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.
If you want your pages to show in Google's AI Mode, it must be indexed. Google Ads channel reporting for PMax campaigns was seen in the wild. Google Ads AI Max replaced Search Max in Google Ads. Google may extend the search box. Google described how Googlebot changed over the years. And I posted my weekly SEO video recap today. Note, I am offline Monday and Tuesday for a holiday.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Video: Google Search Ranking Volatility, Web Publishing Dead, AI Mode Search Console Data & AI Mode Scares SEOs
This week, we covered more Google Search ranking volatility around May 29th. Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, said web publishing is not dead and had a great interview with The Verge. Most SEOs are scared of AI Mode in Google... -
Google May Extend The Google Search Box To See More Of The Query
Google may extend the Google Search box so you can see more of your longer query. As you know, people are doing longer searches these days, and sometimes, you can't see the full query when you type it. Instead, you need to scroll to see the 2,000 plus characters you entered into the search box. -
Google Ads Al Max Replaces Search Max In Google Ads
Google seems to be renaming Search Max to AI Max within the Google Ads interface. The new wording for this says, "Al Max for search campaigns." Then there is a toggle to turn on "Optimise your campaign with Al Max" with a beta label. -
Google On How Googlebot Crawling Has Changed Over The Years
Gary Illyes from Google described how search engine crawlers have changed over the years. This came up in the latest Search Off the Record podcast with Martin Splitt and Gary Illyes from Google. -
Some Seeing Google Ads Channel Reporting For Performance Max
Some advertisers are seeing the newly announced and much anticipated channel reporting for Performance Max campaigns within the Google Ads advertiser console in the wild. This was announced about a month ago, after hearing leaks of it weeks prior and now some are able to see it in their accounts. -
Google: Page Needs To Be Indexed To Be Shown In AI Mode
Google has once again confirmed that in order for Google to show your content as a citation or link in AI Mode, it generally needs to be crawled and then indexed by Google. This is the same thing for a page to be shown in Google Search, Google AI Overviews and other Google properties. -
Google AI Mode Swag For Early Testers
Here are some photos of Google AI Mode swag and merch that were given to early beta testers at Google I/O a week or so ago.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Hot take, Google's dominance has made our industry a bit lazy and a whole lot more check box than when I first came in the game. People who wake up looking for a checklist to win on SEO aren't built for times like these. It's goin, Wil Reynolds on X
- When agents start doing searches on your behalf, Google’s human query volume will go down dramatically. There would be no need to keep hitting single world or two word searches. Your assistant will just alert you. And this w, Aravind Srinivas on X
- When filtering your search terms, try to use the top filters as much as you can as they allow you to still see metrics for Other Search Terms. If you apply filters on the lower level, those metrics disappear., Greg on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Google clarifies where ads appear in AI Overviews
- Google Ads begins rolling out AI Max for Search
- Is it Tuesday? Google AI Overviews doesn’t know
- Mike King on relevance engineering and the end of SEO as we know it
- Global PPC and SEO co-optimization: How to audit for multinational success
- The Hagakure method for Google Ads management
Other Great Search Stories:
Industry & Business
- Germany seeks to levy 10% tax on online platforms like Google, Reuters
- Google partners on watershed health in North and South Carolina, Google Blog
- Google seeks to sell some Mountain View sites that may become housing, Mercury News
- The Times and Amazon Announce an A.I. Licensing Deal, New York Times
- Will Google still build housing as it pulls back from real estate?, Mercury News
- Google, Justice Department face off in climactic showdown in search monopoly case, San Francisco Chronicle
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
- Whither Local Pack, Brandz, Social Only Looks Easy, Google Then & Now, Near Media
- Almost-Customers Are Local SEO Gold, Local Visibility System
Mobile & Voice
- Apple's US App Store topped $400B in developer billings and sales in 2024, TechCrunch
- YouTube will soon let viewers use Google Lens to search what they see while watching Shorts, TechCrunch
SEO
- 16 SEO Mistakes to Avoid Like the Plague, SEO dot co
- AI Search Is Killing Clicks—Here’s How Marketers Can Still Win, Bill Hartzer
- Search Isn’t Dead. It’s Just Getting Smarter with Rand Fishkin & Will Critchlow, Search Pilot
- SEO After Google I/O 2025: What Just Happened?, SEOSLY
- AI Mode & Page Indexing, DEJAN
- Google's AI Mode & SEO, Demystified (No Buzzwords), Ann Smarty
- Seriously, please stop with the new acronyms. It's still SEO: Search Everywhere Optimization., SparkToro
PPC
- Update to the Personalized advertising policy (May 2025), Google Advertising Policies Help
- Microsoft Advertising Adds AI Tools to Streamline Ad Text Creation, PPC News Feed
Search Features
- AI Overviews are dominating travel searches. Here’s the data to prove it., Dune7
- Google AI Mode for Search Has Arrived. Proceed With Caution., New York Times
- Perplexity's new tool can generate spreadsheets, dashboards, and more, TechCrunch
- Thanks to ChatGPT, Google AI Mode will replace search as you know it, Vox
- The AI Deluge at Google I/O 2025, Reflect Digital
Other Search
- DeepSeek R1-0528 arrives in powerful open source challenge to OpenAI o3 and Google Gemini 2.5 Pro, VentureBeat
- DeepSeek Says Upgraded Model Reasons Better, Hallucinates Less, Bloomberg
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
