Daily Search Forum Recap: March 20, 2025

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 admitted that if searchers don't use your page in the search results, it may be removed. Google dropped the review count for review stars for non-product search results. Microsoft said schema is used for its LLMs, like Copilot. Bing has buy now buttons that direct users to your shopping cart and adds the item to the cart. Google Business Profles fixed the issue with the recertification requests from last week, those impacted should have been reverfied. Bing Webmaster Tools was not working most of yesterday.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google: If Searchers Don't Use Your Page In Search It May Be Removed
  Google admitted in a video published on its own Search Central YouTube channel that if searchers do not use your page(s) in the search results, those pages may stop showing up in the search results. Martin Splitt said this in a recent YouTube short he posted where he said, "if pages fall off the index again... users don't really use them in search results."
• Google Drops Review Counts For Non-Shopping Results
  Google seems to have dropped showing the number of reviews are on a page, the review count, next to the review stars, for non-shopping/e-commerce pages. Google Search is now showing rating review values when using AggregateRating mark-up.
• Microsoft Confirms Schema Helps Its LLMs (Copilot) Understand Your Content
  There is a big debate in the SEO community on the topic of schema markup and LLMs. Do LLMs like Microsoft Bing's Copilot, Google's Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Perplexity and others use schema markup and structured data in any way. Fabrice Canel, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft Bing, said they do.
• Bing Buy Now Button Goes Directly To Checkout
  Microsoft Bing's shopping carousel results have a "buy now" button that now links directly to the checkout page of the merchant. So when you click on buy now, it adds that item directly to the cart of the merchant's website.
• Google Business Profiles Fixed The Reverification Bug
  Last week, Google sent out a bulk load of reverification requests to Google Business Profiles. Well, according to Google's Rick Saxe, it was a bug and the bug should be fixed as of the past day or so.
• Bing Webmaster Tools Down Has Been Down Hours
  Bing Webmaster Tools has been down and/or loading incredibly slowly for the past couple of hours. SEOs began noticing this since around 11 am ET and as of the time I posted this story, it is still down or barely loading.
• Video: Google Campus Ducks & Goats
  A few months ago Google had ducks and goats at one of the Google campuses. Here is a video of this from Google's Ben Kaufman who posted about it on X just recently.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Ranking tool issues, again... and right in the middle of a core update! This is a screenshot from Ahrefs, but I see issues on SERanking too, Laura Chiocciora on X
• Incognito-friendly now -> Gemini no longer requires a Google account to chat "Obviously, talking to Gemini when signed into your Google account delivers a better experience. However, if you want to have a private conversation that is, Glenn Gabe on X
• Looks like Sports Illustrated (SI) might be up to its old tricks again. In November 2023 SI got caught running articles created by AI. I just ran a bunch of their content through an AI detector and found content, Mordy Oberstein on X
• Researched Google's New AI Mode So You Don't Have To. Evaluated hundreds of AI Mode outputs across user intents & here's what you NEED to know: It's genuinely AI-powered - the same query "cheap flights" produced seemingly endless, Britney Muller on Bluesky

Search Engine Land Stories:

• How to integrate GEO with SEO
• 82% of Google AI Overviews citations come from deep pages: Report
• Microsoft to enforce consent compliance for advertisers
• Detailed demographics in Google Ads: Targeting with precision
• How to optimize for ROAS in Google Ads using LTV insights
• 7 power moves to accelerate your PPC career

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• Data Privacy Laws in 2025: Upcoming Changes and Requirements, Measure Minds Group

Industry & Business

• Brussels takes action against Google and Apple despite Trump threat, Financial Times (Sub)
• Google To Pay $28M To Settle Lawsuit For Favouring White, Asian Employees, NDTV
• How I Turned My Side Hustle Into A $1 Million SEO Freelance Consultancy, Moz
• The EU’s competition rules are hurting consumers and businesses, Google Blog

Links & Content Marketing

• Sponsored Content: A Comprehensive Guide, DesignRush
• Win Back Lost Ground in SEO with Content Consolidation, JumpFly

Local & Maps

• A Beginner's Guide To Getting Found in Local Search Results, Local Falcon
• GBP Suspensions Rise, Support #Fails, Near Media
• Google finds 10,000 fake listings on Google Maps, sues alleged network of scammers, CBS News
• The State of Reviews 2025: Local Consumer Review Survey Breakdown, BrightLocal

Mobile & Voice

• Google’s Pixel 9A gets a bigger screen and beefier water resistance, The Verge
• Pixel 9a: The latest A-series phone with Google AI smarts at an unbeatable value, Google Blog

SEO

• How can you improve the SEO of old blog posts, Walsh & Partners
• The 7 Phases of the Search Demand Lifecycle: Going Beyond Search Volume, Ahrefs
• ZipTie can now track AI Overviews in the UK + 7 more countries, ZipTie

PPC

• Launching a new Search campaign: What to watch in the first month, Adalysis
• Should You Bid on Your Own Brand in Google Ads?, Screaming Frog
• The Google Ads feature I never use, PPC Live

Search Features

• Gemini no longer requires a Google account to chat, Android Police
• Would You Switch From Google To Bing For A Price?, MediaPost

Other Search

• How to use Google’s Deep Research, an AI researching tool, Google Blog
• I Went Six Months Without Google Search : A #Nofilter Analysis of Open AI’s SearchGPT for ChatGPT, Search Engine World
• Kagi is a better search engine than Google — but it costs $10 a month, The Verge

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.