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 got their cost down to generate AI answers in search by 80%. Google is interested in alternatives to hreflang. Google may recrawl URLs multiple times per day or per month. Google is testing custom search filter templates in search. Google AdSense removed its privacy policy as a placement for withdrawal of consent. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap. And deeply sad to report that passing of Mark Irvine.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google March Core Update Done, HCU Recoveries, Site Reputation Abuse & AI Topics
  
  
  This week, we covered how the Google March 2024 core update finished back on April 19th, and Google forgot to tell us. I also posted the May 2024 Google webmaster report. Google said it’s still possible for sites to recover…
• 
  Google SGE AI Answers Now Cost 80% Less To Generate
  
  
  One of the big worries for Google investors was the cost of running AI to show within its search results. The AI overviews, now AI answers are costly to run. But as expected, Google was able to reduce the cost to generate these AI Answers.
• 
  Google Search Tests Custom Filters & Templates
  
  
  Google Search is testing custom filters and pre-define search filter templates. It appears you can save your custom filters and reuse those filters for future searches. This is showing up for a limited number of searchers.
• 
  Google Open To Alternative Ideas For Hreflang
  
  
  Gary Illyes from Google said he has heard from the SEO industry that hreflang can be “annoying” and complex and confusing. So he is open to ideas on how to replace it and make it work for both small and really large websites.
• 
  Google Recrawls URLs At Different Rates: Multiple Times Per Day To Every Few Months
  
  
  Google has to crawl the web to build its index for it to provide search results. And since webpages and documents get updated, Google needs to recrawl those URLs from time to time. Google will recrawl URLs at different rates, said John Mueller of Google.
• 
  Google AdSense Has Removed Privacy Policy As Place To Withdraw Consent
  
  
  Google AdSense has removed reference to your privacy policy as a place to withdraw consent. AdSense now has clarified that the revocation link at the bottom of the page should say “Privacy and cookie settings”.




• 
  The Industry Mourns The Loss Of Mark Irvine – Brilliant & Giving Search Marketer
  
  
  I am deeply sad to report that Mark Irvine passed away unexpectedly last night. Mark was deeply involved in the search marketing community, known as being a brilliant paid search specialist who always spent his time helping others over his long career in the space.




• 
  Google Gradient Canopy Signage
  
  
  I honestly did not know the new Google office, or one of them at least, was named the Gradient Canopy. I mean, I guess it makes sense. Here is a sign in front of that building with that name.

Other Great Search Threads:

• I like to think of these (artificial, impossible, philosophical) questions as “if I added X to a page, would it be better for Y?” Would adding SD to a page make it rank higher? No. Might it rank differently? Maybe – SD enables some search features, but th, John Mueller on X
• Small Google doc change, they restructured the Product structured data documentation, Barry Schwartz on X
• AdSense Earnings and Observations – May 2024, WebmasterWorld
• I hope it’s not just technically well-made :-). There have been some interesting takes in the space, I’m sure someone will find a model that works for clients, users, search & is profitable., John Mueller on X
• Once you launch a new campaign (and you already have a Conversion Tracking in place) Google will always re-direct you towards the Google Tag Setup with instructions how to implement it. Have you seen it too?, Thomas Eccel on X
• We’ve added Salesforce as a data source for data import! You can now import data directly from Salesforce to Google Analytics as offline-event data. Schedule daily or hourly imports, and select any existing Salesforce mil, Google Analytics on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

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 and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Gary Illyes from Google said he has heard from the SEO industry that hreflang can be “annoying” and complex and confusing. So he is open to ideas on how to replace it and make it work for both small and really large websites.

He wrote this on LinkedIn saying, “Things I’ve learned and heard in Sofia at the SERPConf event.” He said one of those is that “hreflang is annoying.”

Gary wrote, “I don’t disagree,” that I guess he understands why SEOs and creators find it annoying.

So he said that he open to new ideas. He wrote, “I’m still very open to coming up with something less annoying, but it needs to work for small sites and mammoths as well, while delivering at least the same amount of information.”

So if you have ideas, let Gary know, he wrote, “Ping if you have ideas.”

You can use hreflang to tell Google about the variations of your content. This helps Google understand the various pages and how they are localized variations of the same content. But the implementation can be confusing and detailed, why he said it can be annoying. Several years ago, John Mueller said hreflang can be the most complex aspect in SEO.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

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 Ads posted its first feature announcement in over two months, it is on PMax updates. Bing Webmaster Tools fixed a notification bug. Google SGE renamed its AI overviews to AI Answer. Most SEOs have not filled in the Google March 2024 core update feedback form. A Google search for flag GIFs can lead to Nazi flags.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Google Ads Posts First New Feature Announcement In Two Months – PMax Updates
  
  
  Google Ads has posted its first new features announcement in its help section in over two months. This was to announce several Performance Max campaigns features, which we will get into below. But like I reported earlier, Google has not posted anything in this section for two months prior to posting this new announcement.
• 
  Googling “Flag GIF” Leads To Nazi Flags In Google Search
  
  
  If you search for [flag GIF] on Google, click on the “waiving” refinement, you are taken to images of Nazi flags. I waited a full week to report on this, a full week from when Google acknowledged the issue and it is still an issue.





• 
  Bing Webmaster Tools Notifications & Insights Bug Fixed
  
  
  Fabrice Canel from Microsoft confirmed Microsoft has fixed a bug with Bing Webmaster Tools showing inaccurate and/or irrelevant notifications in the notifications and insights section. Fabrice wrote, “Happy to report that the fix has been implemented and the issue should now be resolved for your site and all sites once data is refreshed.”





• 
  Google SGE AI Overviews Has A New Title – AI Answer
  
  
  Google is now labeling or using the title of its SGE, Search Generative Experience, “AI Answer.” This replaces the title “AI Overviews” and “Al overviews are experimental.” This change happened on Monday, I believe.





• 
  Most SEOs Did Not Send Feedback To Google On The March 2024 Core Update
  
  
  Google opened up its feedback form after it announced the Google March 2024 core update was completed and it seems most SEOs did not send Google feedback. Why? Maybe because many don’t believe Google will use that feedback to help them? Maybe because SEOs don’t want to share specifics with Google?





• 
  Sundar Pichai 20 Year Google Anniversary
  
  
  Google’s CEO, Sunday Pichai, on April 26, 2024, posted on Instagram that he is celebrating him 20 year anniversary of working at Google. He started on April 26, 2004 and is now running the place.

Other Great Search Threads:

• ave you seen this before…. Seems like looker studio google has got lot of spam links injected …i just encountered this while checking something… its tons of content… made a search with site: hea, Raman on X
• Gartner: “By 2026, Google will lose 1/4 of queries to AI” Datos: “Really? Let’s investigate that claim with data from millions of real Internet users.” https://t.co/5QErT9g9IF Embarrassing that th, Rand Fishkin on X
• The favicon guidelines are at https://t.co/9z0HOt9H5f – not all sites have unique favicons, so I wouldn’t immediately call that spammy. For images in general, a legal path may be open via the DMCA process., John Mueller on X
• Well, moved to Munich, Germany., John Mueller on X
• The more server logs and crawl patterns I see, the more I’m sure the world needs more SEOs. Of the good kind. You see, part of good tech SEO is fixing spiders traps, optimizing crawling, speeding up sites. 1/6, Joost de Valk on X
• This Google Ads thing is becoming really expensive. Fee increase from 2% to 2.5% for Italy. Fee increase from 2% to 3% for Spain. Fee increase from 5% to 7% for Turkey., Thomas Eccel on X
• We’re committed to ongoing and planned enhancements and listening to great ideas as yours to help us maximizing our crawl efficiency and minimize crawls. There’s no AI or PhD that can outperform the IndexNow signal when it is properly configured. We f, Fabrice Canel on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

• Google takes lion’s share of UK ad market as publishers lose out, Press Gazette
• Apple poaches AI experts from Google and builds a secret AI lab, QZ
• Friends From the Old Neighborhood Turn Rivals in Big Tech’s A.I. Race, New York Times
• Google Founders’ Hand-Picked CEO Nears Billionaire Status Too, Bloomberg
• Google needs a more formalized way to kill products, 9to5Google
• Local Memo: Rank Isn’t the Primary Decision Factor for Consumers in Many Industries, SOCi
• San Francisco homeless people to receive $1,000 a month from Google, The San Francisco Standard
• Google sued by US artists over AI image generator, Reuters
• Meet the Woman Who Showed President Biden ChatGPT—and Helped Set the Course for AI, Wired
• Microsoft and OpenAI sued yet again by Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News, Engadget
• Microsoft Concern About Google’s Lead Drove Investment in OpenAI, Bloomberg

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

• AI Is Poisoning Reddit to Promote Products and Game Google With ‘Parasite SEO’, 404 Media
• How to combine SEO and CRO, Blue Array SEO
• 3 Steps to Get Ahead in an AI-First Search World, BrightEdge
• Carving a Career in SEO — How NOT to Get Taken for a Ride, Moz
• How Did Authority Bloggers Beat the Google Update?, Chris Garrett
• SEO A/B testing: realizing the value of a good experimentation program, Search Pilot
• SEO for Developers: 10 Best Practices to Know, Semrush
• SGE: New data and the future of SEO and SERP…, STAT Search Analytics
• User Search Journeys: Advantages and Use Cases for Agencies, seoClarity
• What is bounce rate and how has it changed?, Wix SEO Hub
• Why Google SEO Traffic is More Appealing Than Social Media, Adam Riemer
• Yoast SEO 22.6 brings more enhancements, Yoast
• What to do about Google’s Reddit habit?, SERP’s Up SEO Podcast

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 and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.