Google Search Central Blog

New Search experiences in South Africa: Badges and refinement chips

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000

We're sharing more information about our new search experiences in South Africa, and how South African platforms can express interest and participate.

Learn all about Google Trends with our new YouTube tutorials

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000

This post is about the new Google Trends Tutorials YouTube series. In these videos you'll learn how to use Google Trends to analyze patterns in Google Search and Youtube searches, and use them to create interesting content online.

Supporting AVIF in Google Search

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Over the recent years, AVIF has become one of the most commonly used image formats on the web. We're happy to announce that AVIF is now a supported file type in Google Search, for Google Images as well as any place that uses images in Google Search. You don't need to do anything special to have your AVIF files indexed by Google.

Search Central Live 2024 is coming to Kuala Lumpur and Taipei

Tues, 27 Aug 2024 08:00:00 +0000

As previously announced, we're coming to Kuala Lumpur and to Taipei in the last quarter of 2024. And yes, we're very excited! The KL event will be in English and the Taipei event will be conducted in Mandarin (Traditional Chinese).

What to know about our August 2024 core update

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 08:00:00 +0000

This post announces the August 2024 core update to Google Search. This update is designed to continue our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.

Introducing recommendations in Google Search Console

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 06:00:00 +0000

This post announces Search Console recommendations, a new feature that provides websites with optimization opportunities and suggests actions they can take to improve their presence on Google Search.

Configure your shipping and returns directly in Search Console

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

This post discusses a new and easier way to add shipping or return information directly in Search Console.

Search Central Live Bangkok 2024

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 06:00:00 +0000

We're coming back to Thailand with Search Central Live! As mentioned in our blog post about our APAC plans for SCL, we now have a date and a site where you can sign up for a chance to secure your spot at Search Central Live Bangkok 2024.

Adding markup support for organization-level return policies

Tue, 4 Jun 2024 06:00:00 +0000

We're adding support for return policies at the organization level, which means you'll be able to specify a general return policy for your business instead of having to define one for each individual product you sell.

We're on LinkedIn (finally)

Tue, 4 Jun 2024 06:00:00 +0000

The Google Search Central LinkedIn channel is (finally) here!

Mobile-indexing-vLast-final-final.doc

Mon, 3 Jun 2024 06:00:00 +0000

The last step of our migration to a mobile-first index will soon be complete: the small set of sites we've still been crawling with desktop Googlebot will be crawled with mobile Googlebot after July 5, 2024. Most websites do not need to do anything!

Search Central Live 2024 is coming back to the APAC region

Thu, 29 May 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Search Central Live is coming back to the Asia Pacific region, bringing you insights from Google Search, fun networking opportunity, and more! This year we're aiming to visit Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand.

Improving Search Console ownership token management

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

This post discusses an update to Search Console's user and permissions to improve the accuracy and reflect the actual state of unused ownership tokens.

Search Central Live 2024 in Warsaw, Poland

Mon, 25 March 2024 10:00:00 +0000

We're excited to announce a Search Central Live event in Warsaw, Poland on April 24, 2024. Search Central Live is our global Google Search event series specifically for site owners, publishers, and SEOs.

What web creators should know about our March 2024 core update and new spam policies

Tue, 05 March 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Today we announced the March 2024 core update. This is designed to improve the quality of Search by showing less content that feels like it was made to attract clicks, and more content that people find useful. We also shared that we have new spam policies to better handle the practices that can negatively impact Google's search results. In this post, we'll go into more detail for creators about both the update and the spam policies.

Search Central Live 2024 in Bucharest, Romania

Mon, 04 March 2024 10:00:00 +0000

We're excited to announce a Search Central Live event in Bucharest, Romania on April 4, 2024. Search Central Live is our global Google Search event series specifically for site owners, publishers, and SEOs.

Adding structured data support for Product Variants

Tue, 20 February 2024 10:00:00 +0000

In 2022, Google expanded support for Product structured data, enabling enhanced product experiences in Google Search. Then, in 2023 we added support for shipping and returns structured data. Today, we are adding structured data support for Product variants, allowing merchants to easily show more variations of the products they sell, and show shoppers more relevant, helpful results. Providing variant structured data will also complement and enhance merchant center feeds, including automated feeds.

New Search experiences in EEA: Rich results, aggregator units, and refinement chips

Thur, 15 February 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Following our latest update on our preparations for the DMA (Digital Markets Act), we're sharing more details about what publishers can expect to see in regards to new search results in European Economic Area (EEA) countries, and how they can express interest in these experiences.

The SEO Starter Guide got a makeover

Fri, 2 February 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Today we're publishing a refreshed, more pocket-sized version of the SEO Starter Guide with a better focus on a starter audience and the topics we think a person who's just dipping their toes in SEO should focus on and why.

Announcing Search Central Live Argentina

Thu, 1 February 2024 06:00:00 +0000

We're excited to announce that Search Central Live is coming to Buenos Aires on March 5, 2024. Following successful events throughout the world last year, we're continuing our mission to help website owners to enhance their site's performance in Google Search.

Search Central Live is returning to Brazil

Thu, 1 February 2024 06:00:00 +0000

We're excited to announce that Search Central Live is returning to São Paulo on February 29, 2024. Following our successful events last year, we're continuing our mission to help Brazilian businesses enhance their site's performance in Google Search.

This is over

Sun, 31 December 2023 09:00:00 +0000

I'm sure you're all wondering why we have gathered you here today. That's right: it's the end of year blog post in which we go over what happened in 2023 on Google Search Central, and have some fun along the way!

Video mode now only show pages where video is the main content

Mon, 04 December 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Earlier this year, we made a change to only show video thumbnails next to results on the main Google Search results page when the video is the main content of a page. Today, we're extending this change to search results in Video mode to better connect users with the video content they're looking for (rather than having to comb through a page to find that video). This change will start rolling out today, and it could take up to a week to complete.

Adding markup support for vacation rentals

Mon, 04 December 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Vacation rentals on Google make it easier for travelers to discover the best lodging options, whether they're searching for a cozy cabin or a house that sleeps ten. Today, we're announcing a new and simpler way for vacation rental integration partners to provide listing data to Google.

Expanding markup support for Organization details, including Logo structured data

Wed, 29 November 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Since 2013, Google has supported logo structured data, which recognizes two Organization fields: logo and url. Today we're expanding our support for organizational information by extracting additional administrative data such as name, address, contact information, and various business identifiers. You can continue to provide the logo and url fields to specify which image we use as your logo in Google search results.

New in structured data: discussion forum and profile page markup

Mon, 27 November 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Today we're announcing support for profile page and discussion forum structured data for use in Google Search, including new reports in Search Console. This markup works with Google Search features that are designed to show first-person perspectives from social media platforms, forums, and other communities.

Upcoming deprecation of Crawl Rate Limiter Tool in Search Console

Fri, 24 November 2023 09:00:00 +0000

The crawl rate limiter tool in Search Console is being deprecated on Jan 8th, 2024. This tool has been available for over a decade, but with the improvements we've made to our crawling logic and other tools available to publishers, its usefulness has dissipated.

Search Quality Raters Guidelines update

Thu, 16 November 2023 10:00:00 +0000

As of November 16, Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines have been updated to simplify our guidelines. As a reminder, these guidelines are what are used by our search raters to help evaluate the performance of our various search ranking systems, and their ratings don't directly influence ranking.

List your courses with new course info structured data

Wed, 15 November 2023 10:00:00 +0000

As people continue to search for courses on Google, the desire for more detailed course information has grown. Today, we are announcing a new set of recommendations to provide course structured data to Google. Publishers now have the opportunity to surface supplemental course information on Google Search by providing detailed information like pricing, educational level, ratings, and length with structured data. This data can appear in the course info rich result, which is a new carousel feature in Google Search that helps learners discover and compare courses that fit their unique needs.

A Q&A on Google Search updates

Thu, 2 November 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Google Search regularly updates our search ranking systems to ensure we're showing the most relevant, helpful content that we can. We've had a series of notable updates we've shared about in the past few weeks, and we have two for this month. Given this, it's a good time to share some reminders in a Q&A format about how we do updates, why we share about them, and what (if anything) creators need to consider when one happens.

Search Central Live Taipei 2023

Thu, 2 November 2023 10:00:00 +0000

We're excited to announce that Search Central Live is coming back to Taipei for the first time ever on December 6. As usual, the event is hosted by the Google Search team and we're looking forward to bringing together the community to learn, share, and network.

Mobile-first indexing has landed

Tue, 31 October 2023 10:00:00 +0000

We're delighted to announce that the trek to Mobile First Indexing is now complete.

Search Central Live Singapore 2023

Wed, 18 October 2023 10:00:00 +0000

We're excited to announce that Search Central Live Singapore is coming back this year again on November 22. As usual, the event is hosted by the Google Search team and we're looking forward to bringing together the community to learn, share, and network.

Vehicle listings structured data for car dealerships

Mon, 16 October 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Google Search will start supporting vehicle listings markup, a new way to appear in vehicle listings on Google. It now has its own Search Console Rich result report and is supported in the testing tool.

October 2023 Spam Update

Wed, 04 October 2023 09:00:00 +0000

We're releasing an update to our spam detections systems today that will improve our coverage in many languages and spam types.

Search Central Live Zurich is back!

Fri, 29 September 2023 10:00:00 +0000

We're very excited to announce that Search Central Live is coming back to Zurich on Tuesday, October 24th, 2023! After our last Search Central Live event in Zurich in December 2019, we're back in town for more presentations, Q&A and networking!