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.

A new video from a famous YouTuber talks about why Google is falling apart, it got over 1 million views in a couple of days. Google is testing replacing the full logo with the Super G logo at the top of the search results. Google Ads has a gross profit optimization campaign setting. Google is testing “top links” in the search results. And Bing “unshipped” 27 features, which ones to be exact, I don’t know.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Why Google Search Is Broken Video Gets Millions Of Views
  
  
  Arun Maini, a famous YouTuber known for his Mrwhosetheboss channel, posted a scathing video named “Why Google Search is Falling Apart. The video goes through three reasons why Google Search is failing: (1) the results page, (2) SEO, and (3) AI changes.
• 
  Google Ads Adds Gross Profit Optimization Campaign Setting
  
  
  Google Ads is rolling out a new campaign setting named Gross profit optimization. The gross profit is calculated by Google by applying the gross profit margins you set up in the gross profit optimization goal to the value of each conversion.
• 
  Google Search Tests Top Links Title For Sitelinks?
  
  
  Google is testing showing the term “top links” or “top links from…” in its search results snippets, that seem to give a title to the sitelinks shown under search result snippets. This is shown both on organic free search results and the search ads, Google Ads, in Google Search.
• 
  Microsoft Unshipped 27 Bing Features
  
  
  Did you know that Bing removed dozens of features? 27 Bing featured were “unshipped” according to the new CEO of Bing, Mustafa Suleyman, said on X. He wrote, “Simplicity is one of the core principles I am focused on. I am so proud that the Bing team has unshipped 27 features. Being brave enough to undo complexity is important.”
• 
  Google Search Tests Replacing Google Logo With Super G Logo
  
  
  Google is testing swapping out the normal spelled-out Google logo with the Super G (that is what Google calls it) logo at the top of the Google Search results page. I find it weird but I guess it can work?





• 
  Baby In The Google Bike Basket
  
  
  Here is a photo from the GooglePlex that caught my eye. It is of a newborn baby sitting in the basket of a Google Bike. Yep, a baby in a Google bike. The baby looks calm and collected.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Google refers to Google Ads as “GAds”… also, beginning on November 13, 2024, reporting data collected by Google Ads will be available for 11 years, Greg on X
• Update: A couple of us Google Brain / DeepMind researchers have left to work on something new. Some observations: * Off-the shelf AI libraries (e.g. RAG and agents) do not work well enough for high-quality products. * In-house research, Peter J. Liu on X
• AI Overviews showing for many queries now in Canada. I don’t see any of the tools reporting this uptick but I am getting them for a ton of my searches today. cc my fellow Canucks. Have you been noticing this?, Darcy Burk on X
• So after having a discussion today, one thing @searchmartin helped test/prove is that most AI engines will “search” specific websites for content, but they aren’t rendering javascript. This could/will be an issue for many sites who rely, Ryan Jones on X
• Starting to see examples of #AIO results in 🇨🇦 for the first time. Not sure if this already known or not., Manny Diaz on X
• Very interesting to see APNews Buyline surge back a bit over the past few days. They first dropped heavily in July and flatlined since then… until 10/9 when the spike. I do see they now block the Buyline directory via robots.txt, but a, Glenn Gabe on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

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Can you believe it, it has been over a week since I reported on any Google Search ranking algorithm updates or volatility. Over the past 24-hours or so, the level of chatter have spiked, along with many of the third-party Google Search ranking tracking tools.

It seems we had another more significant shift in rankings in the Google Search results, although every day seems very volatile. But specifically, the 10th of October felt like more movement based on the signals I track.

To catch you up, the last time we reported on these changes was a pretty significant day on October 2nd which lasted a couple of days. The Google August 2024 core update started on August 15th and officially completed on September 3rd. But it was still super volatile the day after it completed and also weeks after it completed and it has not cooled.

We saw big signals on and around September 6th, September 10th or so and maybe around September 14th. We also saw movement around September 18th, last weekend and Septmeber 25th and September 28th or so. And yep, now, we are seeing another big spike in volatility and chatter starting around October 1st and 2nd.

So what are we seeing now?

Google Tracking Tools

You can see some of the tools starting to spike again over the past 24 hours:

SERPmetrics:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Accuranker:

Wincher:

Mozcast:

Semrush:

Data For SEO:

Cognitive SEO:

Mangools:

Algoroo:

SimilarWeb:

Sistrix:

SERPstat:

SEO Chatter

Here is some of the chatter from the SEO communities here and at WebmasterWorld over the past day or so:

USA and Canada traffic are becoming increasingly tamped down this October…today I’m -48% at 11:30am for both countries. The two have basically gone hand in hand for years, so I think it’s one big North American market where Google is concerned.

I’m also seeing big swings in top ranking terms from day to day now…I can lose 10%+ of my top-10 ranking terms in a day, and maybe the next day all right back again.

Something big is just starting again my end! YouTube videos pushed to the very top above literally everything and mad different desktop to mobile results, huge swings, nalways a clear sign somethings starting, anyone else?

My USA traffic was down 16% yesterday, and search was down 7%. But Canada, UK, France were all down yesterday and I am noticing a hard clamp on USA/Canada traffic this entire week. Having hurricane hysteria 24/7 doesn’t help though.

Traffic is down in the United States for me as well. I don’t know if it’s because of the hurricanes and the mass destruction in the southeast or because of recent Google update.

Yes I am seeing 10% today from last Thursday so something is going on either the southeast issues or update. I noticed my rankings stayed the same.

Traffic is down the toilet today but I see no real change in the rankings. Who even knows.

That is just some of the chatter.

What are you all seeing?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

For the original iTunes version, click here.

Google may be forced to breakup, the DOJ is leaning towards forcing that and more as a remedy to its monopoly ruling. This morning we are seeing a spike in Google Search ranking volatility. Google is testing quick view, where it just takes recipe blogger content and hosts it on its site. Google is hosting a web creator conversion event to appeal to publishers who got hit by its algorithms, Google launched ads in AI Overviews, new link format, AI organized search results and more. Google seems not to link HCU hit sites in the AI Overviews. Google spoke about what it means to have an unreachable robots.txt file. Google is testing verified labels also for retailers in the shopping and product view. Google Store ratings are rolling out to more countries. Google is testing a new list articles view for listicles. Google is testing people also are saying in short video format. Google is testing most mentioned places. Google Shopping tests researched with AI. Google is testing variations of sponsored labels for search ads. Google is showing competitor ads in your local business profile reviews. Google Merchant Center listings adds new certification markup. Google now lets you drag and drop your restaurant menu items in Google Business Profiles. Google added a negative keywords tab to Keyword Planner. Google Ads improved its sidebar navigation. Google may have 9,000 new ad campaigns made every second. Google Merchant Center added video generation and Amazon MCF integration. Bing is testing best list of carousels, which is dangerous. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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