Search Engine Roundtable https://www.seroundtable.com en-us Barry Schwartz Fri, 01 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400 Daily Search Forum Recap: May 1, 2026 https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-05-01-2026-41257.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.

Google's preferred sources now works across all languages. Google may be deinexing pages at a faster rate than before. Google Ads AI Max gains AI brief, text disclaimers and expansions to shopping and travel. Google Discover tests "you asked to see" label. I posted the monthly Google webmaster report, but for the past two months. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap.

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

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 Fri, 01 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400 Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Ranking Volatility, Back Button Hijacking Notices & AdSense Triggers, Bing Webmaster Tools Teases AI Reporting & More https://www.seroundtable.com/video-04-01-2026-41254.html Barry Schwartz

This week in search, we are seeing yet again more Google search ranking volatility. Google sent out notifications about back button hijacking penalties to those sites that have the problem. Google AdSense vignette ads may trigger the penalty, so be careful. Bing Webmaster Tools teased new AI reporting features but no ETA on when it will launch. Google may be deindexing pages at a higher rate says many SEOs, but Google's John Mueller says no. Google AI Overviews tests a sticky Ask Anything box. A new report says the click-through rates from AI Overviews are improving. Google's preferred sources now works in all languages. I posted a two month Google Webmaster report. Bing is testing less clickable links in its Copilot results. Google local panel has a show more action button. Google in Germany can show how many reviews were removed. Google now lets you edit your videos in the mobile app for your Business Profile. Google Ads has new AI reporting features like AI brief, text disclaimers and expansion with AI Max for Shopping and Travel. Google tests AI labels on its search ads. Google Ads has this preview impact of negative keywords. Google reported earnings and so did Microsoft, we got the ad numbers for you. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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Search Topics of Discussion:

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]]> Search Video Recaps Barry Schwartz Fri, 01 May 2026 08:01:00 -0400 Google Search May Be Deindexing URLs At Higher Rates https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-deindexing-urls-41252.html Barry Schwartz Google Chart Down Destroy

SEOs and site owners are always complaining about indexing issues with Google Search. Why is this page not indexed, why is that page not indexed. But some seasoned SEOs are asking if Google is more picky about what it indexes in the past month or so, than it was maybe a year ago.

Pedro Dias, a former Googler, asked on X, "Is everyone noticing Google de-indexing URLs randomly at a higher rate since the beginning of April?"

And, as you'd expect, most people said yes. Cory replied, "Seems to be a regular occurrence with updates. Some type of freshness/stale evaluation and quality component. Purge garbage to reduce the index size." Valentin Pletzer replied, "Interesting. I checked several URLs (site:https://'...) and I found all of the ones I checked. I wonder if there is some kind of reporting bug?" Alex Gramm replied, "I have noticed that since December 2025. It looks interesting and weird at the same time. Only two pages in Google's index, media websites." The post has tons of people saying yes, they see the same thing.

I asked John Mueller from Google about this and he said "I don't see anything exceptional there."

Some sites go up, some sites go down - I don't see anything exceptional there.

— John Mueller (@johnmu.com) April 30, 2026 at 6:15 AM

Some even uploaded screenshots of their Google Search Console page indexing reports:

Hhfmdztbcaac Hg

Hhfmwvvawaexwra

Hhgurdlamaah3lx

Hhfm8xfa4aalj4o

Hhfnestxcaaxixu

What are you all seeing here? I assume, you would all agree.

I suspect, with all the AI content being pushed out, that Google is getting pickier...

Forum discussion at X.

]]> Google Search Engine Optimization Barry Schwartz Fri, 01 May 2026 07:51:00 -0400 Google Preferred Sources Now Available For All Languages Globally https://www.seroundtable.com/google-preferred-sources-all-languages-globally-41253.html Barry Schwartz Google Preferred Sources

Back in December, Google expanded Preferred sources globally, but only for English-language content. Now Google's preferred sources support all languages globally, Google posted a brief note saying:

Preferred Sources is now rolling out globally in all supported languages. This feature gives you more control over the news you see on Search by letting you choose the outlets and sites you want to appear more often in Top Stories.

It's already helping people connect with the sources they value. In fact, readers are twice as likely to click through to a site after marking it as a Preferred Source. So far, people have already selected over 200,000 unique sites '" from niche local blogs to global news desks.

To get started, just tap the star icon next to Top Stories and start adding sites to your list.

Google updated this help document to add numerous languages for the button to add to your site.

If you love this site, you can add this site as a preferred source on Google by clicking here, if you do, you will be twice as likely to click to my site from the Top Stories section (my fair warning...).

As a reminder, to activate Preferred Sources, search for a topic that's in the news and click on the icon to the right of Top Stories. Then search and select your preferred sources. Then you can refresh your results and see more from your favorite sites.

Google Preferred Sources

Google also posted a publisher resource section on this feature. Google wrote:

In Top stories, you can select your preferred sources. Next to the 'Top stories' header, click the Cards Star icon Preferred sources cards star icon. You can search for and choose the sources and outlets you'd like to find. For relevant news queries, these sources show up more often in 'Top stories' and 'From your sources.' Learn more about Top Stories in Search.

Forum discussion at X.

]]> Google Barry Schwartz Fri, 01 May 2026 07:31:00 -0400 Google Ads AI Max: AI Brief, Text Disclaimers & Shopping & Travel Expansion https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-ai-max-ai-brief-text-disclaimers-more-41240.html Barry Schwartz Google Ads Ai Max

Google announced a number of new updates for AI Max within Google Ads. These include (1) AI Brief, (2) text disclaimers and (3) Expansion with AI Max for shopping and Search Campaigns for travel.

Here are short descriptions of what is new:

(1) AI Brief: Giving advertisers more control in their own words with conversational language guidance for campaigns. AI Brief allows marketers to provide business context and guardrails while Gemini handles execution. This is rolling out in English for Search, with Performance Max and Shopping to follow.

Google Ads Ai Brief

(2) Text Disclaimers: Improved compliance in Final URL Expansion that ensures required legal text always appears in ads, providing certainty for regulated sectors. This is rolling out in the coming weeks globally, in all languages.

(3) Expansion with AI Max for Shopping and Search Campaigns for Travel: Google said it is delivering specialized inventory access and deep intent understanding for conversational queries. This is now available in Search campaigns and rolling out in closed beta globally, in all languages.

Here is the Shopping setting:

Ai Max For Shopping

The travel setting:

Searchcampaignsfortravel Google Small

Forum discussion at X.

]]> Google Ads Barry Schwartz Fri, 01 May 2026 07:31:00 -0400 Google Discover With New You Asked To See Label https://www.seroundtable.com/google-discover-you-asked-to-see-label-41215.html Barry Schwartz Google Astronaut

Google is showing a new label on the Discover feed that says "You asked to see." This label is added to items in your feed that are customized based on the Tailor Your Feed feature.

This was first spotted by Damien (andell) on X who wrote, "In addition to adjusting the UI of "Tailor Your Feed" Google Discover, add a "You asked to see" label for articles suggested in the "historicalnaturallanguagetuningcontent" pipeline relative to the prompt the user will type in the "Tailor Your Feed" chat."

Here is an example:

Google Discover You Asked To See Label

Here are more examples:

So if you see this label, that is where it is from.

Forum discussion at X.

]]> Google Barry Schwartz Fri, 01 May 2026 07:21:00 -0400 April & May 2026 Google Webmaster Report https://www.seroundtable.com/april-may-2026-google-webmaster-report-41251.html Barry Schwartz Google Webmaster Report

I missed last month's Google Webmaster Report, so I am combining both April and May into one big report. Google completed rolling out the March 2026 spam update in March, and started the March core update, which completed in April. We also had a lot of other ranking volatility throughout.

Google announced a shiny new search spam penalty that targets back button hijacking. Google even sent out notices for sites that will see action taken if they don't make changes, will some of those be AdSense ads related or not - is the question.

Danny Sullivan spoke about commodity vs non-commodity content. Google published a help document on read more deep links, and on web crawling and discussion forum and Q&A markup. Google also warned against self-serving listicles.

Google now says it won't use your spam reports with PII when first saying the opposite. And Google seems to be working on a new AI contribution report in Search Console. Google also rolled out branded queries in Search Console. Google also released and is testing tons of search features.

Google on the local side released its spam fighting numbers, added new policies and rules and rolled out Ask Maps in more locations.

Google also released stellar earnings report.

Those were some of the larger changes over the past month, make sure to check out the March 2026 Google webmaster report if you missed that.

Here are the bigger Google SEO stories from the past two months (sorry for missing last month):

Google Updates & Volatility:

Google SEO: Google Search Console: Google Search Features: Google Local & Business Profiles: Misc Google:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

]]> Google Search Engine Optimization Barry Schwartz Fri, 01 May 2026 07:11:00 -0400 Daily Search Forum Recap: April 30, 2026 https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-04-30-2026-41250.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.

Google and Microsoft reported earnings, Google had an insane quarter with continued growth. Microsoft also did well with ad revenue and also hit the 1 billion monthly active users mark. Google Ads recommendations section now has a results tab. Google Ads lets you select if you want to run ads with partners. Google is showing more links within AI Mode. Microsoft Advertising PMax website publisher URL report has new metrics.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

  • Google Ad Revenue Up 15.5% With Overall Revenue Up 22%
    Google reported its earnings today, its Q1 2026 earnings report showed ad revenues up by 15.5% at $77.3 billion and overall revenue was up 22% at $109.9 billion...
  • Bing Ads Revenue Up 12% - 1 Billion Monthly Action Users Milestone
    Microsoft reported its third quarter 2026 earnings and it showed that its search and advertising revenue was up for 12% and that means its ad growth is growing again. The previous quarter it was up 10% before that, up 16% and the one before that was 21% and this quarter...
  • Microsoft Ads PMax Website Publisher URL Report Gains Conversion & Spend
    Microsoft Advertising has added conversion and spend metrics to the PMax Website Publisher URL report. So if you check out the report, you will see a bunch more insight and data into the performance of those ads.
  • Google Showing More Links & Citations Within AI Mode?
    Google may be testing showing more links and citations within the AI Mode results. Google has done this with AI Overviews a year or so ago and now may be testing it with AI Mode results.
  • Google Ads Tests Select Partners To Run Ads With
    Google Ads is testing more transparency around its partner network, letting some advertisers select if they want to run their ads on the search partner network and/or Google Display Network. It is labeled Partners in Alfa.
  • Google Ads Recommendations New Results Tab
    Google Ads seems to have added a new tab to the recommendations section named "results." I assume this section will show the results of any implemented recommendations you selected within your Google Ads campaigns.
  • Google Coffee Tasting Group
    Google seemed to hire a company called The Coffee Experience to have Googlers taste coffee. I guess it goes through various types of coffees, flavors, styles and educates people on that.

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 Thu, 30 Apr 2026 10:00:00 -0400 Microsoft Ads PMax Website Publisher URL Report Gains Conversion & Spend https://www.seroundtable.com/microsoft-pmax-website-publisher-url-update-41249.html Barry Schwartz Microsoft Report

Microsoft Advertising has added conversion and spend metrics to the PMax Website Publisher URL report. So if you check out the report, you will see a bunch more insight and data into the performance of those ads.

Navah Hopkins, the Microsoft Ads Liaison, wrote on LinkedIn, "I'm so excited about this Microsoft Advertising update: PMax Website Publisher URL report now includes conversion and spend metrics!" "We heard you that visibility into conversion tracking and spend at the publisher level is important," she added.

Here is a screenshot:

Microsoft Pmax Website Publisher Url Update

Here's how to use this information, she explained:

(1) Build Audience ads campaigns focused on winning placements! If you're seeing a placement really take off - consider using Audience ads to remarket or build fresh Impression-based remarketing audiences from winners!

(2) Exclude placements that aren't quite right! If a placement seems wrong for your brand, you can exclude it at the account level via URL exclusion lists.

(3) Report on PMax wins with confidence! It can be challenging to say yes to bias free investments. Now you can point to more data to back up the metrics PMax reports (especially if you're layering in New Customer Acquisition).

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

]]> Bing Ads Barry Schwartz Thu, 30 Apr 2026 07:41:00 -0400 Google Showing More Links & Citations Within AI Mode? https://www.seroundtable.com/google-showing-more-links-ai-mode-41245.html Barry Schwartz Google Links

Google may be testing showing more links and citations within the AI Mode results. Google has done this with AI Overviews a year or so ago and now may be testing it with AI Mode results.

This test was spotted by Sachin Patel and he posted some screenshots on X. The truth is, I do not know if this is a test or that just these queries at this time generated so many link citations?

Anyway, here is one of his screenshots:

Google Showing More Links Ai Mode

Here are more:

Are you seeing more links within your AI Mode results?

Forum discussion at X.

]]> Google Barry Schwartz Thu, 30 Apr 2026 07:31:00 -0400 Google Ads PMax Tests Select Partners To Run Ads With https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-select-partners-to-run-ads-with-41248.html Barry Schwartz Google Partners

Google Ads PMax is testing more transparency around its partner network, letting some advertisers select if they want to run their ads on the search partner network and/or Google Display Network. It is labeled Partners in Alfa.

This was spotted by Adriaan Dekker on LinkedIn who credits Renaldo Spin with finding this setting within the PMAX placement test.

Here is the screenshot that I translated using Google Translate:

Google Ads Partner Run Ads

It says, Choose which partners you want to run your advertisements with. Search partners: Search partners consist of hundreds of non-Google websites or Google Display Network: The Google Display Network includes more than 2 million websites and apps.

Google did come out with full channel reporting but this takes it to the next level.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

]]> Google Ads Barry Schwartz Thu, 30 Apr 2026 07:21:00 -0400 Google Ads Recommendations New Results Tab https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-recommendations-results-tab-41243.html Barry Schwartz Google Ads

Google Ads seems to have added a new tab to the recommendations section named "results." I assume this section will show the results of any implemented recommendations you selected within your Google Ads campaigns.

This was spotted by Adriaan Dekker who posted this screenshot on LinkedIn:

Google Ads Recommendations Results Tab

This was spotted a bit earlier by Arpan Banerjee LinkedIn who added that this "shows the actual incremental impact of bidding and budget recommendations you've already applied."

Last October, this results tab was not on the recommendations section.

Do you see it?

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

]]> Google Ads Barry Schwartz Thu, 30 Apr 2026 07:11:00 -0400 Google Ad Revenue Up 15.5% With Overall Revenue Up 22% https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ad-revenue-earnings-41246.html Barry Schwartz Google Earnings

Google reported its earnings today, its Q1 2026 earnings report showed ad revenues up by 15.5% at $77.3 billion and overall revenue was up 22% at $109.9 billion. I specifically like to dig in as best as I can on the ad revenue side to see how Google Ads have performed.

Google's ad revenue was up again year-over-year, with an increase of 13.6%, and overall revenue is also up 17%. Microsoft reported earnings tonight as well, its ad revenue grew 12%.

If you want to compare Q1 2026 to Q4 2025, you will see ad revenue was down 6%, overall revenue was down 3.5% and profit was up 10.5%%. But Q4 is always Google's strongest quarter.

Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, said:

2026 is off to a terrific start. Our AI investments and full stack approach are lighting up every part of the business. Search had a strong quarter with AI experiences driving usage, queries at an all time high, and 19% revenue growth. Google Cloud revenues grew 63% with backlog nearly doubling quarter on quarter to over $460 billion. This was our strongest quarter ever for our consumer AI plans, driven by the Gemini App. Overall the number of paid subscriptions has now reached 350 million, with YouTube and Google One being the key drivers. Gemini Enterprise has great momentum with 40% quarter on quarter growth in paid monthly active users. And, finally, I'm pleased to see Waymo surpass 500,000 fully autonomous rides a week.

These outstanding results are built on our differentiated, full stack approach. Our first-party models, like Gemini, are now processing more than 16 billion tokens per minute via direct API use by our customers, up 60% from last quarter.

It's really exciting to see how our AI investments are delivering value for our users, customers and business.

Here is a chart plotting Google's overall revenue, then ad revenue and then profit over the past several quarters:

Goog Q1 26

Here is the snippet from the earnings report:

Report

Highlights from Google earnings:

  • Consolidated Alphabet revenues increased 22%, or 19% in constant currency, to $109.9 billion, reflecting strong performance across the business and our 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
  • Google Services revenues increased 16% to $89.6 billion, led by 19% growth in Google Search & other, 19% in Google subscriptions, platforms, and devices, and 11% in YouTube ads.
  • Google Cloud saw a meaningful acceleration in growth as revenues increased 63% to $20.0 billion, led by an increase in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) across enterprise AI Solutions and enterprise AI Infrastructure, as well as core GCP services.
  • Consolidated Alphabet operating income increased 30% and operating margin expanded by 2 percentage points to 36.1%.
  • Other income reflected a net gain of $37.7 billion, primarily the result of net unrealized gains on our nonmarketable equity securities.
  • Net income increased 81% and EPS increased 82% to $5.11.
  • The company announced a 5% increase to the dividend, resulting in a quarterly cash dividend of $0.22.

Forum discussion at X.

]]> Google News Barry Schwartz Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:20:00 -0400 Bing Ads Revenue Up 12% - 1 Billion Monthly Action Users Milestone https://www.seroundtable.com/microsoft-bing-earnings-41247.html Barry Schwartz Microsoft Earnings

Microsoft reported its third quarter 2026 earnings and it showed that its search and advertising revenue was up for 12% and that means its ad growth is growing again. The previous quarter it was up 10% before that, up 16% and the one before that was 21% and this quarter, it is only up 10%.

Bing also hit a huge milestone, 1 billion monthly active users - the company announced last night.

Microsoft wrote, "Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 12% (up 9% in constant currency)."

Microsoft reports Q3 revenue up 18% YoY to $82.9 billion, operating income up 20% to $38.4B, and net income up 20% to $31.8.

Here is the chart I make showing just the ad dollar change from quarter to quarter, so you can see just that:

Microsoft Earnings Ad Report Chart

Here are the highlights from the earnings release:

  • Revenue was $82.9 billion and increased 18% (up 15% in constant currency)
  • Operating income was $38.4 billion and increased 20% (up 16% in constant currency)
  • Net income was $31.8 billion and increased 23% on a GAAP basis, and increased 20% (up 18% in constant currency) on a non-GAAP basis
  • Diluted earnings per share was $4.27 and increased 23% on a GAAP basis, and increased 21% (up 18% in constant currency) on a non-GAAP basis
  • Non-GAAP results exclude the impact from investments in OpenAI, explained in the Non-GAAP Definition section below

Microsoft beat on the top and bottom line but the company is losing some top leaders, with two senior execs announcing plans to retire during the quarter.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, said:

'We are focused on delivering cloud and AI infrastructure and solutions that empower every business to eval-max their outcomes in the agentic computing era," said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. 'Our AI business surpassed an annual revenue run rate of $37 billion, up 123% year-over-year.'

Forum discussion at X.

]]> Bing Search Barry Schwartz Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:12:00 -0400 Daily Search Forum Recap: April 29, 2026 https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-04-29-2026-41242.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.

Some Google AdSense vignette ads may trigger the new back button hijacking search penalty, we cover this in detail with statements from Google. Google Ads has a new preview impact of negative keywords. Google tests AI Overviews Ask Anything box that sticks as you scroll. Google also tests an "Enter AI Mode" button. Google Business Profiles local panel tests show more action buttons, which is not good.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

  • Google AdSense Vignette Ads Setting May Trigger Back Button Hijack Penalty
    Just a heads up, that a small setting within Google AdSense under the vignette ads may trigger your site to get a Google search penalty - specifically for the new back button hijacking search spam rule.
  • Google Local Panel With Show More Action Buttons
    Google is testing removing some of the action buttons on local panels, Google Business Profiles, including call and share, and replacing it with a numbered show more button. Clicking on that button opens up those additional action options.
  • Google AI Overview Ask Anything Box Sticks As You Scroll
    Google is testing having the AI Overview box "Ask Anything" section stick to the bottom of the Google Search box as you scroll down the AI Overview and the search results. This keeps AI Mode in your face during the whole search experience.
  • Google Tests Enter AI Mode Button For AI Overviews
    Generally, when Google wants to take you into AI Mode from an AI Overview, it uses a button that says see more or some variation of that. But now Google is testing "Enter AI Mode" as the call to action.
  • Google Ads Preview Impact Of Negative Keywords (& More)
    Google Ads is testing a way for advertisers to preview the impact of a change, like adding negative keywords. It seems to be called "Preview impact estimates" and lets you estimate the impact of, in this case, adding specific negative keywords.
  • SEO Week Honors Lost SEO Legends With T-Shirts (Respect)
    SEO Week is happening now in NYC and it is a wonderful show. But this is next level. They are selling t-shirts with the faces of some of the SEO legends we lost in our industry over the past years. The best part, all proceeds going directly to the families.

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 Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:00:00 -0400