Check out the highlights from Google’s latest Search Off The Record podcast discussing website launches, preventing staging site indexing, and domain name choices. The post Google On Staging Sites & Preventing Accidental Indexing appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

Google has prioritized rating chatbot prompt responses above rating the quality of search results, at least for some of its contract workers, since January, Insider reports. Why we care. Google is clearly committing a lot of resources to Bard and other AI initiatives right now. Search remains its core product – and chief money-maker – so it’s interesting to learn that Google is so heavily invested in Bard that they have reportedly taken resources away from rating search results, which could potentially impact quality. Reviewing AI prompts, not search. Raters are given a user prompt (e.g., a question, statment or instruction), […]

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

Seven open source GPT models challenge the closed-source models by OpenAI, Deepmind and Meta The post Seven Free Open Source GPT Models Released appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Google plans to integrate conversational AI in search amid rising competition, CEO Sundar Pichai reveals in an interview. The post Google Plans To Integrate Conversational AI Into Search Engine appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Members of Congress aim for big tech companies like Google and Facebook to divest portions of their advertising businesses to protect competition. The post What Advertisers Need To Know About The ‘AMERICA Act’ Bill appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Lost in the non-story about Bing adding ads to Chat (ads were already there) was a blog post by Microsoft attempting to assure content creators that the goal of new Bing is to “drive more traffic and revenue to publishers.”  “The Internet works because of an important ecosystem which starts with publishers creating great content which drives traffic and interest by people to consume that content, and then ultimately advertisers that want to reach people in a high quality and targeted environment.” – Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft corporate vice president, Modern Life, Search, and Devices, “Driving more traffic and value to […]

Google will soon retire four rules-based attribution models in Google Ads and Google Analytics: First-click. Linear. Time decay. Position-based. Why we care. This will impact anyone who still uses these models in Google Ads. Anything that isn’t last-click will be much harder to track because the data-driven attribution formula is different for each advertiser – and not visible. “In the past, you could use linear and give each touch the same credit. You will no longer be able to do so. There will be no impact on last touch, as that is still available. But finding some of the first-touch […]

Large language models (LLMs) will eventually be part of the Google search experience. We still don’t know when conversational AI will appear in Search, but Google CEO Sundar Pichai promises it’s coming. Why we care. The new BingGPT search with integrated AI chat generated a lot of excitement, but so far it hasn’t resulted in any significant shakeup in search engine market share. The big questions we’re all waiting to find out the answers to what happens when Google deploys AI-powered chat into search: How much of an impact will it have on the amount of organic traffic Google sends? […]

This article was co-authored by Andrew Ansley. Things, not strings. If you haven’t heard this before, it comes from a famous Google blog post that announced the Knowledge Graph.  The announcement’s 11th anniversary is only a month away, yet many still struggle to understand what “things, not strings” really means for SEO. The quote is an attempt to convey that Google understands things and is no longer a simple keyword detection algorithm. In May 2012, one could argue that entity SEO was born. Google’s machine learning, aided by semi-structured and structured knowledge bases, could understand the meaning behind a keyword. […]

OpenAI pledges to prioritize safety, accuracy, and privacy in AI systems. Learn about their approach and ongoing work. The post OpenAI, Makers Of ChatGPT, Commit To Developing Safe AI Systems appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Google first turned to artificial intelligence and machine learning to power its search engine algorithm back in 2016. With ChatGPT‘s launch in late 2022, however, artificial intelligence truly became mainstream and significantly impacted the SEO industry. While some believe these changes have been for the better, others have argued that they have made things worse. As we look into the crystal ball, it’s becoming increasingly clear that AI will continue to be one of the most critical factors in the future of search engine optimization and digital marketing. Here are some ways AI is changing SEO, along with its positive […]

Google Search is testing a new section for “cheaper options” in the product detail overlay window. So instead of just showing related products and product specs and buying options, Google is now testing “cheaper options” for higher priced products.

Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed that Google does look at domain name records for discovery of new domains to include in the Google Search Index.

Google Ads is running a small test to help you create ads using AI. Google Bard does not power this, but it is a form of artificial intelligence designed to give you suggested ad headlines and descriptions.

Stop reading. Now. Go open Google Analytics. Click on Behavior, then sort by Top Content, and add a Secondary dimension for google / organic. Now, what do you see? If you’re like most websites, the top trafficked pages are also often at least 12 months old. That means three things: Traffic is a lagging indicator, a byproduct of previous output. Your results six months from now depend on what you did at the end of last year. That your results next year will depend entirely on your efforts this year.  And it means the people plowing ahead, business as usual […]