Google may be rolling out new links and citation experiences for AI Mode and AI Overviews, with author names and sources and larger favicons closer to the text. Google expanded UCP-powered checkout to core search. Google is testing Gemini 3 models in the search bar. OpenAI launched officially its beta self-serve ad manager for ChatGPT Ads. Google Local Service Ads account access is not loading for most advertisers.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google AI Overviews With Author Names & Source (Again)
  Google is showing the full author name and the source, like LinkedIn - and name or Medium - and name, for the citations. It makes sense for these social platforms to show the name, because anyone can write anything on these platforms, so knowing the name makes it more useful.
• Google Tests New Anchor Links & Favicon Experiences In AI Mode
  Google is testing an update to the citations, anchor links, and favicons within the AI Mode results. This new experience seems to make the citations more clickable because the embedded links have larger favicons and seem to appear more often, near the text it is referencing.
• Official: OpenAI Beta Self-Serve Ads Manager For ChatGPT Ads
  A few weeks ago, we uncovered the beta self-serve Ads Manager for ChatGPT Ads. It was before it officially launched but now OpenAI officially announced its "beta self-serve Ads Manager that allows advertisers in the US to sign up and purchase ads directly to appear in ChatGPT."
• Google Expands UCP Checkout To Main Search Results
  In February, Google announced that UCP, Universal Commerce Protocol, powered checkout is available in AI Mode. Well, now you can use UCP powered checkout in the main search results for some retailers like Wayfair.
• Google Local Service Ads Account Access Not Loading For Advertisers
  The Google Local Service Ads account access tab has not been loading and working for advertisers for the past several days. There are numerous reports of it failing throughout the day and it has become a huge frustration for a number of Google advertisers.
• Google Tests Gemini 3 Model Options In Search Bar
  Google is testing letting searchers select the Gemini 3 model they want to use directly in the Google Search bar. The options can include, Pro, Fast or Auto, from what I can see.
• YouTube Locker Room at Google Mexico
  Here is a photo from the Google office in Mexico of a fake locker room. It has YouTube branding on it and it is just a larger poster that has a picture of a locker room. There is fake tarp down too with a soccer ball.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Interesting, based on the top 1000 sites being tracked by @AIoriginality, there was a spike in sites blocking Semrushbot right when the Adobe acquisition was announced. So if that's right, the Adobe acquisition freaked some people o, Glenn Gabe on X
• Is your SEO advice rooted in defending your business model or what you've done in the past, or what is sellable - or is it rooted in what works NOW? Lot of people would do good to ask themselves that questions., Ryan Jones on X
• Just shipped AI-powered key moments in Google Finance so you can: +Understand major price swings in stock charts (1 month+ view) +Jump to key moments in corporate earnings calls ð§ Small team built these features from the ground, Nick Fox on X
• Measurement is no longer just a report card. It's how to drive growth. We've got some pre-GML updates for our measurement solutions to share . . . With Data Manager, we've been on a path to make it easier for marketers to corr, AdsLiaison on X
• Repeated links appear in Bing Copilot search., Sachin Patel on X
• Shipping the helpfulness of Personal Intelligence to more people globally! Choose to connect Google apps like Gmail and Photos, and get even more helpful, relevant Search responses, personalized for your tastes and context. Starting t, Nick Fox on X
• We document it as 'When a user selects your site as a preferred source, your content is more likely to appear for them during relevant news queries in "Top Stories".' I don't think it makes sense to show spam to users just because of that, but it does hel, John Mueller on Bluesky
• Google quietly shut down Project Mariner yesterday, the web-browsing AI agent it highlighted onstage last year at Google IO. I reported for WIRED, nearly 2 months ago, that Google had moved staffers off the Project Mariner team as it, Max Zeff on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• ChatGPT ads expand with self-serve buying
• Google expands UCP checkout to main search shopping results
• Google rolls out new data, experimentation and MMM tools to improve measurement
• ChatGPT ads show strong early CTRs '" but scale is still the question
• The 10-gate AI search pipeline: Find where your content fails
• Web Bot Auth, Google's new experimental method to validate authentic bots
• Query intent vs. conversion intent: Why the difference matters
• How China's fragmented search ecosystem is reshaping SEO in 2026
• Unifying the search experience for real growth in 2026

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• AI Firms to Give US Government Early Access for Model Evaluation, Bloomberg
• Attribution gap in agentic search: how to close it, Semrush
• Google AI Mode: Only Branded Search Survives, Taqtics
• Google says you don't need MCP or Markdown to make your site agentic-friendly, Coywolf
• GPT-5.5 Instant: smarter, clearer, and more personalized, OpenAI
• How Do LLM Citations Work? (And Why Care for GEO/AEO), Ann Smarty
• Multi-token-prediction in Gemma 4, Google Blog
• OpenAI's rumored AI phone might land way sooner than we thought, Android Authority

Analytics

• Google Deprecates Location Asset Fields in Data Studio, PPC News Feed
• SEO Funnel Reporting: Impression Share by Funnel Position, KP Playbook

Industry & Business

• Alphabet Launches Six-Part Euro Bond Sale With Notes Up to 37 Years, Bloomberg
• Apple reaches $250mn settlement over delayed 'AI Siri', Financial Times (Sub)
• Google DeepMind workers in UK vote to unionize amid deal with US military, The Guardian
• Google's Ban Against Lender in Chip Suit Wins 9th Cir. Approval, Bloomberg
• iPhone 17 Global Best-Selling Smartphone in Q1 2026, Top 10 Take 25% Share, Counterpoint Research
• Top Google scientist says EU data measures pose privacy risk for users, Reuters

Links & Content Marketing

• AI-Generated Content in Google Search: What the Latest Experiment Means for Businesses, JXT Group
• Content-Led Marketing: The Essential Strategy for the AI Era, Content Marketing Institute

Local & Maps

• Top Google Maps Rival Expands Beyond Android Auto: Magic Earth Announces AAOS Version, AutoEvolution

SEO

• Don't Leave Optimizing Google Discover Topics to Chance, Tallest Tree Digital
• The Whole Point Was the Mess - by Pedro Dias, The Inference
• You Can Fake a "Top list". You Can't Fake Trust, SEO for Lunch

PPC

• eCommerce Remarketing in Google Ads: What Actually Works, ZATO
• Google Marketing Live 2026: growth in the age of AI, Google Blog
• Introducing Partial Structured Data File Upload, Google Ads Developer Blog
• What I learned when making the jump from salaried to self-employed PPC Manager, PPC Hero

Search Features

• Here's what's new from Google Home., Google Blog

Other Search

• iOS 27 Features: Apple Plans to Let Users Swap Models Across Apple Intelligence, Bloomberg

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.

Google is showing the full author name and the source, like LinkedIn - and name or Medium - and name, for the citations. It makes sense for these social platforms to show the name, because anyone can write anything on these platforms, so knowing the name makes it more useful.

This was spotted by Gagan Ghorta who posted an example on X - he wrote, "AI Overviews - for LinkedIn & Medium citations Google now also showing author names, good move I think - highlighting names of authors right there in the answer."

Here is his screenshot:

We spotted something similar, not exactly, but super similar, to this about a year ago.

Forum discussion at X.

Google is testing an update to the citations, anchor links, and favicons within the AI Mode results. This new experience seems to make the citations more clickable because the embedded links have larger favicons and seem to appear more often, near the text it is referencing.

This test was spotted by Sachin Patel who posted some screenshots on X - he wrote, "Is this new logo appearing after the website anchor text? When I hover over it, it appears differently. Previously, it was just clickable and redirected to the website, but now it behaves differently."

Here are some of the variations of this design he spotted:

Brodie Clark later was able to replicate and post his example on X and SERP Alerts - he wrote, "With this new test, the embedded links now also show with a larger favicon. This was first discovered by @SachuPatel53124, who also spotted a variation that features the embedded links with a black underline with a black link icon beside it."

Here is his screenshot:

Forum discussion at X.

In February, Google announced that UCP, Universal Commerce Protocol, powered checkout is available in AI Mode. Well, now you can use UCP-powered checkout in the main search results for some retailers like Wayfair.

This was spotted by Brodie Clark who posted about it on SERP Alerts and X. I am able to replicate it, here is my screenshot:

When you click "Buy," it automatically loads up your billing and shipping details and let's you just buy it fast, right from search.

Brodie wrote:

Google's UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol) has now expanded outside of AI Mode and has started appearing in the main section of search results.

This example also shows the ads that are showing directly above the free listings, which have expanded rapidly in recent days.

So far, it still appears that the Google Pay integration has only been enabled for free listings for Wayfair so far, with the expectation that it will expand to sites such as Etsy and Target.

For more information on how this works, see my previous story here.

Big News: Google's UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol) has now expanded outside of AI Mode and has started appearing in the main section of search results.

This example also shows the ads that are showing directly above the free listings, which have expanded rapidly in recent'... pic.twitter.com/9BPjEHnvQi

— SERP Alert '¡ï' (@SERPalerts) May 5, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

Google is testing letting searchers select the Gemini 3 model they want to use directly in the Google Search bar. The options can include, Pro, Fast or Auto, from what I can see.

The create images and deep search options I've seen before but not the option to select a Gemini 3 model.

This was posted by Sachin Patel first on X who shared this screenshot:

Then Gagan Ghotra shared this version on X:

I can't seem to replicate...

Forum discussion at X.

A few weeks ago, we uncovered the beta self-serve Ads Manager for ChatGPT Ads. It was before it officially launched but now OpenAI officially announced its "beta self-serve Ads Manager that allows advertisers in the US to sign up and purchase ads directly to appear in ChatGPT."

There is also an official sign up form to get started at ads.openai.com.

Here is what it looks like today:

Businesses can register as advertisers, add payment information, set budgets, bids and pacing, upload ads, launch and manage campaigns, and view performance in the portal, the AI company said.

As we uncovered a few weeks ago, OpenAI now allows for CPC bidding, not just CPM, as it launched in its super early phase. OpenAI also added a Conversions API and pixel-based measurement.

Here is a video on how to get started:

All the help documentation can be found here.

Forum discussion at X.

The Google Local Service Ads account access tab has not been loading and working for advertisers for the past several days. There are numerous reports of it failing throughout the day and it has become a huge frustration for a number of Google advertisers.

Len Raleigh has been posting about the issue for several days and wrote recently on X, "LSA "Account Access" tab has been down since at least May 1. Admins are unable to add users to LSA."

Here is the error he is seeing:

He said the workaround is to use this URL: ads.google.com/aw/accountaccess/users and not to use ads.google.com/localservices/accountaccess.

Anthony Higman also has this issue, as do all - I tried the second URL and it bugged out on me.

Yeah all accounts for us as well. For like two weekish now

'" Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) May 5, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

Google Business Profiles may be seeing a spike in suspensions. Google Ads updated its data retention policy. Google has a new experimental Web Bot Auth feature. Bing said its 1 billion monthly active users are all human. ChatGPT ads click-through rates have been revealed.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Business Profile Suspensions Spike Over User Account Restrictions
  Google seems to be suspending Google Business Profiles due to user account restrictions. There may have been a wave of suspensions over the past several days related to this issue and local SEO experts are unclear if this is a bug or some other issue.
• Bing: 1 Billion Monthly Users Are Human, Not Agents
  Microsoft, during its earnings call last week, announced that Bing hit a huge milestone of 1 billion monthly active users. Krishna Madhavan from Microsoft later confirmed these "users" do not include AI agents but are real actual humans.
• Google Ads Data Retention Policy Updated
  Google has posted an update and emailed advertisers on changes to its Google Ads data retention policy. What changed? Here is what Google said.
• Similarweb Data: ChatGPT Ads Click-Through Rates
  Similarweb published some data sharing the click-through rates for OpenAI's ChatGPT ads. The overall CTR for ChatGPT ads are 0.68%, the top quartile is 1%, the best brands are 1.57% and the peak CTR is 5.4%.
• Google Web Bot Auth: Validate Authentic Bots
  Google posted new developer documentation for how to authenticate requests with Web Bot Auth. This is a "new cryptographic protocol that helps websites to validate that bots are authentic," Google wrote.
• Google Garage Bench Chairs In Kirkland
  So where do they put the Googlers who do not play nice? Maybe in the Google Kirkland garage. They have these nice new looking benches or chairs in that gated garage.

Other Great Search Threads:

• For some sites impacted heavily by the Jan 2026 unconfirmed update, some got hit even harder when the March spam update and core update rolled out. Like this one. Oof., Glenn Gabe on X
• Google using spam reports to hand out manual penalties has caused a war in competitive SERPs. Same people who DMCA are now seemingly reporting all their competitors. Sadly it seems only choice is to do the same in return. Code of honor, SEOwner on X
• The ads are co-branded with the brand and creator who made the video and can run as Shorts or in-stream formats. Check out the link above to see some examples., AdsLiaison on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google fixes Search Console's year-long data logging issue '" well, kind of'...
• Why brand authority beats topical authority in AI search
• 7 tools for doing AEO right now
• Why AI visibility starts before search and ends with citations

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• Anthropic and OpenAI are both launching joint ventures for enterprise AI services, TechCrunch
• Chrome Extensions for GenAI Visibility, Practical Ecommerce
• OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft Back Bill to Fund 'AI Literacy' in Schools, 404 Media
• Supercharging LLM inference on Google TPUs: Achieving 3X speedups with diffusion-style speculative decoding, Google Developers Blog
• What 81,000 people want from AI, Anthropic

Analytics

• Conversion support in the Data API, Google Analytics Help
• Smart KPIs: Accountability Over Outcomes Over Activity, Avinash Kaushik

Industry & Business

• Apply now for the Google for Startups Accelerator, Google Blog
• Attys Defend $85M Fee Bid Blasted By Judge In Google Deal, Law360
• Google Kids Privacy Settlement Advances, MediaPost
• How Sundar Pichai Pushed Google To the Front of the AI Race, TIME
• Musk sought settlement with OpenAI two days before trial, CNBC
• OpenAI Finalizes $10 Billion Joint Venture With PE Firms to Deploy AI, Bloomberg
• OpenAI's head of sales leaves for role at Thrive Capital, CNBC
• OpenAI: 2026 TIME100 Most Influential Companies, TIME
• What Was Discussed at Google's White House Meeting About A.I., New York Times

Links & Content Marketing

• 44 B2B Influencer Marketing Campaign & Activation Ideas for 2026, TopRank

Local & Maps

• 5-Star Fraud: The FTC Targets Law Firms & Property Managers for Review Abuse, Near Media
• Google Maps vs. Waze: I've driven with the two best navigation apps, and one is much better, ZDNET

SEO

• Global Growth Gone Wild: Reddit's AI Translations Continue To Expand and Boom (One Year Later), GSQI
• Google Finds a New Villain, Websites That Trap Users Better Than Google, Search Engine World
• Google Search Central Live: What Actually Matters in AI Search, Schema App Solutions
• I Crawled 65,000 Pages of My Own Site Without Parsing a Single Line of HTML, Metehan
• The Hidden Complexity of International SEO | Jonathan Moore, Advanced Web Ranking

PPC

• Buying ads on ChatGPT? Why you should check organic reputation first!, Seer Interactive
• How to Do Keyword Research for SEO & PPC (Step-by-Step), WordStream
• Sophisticated 'Microsoft Advertising' Phishing Campaign Targeting Microsoft Ad Users, JumpFly

Search Features

• Google's Gemini for Home expansion is gaining speed, Android Authority

Other Search

• Ashley MacIsaac Sues Google Over False Sex Offender ID in AI Overview, Hollywood Reporter
• Google expands Binary Transparency for Android apps, 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.

Google seems to be suspending Google Business Profiles due to user account restrictions. There may have been a wave of suspensions over the past several days related to this issue and local SEO experts are unclear if this is a bug or some other issue.

Vinay Toshniwal posted about this on LinkedIn the other day and said, "In the last 24 hours, I've seen 8 accounts get restricted '" including one of mine."

Then several other local SEOs also said they saw the same thing including Claudia Tomina who wrote:

I personally had two suspensions this morning due to user accounts restricted. When I ask my clients what they did they say nothing unusual. Its just a personal email account. Nothing more. Not leaving reviews not suggesting edits.

Elijah Day wrote:

I am also having an issue with this. Clean domain. Never any spam. Everything clean to the letter.

Zulqarnain Ali Syed wrote:

I also faced the same issue.

I am not seeing a huge number of complaints specific to user account restrictions in the Google Business Profiles forum, so I am not sure how widespread this issue is.

I am not sure, but this may be a screenshot of such a suspension - again, I am not 100% sure:

You can submit an appeal using this form.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Microsoft, during its earnings call last week, announced that Bing hit a huge milestone of 1 billion monthly active users. Krishna Madhavan from Microsoft later confirmed these "users" do not include AI agents but are real actual humans.

Krishna Madhavan replied to Mike King's question, where Mike asked, "Does this include agents?"

Krishna said, "I can confirm no agents in these numbers - only humans."

So these numbers are not inflated by bots or AI agents but actual real humans.

Again, huge congrats to Bing! It is super exciting to see Microsoft Bing growing!

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Google has posted an update and emailed advertisers on changes to its Google Ads data retention policy. What changed? Here is what Google said.

First of all, these changes apply as of May 1, 2026.

• The hourly, daily and weekly reporting data collected by Google Ads for periods of time shorter than one month will be available for 37 months.
• Monthly, quarterly and annual data is available for 11 years.
• After that period, the data will not be accessible via the Google Ads interface or APIs.

The email that was sent out says this is not happening May 1st, but rather June 2026. The email reads, "Starting on June 1, 2026, Google Ads will adjust the availability of performance reporting data at specific granularities."

Here is a screenshot of the email from Anthony Higman on X and Arpan Banerjee on LinkedIn:

The Google Ads developer blog also broke this down in more detail for how this impacts the Google Ads APIs and other Google APIs.

Forum discussion at X and LinkedIn.

Similarweb published some data sharing the click-through rates for OpenAI's ChatGPT ads. The overall CTR for ChatGPT ads are 0.68%, the top quartile is 1%, the best brands are 1.57% and the peak CTR is 5.4%.

Similarweb posted this slide on X and wrote, "ChatGPT ads aren't a science experiment." "For comparison: display sits around 0.35%, podcast 0.5'"1%," the company added.

Here is the data:

I do wonder how these compare to the CTR across Google Ads and Microsoft Bing ads?

The full downloadable report is over here.

Forum discussion at X.

Google posted new developer documentation for how to authenticate requests with Web Bot Auth. This is a "new cryptographic protocol that helps websites to validate that bots are authentic," Google wrote.

Google added that this is "experimental," saying the company is "testing the protocol with some AI agents hosted on Google infrastructure."

Google defined what Web Bot Auth is, saying it is "an experimental cryptographic protocol used to authenticate requests sent by bots. Instead of relying solely on self-reported headers and IP addresses, Web Bot Auth allows agents to cryptographically sign their requests. Using Web Bot Auth helps website owners identify automated traffic on their sites, and prevents other actors from attempting to spoof reputable agents. Web Bot Auth can bring the following benefits:"

• Cryptographic certainty: Move beyond easily spoofed headers to a verified identity and decouple agent identity from IP addresses.
• Better observability: Gain clearer insights into how agents interact with your content.
• Future-proofing: Help establish a web where agent providers and websites can build mutual trust and make informed access decisions.

Google said not all Google user agents are using Web Bot Auth and Google is not yet signing every request of agents using the protocol. So keep that in mind while this is "experimental."

There is a lot more on how to do all of this in these help docs.

Forum discussion at Bluesky.

Google explained how using AI in isolation works better for them, otherwise it is a black box event. Google Search Console fixed the 50 week data logging issue, but it is only going forward. Ask.com has shut down after almost 30 years. Google is testing a "Fresh updates" label in the search result snippets. Google Ads use AI to add products is a new option.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google On AI Overviews & AI Mode Being Isolated Systems (Or Not)
  Nikola Todorovic, Director of Software Engineering at Google Search, spoke about a presentation he gave at Zurich in December at Google Search Central live (I was there). He dug into it on a recent Search Off the Record named How AI Is Changing Google Search and SEO. In there, he explained how AI and machine learning have been used in isolation within Google Search.
• Google Search Console Fixed The 50 Week Data Logging Issue
  A month ago, Google posted that between the dates of May 13, 2025 through April 27, 2026, just about 50 weeks, there was a "logging error prevented Search Console from accurately reporting impressions." Google updated the post to now say "This issue has been resolved."
• Ask.com Shut Down After Almost 30 Years
  IAC, the owners of Ask.com, have decided to get out of the search business and shut down one of the oldest and most legendary search engines of all time - Ask.com, formerly Ask Jeeves. IAC wrote, "As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com."
• Google Tests Fresh Updates Label For Search Snippets
  Google is testing a new label for the search results snippet named "Fresh updates." This was spotted on a weather website result, Accuweather.
• Google Ads Adds Use AI To Add Products
  Google Ads has added a new option (although, I think Google has said this is coming) under the "add product source" section where you can select how to add products to your Google Ads account. The option reads, "Use AI to add products - beta."
• Google Gold Sparkle Signage
  This signage at the Google Playa Vista office caught my attention. It is sparkling gold with a custom message. Shiny things sometimes catch my eye. I found this on Instagram.

Other Great Search Threads:

• AdSense Earnings and Observations - May 2026, WebmasterWorld
• Spammy links removal limit for SEO, Reddit
• Ecommerce SEO: for large domains, there are various ways of managing product variants. Here's an important aspect of the feed component: Within free listing surfaces, Google will often develop individual grid items for specific pro, Brodie Clark on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Ask.com shuts down after over 25 years
• The latest jobs in search marketing
• Microsoft Ads adds deeper reporting to Performance Max placements
• Google Ads API v20 sunset set for June 10
• How to build SEO agent skills that actually work
• Performance Max for B2B: 5 best practices
• A blueprint for semantic programmatic SEO
• Inside ChatGPT ads: What the data tells us and what's coming next

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• AI Citation drift: How stable are sources in AI search results?, SISTRIX
• Gemini app getting full redesign that overhauls every part of the UI, 9to5Google
• OpenAI Plans on Marketing Its Way To Glory. Bon Chance!, John Battelle's Searchblog
• Search Engines Were Built to Send Traffic Out. LLMs Were Built to Answer You, keep you in., Duane Forrester Decodes

Industry & Business

• ChatGPT Wrestles With Its Most Chilling Conversation: How Do I Plan an Attack?, Wall Street Journal

Links & Content Marketing

• 27 Great Content Writing Examples, Tips, and Tools, Content Marketing Institute

Local & Maps

• Ask Maps: The Future of Google's AI Local Search, Reputation Arm
• Google Review Rules Changed: What It Means for Your Review Strategy, RicketyRoo

SEO

• Emergency Migration Protocol: SEO Essentials With 2 Weeks to Launch, Sitebulb

PPC

• AI Max for Shopping: Everything We Know So Far, Jyll Saskin Gales
• Gemini may get ads soon as executives look to turn the money taps on, Android Police
• The Google Ads to Shopify to Amazon Attribution Problem (And Why You Can't Solve It), ZATO
• The Hidden Click Problem: Running Smarter Landing Page Experiments for Local Businesses, Pure Visibility
• Google Ads API v20 sunset reminder, Google Ads Developer Blog
• New Data Retention Policy for Google Ads starting June 1, 2026, Google Ads Developer Blog
• Simplifying Keyword Forecast Metrics in Google Ads API v24, Google Ads Developer Blog
• Google Partners Promotional Offer Alert Script for MCC, PPC News Feed

Search Features

• Circle to Search update lets Google look beyond your screen content, Android Authority

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 month ago, Google posted that between the dates of May 13, 2025 through April 27, 2026, just about 50 weeks, there was a "logging error prevented Search Console from accurately reporting impressions." Google updated the post to now say "This issue has been resolved."

Here is the full post:

A logging error prevented Search Console from accurately reporting impressions from May 13, 2025 until April 27, 2026. This issue has been resolved. As a result, you may notice a decrease in impressions in the Search Console Performance report. Only impressions and related metrics - CTR and average position - were affected; clicks were not affected by the error, and this issue affected data logging only.

This change was spotted by Kenichi Suzuki on LinkedIn Then Glenn Gabe reshared it on X and added, "But, when I'm checking impressions across accounts, I'm not seeing any changes."

John Mueller from Google confirmed on Bluesky that this is only fixed going forward and the old data will not be fixed:

Forum discussion at LinkedIn and X.