn't)

He shared this screenshot to this help document:

Google Sitemaps Errors

John Mueller replied saying:

I've chatted with the teams involved about this on & off, I've seen that it can be annoying... but I don't have any news or announcements to share, sorry.

This new status, would be useful.

Forum discussion at Bluesky.

]]> Google Search Engine Optimization Barry Schwartz Mon, 13 Apr 2026 07:21:00 -0400 Google May Ignore Links From Sites That Spam & Violate Policies https://www.seroundtable.com/google-may-ignore-links-from-sites-that-spam-41148.html Barry Schwartz Google Links

Google's John Mueller reconfirmed that Google Search may simply ignore outbound links from sites that violate its search spam policies. This is not new, Google has been doing this manually and algorithmically for years now but he reiterated this on Bluesky.

John wrote, "if our systems recognize that a site links out in a way that's not very helpful or aligned with our policies, we may end up ignoring all links out from that site."

He said, this is a general thing, saying, "I'm not sure what you mean with "has a link penalty", but in general."

Explaining, "For some sites, it's just not worth looking for the value in links."

I'm not sure what you mean with "has a link penalty", but in general, if our systems recognize that a site links out in a way that's not very helpful or aligned with our policies, we may end up ignoring all links out from that site. For some sites, it's just not worth looking for the value in links.

— John Mueller (@johnmu.com) April 9, 2026 at 11:26 AM

Forum discussion at Bluesky.

]]> Google Barry Schwartz Mon, 13 Apr 2026 07:11:00 -0400 Google Discusses Page Weight, Average Mobile Homepage Size, and Googlebot File Size Limits https://www.seroundtable.com/page-weight-google-file-size-limits-41147.html Glenn Gabe Googlebot File Size Limits

On the latest Search Off The Record Podcast, Martin Split and Gary Illyes discussed the growing page weight issue and how that impacts users and Googlebot crawling. This follows Google updating its documentation to clarify file size limits for Googlebot (and various versions of Googlebot).

To refresh your memory, file size limits for Googlebot can be by Googlebot type and by file format. Google has explained that there's a 2MB file size limit for Search and that could be up to 65MB for pdfs. And then there's the general rule about 15MB file size for Googlebot. You can read Barry's previous post about the file size updates for more details about that.

Important: But before you do that, understand that the limits are per file and not for the entire page combined. For example, most pages would never come close to having 2MB in html raw bytes. That's a huge amount of html... Google has explained this many times as well, but there is still confusion about the file size limits. Some site owners mistakenly believe 2MB or 15MB is for the entire page, including resources and media. It's not. Each file has its own limit, so it's not a problem for 99.9% of site owners (or pages within their sites).

Web Almanac and Increasing Page Weight Over Time

In the podcast, Martin and Gary also discuss how Page Weight has increased over time. Based on the Web Almanac, in 2015, the average mobile homepage was 845KB in size, but that number has increased significantly to 2.3MB in July of 2025. But again, that is total page weight including the raw html, resources, and media like images and video.

Here is the definition of Page Weight:

Page weight in the web almanac

And here is Page Weight trending over time for mobile homepages:

Page weight trending over time.

Page Weight - The True Impact To Users

Gary and Martin both explain that for users, they don't know or care about the breakdown. They just care about performance while they are browsing the web. I totally agree. So there's a difference between SEO and usability here when it comes to the file size breakdown. Site owners should be aware of how their pages perform for real users... If you are forcing them to download 30MB in total file size, even if that's spread across files, then make sure you know the impact based on the region your users are located in. You might need to trim some of the file size across files... or it might be totally fine.

Here is the segment where they discuss the growing Page Weight size over time:

I recommend listening to the entire episode if you are interested in Googlebot file size limits, Page Weight, usability, etc.

GG

]]> Google Search Engine Optimization Glenn Gabe Fri, 10 Apr 2026 07:52:00 -0400 Reusable "Skills" Are Coming To Gemini In Chrome https://www.seroundtable.com/skills-gemini-chrome-41146.html Glenn Gabe Skills are coming to Gemini in Chrome

If you're using Gemini in Chrome (the sidebar you can summon via a button in Chrome), then you might be happy about the latest feature that showed up in Chrome Canary. After running a prompt, you can click the "Skills" button to save that prompt as a reusable skill. The icon looks eerily like the AMP icon by the way. :) I found this first through an article covering the topic, but then Leopeva64 (who covers many new Chrome features) pinged me on X that he also saw this being tested previously. Regardless, this could be a powerful addition to Gemini in Chrome.

Here are some screenshots of what this looks like:

Creating a skill in Chrome

Summoning a skill in Chrome

Here is my tweet about Skills showing how the feature works:

And here is Leo's tweet from a few days ago where he spotted the feature.

Save and Summon Your Skills:

You can activate the flag in Chrome Canary today and test this out for yourself. Again, reusable AI skills can be powerful. You can summon those skills by typing a slash and then selecting the skill. Also, Google has some prebuilt skills there for you, including "Buying advice". So if you focus on ecommerce, you definitely want to check that one out.

Of course, I always say the user will dictate which features are successful. We'll see if people actually use the new Skills functionality once it rolls out to the stable version of Chrome. But again go try it today.

GG

]]> Glenn Gabe Thu, 09 Apr 2026 07:15:00 -0400 Google's March 2026 Broad Core Update Has Completed Rolling Out https://www.seroundtable.com/google-march-2026-core-update-complete-41145.html Glenn Gabe Google Core Update

Google's March 2026 broad core update has officially completed rolling out. Google announced this via X this morning and the Search Status Dashboard has been updated to document the rollout. The update took 12 days and 4 hours to complete, which is not unusual. It can often take about two weeks to complete. The dashboard says the rollout was complete as of April 8, 2026 at 9:12 AM ET.

The March 2026 broad core update was a weird one. I've been documenting what I've been seeing via my "Core Update Notes" on X and it just didn't seem as powerful as some previous broad core updates. For example, the December 2025 broad core update was huge. We saw the update land quickly and it was extremely powerful. The March 2026 broad core update didn't land quickly and just didn't seem to be as powerful. Sure, there were definitely sites that saw big surges or drops, but overall the update seemed less powerful.

I was running the visibility reporting for thousands of sites that were previously impacted by major algorithm updates and the volatility was not off the charts for most of the sites... Some saw a lot of movement, but overall that wasn't the case.

Here is the official tweet from Google:

Here is the updated dashboard:

March 2026 core update complete

I will continue analyzing the update and post more about the impact on social media and my blog. Stay tuned.

GG

]]> Google Updates Glenn Gabe Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:25:00 -0400 Google Testing Jumping To AI Mode Directly From AIOs ON DESKTOP https://www.seroundtable.com/ai-mode-desktop-from-aios-41144.html Glenn Gabe AI Overviews to AI Mode on desktop

In January Google announced a change to how AI Overviews worked where clicking the "Show more" button at the end of an AIO would directly take you into AI Mode. But that was only on mobile. Now it seems Google is testing that functionality, but on desktop. First, here is Robby Stein's announcement about the change in January (for mobile). That was a big change for site owners and SEOs to digest, but again, now that may be coming to desktop.

Brodie Clark noticed the test the other day (on desktop) and shared about it on X. As you can see in the video below, clicking the "Show more" button on desktop took him directly to an AI Mode-like environment. You can still scroll down to view the full search results, but you are definitely taken out of the traditional SERP for a bit.

Here is what Brody said:

This is as close as we've now come to the "AI Mode as the default", with instead of showing the standard "Dive deeper with AI Mode" button, you're taken directly to the entire AI Mode experience.

Here is a screenshot from the video once you click the "Show more" button:

AI Mode from AIOs on desktop

AI Mode as the future of Search:

Google has explained that AI Mode is the future of Search, but we're not exactly sure what that version will look like. But you can clearly see Google moving forward little by little with pushing users towards AI Mode (in several ways). So keep an eye on how AIOs transition to AI Mode. You might catch this test in the wild.

GG

]]> Google Search Engine Optimization Glenn Gabe Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:26:00 -0400 âJarvis Approachingâ: Google's Sundar Pichai Signals an Agentic, Multi-Threaded Future for Search https://www.seroundtable.com/sundar-pichai-future-search-agents-41143.html Glenn Gabe Sunar Pichai on the future of Search.

Google's Sundar Pichai was on the Cheeky Pint podcast and was asked about the future of Search. He basically laid out a future where Search is Jarvis-like where users will be completing tasks and have "many threads running". They covered a number of topics on the podcast and I highly recommend watching the entire episode, but the section about the future of Search will clearly catch your attention.

I have brought up the Jarvis analogy since early 2023 right after ChatGPT launched since it was pretty clear where all of this is headed. And now with AI advancing at a rapid pace, and agentic systems exploding, Jarvis seems closer than further away.

Sundar said:

'If I fast-forward, a lot of what are just information-seeking queries will be agentic in Search. You'll be completing tasks. You'll have many threads running.'

And when asked if Search will exist in ten years, Sundar said:

"Well, it keeps evolving. Search would be an agent manager in which you're doing a lot of things. I think in some ways, I use Antigravity today, and you have a bunch of agents doing stuff. I can see search doing versions of those things, and you're getting a bunch of stuff done."

Here is the clip (at 9:08 in the video):

Jarvis - An advanced personal AI assistant that knows everything about you.

I've always said that once people have an advanced personal AI assistant, then Search will look radically different. Jarvis will be with you all the time, performing queries, findings information to help you, booking appointments, researching products for you, and based on everything it knows about you. It will know where you've been, what you are doing now, it will know your health history, your likes, dislikes, and more. It could be incredibly powerful but you would be putting a lot of trust in that agent (or series of agents). It will be interesting to see how Jarvis evolves... The building blocks are already there and all of the AI companies are fighting to build Jarvis first.

Anyway, it's a good episode that covers several topics. You should check it out.

GG

]]> Google Glenn Gabe Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:15:00 -0400 Google Ads Testing New Layouts for Multi-Location GBP Assets? https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-testing-new-layouts-for-multi-location-gbp-assets-41142.html Greg Finn Locations Are swipeable multi-location assets making their way to Google Ads? Anthony Higman recently spotted what appears to be a test that adds additional information to Location Assets and features horizontal swipeable locations on mobile.

The first thing Higman caught in the wild was a new look for location assets when multiple locations are displayed vertically. Instead of just showing directions, the new layout features review data'"not just for the company itself, but also for each specific location:

Location Assets 1

According to Higman, this could "come back to bite some firms" that have "neglected their review game on sub-locations." In other words, if specific locations (like the one in the graphic above) have poor reviews, those will now be visible, and companies can no longer rely solely on their overall brand rating.

The final test spotted by Higman was what appears to be a swipeable horizontal carousel of locations associated with an ad. While this specific example appeared to be broken at the time, it could be highly valuable for businesses with multiple locations.

Location Assets 2

For more, see the full post on LinkedIn.

]]> Google Ads Greg Finn Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:28:08 -0400 Programming Note: Offline For Last Days Of Passover Wednesday & Thursday https://www.seroundtable.com/programming-note-offline-for-last-days-of-passover-5786-41141.html Barry Schwartz Ser Passover Seder Green

This is a programming note that I am completely offline for the last days of Passover holiday Wednesday and Thursday. I am likely not going to schedule any stories, I apologize (still in recovery mode). So I apologize for the lack of stories here. I hope to come back soon, really soon.

I will be completely offline, so any social media posts, tweets, anything coming from this site or my social channels are all scheduled beforehand.

I won't be able to reply to comments, remove spam or break any stories on those days. I will catch up when I get back online.

Feel free to check out the archives or catch up with the weekly videos or just browse the search pics. Oh, and if you have nothing to do, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

For more on this holiday, check out Wikipedia.

For all those celebrating the holiday - have a good one and I'll be back on Sunday.

]]> Blog Administration Barry Schwartz Tue, 07 Apr 2026 08:10:06 -0400 GSC Logging Error Yielded Inflated Impressions Since May 2025 https://www.seroundtable.com/gsc-logging-error-impressions-41140.html Glenn Gabe GSC logging error

Google announced a logging error on Friday, April 3rd in the data anomalies report and explained that error prevented the accurate logging of impressions in GSC since May of 2025. That's right, almost a full year of inaccurate impressions. How bad of a logging error? We don't know yet, but we will all find out in the coming weeks. Google said site owners may notice a decrease in impressions in the Performance reporting. They also said that other metrics were not affected. More on that in a second.

Here is what Google said on April 3rd:

"This issue will be resolved over the next few weeks; as a result, you may notice a decrease in impressions in the Search Console Performance report. Clicks and other metrics were not affected by the error, and this issue affected data logging only."

Data anomalies page for GSC logging error

Here is my tweet about that on X from Saturday:

The Great Decoupling - Was "alligator trending" as bad as we thought?

Most people in the SEO industry know what The Great Decoupling is and what "alligator trending" looks like in GSC. That's when there's a point when impressions started to surge as clicks decreased. So basically, a decoupling of clicks and impressions over time. And that created a graph resembling an alligator opening its mouth. Most attributed that to the impact from AI Overviews where users were getting an answer in the SERPs via the AIO, but then not clicking through. So impressions would go up when clicks would decrease.

Here is what that looks like:

GSC Decoupling of clicks and impressions.

But now that we know there was a logging error that inflated impressions in the Performance reporting, will we see the alligator closing its mouth? In other words, will impressions come back down to normal (or closer to normal) closing the gap that caused many to scream bloody murder about the impact from AI Overviews? It's hard to say at this point, but we'll know soon enough.

Other metrics unaffected?

Google also explained that other metrics in the Performance reporting were unaffected, but how could that be? Click-through rate is based on impressions and clicks, and average position is impacted by when your content ranks in the search results and which position it was ranking in when receiving that impression. We don't know the details of how the logging error occurred, but it's odd to say the other metrics were unaffected. Again, we'll find out soon enough.

Export your GSC data now.

One thing is for sure, all site owners should be exporting their GSC data soon. I have published several tutorials about how to bulk export data from GSC via the Search Console API using Analytics Edge. That's a great way to go to ensure you aren't limited by the 1000 row limit in GSC. Once you have your data exported, you will be able to compare the data to what was being reported before the fix.

This should be interesting. Stay tuned.

GG

]]> Google Search Engine Optimization Glenn Gabe Mon, 06 Apr 2026 07:15:00 -0400 Grokipedia Continues To Drop in Search Visibility And AI Search Visibility https://www.seroundtable.com/grokipedia-continues-drop-google-ai-search-41139.html Glenn Gabe Grokipedia continues to drop in Google

In February I shared how Grokipedia started dropping heavily in Google after initially surging. It became yet another example of what I call "Mt. AI". That's when sites scaling heavily with AI-generated content initially surge in Google, but then drop heavily as Google's systems adjust.

Well, it looks like Grokipedia might be dropping more with the March 2026 broad core update. In addition, when reviewing AI Search visibility for the site, you can see the same trend that you see with Google search visibility. It surges and then drops heavily across AI Overviews, AI Mode, and then ChatGPT.

Like I shared yesterday on X, drop in Google and you can drop heavily in AI Search. This was a great example of that happening and the decline seems to be continuing with the latest broad core update. Note, Barry covered my initial shares about this in February and then Malte Landwehr from Peec.ai performed his own analysis. He confirmed that Grokipedia was dropping across AI platforms.

Anyway, here is my tweet from yesterday, along with the screenshots I shared.

Grokipedia dropping in Google

Grokipedia dropping in AIOs

Grokipedia dropping in ChatGPT

Grokipedia dropping in AI Mode

Favicon Gone Missing

In addition, Grokipedia seems to have lost its favicon in the SERPs. That's wouldn't be from an algorithm update, but I wanted to point that out. They should read my post about how to troubleshoot favicon issues in order to find the issue. As of now, it's just the lonely generic globe icon being displayed in the search results.

Grokipedia favicon missing

Beware "Mt. AI":

From a "Mt. AI" perspective, it's a tough lesson that site owners are learning when they choose to scale heavily with purely AI-generated content. Google's systems can often adjust and the site can plummet in rankings. And again, when you drop in Google, you can often drop in AI Search as well. Beware.

GG

]]> Google Updates Glenn Gabe Fri, 03 Apr 2026 07:21:00 -0400