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.

Google Marketing Live news is out, it is all AI, with ads in the new Search Generative Experience, a new way to use AI to generate ads, a new Google Merchant Center, a new Google Product Studio and so much more. Also, Google told us about an old search ranking system named topic authority. Bing will be the default search engine for OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Google Search had a bug that led to a drop in traffic to video content.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Search Topic Authority Ranking System (Not New)
Google posted a new blog post about an old ranking system it has not talked about before named “topic authority.” Initially, everyone thought Google was announcing a new search ranking algorithm update, but no, Google’s Danny Sullivan clarified on Twitter, saying, “this isn’t a new system that’s just launched.”
Google Ads In Search Generative Experience – What They Look Like
Google showcased some additional Google Ads sponsored search ads in the new Google Search Generative Experience yesterday at Google Marketing Live. Google made a point to say these ad positions and features will likely change as Google continues to experiment with this new search experience.

Google Ads Conversation Experience To Create New Ads & Automatically Created Assets
Google announced a bunch of new AI features for Google Ads at Google Marketing Live yesterday, including a new conversation Google Ads tool and also improvements to Automatically Created Assets (ACA), amongst some other things, which we covered today on the Search Engine Roundtable.

New Google Merchant Center Next To Replace Classic Merchant Center
Google announced Google Merchant Center Next, a more lightweight, easier-to-use version of Google Merchant Center at Google Marketing Live. Google added, “while we’re simplifying, the features that larger retailers rely on aren’t going anywhere.”

Google Ads Generative AI Performance Max & New Google Product Studio
Google will roll out generative AI for Google Ads Performance Max and a new Google Product Studio. The company announced these two recent changes at Google Marketing Live, in addition to all the other coverage we are posting today with that event.

Bing Search Is The Default Search Engine For ChatGPT
Microsoft announced yesterday a lot of AI news, like Google Ads did, but the big news at least for us is that Bing Search is now the default search engine for OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Google Search Bug Resulted In Less Traffic To Video Content Between May 4-17
Google Search Console confirmed it had a bug in reporting video-specific traffic in the performance report between May 4th and May 17th. Google seems to have resolved the issue going forward but your reports between May 4 and May 17 might be lower than normal because of this bug.

Neon Microphone Light Embedded In Green Plant Wall At Google Office
This is the “greenroom, the artist” conference room at the Google Nederland office and you can see, outside of that room is a green plant wall with a neon LED microphone lighting up the wall.

Other Great Search Threads:

Google’s mission statement from 1999, as relevant as ever: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, Urs Holzle on Twitter
I’m delighted to announce a new version of #LearningSEO 🤩 New design, more intuitive navigation across the now clickable SEO roadmap, refreshed resources, FAQs, and much more to come! This new home will facilitate, Aleyda Solis on Twitter
They’re not web pages, so they’re not indexable as pages (hence the report). For Image Search, things take a bit longer to reprocess, assuming you also changed URLs. It wouldn’t affect web-search impressions, so if you’re seeing changes there, that would , John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Google Bard adds images in responses
Google Ads adds 2 new campaign types: Video views, demand gen
Google Marketing Live 2023: Everything you need to know
Google announces new topic authority system to better surface news content
7 new Google Ads features include Brand restrictions in broad match, AI in Smart Bidding
Google Ads lets you create campaigns using conversational AI
Google PMax adds generative AI to create text assets, images
Google Search Generative Experience integrates Search, Shopping ads
Google: Merchant Center Next to replace Merchant Center
Google Ads will create AI-powered assets that target search queries
Google Product Studio brings AI-generated images to advertisers
Bing to be default search engine on Open AI’s ChatGPT
How to land 1,830 ranking positions with only one article

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

How To Set Up Scroll Depth Tracking In GA4, Search Engine Journal

Industry & Business

Google CEO Sundar Pichai Says AI ‘Too Important Not to Regulate Well’, Business Insider

Links & Content Marketing

How To Turn Your Content When the Economy Leads Your Audience To Twist, Content Marketing Institute

Local & Maps

How to Add or Claim Your Tripadvisor Listing, BrightLocal
How to Manage Multiple Businesses at One Location, BrightLocal

Mobile & Voice

Google launches bug bounty program for its Android applications, Bleeping Computer
Generative AI Podcasts Are Here. Prepare to Be Bored, Wired

SEO

How Often Should You Update a Website for SEO?, BruceClay
How to compensate eroded traffic in e-commerce, Kevin Indig
Search Console for news sites, Google Search Central YouTube
seoClarity Launches Five New Generative AI Products for Enterprise SEO, seoClarity
Using Chat GPT for SEO: Part 2, Rank Ranger
Wix’s SEO scoring system: Lessons learned from building a prioritization system at scale, Wix SEO Hub
40-Step SEO Migration Checklist For Successful Site Migration, SEOSLY
Getting with the programmatic SEO program, SERP’s Up SEO Podcast

PPC

Google Will Soon Show You AI-Generated Ads, Wired
Here’s how ads might look in Google’s new AI-powered search experience, The Verge
What ads will look like in Google’s new SGE [Gallery], 9to5Google

Search Features

Bing at Microsoft Build 2023: Continuing the Transformation of Search, Bing Search Blog

Other Search

Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott thinks Sydney might make a comeback, The Verge
New ways to customize Chrome on your desktop, Google Blog
Resolving code review comments with ML, Google AI Blog

Feedback:

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