The latest zero click report shows searches to the open web fall to only 27%. A new study looks at the rejected Google review replies. Google is testing blue dotted underlined sitelinks for sponsored results. Schema.org added usage statistics to its schema types. Apple updated its Applebot documentation to include topics on AI and much more.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Report: Google Zero Click Searches To Open Web Fall To 27.6%
  Rand Fishkin and friends (Sparktoro and Similarweb) released an ongoing Google zero-click study that showed zero-click searches from Google Search have been sending less and less traffic to the open web and are declining at an even faster rate. In fact, the report says 68.01% of Google searches ended without a click and if you look at AI responses, it is more like only 27.6% of clicks go to the open web.
• Schema.org Adds Usage Statistics For Schema Types
  The folks over at Schema.org have added usage statistics to each schema type. So if you want to see which schema type is used more, you can just check Schema.org. For example, author schema is used on over 10 million domains but event schema is used on under 1 million domains.
• Apple Updates Applebot Docs To Include Siri AI & AI Features
  Apple has made changes to its documentation for AppleBot to include crawling and usage for its AI efforts. There were other changes made to the document on June 08, 2026 as well.
• Report: Rejected Google Review Replies - The Hidden Rejections
  A new study has been released that looks at the review replies that have been rejected by Google. Business owners take the time to reply to customer reviews and then Google deletes them, and often, the business owner has no idea the reply was deleted because Google does not notify anyone - Google just removes the review.
• Google Ads Tests Blue Dotted Underlines Sitelinks On Sponsored Listings
  Google is testing a new format for sitelinks within the search ads, sponsored listings. This format has the sitelinks underlined with blue dots. So these are blue dotted underlined sitelinks for Google Ads.
• Google Panda Art In France Office
  

  Did you know that Google hangs Panda art in its office in France? I spotted this piece of a Panda bear holding several red balloons floating up in the sky.

  But why, what does this symbolize...

Other Great Search Threads:

• Google testing while hover on three dots "About the results" comes up in lil bit animation., Khushal Bherwani on X
• Bing with invisible read all button . not sure if this bug?, Khushal Bherwani on X
• Interesting, "search profiles" are starting to be indexed on Google, and I see @rustybrick in the indexed profile pages. Bug or intentional? When you look at the robots.txt file here: You can see the allow, Damien Andell on X
• Google is creating new controls for Search personalisation #SEO �' "Previously, saving history and personalisation were managed by Web & App Activity. Going forwards, we're introducing two new settings to help you better ta, Gagan Ghotra on X
• I need a t-shirt that says "I was confidently wrong before LLMs"., Laurie Voss on Bluesky

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google zero-click searches hit 68% in early 2026: Study
• How AI forms opinions about your brand
• What server logs reveal that SEO tools miss
• Why your brand campaign may not be ready for AI Max

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• Gemini models for Apple developers, Google Blog
• Apple Wins Consumer AI By Default, Spyglass
• Ben Gomes’ talk in Japan: Learning in the AI era, Google Blog
• Inside Google’s AI training for teachers, NBC News
• Introducing the Third Generation of Apple’s Foundation Models, Apple Machine Learning Research
• Microsoft AI chief walks back comments about AI taking over white-collar work, The Verge
• Powering the future of robotics in Europe, Google Blog
• What it feels like to work with Mythos, Ethan Mollick
• Why 62% of AI citations don’t lead to brand mentions [Study], Semrush

Industry & Business

• Apple failed to make its AI tool to comply to EU regulations, EU Commission says, Reuters
• Fáilte! Welcome to the new Google Ireland blog, Google Blog
• Google Search Isn't a Common Carrier (duh)-Ohio v. Google, Eric Goldman
• Anthropic Secures $35 Billion Chip Financing With Google’s Support, Bloomberg
• OpenAI in Talks to Lease 10 Gigawatt Ohio Data Center with Backing From Nvidia, The Information

Links & Content Marketing

• Content Strategy Audit Hiding Inside AI Initiative, Content Marketing Institute
• Digital PR Isn’t About Who You Know, It’s About How You Approach It, Koozai

Local & Maps

• "Map Your Dubai: Insider Edition" is Boosting the City’s Homegrown Hidden Gems, Google Blog
• How to Block Fraudulent Google Business Profile Ownership Requests, Igniting Business
• Google Tells Users To Update As Android Auto Connection Issues Are Finally Fixed, AutoEvolution

SEO

• Google Discover is interest-led, not query-led: Here's how to audit it, Oncrawl
• Google Just Released an AI Opt-Out Feature. Your Competitors Hope You Use It., SEO for Lunch
• How EAT 2.0 Builds Authority That AI Cannot Flatten, Michel Fortin
• How to decide which AI search prompts to track, Semrush
• The Modern-Day Michelin Guide: Anthropic's Massive Programmatic SEO Opportunity, Patrick Stox
• What the May 2026 Google Core Update Means for Your Website, Koozai
• When Google Stops Sending Clicks, What Still Works?, SparkToro

PPC

• All Your Google Marketing Live 2026 Questions Answered with Ginny Marvin, PPCChat
• How Wriggle Marketing Is Driving B2B Growth with Microsoft Advertising, Microsoft Advertising

Search Features

• 4 ways to keep up with soccer using Google tools, Google Blog
• Gemini 3.5 Live Translate rolling out to Google Meet and Translate, 9to5Google

Other Search

• Your Google Home speaker is about to understand you a lot better, Android Police

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.

A new study has been released that looks at the review replies that have been rejected by Google. Business owners take the time to reply to customer reviews and then Google deletes them, and often, the business owner has no idea the reply was deleted because Google does not notify anyone - Google just removes the review.

The study is from GMBapi that says it looked at 12,752 rejected review replies and it showed this in summary:

• 92.6% were replies to 5-star reviews. Positive reviews are generating the most rejections, almost certainly because businesses (and AI tools) respond to them with templated, enthusiastic language.
• Rejections spiked sharply in 2024. From 354 rejections in all of 2022 and 398 in 2023, the number jumped to 9,393 in 2024 alone. Either Google's filter clearly became significantly more aggressive, Google or the quality of the review changed.
• The average rejected reply was written 1,221 hours, roughly 50 days, after the original review was posted. Delayed, bulk-scheduled replies appear in the data at a disproportionate rate, and that average has grown since our first pull.

Michel van Luijtelaar, co-founder of GMBapi.com wrote on LinkedIn:

From April 2025 onwards, the rejection volumes changes significantly. Total volume drops and the AI boilerplate share of rejections falls from above 70% to single digits in some months. Two interpretations: either AI reply tools got smarter (it does not align with our launch of AI replies functionality) and businesses stopped submitting poor-quality templates. Or Google's filter is operating at a different stage of the pipeline entirely.

For a deeper look at this data, see the full analysis post.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn and Local Search Forum.

Google is testing a new format for sitelinks within the search ads, sponsored listings. This format has the sitelinks underlined with blue dots. So these are blue dotted underlined sitelinks for Google Ads.

I am not sure if Google is also testing this on the free organic listings but this was spotted first by @gaganghotra_, then by @b4k_khushal and then by @serpalerts - here is a screenshot:

Here are more:

seems like a new thing #ppc #seo showing links like this dotted underlined ð§ pic.twitter.com/XxlMynY0jI

— Gagan Ghotra (@gaganghotra_) June 7, 2026

ð Google sponsored ads site link extension with doted underline formate. pic.twitter.com/3TshsQV3lA

— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) June 9, 2026

Google is now testing a blue dotted underline for the smaller version of ad sitelinks on mobile.

There was a similar version of this test (the dotted underline) for organic URLs earlier in the month.

Within both examples I was able to surface, the 'what people are saying' AI'... pic.twitter.com/Hroptq6naC

— SERP Alert '¡ï' (@SERPalerts) June 9, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

Update:

Also for regular links @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/VByriBztxi

— Radu Oncescu (@oncescuradu) June 10, 2026

Rand Fishkin and friends (Sparktoro and Similarweb) released an ongoing Google zero-click study that showed zero-click searches from Google Search have been sending less and less traffic to the open web and are declining at an even faster rate. In fact, the report says 68.01% of Google searches ended without a click and if you look at AI responses, it is more like only 27.6% of clicks go to the open web.

Here is the chart from Similarweb showing the trend:

This chart breaks down whart happens to that 32%, which shows 66% of that goes to the open web, 27% goes to AI Mode, YouTube, Maps, Images, etc and 6% go to paid ads. It shows for every 1,000 US Google searches, 276 clicks go to the open web.

This is obviously an ongoing, disturbing trend, and honestly, it has become way more impactful since Google released AI Overviews within Google Search.

Dig deeper into the study over here.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

The folks over at Schema.org have added usage statistics to each schema type. So if you want to see which schema type is used more, you can just check Schema.org. For example, author schema is used on over 10 million domains but event schema is used on under 1 million domains.

Schema.org announced, "we are pleased to share a new dataset providing aggregate usage statistics for Schema.org terms across the public web." The dataset are updated monthly and they are aggregated at the domain level and presented in popularity range buckets. "This approach helps filter daily noise while highlighting meaningful adoption trends for researchers and toolmakers," Schema.org wrote. There is more about these usage statistics over here

Here are side-by-side screenshots of author schema and event schema showing the usage statistics towards the top:

Google posted about this on LinkedIn and wrote, "With Schema.org's new usage statistics dataset, we can find out! It provides monthly aggregate usage statistics for Schema.org terms across millions of domains on the internet. You can see these adoption trends directly on individual schema term pages or analyze the raw .csv file that's available on GitHub."

Ryan Levering from Google wrote on LinkedIn:

As long as I've known Dan Brickley, one of his main asks was that Google Search publish some stats on schema.org usage on the web. I finally got some support to finish the project and hopefully a few more cool things coming soon. It's hard for most open crawls to get the same depth of index as we have at Google, so we're happy to present some usage stats on schema.org terms, even if they are somewhat abstracted.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Apple has made changes to its documentation for AppleBot to include crawling and usage for its AI efforts. There were other changes made to the document on June 08, 2026 as well. Those include the additions of nosnippet controls, crawl delay, X-Robots-Tag, accessibility and more.

The About Applebot document added a new section on AI, it reads:

Applebot crawled data may be used to provide additional context and up-to-date content when AI models are used to generate output for display in Apple products and services. For example, answering broad world knowledge questions in Siri and Search that may include links to sources and websites used to help generate the answer. Web publishers can opt out of their content being used in these broad world knowledge answers by applying the nosnippet meta tag to specific content.

In addition to the AI updates, Apple also added details about nosnippet controls. Here are the sections that were updated related to that:

Even if you disallow Applebot-Extended and tag website content with the nosnippet meta tag, your website instructions may still allow Applebot to crawl your webpages. Your content will remain discoverable through Spotlight, Siri, and Safari, as well as other system-wide features on Apple devices.

Apple will not use data tagged nosnippet as additional context and up-to-date content when AI models are used to generate output for display in Apple products and services.

There is also a section on crawl delay that was added, specifically that Applebot does not follow crawl-delay.

Applebot does not follow crawl-delay.

Applebot is engineered for efficiency and will adjust to minimize the impact on site owners. For example, to avoid overloading site servers, Applebot's crawl rate adjusts automatically when a site slows down or returns errors. Apple also caches crawled content to reduce unnecessary crawling. Identifying content that doesn't need to be crawled lowers infrastructure costs for site owners and makes the internet more efficient as a whole.

There is a new section on X-Robots-Tag:

Using the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header Applebot also supports indexing directives delivered via the X-Robots-Tag HTTP response header. This is useful for non-HTML resources (such as PDFs or images) where meta tags can't be used, or when you want to apply directives at the server level.To apply a directive to Applebot: X-Robots-Tag: applebot: nosnippet Marking paywalled content Applebot supports the schema.org isAccessibleForFree property to identify pages that are behind a paywall, metered access, or subscription. Add the property to your page-level structured data in JSON-LD:

And a new section on Accessibility:

Pages marked isAccessibleForFree: false are eligible to appear in search results, but Applebot will not use that content as additional context when AI models are used to generate output for display in Apple products and services. This signal applies at the page level. Section-level markup using hasPart is not supported. To opt out of having your content used to train Apple's foundation models, use Applebot-Extended described in the next section.

Those are most of the changes to this document.

Forum discussion at X.

Apple announced the new Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, it was a bit underwhelming. Google Ads is testing new top pages links. Google Shopping is testing linking directly to the retailer's page and not product detail overlay. Google Ads has a new Campaign Guidance with experiment power scores. Google AI Mode is testing citation counts and favicons at the bottom.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Apple Siri AI & New Apple Intelligence
  Apple had its big annual developer conference, WWDC, and as expected, they spent a lot of time showing off the new Apple Intelligence and what they are calling Siri AI. Apple says Siri AI is "an entirely new version of Siri, powered by Apple Intelligence."
• Google Ads Testing Top Pages Links
  Google seems to be testing new "top pages" links within the Google Ads sponsored listings. These look like sitelinks or those old tags but they are titled "Top pages."
• Google Shopping Results Tests Linking Directly To Merchant Site
  Google is testing directly linking to merchant/retailer web sites, instead of to product listing overlays within the Google Shopping results. Generally, when you click on a product within Google Search, Google will open a new side panel overlay window that has more details about that product.
• New Google Ads Campaign Guidance With Experiment Power Score
  Google Ads has a new feature named Campaign Guidance that will give you an "Experiment Power" score that will show advertisers "the likelihood of achieving statistically significant results, along with actionable recommendations to improve your experiments and make informed decisions," Google wrote.
• Google AI Mode Tests Citation Counts & Favicons Under Results
  Google is testing moving the results count with favicons from above the citations and links cards in the AI Mode results, to under/below the citations and links cards. I am not sure if this will make a difference either way to publishers, but Google is always testing changes.
• Outdoor Lounge Area At Google Kirkland Office
  This is a photo from the normally rainy and dark Google office in Kirkland, Seattle. Here you see blue skies and a nice looking day to use the outdoor lounge area. I found this photo on Instagram...

Other Great Search Threads:

• In case you missed it: We recently released new Google Business Profile Playbooks! Whether you run a café, hotel, tour company, or service business, we have a tailored guide to help you stand out. Plus, a General P, Google Business Profile on X
• Occasionally we get questions about whether dashes in domain names are ok for SEO (they're ok). So far, I haven't seen anyone ask the other question - HOW MANY DASHES ARE OK? Folks, the answer is apparently 61. Now you can read the link in peace., John Mueller on Bluesky
• Stop treating AI bots equally., Myriam Jessier on Bluesky
• These are 3 well-known brands that are also listed as case studies of AI content scaling tools They scaled a lot of page templates that can manipulate AI answers, like excessive "best X" content, self-promotional listicles, scaled, Lily Ray on X
• We write about these things because we see people confused about this at events and elsewhere. If you've been active in the world of SEO & whatevero for a while, none of these things are new., John Mueller on LinkedIn

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google adds new Performance Max asset testing tools
• OpenAI to expand ChatGPT ads to new markets & test multi-advertiser placements
• Google to update Local Services Ads policies in July
• The problem with AI share of voice and 3 metrics that matter more
• Google AI Brief may be the replacement keywords never had
• Stop looking for the perfect PPC budget split
• What ChatGPT Ads data reveals about your competitors

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• Apple unveils new Siri AI, dedicated app, and enhanced Apple Intelligence features in iOS 27, 9to5Mac
• Apple Unveils Xcode and Foundation Models Framework Improvements, MacRumors
• Apple will let you build workflows using AI in its new Shortcuts app, TechCrunch
• Built to benefit everyone: our plan, OpenAI
• Do your best research with NotebookLM, Google Blog
• Have a Thorny Medical Question? Your Doctor May Be Using A.I. for That., New York Times
• How to Build a Representative AI Search Prompt Library for Better AI Visibility Measurement, Aleyda Solis
• What 100 Australian eCommerce brands taught us about AI search (The High-Ticket Effect), Studio Hawk

Analytics

• New Google Business Profile integration, Google Analytics Help

Industry & Business

• Apple Says Google AI Models in New Platform Will Not Compromise User Privacy, Bloomberg
• Google and Nvidia Consider Intel as Backup Chip Manufacturer, The Information
• iOS 27’s most powerful on-device AI requires iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air, 9to5Mac
• OpenAI confidentially files for IPO, prepping Wall Street for AI debut, CNBC
• Top White House AI Advisor to Leave Post, The Information
• Wikipedia Vs. Google Search: Game On!, MediaPost

Links & Content Marketing

• 5 Content Marketing Ideas for July 2026, Practical Ecommerce
• How to Build Topical Authority in the AI Search Era (7 Steps), Backlinko

Local & Maps

• Android Auto bug leaves Google Maps in day mode at night, 9to5Google
• The New Rules of Local Search: Reviews, Community Signals, and Brand Prominence, Advanced Web Ranking

SEO

• Your Sites Receive More Traffic Than You Realize, SEO Theory
• From Traffic Loss to Entity Understanding: SEO in 2026, Rich Sanger SEO
• Google’s AI opt-out leaves publishers with a difficult choice, Digiday
• How many consecutive hyphens can you have in a domain name?, Terence Edea's Blog
• How to Level-up From SEO Tactician to Search Visibility Leader, Ahrefs
• How We Run SEO/AEO Audits With Claude & Sitebulb, Sitebulb
• Why an AI 'Death Spiral' Threatens the Internet, Bloomberg on YouTube
• Why Evergreen Content Compounds (and AI Content Doesn't), Blue Array SEO
• In 2026, Less than One Third of Google Searches Still Send a Click, SparkToro
• SEO Isn’t Simply a Content Package; It’s a Strategy, JumpFly
• US publishers tell Common Crawl to stop scraping and delete archive, Press Gazette
• What The Future of Google Looks Like, Leadership SEO

PPC

• AI Max vs. Broad Match: Which Works Best?, WordStream
• AI Ready? Google Ads Maturity Model., Avinash Kaushik
• Impression Share Insights for Better Ad Strategy, Hopskip Media
• Scale results with new asset experiments in Performance Max, Google
• Why Your PPC landing Pages Aren't Converting, PPC Hero
• Update to Gambling and Games Policy: Vietnam (June 2026), Google Advertising Policies Help
• Why Great ROAS Doesn't Always Mean Great Business, PPC Live

Search Features

• 4 ways to keep up with the FIFA World Cup 2026 using Google tools, Google Blog
• Apple Expands Visual Intelligence With Bill Splitting, Nutrition Insights, and visionOS Support, MacRumors
• Apple Reveals New AI Architecture Built Around Google Gemini Models, MacRumors
• Google's older Nest Mini and Audio are quietly checking out before the new Home speaker arrives, Android Authority
• Here's how to remove Gemini from Google Home, Android Authority
• Microsoft lets users disconnect Bing from Windows 11 search, Mashable
• See the top Google Trends searches for the 2026 NBA Finals, Google Blog

Other Search

• ChatGPT app experience updates, ChatGPT Release Notes
• Google Home upgrades weather forecasts, media on Nest Hub, 9to5Google
• Google’s June 2026 frauds and scams advisory, Google Blog

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.

Apple had its big annual developer conference, WWDC, and as expected, they spent a lot of time showing off the new Apple Intelligence and what they are calling Siri AI. Apple says Siri AI is "an entirely new version of Siri, powered by Apple Intelligence."

Siri AI is conversational, like you'd expect from an AI assistant today. But honestly, it feels like AI from a few years ago. I assume it will get better over time, but Apple continued to mention privacy over and over again when talking about Siri AI and Apple Intelligence. While other AI platforms learn off everyone's inputs and usage, Apple is more privacy centric in many areas.

Apple wrote that Siri AI is "conversational assistant with personal context understanding, broad world knowledge, and onscreen awareness, Siri AI can help users find what they need in the moment, from answering questions from the web on virtually any topic, to surfacing relevant information from a user's personal messages, emails, photos, and more. Siri AI also includes a dedicated app for users to revisit conversations across their products, an expanded Visual Intelligence experience, and integrated tools for writing. With a bold new architecture uniquely designed to protect users' privacy, Siri AI leverages the next generation of Apple Intelligence to bring state-of-the-art understanding and reasoning, along with powerful systemwide capabilities, to Apple's operating systems."

Here is the chart Apple showed over and over again called Apple Foundation Models, which runs on device and on servers using Private Cloud Compute:

Visual Intelligence also got an upgrade letting you use your Camera app with a brand-new Siri mode, allowing users to get information and take action on what's in front of them. Users can simply tap the shutter button to let Siri see what they see and receive useful responses. Siri mode in Camera also includes a rich new set of actions, including the ability to split a bill with friends using Apple Cash, get nutritional insights about a plate of food, and more.

Siri AI will be available as a beta later this year for users with a supported device set to English, and Apple will expand support for more languages.

There is a lot more about Apple Intelligence and Siri AI over here and in the Apple Newsroom - I was a bit underwhelmed. I was hoping to see more powerful Gemini features from Google. I mean, I've covered Apple's AI efforts for a while and I really was expecting more, unlike previous years. Google did post after the WWDC keynote on its blog Bringing the latest Gemini models to Apple developers.

Here are some screenshots of it in beta:

Off new Siri waitlist, downloading now pic.twitter.com/iB6RqatMg9

— Max Weinbach (@mweinbach) June 8, 2026

ChatGPT extension in Siri is really interesting pic.twitter.com/VkufgPM3nm

— Max Weinbach (@mweinbach) June 8, 2026

Ask ChatGPT does not have access to your personal data like Ask Siri does, but it's available in the Siri app pic.twitter.com/FhX17RDoKX

— Max Weinbach (@mweinbach) June 9, 2026

You can import Xcode plugins from Codex and Claude Code! pic.twitter.com/6FEQK0Lk9s

— Max Weinbach (@mweinbach) June 9, 2026

New Siri in camera with visual intelligence pic.twitter.com/HMYwjugpfI

— Max Weinbach (@mweinbach) June 8, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

Google seems to be testing new "top pages" links within the Google Ads sponsored listings. These look like sitelinks or those old tags but they are titled "Top pages."

The top pages then shows links to what Google defines as the top pages from that domain.

This was spotted by Arpan Banerjee who posted a screenshot of it on LinkedIn - here is that screenshot:

Forum discussion a LinkedIn.

Google is testing directly linking to merchant/retailer web sites, instead of to product listing overlays within the Google Shopping results. Generally, when you click on a product within Google Search, Google will open a new side panel overlay window that has more details about that product.

Google is testing that instead, it will just take you directly to that merchant's website. How agentic (not)...

This was spotted by Sachin Patel on X and also later by Brodie Clark on @serpalerts. Here is a video from Sachin showing the click from the product result going to the retailer's website:

Here are more videos of this in action from Sachin:

Google is testing blue hyperlinks for products in Shopping results.

When I click the product title, it takes me directly to the retailer's website instead of opening the product listing within Google Shopping. @rustybrick @brodieseo @gaganghotra_ pic.twitter.com/KPm0KTndcC

— Sachin Patel (@SachuPatel53124) June 8, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

Google Ads has a new feature named Campaign Guidance that will give you an "Experiment Power" score that will show advertisers "the likelihood of achieving statistically significant results, along with actionable recommendations to improve your experiments and make informed decisions," Google wrote.

This should give advertisers more confidence in the experiments they run and if they will succeed or not. Hana Kobzová, who spotted this first and wrote about it on PPC News Feed wrote, " feature offers an 'Experiment Power' score to predict the likelihood of achieving statistically significant results and provides actionable recommendations for improvements."

The "Experiment Power" scores are interesting to me, Google explained the factors involved in this score and they include:

• Campaign selection: Campaigns with sufficient volumes are necessary for a healthy experiment setup.
• Campaign variability: Campaigns with consistent performance over time lead to more reliable experiment results.
• Traffic split: Sufficient traffic volume needs to be in the experiment arm to provide conclusive results.
• Experiment duration: Experiments should run for a minimum duration based on the campaign volume and traffic to ensure reliable and conclusive results.
• Experiment type: Test settings like headlines, bidding strategy among others, require variable experiment durations and minimum performance volumes for conclusive results.

The experiment score has three categories of ranges including:

• Low: 0 - 49% power
• Medium: 50 - 79% power
• High: 80% - 99% power

How do you level-up (sorry, had to) your Experiment power score? Google says:

• Choosing campaigns with sufficient volume: Running experiments with campaigns that have a large enough volume of data (for example, conversions, spend, among others) can significantly increase the power of your experiment.
• Adjusting the experiment duration: Increasing the duration of your experiment will allow you to gather more data, resulting in higher power.
• Optimizing the traffic split: For faster results, consider using a 50/50 split between your control and treatment groups.
• Selecting alternative campaigns: Explore other campaigns with higher volume for your experiment.

Here are the listed benefits of Campaign guidance with experiment power scores:

• Run more effective experiments: Avoid inconclusive results or unnecessarily long experiment durations.
• Get actionable insights faster: Make data-driven optimizations and improve campaign performance more quickly.
• Get personalized recommendations: Adjust budgets, experiment durations, or campaign selections to increase the likelihood of conclusive results.
• Simplify experiment setup: Get clear, easy-to-understand explanations and actionable steps to run successful experiments.

This feature is available for all Performance Max experiments and Broad Match experiments in Google Search campaigns.

For more details, so this Google help document.

Forum discussion at X.

Google is testing moving the results count with favicons from above the citations and links cards in the AI Mode results, to under/below the citations and links cards. I am not sure if this will make a difference either way to publishers, but Google is always testing changes.

This test was spotted by Brodie Clark at SERP alerts and he posted some screenshots on X. Here is what the test looks like with the counts/favicons on the bottom:

Here is what it typically looks like:

Forum discussion at X.

Google added a new help document on third-party tools, services and advice, plus Google updated its hiring an SEO document. Google is testing Search profile insights and analytics. Bing has a new way to hide AI responses from Copilot. Google said it won't be making AI Mode the default search experience from Chrome.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Search Ranking Volatility This Weekend - Around June 6th
  Earlier this month, the Google May 2026 core update was completed on June 2, 2026. But the volatility has not seemed to calm down. I am seeing a lot of chatter spike up from within the SEO community over the weekend. The SEO chatter started Friday, June 5th and continued through the weekend. Meanwhile, most of the third-party Google volatility tracking tools seem somewhat calm.
• New Google Document On Third-Party SEO Tools, Services & Advice
  Google not only updated its advice on hiring an SEO document, but also created a new one named Google Search's guidance on using third-party SEO tools, services, and advice. This document drills into how to evaluate the advice you get from these sources and some tips to think critically about such SEO advice.
• Google Updates Its Hiring An SEO Doc Warning On SEO Tools & AI Optimization
  Google has updated its help document titled Do you need an SEO? Google said the changes are to help when "evaluating your SEO's recommendations and tools, along with other minor updates to the page to simplify and modernize the content." But the document also added a section for Optimizing for generative AI and making sure your SEO follows Google's guidelines around that topic.
• Google Search Profiles Insights & Analytics
  Google launched Search Profiles late last week, a way for creators and publishers to have a place on Google to highlight its content and platforms. And Google seems to be testing a new Insights section for Search profiles, where you can see how searchers are interacting with your Search profiles on Google.
• Bing Gives Searchers A Way To Disable AI Copilot Answers
  Microsoft Bing announced a new way to disable the Copilot, Microsoft AI, responses from showing up in the Bing search results. There is a new browser extension available for Chrome and Edge that you can install to toggle off showing AI responses, or you can just add -ai to the end of your query.
• Google: Google Chrome Won't Set AI Mode The Default Search Experience
  Google has confirmed that the search company has no plans on making AI Mode the default search experience within Google Chrome. This comes after Chrome Canary added a new experimental flag that redirected searches from the address bar directly to AI Mode. According to Rajan Patel, a Google VP, that was an error.
• Satyajeet Salgar Walk By In Time Magazine Google's Pichai Interview
  Earlier this month, Time Magazine interviewed Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai. And some how, just some how, Satyajeet Salgar, Director of Product and UX at Google, made it into the video. Well, kind of... He was in a filler portion of the interview...

Other Great Search Threads:

• Spotted something new in Google Business Profile! It's been a while since 'Place Page Attributes' showed up in GBP, but now for the first time, I'm seeing a 'PRIMARY' tag appearing right next to the selected Chat/Texting number, Syed M. Amir Hassan on X
• Is it new @rustybrick I'm seeing an AI Preview in the https://t.co/USsMgNeZrW search results powered by Google. It appears on mobile, but I don't see it on desktop., Saurabh Bhardwaj on X
• It appears Google is planning to convert the "follow" button to "subscribe." DiscoverCard = convert_follow_to_subscribe, Damien Andell on X
• Schema.org is publishing the Public Usage Statistics dataset via a collaboration with Google., Shameem Adhikarath on X
• Seems like it would be good to at least have the landing page crawlable. Their main site has a more differenced robots.txt file, maybe send them a note :)., John Mueller on Bluesky
• We're rolling these reports out to a subset of websites, allowing us to thoroughly test them and receive feedback before making them widely available. This enables us to thoroughly test these features to ensure they’re working at a smaller scale before , John Mueller on Bluesky
• ChatGPT surpassed 600 million MAUs for the first time., Similarweb on
• Hit by may update, BlackHatWorld
• Hmm... crazy to see Grokipedia surge with the May 2026 core update. It dropped heavily in early February but really shot up with the core update. But... that's for now. I have a feeling that will drop again (and maybe so, Glenn Gabe on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google adds guidance on third-party SEO tools, services, advice and updates hiring an SEO doc
• Google clarifies sensitive audience targeting rules for Demand Gen campaigns
• Microsoft expands Audience Ads eligibility for cryptocurrency exchanges
• The latest jobs in search marketing
• Cloudflare: Bots now make up 57% of webpage requests
• 4 ways to track AI search visibility when attribution falls short
• Delegation search: Why users outsource decisions to AI
• How TV ads create search demand '" and what to do about it

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• Anthropic Urges Global Pause in AI Development, Flags ‘Self-Improvement’ Risk, Wall Street Journal
• ‘Bots have now passed human traffic online,’ Cloudflare boss laments — says agentic traffic wasn’t expected to eclipse real people until next year, Tom's Hardware
• 'World-first' vaccine designed by artificial intelligence, BBC
• 9 Vibe Coding Examples: AI Apps You Can Use Right Now to Grow Your Website, Ahrefs
• Lockdown Mode, OpenAI
• OpenAI makes its next hardware move with Opal Electronics, Testing Catalog
• WTF is NLWeb? — Whiteboard Friday, Moz
• AI Search Runs on Two Memory Systems. The Platforms Don’t Use Them the Same Way., Duane Forrester Decodes
• OpenAI plots biggest ChatGPT overhaul since launch, Financial Times (Sub)

Analytics

• GA4 via Google Tag Manager: Step-by-Step Guide, KRM Digital Marketing
• Google Tag Gateway Now Available for Amazon CloudFront Users, PPC News Feed

Industry & Business

• European publishers seek £552m+ from Google claiming ad market abuse, Press Gazette
• Google Defeats "Negligent Digital Architecture" Claim-Starr v. Google, Eric Goldman
• Has Microsoft Lost Its Mojo (Again)?, Wired
• Nadella Rebukes Microsoft Executive’s Plan to Make Users “Addicted” to AI Agents, The Information
• OpenAI to comply with Trump AI model review order: Osborne, CNBC
• U.S. Officials Discuss Taking Financial Stakes in AI Industry, Wall Street Journal
• The Data-Center Slowdown and Google’s Gambit, Wall Street Journal
• WWDC 2026: Apple’s Secret Meeting That Led It to Take AI Seriously; iOS 27, Bloomberg

Links & Content Marketing

• 91 Best Marketing Blogs, Newsletters, Podcasts, and Videos, Content Marketing Institute

Local & Maps

• Android Auto redesigns Google Maps alerts to be less distracting, 9to5Google
• Google Starts Rolling Out Android Auto 17.1: How To Skip the Wait and Download It Right Now, AutoEvolution

SEO

• First Preview: Google Search Console Generative AI Report Now Live, Brodie Clark Consulting
• Automated SEO: What It Is and How It Works in 2026, Ahrefs
• Google May 2026 Core Update: Reddit Up, YouTube Down, SE Ranking
• How to Optimize for AI Visibility and Prepare for Agentic Search, Moz
• Keyword strategy in SEO: What it is & how to create one, Semrush
• Google Suggest Scraper in the Age of AI Search, Grumpy Old SEO
• Site Migration SEO Mistakes: 32 Pitfalls & Fixes, Pwani

PPC

• Local Services Ads policy update (June 2026), Google Advertising Policies Help
• Microsoft Allows Audience Ads for Cryptocurrency Exchanges, PPC News Feed
• Rolling out ads in the UK, ChatGPT Release Notes
• Saying Goodbye to DSA: How to Prepare for the AI Max Switch, ZATO
• Campaign Guidance for Experiments, PPC News Feed

Search Features

• Chrome tests redirecting searches to AI Mode instead of Google Search results, Windows Report
• How to Get a Google Search Profile From Outside the US, Suganthan

Other Search

• WWDC 2026 Preview: iOS 27, Siri, AI Features, macOS 27, More Apple Will Announce, Bloomberg
• A Double Victory for Web Speed: Chrome Breaks Records Again on Speedometer 3.1 and Jetstream 3, Google Blog

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.

Earlier this month, the Google May 2026 core update was completed on June 2, 2026. But the volatility has not seemed to calm down. I am seeing a lot of chatter spike up from within the SEO community over the weekend. The SEO chatter started Friday, June 5th and continued through the weekend. Meanwhile, most of the third-party Google volatility tracking tools seem somewhat calm.

I will say that this May core update was much more volatile than the March 2026 core update. So maybe folks are feeling that a little bit after the update finished rolling out? Or maybe, Google is doing some post-core update tweaks. It is really hard to know.

As a reminder, the Google May 2026 core update was announced on May 21, 2026, and then that following weekend, we saw some significant ranking volatility, and then again, this past weekend, we saw even more volatility. But today, I am seeing even more volatility spike up - yes, on a Tuesday - June 2, 2026 right before Google said the update was done.

Now, we are seeing more volatility over the weekend following the core update being marked as done.

SEO Chatter

There is chatter within the WebmasterWorld forums and on this site - here is a sampling of that chatter:

What happened Friday about 12.00 PDT?

My traffic across all sites, including niche UK, fell off a cliff edge and are still dead. After 12 hours today I am at about 10% of average!

Anyone else?

Good question; it's the same for me. Traffic has been very low since around noon yesterday, and the shop has practically come to a standstill.

Our week-over-week Google traffic has been up most days lately (anywhere from single- to double-digit percentages). The increases are almost academic, though, when you consider that AI Overviews have lowered the baseline to a pittance.

With 2 hours of my Googleday to go my global site is at 20% of average, this makes Xmas Day look busy!

EU traffic is really crashing since yesterday.

Things are looking great. I was hit by the 2023 core update and I'm seeing a recovery. My traffic is back to 90% of what I used to get.

But my revenue is still down. I guess it is just bot traffic.

Yep traffic is up but not in the revenue, I agree, its all bot traffic. As I posted below , it quoted Cloudflare now saying over 50% of traffic is bots now earlier than had been predicted.

Google Tracking Tools

But the majority of the third-party Google tracking tools are showing little volatility, so I am not sure what is up.

Here is my interactive chart that plots all of them in one chart:

What are you all seeing?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google not only updated its advice on hiring an SEO document, but also created a new one named Google Search's guidance on using third-party SEO tools, services, and advice. This document drills into how to evaluate the advice you get from these sources and some tips to think critically about such SEO advice.

Google said they did this "To highlight important considerations when evaluating third-party SEO tools and advice, and to simplify some sections and remove outdated examples in existing documentation."

Google wants you to be careful when listening to advice from SEO tools, services or just blanket SEO advice. Google wrote in the document, "We recommend carefully evaluating any advice you might be considering implementing against our official SEO guidance, including our guidance on optimizing for generative AI, and making your own informed decisions."

When it comes to the advice from SEO tools, Google said to ask these questions:

• Assisting in sitemap generation
• Establishing indexing directives
• Offering to generate "SEO-optimized" content for you
• Providing advice they claim will improve the ranking of your existing content
• Promising improvements for AI experiences and search formats (also known as "AEO" or "GEO" tools)

Google added:

Some of these services may be helpful in your work, while others may make claims or imply that what they do is somehow "acceptable" or "approved" by Google Search. Google doesn't evaluate third-party services, so be wary of such claims and those making them. Keep in mind that using a service or tool doesn't guarantee ranking success.

Some third-party services provide data that some users of those tools misinterpret as somehow being from Google. Third-party tools don't have access to our internal ranking data. They can't guarantee performance. Any predictions are their own and like predictions generally, may not happen.

Of course, Google also dropped a recommendation for its own SEO tool, Search Console. "Whether you use a third-party tool or not, we strongly encourage using our first-party tool, Google Search Console, which provides you with key information and data directly from Google Search itself," Google wrote.

ð Google updates guidance on third-party SEO tools, services, and advice ð'

Specifics of this in these two posts from @glenngabehttps://t.co/v0RdsxqEDZhttps://t.co/MM6xTcb42N pic.twitter.com/vcL1tBBmra

— Gagan Ghotra (@gaganghotra_) June 6, 2026

Forum discussion at X.