Daily Search Forum Recap: February 21, 2024 -

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 again says they want to do better with ranking smaller sites in the search results, but do they? Gartner said search volume will drop 25% by 2026, what do SEOs think? Google Ads sitelinks has a weird eligibility bug. Gmail is pushing Google Ads in the interface. The Google App has a toggle between Search and Gemini.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google: We Want To Reward The Best Content No Matter Site Size

For the past 20 years, probably even longer, the debate about Google giving preferential treatment to large sites over small sites has been a huge topic in the SEO world and that has not changed in 2024 from 2004. Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, recently said on X, “yes, we should be rewarding the best content, regardless of site size.”

Only 20% Of SEOs Think Search Volume Won’t Change By 2026

The other day, Gartner, a respected research firm, predicted that “traditional search engine volume will drop 25%, with search marketing losing market share to AI chatbots and other virtual agents.” So I asked SEOs what they think and only 20% of SEOs think search volume won’t change by 2026.

Google Ads Sitelink Unknown Eligibility Bug

Google Ads has an issue with some sitelink assets where it shows the sitelinks are eligible but “limited” and the reason says “unknown.” Google’s Ads Liaison said, “the team is aware of this issue and currently on it.”

Google Pushing Google Ads Consults In Gmail Accounts Pop Ups

Google is pushing some businesses to sign up for a free Google Ads consult with a Google representative through their Gmail accounts. This is in the form of a pop up in the Gmail interface, it is not a normal spammy email solicitation but rather a pop up.

Google App Adds Toggle Between Search & Gemini

The popular Google app, the Google Search app, now has a toggle at the top to quickly switch between Google Search and Gemini (formerly Google Bard). It shows up at the top and is defaulted to Google Search with the super G logo but you can see the Gemini logo that you can tap on to switch to Gemini.

Googlers Built & Donated Skateboards

Here is a photo from the Google Palo Alto office of some members of the Google Cloud team building and then donating skateboards. They had some event where they made skateboards and helmets for an organization named Friends for Youth.