SEO News & Updates for May 2025

Google launches AI search guidelines urging focus on unique content over visit metrics

2 days ago

Google advises site owners to focus on unique, valuable content that meets visitors' needs for success in AI search. They emphasize good page experience, technical accessibility, managing visibility, and accurate structured data. Supporting multimodal content with images and videos is encouraged. Google recommends valuing visit quality over clicks and adapting to evolving user needs as AI search evolves.

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Google launches AI Mode for shopping with new virtual try-on feature using personal photos

4 days ago

AI SEO

Google introduces AI Mode for shopping, combining Gemini AI and the Shopping Graph with over 50 billion product listings updated hourly. It offers personalized visual browsing, smart filtering, and an agentic checkout that tracks prices and completes purchases via Google Pay. A new virtual try-on feature lets users upload photos to see how clothes fit, powered by a custom image model, rolling out soon in the U.S.

Google tests replacing I’m Feeling Lucky button with AI Mode feature

11 days ago

SEO AI Overviews

Google is testing an AI Mode option that may replace the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button in its search engine. Users have reported seeing the AI Mode tab in various locations, including where the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button is. The AI Mode button may feature a rotating rainbow border. This option is currently limited to a small percentage of US users in Google's experimental Labs environment, and its potential replacement of the traditional feature may upset some users.

Google Updates Image SEO Best Practices to Recommend Consistent URLs for Images

12 days ago

SEO

Google updated its Image SEO best practices, emphasizing the need for consistent image URLs across larger websites. The key change advises that if an image appears on multiple pages, it should be referenced with the same URL to optimize Google's crawl budget. This approach allows Google to cache the image, reducing the need for repeated requests. Using the same URL conserves resources, ensuring efficient crawling and indexing, which is crucial for managing large sites.

Marketing Workflow Templates

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Google Unveils Generative AI for 3D Product Visualizations in Online Shopping

12 days ago

Google Ads SEO

Google has developed AI models to convert 2D product images into 3D experiences for online shopping. This allows businesses to create high-quality 3D visualizations from just three images. Key advancements include Neural Radiance Fields for 360° views, a view-conditioned diffusion model for better predictions, and the latest Veo model for generating 360° spins. This technology enhances online shopping, making it more interactive and engaging.

Google Search Detects 20 Times More Scams with New AI Detection Technology

13 days ago

SEO

Google is using AI to enhance defenses against online scams in Search, Chrome, and Android. Their report shows AI detects and blocks hundreds of millions of scam pages daily, increasing detection by 20 times. Chrome's Enhanced Protection mode, powered by Gemini Nano, provides advanced safety against phishing. New AI warnings for spam notifications and on-device scam detection in Google Messages and Phone aim to protect users from evolving scam tactics.

Google Lighthouse Audits Transition to Performance Insight Audits with Major Changes

23 days ago

SEO Technical SEO

Lighthouse is moving to performance insight audits, consolidating various performance tools. Several audits will be renamed or merged, while outdated ones will be removed. Breaking changes will affect API users, with the next major release, Lighthouse 13, planned for October 2025. Users can start migrating to the new insights now, with a toggle feature in Lighthouse 12.6. Documentation for the new audits will be available before the transition.

Google corrects Google News crawler documentation error regarding publisher preferences

25 days ago

SEO

Google updated its Google News crawler documentation to clarify that publisher crawler preferences for Googlebot-News do not influence the News tab in Google search results. The News tab shows results from eligible publishers complying with Google's policies. The changelog corrected an error stating that crawling preferences affected the News tab and removed the misleading section. The updated description specifies that preferences only affect Google News.

Apple updates Applebot documentation clarifying crawler differences and data usage

26 days ago

SEO

Apple updated its Applebot documentation to clarify the differences between Applebot and Applebot-Extended. Blocking Applebot-Extended in the robots.txt file prevents content from being used to train generative AI models. Applebot crawls data for features like Spotlight and Siri, and web publishers can control access through robots.txt. Applebot-Extended allows further control over data usage, while Applebot follows standard crawling rules.

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