Daily Search Forum Recap: June 5, 2024

June 5, 2024

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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.

We are seeing more intense Google Search ranking volatility around June 4th and 5th. Google AI Overviews are showing up a heck of a lot less. Google fixed a bug with site names not showing up for some internal pages. Microsoft Advertising will move smart shopping campaigns to Performance Max and more news. Google News says “how these stories are ranked” in the header. Google added support for SocialMediaPosting markup in Discussion Forum structured data.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility June 5th

I am seeing signs of yet another intense Google search ranking update and intense ranking volatility yesterday and into today, June 4th and 5th. Many of the tools are showing very heated volatility and there has been a spike in chatter within the SEO community.

Google AI Overviews Shows For Only 15% Queries, Down From 84%

New data from BrightEdge shows that Google is showing far fewer AI Overviews than it did when it first launched them as a beta under the Search Generative Experience. Google went from showing AI Overviews for 84% of queries to showing them for less than 15% of queries.

Google Fixed Issue With Site Names Not Appearing For Internal Pages

Google has fixed an issue with site names not appearing for some internal pages, this has been an issue since December 2023. I checked some examples, and they are indeed fixed – although Google said some fixes are still rolling out and those pages need to be reprocessed to be fixed.

Google Discussion Forum Structured Data Now Supports SocialMediaPosting Markup

Google has updated its discussion forum structured data help documentation to clarify that SocialMediaPosting markup is also supported. Google did say that SocialMediaPosting should be used for sites that are more of a “generic social media platform,” versus a discussion forum.

Google News “How These Stories Are Ranked” Header

Google News seems to be testing placing a header above news sources in the Google News follow interface, that says “how these stories are ranked.” I personally cannot replicate it, but some are able to see it.

Microsoft Advertising To Move Smart Shopping Campaigns To Performance Max

Microsoft, in its monthly update, announced that it will be moving (or “upgrading” as they call it) smart shopping campaigns to Performance Max within the next couple of months. Microsoft said they sent out notices to advertisers via emails earlier.

Google Hong Kong 20th Year Birthday Decorations

Google Hong Kong seems to be celebrating its 20th year anniversary of birthday, maybe. I mean, according to Wikipedia, Google China is 18 years old. But according to these photos from the Google Hong Kong office, the office there is celebrating 20 years. Here are the decorations for the celebration.