It’s a roundup of a few of the snippets from the world of SEO and what impact they have on the day to day searches that go on out there, especially when it comes to Google and their search algorithms.
Are AI-Generated Images being downranked in Google?
The speculation amongst the SEO community that Google Image Search may well be doing so, favouring non-AI generated images. Reports from those associated with the tracking of image traffic have seen a drop, leading some experts believe Google has introduced a quality metric control, influencing how AI-generated images are ranked compared to other images. Too early to tell if this is actually accurate but given the state of some of the AI images seen out there on the web, anything that slows down their prolific and misleading use is highly welcome.
Does it feel like your Google Searches are getting faster?
There’s a pick up in speed in pre-fetching methods, ok you might not notice it all that much the speed boosts is up by some 60ms. This new approach, reduced the largest contentful paint and has the potential of delivering a super fast and efficient user experience navigating search results and especially for those on mobile devices!
More AI Bad News. AI Overviews are damaging click-through rates
A study conducted by Seer Interactive has found that AI Overviews significantly reduce CTRs for both organic and paid search results. Analysing some 10,000 keywords with informational intent, the study showed a steep decline in click through rates when AI Overviews appeared in search results.
However Google claims that AI Overviews are driving and increase in engagement and clicks but the study data tells a very different story.
This is another reason for carefully curating your advertising and website content. Its very easy, especially in Google Ads now to take the AI generated ideas and simply put in what’s suggested.
Google search quality rater guidelines for generative AI. What’s the impact on content quality scores?
There’s been an update to the Search Quality Rater Guidelines, and yes it is a long old read! So I’m told, “generative AI” gets 14 mentions throughout the document with Google detailing the potential of generative AI in content creation but also highlighting risks associated with misuse and simply generating large volumes of low-value, unoriginal content that may not even be correct.
Its always been stressed that anything generated by AI should deliver originality and user value, evergreen content, and if it fails to meet the criteria, it’ll likely be rated as “Lowest Quality.”
Local SEO. Bugs in the review counts
Recently, the SEO community encountered a. A not insignificant number of business owners noticed that review counts were decreasing, even though there were no changes to their review profiles.
Following the numerous reports Google indeed confirmed that there was indeed a bug affecting the display of review counts, clarifying the issue was with the way reviews were being counted and displayed in search results.
Just don’t take it for granted that everything Google is doing is correct. It pays to keep on top of information you have out there and if there’s oddities in what you’re seeing. Frequently there’s someone to talk to or a forum to join to raise concerns. Here’s a link to the Google Business Profile Community if you think it could be of use.
Excessively Long Blogs. Can’t get to the end of that recipe?
We’ve all suffered it. Been grabbed by an image of some gorgeous food, a leading headline and the belief of an easy read and a great meal. The reality seems to be some excessively long and winding recipe blogs.
That dreadful filler content (who actually clicks on it?) such as unrelated photos, reviews, ads and the like can harm the user experience. This update is particularly relevant for recipe sites, as poorly organised, cluttered pages risk receiving lower rankings in search results.