# Surfil

> Technical SEO news, original research, studies and free tools for search and AI answer engines, by Adam Hafez.

Editorial rules this publication holds itself to: every article opens with a 40 to 60 word direct answer,
carries three to five standalone key takeaways, and cites at least one primary source. Anything not supported
by a citable source is not published.

## News

- [Google updates Indexing API quota docs, drops request form](https://surfil.com/news/google-indexing-api-quota-docs-update.md): Google says its Indexing API quota page now reflects current limits and process, while three pages lost default-quota details and the request form.
- [Google adds more links to AI Mode and AI Overviews](https://surfil.com/news/google-ai-mode-overviews-links-update.md): Google adds inline links, an official-site test, wider news carousels and Dive Deeper thumbnails to AI Mode and AI Overviews, with no click data.
- [Google launches Universal Cart in Search and Gemini](https://surfil.com/news/google-universal-cart-search-gemini.md): Google's Universal Cart lets US shoppers keep items from many merchants in one cart across Search, AI Mode and Gemini, using UCP checkout.
- [ChatGPT clicks lost their UTM tags, and show up as direct](https://surfil.com/news/chatgpt-utm-parameters-dropped-direct-traffic.md): A traffic sample of 500 pages shows ChatGPT visits falling while direct rises, after links stopped carrying utm_source=chatgpt.com.
- [Google tests the AI Mode sidebar on the main results page](https://surfil.com/news/google-ai-mode-sidebar-main-results-test.md): A screenshot shows Google testing AI Mode's left sidebar, with chat history and settings, on regular web results. Google has not confirmed it.
- [Google: keywords in URLs are a very small ranking signal](https://surfil.com/news/google-url-structure-hyphens-underscores-emoji.md): Google's Gary Illyes and Cherry Prommawin say URL keywords are a tiny signal and that hyphens beat underscores, per a new Search Central video.
- [Bing adds Topics Portfolio to AI Performance reports](https://surfil.com/news/bing-webmaster-tools-topics-portfolio.md): Topics Portfolio, a beta in Bing Webmaster Tools, groups the grounding queries where your site appears into themes with demand and crowding figures.
- [Gemini 4 Argon joins AI Mode's model menu for Pro and Ultra](https://surfil.com/news/gemini-4-argon-ai-mode-pro-ultra.md): Google added Gemini 4 Argon to AI Mode's model menu on 13 October 2026 for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, a new model variable if you track AI answers.
- [Google Business Profile adds four dietary attributes](https://surfil.com/news/google-business-profile-dietary-attributes.md): Google is rolling out gluten-free, dairy-free, halal and kosher dietary attributes for restaurants in Business Profiles, set per menu item.
- [Google job listings describe Discover as an AI concierge](https://surfil.com/news/google-discover-job-listings-ai-concierge.md): Google job listings describe a proactive, hyper-personalized concierge Discover and a team recommending AI-generated content. Not a launch.
- [Google on PDFs: converted to HTML, recrawled less often](https://surfil.com/news/google-pdfs-search-off-the-record-indexing.md): Martin Splitt and John Mueller explain how Google converts PDFs to HTML, ranks them, handles duplicates and why HTML is the default choice.
- [Google may show pharmaceutical ads in AI Mode and AI Overviews](https://surfil.com/news/google-pharmaceutical-ads-ai-mode-ai-overviews.md): A Google spokesperson told Adweek that its AI Mode and AI Overviews ads test now includes certain pharmaceutical products, limited to the U.S.
- [Merchant Center product videos stuck in preview processing](https://surfil.com/news/merchant-center-videos-stuck-preview-processing.md): Merchants report Merchant Center video uploads stuck in preview processing, so product videos look static in Google listings. No fix or ETA yet.
- [Mueller: set change of address for www and non-www](https://surfil.com/news/mueller-site-migration-change-of-address-months.md): A domain move recovered by April, then Google showed the old domain again. John Mueller said moves can take long and pointed to a www and non-www setting.
- [Search Console date picker broke, then was fixed](https://surfil.com/news/search-console-performance-report-date-picker-broken.md): The custom date range in Search Console performance reports got stuck on 1969, per Search Engine Roundtable, which says it was fixed the same day.
- [All in One SEO plugin patched for two vulnerabilities](https://surfil.com/news/all-in-one-seo-plugin-two-vulnerabilities.md): Two All in One SEO flaws, CVE-2026-100152 (shortcode execution) and CVE-2026-85492 (XSS), are fixed in version 5.0.2.1. What each one needs to work.
- [ChatGPT's most-cited sites shift toward original sources](https://surfil.com/news/chatgpt-most-cited-sites-primary-sources-ahrefs.md): Ahrefs data shows PubMed rising from 64th to 4th among ChatGPT's most-cited US domains while WebMD fell from 18th to 79th, March to September.
- [Anthropic cuts live web access for all internal evaluations](https://surfil.com/news/anthropic-cuts-live-web-access-internal-evaluations.md): Anthropic says Claude submitted real forms and used site tokens in tests, so it cut live internet access for all internal evaluations.
- [AI Overviews on big-brand searches: why three counts differ](https://surfil.com/news/ai-overviews-big-brand-searches-ahrefs.md): Ahrefs found AI Overviews on 63 of 100 brand-name searches by 30 September. Other counts say 93 and 83%. Each uses a different sample and definition.
- [Anthropic bars using Claude to seed fake AI answer sources](https://surfil.com/news/anthropic-usage-policy-fake-sources-ai-answers.md): Anthropic's usage policy, effective 12 November 2026, bans using Claude to seed search and AI answer sources with content that hides its origin.
- [Bing tests removing favicons from search result snippets](https://surfil.com/news/bing-tests-removing-favicons-snippets.md): Bing is testing results with no favicon beside each snippet, which makes the page look much less graphical. Microsoft has not commented on it.
- [Mueller: HTML sitemaps still help, but don't replace XML](https://surfil.com/news/mueller-html-sitemaps-still-useful.md): Google's John Mueller says an HTML sitemap is a map for users whose links crawlers can follow, not a replacement for XML, per Search Engine Journal.
- [Google's Reader Revenue Manager page now names AI Mode and Gemini](https://surfil.com/news/reader-revenue-manager-homepage-update.md): Google rewrote the Reader Revenue Manager home page. Its subscriber distinction now names Search, AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini, not Discover and News.
- [Google adds UGC Fresh Data Program for large platforms](https://surfil.com/news/google-ugc-fresh-data-program.md): Google's UGC Fresh Data Program lets approved platforms push user-generated content to Search outside crawling and the Indexing API.
- [SEOs report more manual actions as Google stays silent](https://surfil.com/news/manual-action-requests-rise-reports.md): Marie Haynes and Daniel Foley Carter say manual action cases are rising. It is anecdotal, with no Google data, and the spam update finished the same day.
- [Merchant Center may disapprove products that change often](https://surfil.com/news/merchant-center-frequent-changes-disapproval.md): Google's Merchant Center help page now warns that products whose price or stock changes more than daily may be disapproved instead of auto-updated.
- [The September 2026 spam update finished after 13 days](https://surfil.com/news/september-2026-spam-update-completed.md): Google's September 2026 spam update finished on 8 October after 13 days and 16 hours, the longest of its 2026 spam updates. What it means for your data.
- [Google's local panel now shows a WhatsApp button](https://surfil.com/news/google-local-panel-whatsapp-button.md): Google is showing a WhatsApp button in local panel results, beside or instead of chat. Google has made no statement and no rollout detail exists.
- [Google opens its SynthID detector to everyone](https://surfil.com/news/google-synthid-detector-opens-to-public.md): Google's SynthID Detector is now open to anyone, globally in English. It checks images, video and audio for watermarks, and nothing ties it to rankings.
- [Healthcare review snippets have dropped, Schema App reports](https://surfil.com/news/healthcare-review-snippets-drop-schema-app.md): Schema App says review snippets fell for its healthcare customers since late May. Google has announced no change and its docs do not mention healthcare.
- [Merchant Center adds a UCP integration hub for US merchants](https://surfil.com/news/merchant-center-ucp-integration-hub.md): Google's Merchant Center is rolling out a UCP integration hub in the US, with checkout buttons for AI Mode and Gemini behind an interest form.
- [ChatGPT tests green and gray labels on product results](https://surfil.com/news/chatgpt-product-result-labels-test.md): OpenAI is testing labels such as best all-rounder and best for beginners on ChatGPT product results, in green and gray. OpenAI has not commented.
- [Google Maps policy now limits promotions and pricing in listings](https://surfil.com/news/google-maps-policy-merchants-listings-posts.md): Google expanded the advertising and solicitation rules for Maps and Business Profiles: no time-bound promotions, pricing or calls-to-action in the listing.
- [Mueller: why a large aggregator is crawled but barely indexed](https://surfil.com/news/mueller-large-product-aggregator-indexing.md): John Mueller told a site owner that URLs indexed from a large product aggregator redirect to the homepage, and that such sites are hard to justify.
- [Mueller: AI crawlers read sitemaps, Couldn't fetch explained](https://surfil.com/news/mueller-sitemaps-ai-crawlers-couldnt-fetch.md): Google's John Mueller says AI crawlers can't submit sitemaps and that Couldn't fetch on a valid sitemap often comes down to host load or crawl demand.
- [OpenAI will watermark ChatGPT text in the EU](https://surfil.com/news/openai-eu-chatgpt-text-watermark.md): OpenAI adds an invisible watermark to ChatGPT and Codex text in the EU, with an API opt-in worldwide. Edits weaken it, and Google does not use it.
- [Search Console flags child property AI control overrides](https://surfil.com/news/search-console-ai-control-child-property-override.md): Google's help page now says top-level domain owners see a notice on the Search generative AI control page when a child property overrides the parent.
- [Search Console now groups multiple countries in one filter](https://surfil.com/news/search-console-multi-country-filter.md): Search Console's performance report now lets you tick several countries and see their combined Google Search traffic, per two trade outlets.
- [Google ties more spam updates to a flood of new content](https://surfil.com/news/google-spam-updates-ai-scaled-content-deep-dive.md): At Search Central Live, Google said spam updates target much new content, AI helps catch it, and scaled content now worries it more than link spam.
- [Search Console dark mode was a joke, per John Mueller](https://surfil.com/news/search-console-dark-mode-slide-was-a-joke.md): A dark mode mock-up shown at Search Central Live in Barcelona was first reported as coming, then described as a joke. Here is what each source says.
- [Bing tests a Recommended by label on product results](https://surfil.com/news/bing-recommended-by-products-test.md): Bing is testing a Recommended by section that names a company beside product thumbnails, with no link to it. Microsoft has not commented.
- [Google Discover eligibility gate: what Google's analyst said](https://surfil.com/news/google-discover-eligibility-gate-deep-dive.md): Google's Discover trust and safety analyst described a three-way eligibility gate and image rules at Search Central Live Barcelona, per a ROAST recap.
- [Google warns against fake author profiles in its guidance](https://surfil.com/news/google-fake-author-profiles-warning.md): Google's helpful content page now calls fabricated creator profiles deception: AI headshots, made-up names and false credentials.
- [Google adds a main content section to its helpful content page](https://surfil.com/news/google-helpful-content-main-content-section.md): Google's people-first content page now defines main content and lists four attributes raters assess: effort, originality, talent or skill, and accuracy.
- [How Google turns a query into results, per a Barcelona recap](https://surfil.com/news/google-query-understanding-synonyms-fan-out-deep-dive.md): A ROAST recap of Mueller and Illyes in Barcelona: synonym expansion, AI fan-out queries missing from Search Console, and retrieval before ranking.
- [Shopify auto-enrols stores in new AI shopping channels](https://surfil.com/news/shopify-auto-enrols-stores-in-new-ai-shopping-channels.md): Shopify's Agentic setting shares eligible stores' products with AI chat apps by default, and in-chat checkout can bypass your own tracking code.
- [Google's AI contribution pilot pays about 100 publishers, report says](https://surfil.com/news/ai-contribution-pilot-publisher-payments.md): The Information reports Google pays about 100 publishers in its AI contribution pilot, with payments for several smaller sites under 0.1% of ad revenue.
- [Google rolls out AI Mode monitoring to everyone worldwide](https://surfil.com/news/ai-mode-monitoring-rolls-out-globally.md): Google is rolling out AI Mode monitoring to all users globally, after Ultra and Pro subscribers. It watches sites, forums, social posts and Shopping Graph.
- [Bing tests editable labels on images in search results](https://surfil.com/news/bing-images-editable-labels-test.md): Bing is testing an Editable label and an edit icon on images in Bing Search that open its AI image creation tool. Microsoft has not commented.
- [Bing tests product feature labels on product listings](https://surfil.com/news/bing-product-feature-labels-test.md): Bing is testing short feature labels such as lightweight and performs well on product grid listings, shown as a hover overlay. Microsoft has not commented.

## Reports

- [Ahrefs: ChatGPT searched the web in 14.4% of 66.6M responses](https://surfil.com/blog/chatgpt-query-fan-out-ahrefs-15m-queries.md): Ahrefs studied 66.6M ChatGPT responses and 15M fan-out queries: 14.4% searched the web, 6.8% of fan-outs used site:. Each figure with its base and limits.
- [How long Google takes to crawl, index and update results](https://surfil.com/blog/google-crawling-indexing-serving-timelines-2026.md): All 23 typical and slowest times Gary Illyes showed at Search Central Live Barcelona, as recapped by ROAST, plus caveats and Google's own docs.
- [Ahrefs survey: 93% of 301 marketers use AI for content](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-content-usage-survey-ahrefs-2026.md): Ahrefs' 2026 survey of 301 marketers: 93% use AI for content, 85% of them work faster, 66% trust it only after review. Each figure with its base.
- [What to do after a Google core update: Google's recovery steps](https://surfil.com/blog/what-to-do-after-google-core-update.md): Google's own recovery steps after a core update: wait a week, compare the right dates, size the drop, self-assess and avoid quick fixes.
- [How to tell which Google update hit your site: a 5-step method](https://surfil.com/blog/which-google-update-hit-my-site.md): Match a Search Console drop to confirmed Google update dates using 7-day windows, search types and a manual actions check, then rule out overlaps.
- [Pages with no backlinks and Google traffic: Ahrefs' 14B-page data](https://surfil.com/blog/backlinkless-pages-search-traffic-ahrefs-14b.md): Ahrefs found ~20 million indexed pages with no referring domains, and only 2,997 of them earn over 1K monthly search visits.
- [Search engine market share, August 2026: Statcounter](https://surfil.com/blog/statcounter-search-engine-share-august-2026.md): Statcounter puts Google at 91.02% of worldwide search in August 2026, ahead of Bing at 4.55%, against 90.37% across the prior twelve months.
- [Median home page weight 2025: 2.86 MB desktop, 2.56 MB mobile](https://surfil.com/blog/web-almanac-2025-median-home-page-weight-by-type.md): The 2025 Web Almanac puts the median home page at 2.86 MB on desktop and 2.56 MB on mobile, with images and JavaScript the two largest parts.
- [YouTube citation share across AI search platforms, BrightEdge](https://surfil.com/blog/youtube-citation-share-across-ai-platforms-brightedge.md): BrightEdge measured YouTube's citation share in Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity and ChatGPT from May 2024 to September 2025. Here are its figures.
- [AI shoppers now convert 54% better than non-AI traffic, Adobe finds](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-referral-conversion-vs-non-ai-retail-adobe-2026.md): Adobe's May 2026 data shows AI-referred retail visits converting 54% better than non-AI traffic, a reversal from a year earlier.
- [Mobile vs desktop request share: Cloudflare Radar 2025](https://surfil.com/blog/cloudflare-radar-2025-mobile-desktop-request-share.md): Cloudflare Radar's 2025 Year in Review puts mobile at 43% of global requests, up from 41%, with mobile ahead in 117 countries and regions.
- [Google AI Mode adoption and zero-click rate, Semrush 2025](https://surfil.com/blog/google-ai-mode-adoption-and-zero-click-semrush.md): Semrush clickstream data on Google AI Mode's first two months: usage grew about 4x to just over 1% of sessions, and 92-94% ended without an external click.
- [Google Discover now drives 67.5% of Google traffic to news sites](https://surfil.com/blog/google-discover-share-newzdash-publisher-traffic.md): NewzDash's analysis of 400+ news publishers shows Discover's share of Google traffic rising from 37.03% in 2023 to 67.51% in Q4 2025.
- [Which SERP features sit next to AI Overviews, per Semrush](https://surfil.com/blog/serp-features-alongside-ai-overviews-semrush.md): Semrush's refreshed study: Related searches (95.32%) and People Also Ask (90.03%) almost always appear beside an AI Overview, and ads now reach 25%.
- [Shopping Graph grew from 45 to 60 billion listings in 19 months](https://surfil.com/blog/google-shopping-graph-visual-search-scale.md): Google's own disclosures put the Shopping Graph at 45 billion listings in October 2024, 50 billion in January 2026, and past 60 billion by May 2026.
- [Whitespark's 2026 local ranking factors: what actually moved](https://surfil.com/blog/whitespark-local-ranking-factors-2026.md): Whitespark surveyed 47 local search experts on 187 ranking factors for 2026. Here is the verified top 10 for the local pack and what changed since 2023.
- [Which AI crawlers do news sites block most? CCBot tops 75%](https://surfil.com/blog/news-site-ai-crawler-blocking-by-bot-2026.md): A robots.txt scan of 100 top UK and US news sites finds CCBot blocked by 75%, the most of any AI bot. Google-Extended is the least-blocked training bot.
- [Portent: 1-second e-commerce sites convert 2.5x higher](https://surfil.com/blog/portent-page-speed-conversion-rate-2022.md): Portent's aggregate analysis of 100 million page views across 20 sites found B2C conversion falls from 3.05% at 1 second to 0.67% at 4 seconds.
- [AI Overview trigger rate by query type: comparison queries hit 95%](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-overview-trigger-rate-by-query-type.md): Seer Interactive tracked 49,358 queries and found comparison searches trigger an AI Overview 95.4% of the time, versus 27.3% for single words.
- [Canonical tag adoption, 2025: 68% of desktop pages set one](https://surfil.com/blog/canonical-tag-adoption-web-almanac-2025.md): The 2025 Web Almanac SEO chapter puts rel=canonical on 68% of desktop and 67% of mobile pages, up from 65%, with mismatches under 1%.
- [AI training now drives 52% of crawler requests, Cloudflare says](https://surfil.com/blog/cloudflare-ai-training-crawler-share-2026.md): Cloudflare reports AI training made up 52% of identified crawler requests in June 2026, up from 22% in Spring 2025, with search crawling shrinking.
- [Where desktop Google searches end: Datos Q4 2025 data](https://surfil.com/blog/desktop-search-click-distribution-datos-q4-2025.md): Datos and SparkToro's Q4 2025 clickstream shows 24.5% of US desktop Google searches ended with no click in December, versus 25.1% a year earlier.
- [INP in 2025: 77% of mobile sites pass, but the top 1,000 lag at 63%](https://surfil.com/blog/inp-good-scores-by-site-rank-2025.md): The 2025 Web Almanac's INP data: 77% of mobile sites have good INP, popular sites trail at 63%, and mobile home pages beat inner pages 80% to 69%.
- [llms.txt fetch counts: what AI crawlers requested on 83 sites](https://surfil.com/blog/llms-txt-fetch-counts-by-ai-crawler.md): EZY Research's 12-week server-log panel shows OpenAI and Anthropic crawlers fetching llms.txt in single digits while pulling robots.txt thousands of times.
- [How much AI Overview citations overlap with the top 10](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-overview-citation-source-overlap.md): BrightEdge's tracking: only 17% of AI Overview citations also rank in the organic top 10, a figure flat for months, with wide swings by industry.
- [AI referral traffic to publishers doubled in a year, Similarweb finds](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-referral-traffic-by-industry-2026.md): Similarweb measured 770.7 million monthly AI referral visits worldwide, up 117.4% year over year, led by marketplaces and news.
- [Core Web Vitals by CMS, 2025: Duda and Wix lead, WordPress lags](https://surfil.com/blog/core-web-vitals-by-cms-platform-2025.md): The 2025 Web Almanac's CMS chapter breaks Core Web Vitals pass rates down by platform: Duda at 85%, Wix up from 55% to 74%, WordPress at 45%.
- [WebSite leads schema.org type adoption at 12.73% of mobile pages](https://surfil.com/blog/schema-org-type-adoption-web-almanac-2024.md): The 2024 Web Almanac breaks JSON-LD down by schema.org type: WebSite tops out at 12.73% of mobile pages, Organization at 7.16%, Product at just 0.77%.
- [Google SERP volatility by category, mid-September 2026](https://surfil.com/blog/serp-volatility-by-category-september-2026.md): Semrush Sensor's live index reads 2.1 out of 10 for mid-September 2026, but News and Finance run far hotter than Science or Health.
- [How many confirmed Google updates ship a year, 2015 to 2026](https://surfil.com/blog/confirmed-update-frequency-2015-2026.md): 85 confirmed major Google updates since 2015, counted year by year, next to Google's own figure for total changes, and why the two must stay separate.
- [Every confirmed Google ranking update since August 2025](https://surfil.com/blog/google-ranking-updates-2026.md): Eight confirmed updates, with Google's own start dates and rollout durations, and what the pattern says about when to judge a decline in your data.
- [Why four 2026 'ChatGPT market share' numbers do not agree](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-chatbot-market-share-trackers-compared.md): StatCounter, Similarweb, Sensor Tower and OpenAI itself all published a 2026 ChatGPT usage figure. None of the four is measuring the same thing.
- [How Google's scaled-content spam enforcement moved through 2026](https://surfil.com/blog/spam-policy-enforcement-2026.md): From the May 2026 spam-policy revision to the August spam update, tracing enforcement against mass-produced, low-value content across 2026.
- [How five llms.txt trackers reported five different adoption rates](https://surfil.com/blog/llms-txt-adoption-tracker-comparison.md): Five independent trackers measured llms.txt adoption since late 2025 and reported 7.4% to 28%, because none counted the same thing.
- [AI Overview traffic decline: seven claims, four hold up](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-overview-traffic-decline-estimates-compared.md): Studies put the AI Overview traffic hit from 24% to 80%. We traced seven quoted figures to source; four hold up, and they measure different things.
- [AI citation rate by content format: what checks out](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-citation-rate-by-content-format.md): Six precise stats on AI citation rates by content format circulate online. Two trace to real studies, one to a paper. Three fail verification.
- [How three CTR trackers reported three different position-1 rates](https://surfil.com/blog/organic-ctr-by-position-2026.md): Three trackers measured 2026 organic CTR by position and reported position 1 anywhere from 27.6% to 39.8%, because none used the same method.
- [How often AI Overviews actually appear, January 2025 to April 2026](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-overviews-serp-prevalence-2026.md): Semrush's own tracking: 6.49% of keywords in January 2025, a July peak near 24.61%, then 15.69% in November - the real trend, not a snapshot.
- [Mobile-first indexing, from 2016 test to 2023 completion](https://surfil.com/blog/mobile-first-indexing-completion-status.md): Tracing Google's mobile-first indexing announcements from 2016 to the 2023 completion notice, and its documentation on mobile-desktop content parity.
- [AI crawler block rate: how often a 403 actually stops the bot](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-crawler-blocking-rate-trend-2026.md): Cloudflare network data: 7.9% of AI crawler requests got a 403 in H1 2026, and crawler 4xx rates tripled in a year, unlike robots.txt rule counts.
- [What Google's own Discover documentation actually says](https://surfil.com/blog/discover-technical-eligibility-requirements.md): Google's Discover eligibility page sets an exact image-size floor and a named list of content policies. Here is what it says, word for word.
- [What Google has actually said about Google Lens search volume](https://surfil.com/blog/google-lens-visual-search-growth.md): Google's own dated numbers: 12 billion Lens searches a month in June 2023, nearly 20 billion by October 2024 - and why the 22%/26% claims don't check out.
- [How much link equity does a 301 redirect actually pass?](https://surfil.com/blog/redirect-link-equity-retention-estimates.md): Google has never published a percentage for how much link equity a 301 redirect passes. The 90-99% figure in circulation comes from somewhere else.
- [How often Google rewrites a meta description: three studies compared](https://surfil.com/blog/meta-description-rewrite-rate-compared.md): Portent, Ahrefs and Search Engine Journal put Google's meta description rewrite rate at 71%, 62.78% and over 70% in 2020. Only two are real studies.
- [The page experience update: the real 2021-2022 rollout timeline](https://surfil.com/blog/page-experience-update-timeline.md): Google's own dated posts trace the page experience rollout from 2020 to its 2022 desktop finish, and what the 2026 docs now drop.
- [AMP's traffic record: five publishers, five different outcomes](https://surfil.com/blog/amp-traffic-impact-cases-compared.md): Independent.ie gained 55% mobile traffic on AMP. Kinsta lost 59% of its leads. Here is what really happened across five documented, named case studies.
- [Schema.org's vocabulary hit 823 types with version 30.0 in 2026](https://surfil.com/blog/schema-org-vocabulary-growth-2026.md): Schema.org's own release notes put the vocabulary at 823 types and 1,529 properties as of version 30.0, alongside a new Google-backed usage dataset.
- [Google's review-fraud scale, and its April 2026 policy tightening](https://surfil.com/blog/google-review-fraud-enforcement-scale.md): Google's own Maps blog states 2025 review-fraud enforcement scale, and its April 2026 update bans staff review quotas and naming employees in reviews.
- [Penske Media v. Google: the antitrust timeline so far](https://surfil.com/blog/penske-media-google-antitrust-timeline.md): Penske Media sued Google over AI Overviews in 2025. The dated record: the complaint, Google's dismissal motion, Penske's opposition, and an EU complaint.

## Research

- [Structured Data Markup Helper: is Google's tool still available?](https://surfil.com/blog/google-structured-data-markup-helper.md): What Google's Structured Data Markup Helper does, whether it still works, and what Google recommends for writing and testing structured data.
- [Ahrefs 600,000-page study: AI content and Google rankings](https://surfil.com/blog/ahrefs-600k-pages-ai-content-ranking-correlation.md): Ahrefs checked the top 20 Google results for 100,000 keywords with its AI detector and found almost no link between AI share and ranking position.
- [Title tags, H1s and content grade: what Backlinko found](https://surfil.com/blog/backlinko-title-h1-clearscope-ranking-correlation.md): Backlinko's 11.8M-result study found exact-match titles and H1s common on page one but unrelated to rank, while Clearscope content grade tracked position.
- [Does Google use Analytics bounce rate to rank pages?](https://surfil.com/blog/google-analytics-bounce-rate-not-ranking-signal.md): John Mueller said on record that Google does not use Analytics bounce rate for ranking. What that statement covers, and what it leaves open.
- [Mobile vs desktop parity in the 2024 Web Almanac SEO chapter](https://surfil.com/blog/mobile-desktop-parity-web-almanac-2024-seo.md): HTTP Archive's 2024 Web Almanac SEO chapter compared mobile and desktop crawls. Titles, canonicals and word counts nearly match; a few gaps remain.
- [Subdomain vs subfolder: what Ahrefs found in Mention.com](https://surfil.com/blog/subdomain-vs-subfolder-mention-com-ahrefs-case-study.md): Ahrefs checked Mention.com's January 2016 move from subdomain to subfolder in Site Explorer. Traffic shifted, and only new content produced growth.
- [Did sites recover after the HCU? Amsive's 400-site tracking](https://surfil.com/blog/hcu-recovery-amsive-400-site-sistrix-tracking.md): Amsive tracked about 400 sites hit by the September 2023 Helpful Content Update and found no known significant recoveries by late March 2024.
- [Does adding JSON-LD schema raise AI citations? Ahrefs test](https://surfil.com/blog/json-ld-schema-ai-citations-ahrefs-1885-pages.md): Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD against matched controls. Here is the method, the citation changes by platform and the limits.
- [HTTPS adoption in the 2025 Web Almanac: 97% of homepages](https://surfil.com/blog/https-adoption-web-almanac-2025-httparchive.md): HTTP Archive's 2025 Web Almanac measured HTTPS on 97.3% of mobile homepages and 98.8% of requests. What the crawl method can and cannot show.
- [How old are the pages that rank in Google's top 10?](https://surfil.com/blog/page-age-top-ranking-pages-ahrefs-study.md): Ahrefs checked the age of top 10 pages for 1.3 million US keywords: 72.9 percent are over three years old, and the average number one page is five.
- [URL length and rankings: what the Backlinko study found](https://surfil.com/blog/url-length-ranking-correlation-backlinko-11-8m.md): Backlinko's 11.8M-result study found shorter URLs correlate with slightly better Google rankings. Here is the method, the numbers and the limits.
- [Does anchor text type actually correlate with Google rankings?](https://surfil.com/blog/anchor-text-type-ranking-correlation-ahrefs-study.md): Ahrefs' 384,614-page study isolated exact, phrase, partial and random-match anchor text and found every correlation with rank was weak.
- [Page weight and rankings: what the Backlinko study actually found](https://surfil.com/blog/page-weight-byte-size-ranking-correlation-backlinko.md): Backlinko and Ahrefs analyzed 11.8 million search results and found no correlation between page HTML size and Google rankings.
- [A year of SearchPilot split tests on adding FAQ schema](https://surfil.com/blog/faq-schema-uplift-searchpilot.md): SearchPilot's aggregate split tests found FAQ schema was positive 67% of the time, with organic traffic uplifts of 4-15% while the rich result existed.
- [Does faster backlink growth move rankings faster?](https://surfil.com/blog/backlink-velocity-ranking-movement-ahrefs-study.md): Ahrefs tracked backlink growth for 200,000 pages across 10,000 keywords and found no observable link between acquisition pace and ranking movement.
- [What correlates with AI brand mentions? Ahrefs' 75,000-brand study](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-brand-visibility-factors-ahrefs-75k-brands.md): Ahrefs correlated 12 metrics with brand mentions in ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overviews: web mentions beat backlinks, and it warns of no causation.
- [How accurate are sitemap lastmod values? Bing's study](https://surfil.com/blog/bing-sitemap-lastmod-accuracy-study.md): Bing's study found 18% of sitemaps with lastmod set it wrongly, usually to the generation date, and Google says it uses only accurate ones.
- [How you chunk a page changes whether AI retrieves it at all](https://surfil.com/blog/chunking-strategy-rag-retrieval-accuracy-study.md): A 36-method academic benchmark found paragraph-based chunking nearly doubles retrieval accuracy over naive fixed-size splitting across six domains.
- [Do AI assistants cite fresher content than Google? Ahrefs data](https://surfil.com/blog/content-freshness-ai-citations-ahrefs-study.md): Ahrefs compared the age of 16.975 million URLs cited by AI assistants against organic Google results. Here is the method, the numbers and the limits.
- [Reddit's top-3 share after the May 2026 core update](https://surfil.com/blog/reddit-top-3-share-se-ranking-core-update-study.md): SE Ranking tracked 100,000 keywords in 20 niches and measured Reddit's share of Google's top three results. This piece reviews its method and limits.
- [Sistrix CTR study: how SERP layout changes position-1 clicks](https://surfil.com/blog/sistrix-ctr-serp-layout-study.md): Sistrix analyzed 80 million keywords and found position 1 averages 28.5% CTR, ranging from 13.7% to 46.9% depending on the SERP layout.
- [A randomized field experiment on AI Overviews and organic clicks](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-overview-ctr-field-experiment.md): A randomized Chrome-extension experiment hid AI Overviews for 1,065 searchers. This piece analyzes Agarwal and Sen's SSRN study of the CTR impact.
- [What happened when someone actually A/B tested author bylines](https://surfil.com/blog/author-byline-eeat-searchpilot-ab-test.md): SearchPilot ran a real controlled SEO split test on author bylines and bios. Result: no detectable ranking gain, and possibly a small loss.
- [SearchPilot test: a redirect over a canonical, inconclusive](https://surfil.com/blog/canonical-vs-redirect-duplicate-signal-searchpilot-test.md): A SearchPilot split test added 301 redirects atop an existing canonical tag for trailing-slash duplicates. The result stayed inconclusive.
- [What a 10M-page site shows about links and crawl budget](https://surfil.com/blog/internal-linking-crawl-budget-botify-case-study.md): Botify's case study of a US auto marketplace: 99% of pages uncrawled, then 19x more crawl activity after linking, robots.txt and sitemap fixes.
- [Why title rewrite rate studies disagree: 33% vs 61% vs 76%](https://surfil.com/blog/title-tag-rewrite-definitions-compared.md): Ahrefs found a 33.4% title rewrite rate, far below Zyppy's 61.6% and Search Engine Land's 76%. The gap traces to how each study defines a match.
- [Who blocks AI crawlers: 60 robots.txt files, read in full](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-crawler-policies-news-sites.md): We read the robots.txt of 60 publishers and SEO vendors. News sites block AI crawlers almost universally. The SEO industry does not.
- [Site reputation abuse: what the evidence actually shows](https://surfil.com/blog/site-reputation-abuse-what-is-actually-measured.md): Google has enforced its site reputation abuse policy since May 2024. Here is what is documented versus what is anecdotal case tracking.
- [Do internal links still track with Google Search traffic in 2026?](https://surfil.com/blog/internal-linking-crawl-depth-zyppy-study.md): Zyppy's 23-million-link study and Google's own crawling documentation show why pages with few internal links struggle to get discovered and clicked.
- [Review and AggregateRating schema: Google's real required fields](https://surfil.com/blog/review-aggregaterating-schema-requirements.md): Google's own review-snippet documentation names exact required properties and abuse rules. Markup that passes a property check can still break the rules.
- [Pagination and infinite scroll: what Google actually indexes in 2026](https://surfil.com/blog/pagination-infinite-scroll-indexing.md): rel=next/prev has been dead as an indexing signal since 2019, per Google's own words. Infinite scroll without real URLs is the same mistake in new clothes.
- [Do backlinks still correlate with rankings in 2026?](https://surfil.com/blog/backlinks-ranking-correlation-2026.md): Backlinko's 11.8M-result study and Ahrefs' 1M-keyword study both find a positive link between referring domains and rank, but the coefficient is weak.
- [AI citation hallucination rates: what three real studies found](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-citation-hallucination-rates.md): GPTZero, the Tow Center and a Cureus study each measured AI citation hallucination differently, and none of their numbers agree with each other.
- [Hreflang error rates: what's actually sourced, and what isn't](https://surfil.com/blog/hreflang-error-prevalence-2026.md): Two widely repeated hreflang error statistics do not trace to any real source. Here is what could be verified instead, from Google's own documentation.
- [What academic research actually says about AI citation factors](https://surfil.com/blog/geo-citation-factors-academic-studies.md): Three 2026 studies measured what predicts citation by AI search engines. Position and relevance win; most citations skip brand domains entirely.
- [Noindex does not save crawl budget, per Google's own documentation](https://surfil.com/blog/noindex-crawl-budget-reality.md): A common crawl-budget fix is backwards. Google's own documentation says noindex still costs a full request before the page gets dropped from the index.
- [NavBoost: what the DOJ trial and the API leak actually confirmed](https://surfil.com/blog/navboost-doj-trial-click-signals.md): Court testimony and a leaked Google document, read together, describe a click-based ranking system Google spent years declining to confirm in public.
- [VideoObject schema: the required properties Google actually documents](https://surfil.com/blog/videoobject-schema-required-properties.md): Google documents three required VideoObject properties, not the four often claimed, plus exact date and duration formats and a rich-result caveat.
- [Core Web Vitals and rankings: what the correlation shows](https://surfil.com/blog/core-web-vitals-ranking-correlation-2026.md): CrUX data and a 20,000-URL ranking study both show a link between Core Web Vitals and rank, but Google's own docs put content relevance first.
- [Googlebot's two-wave rendering: how long JS content actually waits](https://surfil.com/blog/javascript-rendering-googlebot-delay.md): A 2024 Vercel and MERJ study measured the real gap between crawl and render at scale. The median was seconds; the tail stretched to a full day.
- [E-E-A-T and author schema: what is actually verifiable](https://surfil.com/blog/author-schema-eeat-what-is-verifiable.md): SEO content repeats precise E-E-A-T ranking-weight percentages. We checked the two most-cited figures against their sources and Google's own documentation.
- [Does content length correlate with rankings and AI citations?](https://surfil.com/blog/content-length-ranking-citation-correlation.md): Ahrefs' December 2025 study puts the word count to AI Overview citation correlation at 0.04. Backlinko's 11.8M-result study finds no ranking edge either.
- [What Google actually names in its own ranking systems guide](https://surfil.com/blog/google-ranking-systems-documented.md): Google publishes a real, maintained list of the named systems behind Search ranking. Read directly, not summarized secondhand.
- [Local ranking factor percentages: what's real, what's not](https://surfil.com/blog/local-seo-ranking-factors-verifiable.md): A specific local ranking percentage breakdown circulates widely. It doesn't match Whitespark's real 2026 chart, and Google names no percentages at all.
- [x-default's real history: what Google has actually said, on record](https://surfil.com/blog/hreflang-x-default-google-statements.md): x-default has been explained by Google at least three times since 2013. Here is the real, dated wording each time, and what current documentation says.
- [HTTPS as a Google ranking signal in 2026](https://surfil.com/blog/https-ranking-signal-2026.md): Google called HTTPS a very lightweight ranking signal in 2014 and has never revised that number. Adoption data now shows why it barely needs to.
- [Featured snippet stats: which numbers are real, and which aren't](https://surfil.com/blog/featured-snippets-what-is-verifiable.md): Featured snippet prevalence and CTR figures vary by nearly 2x across sources. Here is which trace to a real, dated study, and which don't trace anywhere.
- [Article schema has no required properties, only recommended ones](https://surfil.com/blog/article-schema-no-required-properties.md): Google's own Article structured data documentation names zero required properties, only recommended ones, which changes how schema work gets prioritized.

## Studies

- [SearchPilot: brand links on PDPs lift PLP traffic by 18%](https://surfil.com/blog/pdp-brand-link-plp-traffic-searchpilot.md): SearchPilot split-tested turning unlinked brand text on product detail pages into links to brand category pages, finding an 18% uplift in organic traffic.
- [SearchPilot: adding 'The Best' to title tags lifted traffic 10%](https://surfil.com/blog/the-best-title-tag-ab-test-searchpilot.md): SearchPilot split-tested putting 'The Best' at the start of an editorial site's title tags. The variant pages gained 10% more organic traffic.
- [Backlinko content relaunch: one post, organic traffic up 260.7%](https://surfil.com/blog/backlinko-content-relaunch-white-hat-seo-case-study.md): Brian Dean reports a 14-day content relaunch of Backlinko's White Hat SEO post: organic traffic up 260.7% and the target keyword from 7th to 4th.
- [BODYBAR Pilates: unique studio pages lifted organic sessions 116%](https://surfil.com/blog/multi-location-studio-pages-bodybar-oneupweb.md): Oneupweb rewrote 17 duplicate franchise studio pages for BODYBAR Pilates. Organic sessions rose 115.9% and conversions 198.1% year over year.
- [NFON merged its country domains into one gTLD, and Austria grew](https://surfil.com/blog/nfon-cctld-consolidation-international-gtld-searchviu.md): searchviu's client case: NFON merged nfon.at into nfon.com/at/ and saw Austrian organic traffic up 90% in five months, with a Germany dip.
- [Brafton's accidental sitewide noindex: a six-week recovery](https://surfil.com/blog/noindex-deploy-brafton-recovery-case-study.md): A sprint pushed noindex onto every Brafton page in August 2019. Search traffic fell 33.2% at the peak and took six weeks to return to baseline.
- [Rootly's AI citation rate rose from 3% to 30% in AthenaHQ case](https://surfil.com/blog/rootly-athenahq-ai-citation-rate-case-study.md): AthenaHQ says Rootly's citation rate across tracked AI prompts rose from 3% to 30%. Here is what it reports, and what a vendor case cannot prove.
- [Digital PR case: 12 links, 143k visits in 6 weeks, per OneLittleWeb](https://surfil.com/blog/digital-pr-canada-affordability-study-onelittleweb.md): OneLittleWeb reports a six-week Canadian digital PR campaign earned a finance blog 12+ editorial links and 143k+ new organic visits. What the case shows.
- [Product schema on a B2B store: +111% clicks, per Simplified Search](https://surfil.com/blog/product-schema-b2b-ecommerce-impressions-clicks-simplified-search.md): Simplified Search reports Product markup on one unnamed B2B ecommerce site lifted impressions 119% and clicks 111%, with no control group.
- [One publisher's Discover-driven traffic and revenue, per Adsterra](https://surfil.com/blog/discover-traffic-independent-publisher-adsterra-case.md): Adsterra's case study of an independent Indian publisher: 8.45 million impressions, 703,948 clicks and $6,976.06 in revenue, about 95% from Discover.
- [On reports +67% Google traffic after prerendering its JavaScript site](https://surfil.com/blog/on-prerender-javascript-rendering-traffic-case-study.md): On's Prerender.io case study reports +67% Google traffic and +98% Bing traffic after prerendering a JavaScript front end instead of building SSR.
- [Pillar pages lifted an agency's organic traffic 744% in 13 months](https://surfil.com/blog/topic-cluster-pillar-pages-campaign-creators-case.md): Campaign Creators reorganized six years of blog posts into three pillar pages and reports organic visits rising from 1,091 to 9,214.
- [Italiaonline: 841% video click growth after schema fixes](https://surfil.com/blog/italiaonline-video-seo-schema-case-study.md): Google's case study on Italiaonline reports an 841% rise in video clicks and 353% more impressions after fixing VideoObject structured data errors.
- [Silly Santa's 7-country hreflang rollout: a Skalum case study](https://surfil.com/blog/sillysanta-hreflang-cctld-expansion.md): Skalum's case study on Shopify brand Silly Santa: hreflang across 7 ccTLDs, with UK organic users up 297.5% and Norway's local traffic share up to 93%.
- [Valery Real Estate: 324,580 404s, then a 1,379% traffic recovery](https://surfil.com/blog/valery-real-estate-404-redirect-recovery.md): Croton Content's audit found 324,580 broken URLs after a rebrand with no redirects. Fixing them took weekly organic sessions from 974 to a 12,276 peak.
- [REI cut 34 million URLs down to 300,000](https://surfil.com/blog/rei-faceted-navigation-crawl-budget-botify.md): REI's technical SEO team told Botify's Crawl2Convert summit how it cut its site from 34 million URLs to 300,000, including faceted navigation.
- [GBP overhaul at an auto detailer: calls up 471% year on year](https://surfil.com/blog/gbp-auto-detailing-471-percent-calls-case-study.md): A Map Ranking case study on CDC Detailing LLC in Pitman, NJ: Google Business Profile calls rose from 21 to 120 a month, March 2026 against March 2025.
- [Merchant Center feed fixes and three click gains, per Uproer](https://surfil.com/blog/google-merchant-center-feed-optimization-uproer.md): Uproer's published case study reports feed-level Google Merchant Center changes lifted clicks 130%, 116% and 3,500 for three unnamed ecommerce brands.
- [JunkCarsUs: HCU recovery from 30-50 to 400-500 clicks a day](https://surfil.com/blog/hcu-recovery-junkcarsus-seoprofy-case.md): SeoProfy's case study on JunkCarsUs: after the September 2023 HCU, pruning pages and rewriting templates preceded a rise to 400-500 daily clicks.
- [Log analysis cut a jewelry site from 16M to 730K crawlable pages](https://surfil.com/blog/jetoctopus-log-analysis-parameter-crawl-waste-case-study.md): A JetOctopus case study: log files showed Googlebot spending crawl on filter, sort and pagination URLs, and closing them shrank the site to 730K pages.
- [Nuvemshop lifted good LCP from 57% to 96% by fixing image loading](https://surfil.com/blog/nuvemshop-lcp-image-priority-case-study.md): Nuvemshop's web.dev case study: removing lazy loading on top images and adding fetchpriority took good LCP from 57% to 96% across its stores.
- [Programmatic SEO case: 100 pages, 398% traffic, per Suso Digital](https://surfil.com/blog/programmatic-seo-saas-100-pages-suso-digital.md): Suso Digital reports a software supply chain client grew organic traffic 398.49% in 18 months from about 100 template pages. What the case shows.
- [CoinStats: Good URLs and impressions up 3x](https://surfil.com/blog/coinstats-core-web-vitals-organic-traffic.md): DebugBear's case study: CoinStats updated about 15,000 pages and moved off Base64 images; it reports Good URLs and their impressions up 3x.
- [Home Science Tools: pruning 200 blog pages, organic sessions up 104%](https://surfil.com/blog/homescience-tools-content-pruning-case-study.md): Inflow's case study on HomeScienceTools.com: removing roughly 200 low-value blog pages preceded a 104% rise in sessions and 102% rise in transactions.
- [IFTTT's internal linking fix and its 33% YoY traffic gain](https://surfil.com/blog/ifttt-internal-linking-traffic-case-uproer.md): Uproer's case study on IFTTT: searchbots reached only 59 pages via internal links until a fix, after which the site saw 33% YoY organic traffic growth.
- [Marshfield Clinic: 454% CTR gain from schema markup](https://surfil.com/blog/marshfield-clinic-schema-markup-ctr-case-study.md): Schema App's customer story on Marshfield Clinic reports a 454% CTR increase when a Review Snippet was awarded, plus 32% from entity linking.
- [Simms Fishing's Magento to Shopify migration: the real numbers](https://surfil.com/blog/simms-fishing-magento-shopify-migration.md): Inflow's case study: Simms Fishing saw organic traffic up 126% YoY and non-brand category traffic up 5,642% after a Magento to Shopify move.
- [llms.txt is a vendor standard, not a publisher one](https://surfil.com/blog/llms-txt-adoption-2026.md): Only 14 of 60 major sites serve an llms.txt. Half of them sell SEO or hosting software. One is a news publisher. The file has an audience problem.
- [How often Google rewrites a title tag: 61.6% to 76%](https://surfil.com/blog/title-tag-rewrite-rate-study.md): Two independent studies measured how often Google rewrites a title tag rather than using it as written: 61.6% in 2022, 76% by 2025.
- [SearchPilot: removing a breadcrumb link cut organic traffic 5.5%](https://surfil.com/blog/breadcrumb-link-removal-ab-test-searchpilot.md): SearchPilot split-tested removing a self-referential breadcrumb link on PLPs. Traffic fell 5.5%, likely from a schema markup mismatch left behind.
- [Does llms.txt do anything? Three studies say mostly no](https://surfil.com/blog/llms-txt-measured-traffic-impact.md): 97% of published llms.txt files get zero requests. A 10-site traffic test found no effect in 8 cases. The one positive figure has its own confound.
- [SearchPilot: canonicalizing to a variant lifted variant traffic 22%](https://surfil.com/blog/canonical-product-variant-ab-test-searchpilot.md): SearchPilot canonicalized product pages to a variant's URL instead of self-referencing. Variant pages gained 22%; main pages stayed inconclusive.
- [DOM.RIA's internal linking rebuild and its Googlebot crawl visits](https://surfil.com/blog/internal-linking-crawl-coverage-case.md): JetOctopus's case study on real estate site DOM.RIA, reworking links to poorly-crawled directory pages more than doubled Googlebot visits.
- [AI citation patterns shift sharply by search intent, Wix data shows](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-citation-by-search-intent-wix.md): Wix Studio's AI Search Lab found articles win informational queries 2.7x more, and listicles and product pages win commercial and transactional ones.
- [Three named companies with real, checkable traffic declines](https://surfil.com/blog/named-publisher-traffic-declines.md): Chegg, Business Insider and HubSpot all show real, checkable declines. A widely repeated CNN figure does not survive a source check.
- [How long domain migrations take to recover organic traffic](https://surfil.com/blog/domain-migration-recovery-time.md): A 892-migration study found the average new domain took 523 days to match the old domain's organic traffic, and 17% never did within 1,000 days.
- [Google's own data: Rakuten and Vodafone Core Web Vitals A/B tests](https://surfil.com/blog/rakuten-vodafone-core-web-vitals-case-studies.md): Google's web.dev logged two named A/B tests: Rakuten 24 saw 53.37% more revenue per visitor, Vodafone saw 8% more sales after a 31% LCP gain.
- [SearchPilot: promoting an H2 to H1 lifted organic traffic 4.5%](https://surfil.com/blog/h2-to-h1-ab-test-searchpilot.md): SearchPilot split-tested changing a travel site's top heading from an H2 to an H1. The change produced a statistically significant 4.5% traffic increase.
- [JSON-LD structured data adoption grew from 34% to 41% of pages](https://surfil.com/blog/structured-data-adoption-web-almanac.md): HTTP Archive's Web Almanac found JSON-LD on 41% of pages in 2024, up from 34% in 2022, while RDFa and Open Graph stayed the most common formats.
- [One publisher's Google Discover traffic loss and recovery](https://surfil.com/blog/discover-traffic-recovery-case.md): A consultant's self-reported case: a client site's Discover impressions hit zero for weeks, then recovered after a quality fix. One case, not a study.
- [Deloitte: 0.1s faster mobile speed lifted retail conversion 8.4%](https://surfil.com/blog/page-speed-conversion-rate-impact.md): Deloitte's 2019 study of 37 brand sites found a 0.1s mobile speed gain lifted retail conversion 8.4%. Shopify data adds a 100ms benchmark.
- [Ahrefs: AI Overviews cut position-1 CTR by 58%](https://surfil.com/blog/ai-overviews-click-through-rate-decline.md): Ahrefs analyzed 300,000 keywords via Google Search Console and found AI Overviews now cut position-1 desktop CTR by 58%, up from 34.5% in April 2025.
- [SearchPilot: FAQ content lifted traffic, FAQ schema did not](https://surfil.com/blog/faq-content-ab-test-searchpilot.md): SearchPilot split-tested FAQ content and FAQ schema. Content added 9.7% more organic clicks; removing schema alone changed nothing.
- [Zero-click Google searches hit 68% in the US](https://surfil.com/blog/zero-click-search-2026.md): SparkToro and Similarweb's June 2026 report puts US Google zero-click search at 68.01%, up from 60.45% in 2024.
- [Mobile vs desktop Core Web Vitals: INP gap widest, CLS flips](https://surfil.com/blog/mobile-desktop-cwv-pass-rate-gap.md): HTTP Archive's July 2025 data broken down by metric: INP splits mobile and desktop by 20 points, LCP by 12, and CLS reverses the pattern entirely.
- [SearchPilot: nearby-region links lifted organic traffic 7%](https://surfil.com/blog/nearby-regions-internal-linking-ab-test-searchpilot.md): SearchPilot split-tested linking each of 8,000 regional pages to its 6 nearest neighbors. Linked pages saw a 7% organic traffic uplift over controls.
- [Google's own numbers: structured data lifted CTR 25-82%](https://surfil.com/blog/structured-data-ctr-google-case-studies.md): Google's own documentation reports Rotten Tomatoes at 25% higher CTR and Nestle at 82% higher CTR from structured data. Here is what each figure measures.
- [SearchPilot: breadcrumb placement has no impact on SEO](https://surfil.com/blog/breadcrumb-placement-top-bottom-ab-test-searchpilot.md): SearchPilot split-tested moving breadcrumbs to the top and bottom of listing pages. Both tests were inconclusive, showing placement does not alter rank.
- [SearchPilot: capitalizing title tags lifts traffic by 17.5%](https://surfil.com/blog/capitalizing-title-tags-ab-test-searchpilot.md): SearchPilot split-tested full and partial capitalization in title tags on listing pages, finding a 17.5% organic uplift led by mobile search gains.

## Tools

- [AI crawler robots.txt checker for GPTBot, ClaudeBot and more](https://surfil.com/tools/ai-crawler-robots-txt-checker.md): Paste a robots.txt to see which AI crawlers it blocks: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot and more. Free, runs in your browser.
- [RSS feed validator: check RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds](https://surfil.com/tools/rss-feed-validator.md): RSS feed validator: paste feed XML to check RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 for parse errors, required elements, dates, guids, enclosures and URLs. Runs in-browser.
- [UTM link builder](https://surfil.com/tools/utm-link-builder.md): UTM link builder: add utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign to any URL, keep its query string and fragment, and copy the link. Free, in your browser.
- [AggregateRating schema checker for review snippets](https://surfil.com/tools/aggregaterating-review-snippet-checker.md): AggregateRating schema checker: test JSON-LD against Google review snippet rules for ratingValue, counts, scale and item type. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Google algorithm update checker: overlay updates on your traffic](https://surfil.com/tools/google-algorithm-update-checker.md): Upload your Search Console clicks and see every Google-confirmed update on the same chart, with a week-before and week-after comparison for each. Free.
- [humans.txt generator](https://surfil.com/tools/humans-txt-generator.md): humans.txt generator: build a humans.txt file with TEAM, THANKS and SITE sections from the humanstxt.org template. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Organization logo structured data generator](https://surfil.com/tools/organization-logo-schema-generator.md): Logo structured data generator: build Organization JSON-LD with logo, url, name and sameAs, and check Google's logo rules. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Reading age calculator: Flesch-Kincaid grade level](https://surfil.com/tools/reading-age-calculator.md): Reading age calculator: get the Flesch-Kincaid grade level of your text, the reading age it implies and its longest sentences. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Course schema validator for Google course lists](https://surfil.com/tools/course-schema-required-fields-checker.md): Course schema validator: paste Course JSON-LD and check name, description, provider and the 60 character display limit. Free, runs in your browser.
- [FAQ schema validator for FAQPage JSON-LD](https://surfil.com/tools/faqpage-schema-required-fields-checker.md): FAQ schema validator: check FAQPage JSON-LD so every Question has a name and acceptedAnswer text. Notes Google's FAQ rich result removal. Free, in-browser.
- [LocalBusiness schema checker for required fields](https://surfil.com/tools/localbusiness-schema-required-fields-checker.md): LocalBusiness schema checker: tests JSON-LD for name, address, geo precision, priceRange and hours against Google's docs. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Sitemap lastmod checker: W3C Datetime format audit](https://surfil.com/tools/sitemap-lastmod-format-auditor.md): Sitemap lastmod checker: audit every lastmod in an XML sitemap against W3C Datetime and flag future and identical dates. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Video schema validator: VideoObject required fields](https://surfil.com/tools/video-object-schema-required-fields-checker.md): Video schema validator: check VideoObject JSON-LD for Google's required and recommended properties, ISO 8601 dates and durations. Free, in your browser.
- [Image lazy loading and width/height checker](https://surfil.com/tools/image-loading-attributes-checker.md): Image lazy loading checker: paste HTML to test every img tag for width and height, lazy loading on the likely LCP image. Free, runs in your browser.
- [X-Robots-Tag header checker and validator](https://surfil.com/tools/x-robots-tag-header-validator.md): X-Robots-Tag header checker: validate rules, user-agent prefixes, max-snippet and preview values, dates and conflicts. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Event schema validator for required fields and dates](https://surfil.com/tools/event-schema-required-fields-checker.md): Event schema validator: check Event JSON-LD for Google's required fields, UTC offsets, eventStatus and priceCurrency. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Product schema checker for product snippets](https://surfil.com/tools/product-snippet-schema-checker.md): Product schema checker: test Product JSON-LD against Google product snippet rules for name, offers, price, currency and stock. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Recipe schema checker for required and recommended fields](https://surfil.com/tools/recipe-schema-required-fields-checker.md): Recipe schema checker: test Recipe JSON-LD for the required name and image, the calories and yield rule and ISO 8601 times. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Noindex, canonical and sitemap conflict checker](https://surfil.com/tools/noindex-canonical-sitemap-consistency-checker.md): Noindex, canonical and sitemap conflict checker: see where one page's three signals contradict Google's own guidance. Free, runs in your browser.
- [JobPosting schema checker: required and recommended fields](https://surfil.com/tools/jobposting-schema-required-fields-checker.md): JobPosting schema checker: test job posting JSON-LD for Google's 5 required and 7 recommended fields, employmentType, expiry. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Open Graph tag checker for required og properties](https://surfil.com/tools/open-graph-required-field-validator.md): Open Graph tag checker: tests pasted og meta tags for the four required properties, relative URLs, duplicates and og:type. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Meta viewport tag validator for mobile and zoom](https://surfil.com/tools/meta-viewport-tag-validator.md): Meta viewport tag validator: checks the content string for unknown keys, width=device-width and zoom blocking under WCAG 1.4.4. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Canonical chain and loop checker](https://surfil.com/tools/canonical-chain-resolver.md): Canonical chain and loop checker: paste url -> canonical pairs, follow every hop and catch loops and multi-hop chains. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Hreflang XML sitemap generator](https://surfil.com/tools/hreflang-sitemap-xml-generator.md): Hreflang sitemap generator: turn language codes and URLs into sitemap XML with xhtml:link alternates, and check codes and URLs. Free, runs in your browser.
- [HTTP status code lookup for Google crawling](https://surfil.com/tools/http-status-code-crawl-handling-checker.md): HTTP status code lookup: see how Google's crawlers handle each code you paste, plus a redirect hop count against the 10-hop limit. Free, runs in browser.
- [Nofollow link checker: rel sponsored and ugc audit](https://surfil.com/tools/link-rel-attribute-auditor.md): Nofollow link checker for pasted HTML: audits every link's rel against Google's sponsored, ugc and nofollow rules. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Robots meta tag validator with combined Googlebot result](https://surfil.com/tools/robots-directive-validator.md): Robots meta tag validator: check meta robots and X-Robots-Tag rules against Google's list, and catch bad values and conflicts. Free, runs in your browser.
- [URL normalizer: find duplicate URL variants](https://surfil.com/tools/url-normalizer-duplicate-variant-finder.md): URL normalizer: paste a list of URLs, normalize them by RFC 3986 and your site policy, and find duplicate variants of one page. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Faceted navigation URL parameter checker](https://surfil.com/tools/faceted-navigation-parameter-analyzer.md): Faceted navigation URL checker: test a filtered URL's parameters against Google's crawling guidance and get a robots.txt block. Free, runs in your browser.
- [ccTLD vs subdomain vs subdirectory planner for international SEO](https://surfil.com/tools/international-targeting-strategy-planner.md): ccTLD vs subdomain vs subdirectory: rank four international URL structures against Google's documented pros and cons for you. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Meta refresh redirect checker: permanent or temporary](https://surfil.com/tools/meta-refresh-vs-redirect-checker.md): Meta refresh redirect checker: parses the delay and target, then shows whether Google reads it as permanent or temporary. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Pagination canonical tag checker](https://surfil.com/tools/pagination-canonical-conflict-checker.md): Pagination canonical tag checker: catch later pages canonicalized to page 1, repeated URLs and page numbers after a #. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Robots.txt validator: whole-file syntax checker](https://surfil.com/tools/robots-txt-syntax-validator.md): Robots.txt validator: lint every line for syntax errors, unsupported fields, bad paths and relative sitemap URLs. Free, runs in your browser.
- [JSON-LD validator for schema.org structured data](https://surfil.com/tools/json-ld-validator.md): JSON-LD validator: find syntax errors by line and column, then check the fields Google requires for 7 schema types. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Redirect chain checker for hops, loops and mixed codes](https://surfil.com/tools/redirect-chain-analyzer.md): Redirect chain checker: paste the hops you collected and check hop count, loops, mixed 301 and 302 codes and https drops. Free, runs in your browser.
- [AEO checker: AI answer readiness score for articles](https://surfil.com/tools/ai-answer-readiness-checker.md): AEO checker that scores an article's opening answer, headings, ids, lists, citations, schema and date for AI answers. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Image alt text checker](https://surfil.com/tools/image-alt-text-auditor.md): Image alt text checker: paste HTML to find missing, empty, generic and keyword-stuffed alt attributes on every img tag. Free, runs in your browser.
- [robots.txt and llms.txt generator for AI crawlers](https://surfil.com/tools/robots-and-llms-txt-generator.md): robots.txt and llms.txt generator for AI crawlers: allow or block GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended and 11 more by purpose. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Structured data markup helper: JSON-LD schema generator](https://surfil.com/tools/schema-markup-generator.md): Schema markup generator: build JSON-LD for Article, NewsArticle, FAQPage, VideoObject, Organization and BreadcrumbList. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Meta title and description checker with SERP preview](https://surfil.com/tools/serp-snippet-preview.md): Meta title and description checker: measure title and meta description length in pixels and characters with a Google preview. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Breadcrumb schema generator (BreadcrumbList JSON-LD)](https://surfil.com/tools/breadcrumb-schema-generator.md): Breadcrumb schema generator: build BreadcrumbList JSON-LD row by row, with position, name and URL checks from Google's docs. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Redirect map generator: CSV, .htaccess and Nginx](https://surfil.com/tools/redirect-map-builder.md): Redirect map generator for site migrations: map old URLs to new and export CSV, .htaccess Redirect 301 or Nginx rewrite rules. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Core Web Vitals checker for LCP, INP and CLS scores](https://surfil.com/tools/core-web-vitals-checker.md): Core Web Vitals checker: rate LCP, INP and CLS values as Good, Needs improvement or Poor and see if all three pass. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Canonical tag checker for rel=canonical URLs](https://surfil.com/tools/canonical-tag-checker.md): Canonical tag checker: test a page URL and its rel=canonical for absolute URL, HTTPS, self or cross reference, domain and tracking. Free, in your browser.
- [Robots.txt tester: check if a URL is blocked for a bot](https://surfil.com/tools/robots-txt-tester.md): Robots.txt tester: check if a URL path is blocked for Googlebot, GPTBot or any bot, and see the exact rule that decides it. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Sitemap vs robots.txt checker: find blocked sitemap URLs](https://surfil.com/tools/sitemap-robots-conflict-checker.md): Sitemap vs robots.txt checker: find sitemap URLs that a robots.txt Disallow rule blocks for Googlebot or any user-agent. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Flesch reading ease and reading time calculator](https://surfil.com/tools/readability-reading-time-calculator.md): Flesch reading ease calculator with reading time: score pasted text and see its band, word, sentence and syllable counts. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Keyword cannibalization checker for page titles and H1s](https://surfil.com/tools/keyword-cannibalization-checker.md): Keyword cannibalization checker: compare titles or H1s across your pages and flag near-duplicate pairs by word overlap. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Bulk meta title and description length checker](https://surfil.com/tools/bulk-title-meta-checker.md): Bulk meta title and description length checker: paste many pages and see which titles and descriptions truncate, in pixels. Free, runs in your browser.
- [Hreflang tag generator and checker](https://surfil.com/tools/hreflang-tag-generator.md): Hreflang tag generator: build link rel=alternate hreflang tags for localized URLs and check codes, self-references and x-default. Free, runs in browser.

## Algorithm Updates

- [April 2018 core update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/april-2018-core-update.md): Google released a broad core algorithm update on Monday 16 April 2018 and confirmed it on Twitter four days later. It gave no completion date.
- [April 2021 product reviews update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/april-2021-product-reviews-update.md): Google's first product reviews update launched on 8 April 2021 for English reviews and finished on 22 April. What it rewarded and what to do now.
- [April 2023 reviews update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/april-2023-reviews-update.md): Google's April 2023 reviews update ran 13 days from 12 to 25 April 2023 and widened the reviews system beyond products to services and things.
- [August 2018 core update (Medic): dates, what changed, what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/august-2018-core-update.md): Google's August 2018 broad core update was confirmed on 1 August 2018 and complete by 8 August. The industry nicknamed it Medic; Google said it was global.
- [August 2022 helpful content update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/august-2022-helpful-content-update.md): Google's first helpful content update ran 15 days from 25 August to 9 September 2022, adding a site-wide signal against unhelpful content.
- [August 2023 core update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/august-2023-core-update.md): Google's August 2023 core update ran 16 days from 22 August to 7 September 2023, announced on the Search Status Dashboard without a blog post.
- [August 2024 core update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/august-2024-core-update.md): Google's August 2024 core update ran 19 days from 15 August to 3 September 2024 and aimed to reward useful content, including small sites.
- [August 2025 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/august-2025-spam-update.md): Google's August 2025 spam update ran just under 27 days from 26 August to 22 September 2025 and applied globally and to all languages.
- [August 2026 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/august-2026-spam-update.md): Google's August 2026 spam update ran from 18 to 21 August 2026, about three days, globally and in all languages. Dates and what to do.
- [Austin update (2004): what was reported and what it means now](https://surfil.com/updates/austin-update-2004.md): Austin was an unconfirmed Google ranking shake-up first reported on 24 January 2004. Google never confirmed it; WebmasterWorld named it.
- [BERT update (2019): what it changed and what it means now](https://surfil.com/updates/bert-2019.md): Google announced BERT on 25 October 2019. It first helped with 1 in 10 US English searches and by 2020 was used in almost every English query.
- [Big Daddy update (2005): what changed and what it means now](https://surfil.com/updates/big-daddy-update-2005.md): Big Daddy was Google's 2005 to 2006 crawling and indexing upgrade. Matt Cutts named it and said it was fully deployed by 29 March 2006.
- [Bourbon update (2005): what changed and what it means now](https://surfil.com/updates/bourbon-update-2005.md): Bourbon was a staged 2005 Google update that a Google employee described in forum posts as 3.5 improvements in search quality.
- [Domain diversity update (2010): more results from one site](https://surfil.com/updates/brand-update-2010.md): On 20 August 2010 Google began showing more results from a single site when a query signalled strong interest in that domain. What it changed.
- [Caffeine indexing system (2010): what changed and what it means now](https://surfil.com/updates/caffeine-indexing-system-2010.md): Google announced Caffeine complete on 8 June 2010: a new web index Google said gave 50 percent fresher results. It was an indexing change.
- [December 2017 updates (Maccabees): what Google said and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/december-2017-updates.md): Google confirmed several minor search improvements in mid-December 2017, not one update. Search Engine Roundtable nicknamed the changes Maccabees.
- [December 2020 core update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/december-2020-core-update.md): Google's December 2020 core update ran from 3 December to 16 December 2020, seven months after the May 2020 core update.
- [December 2021 product reviews update: dates and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/december-2021-product-reviews-update.md): Google's December 2021 product reviews update ran 20 days, 1 to 21 December 2021, and added two new best practices for review content.
- [December 2022 helpful content update: dates and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/december-2022-helpful-content-update.md): Google's December 2022 helpful content update ran 38 days from 5 December 2022 to 12 January 2023, improved the classifier and covered all languages.
- [December 2022 link spam update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/december-2022-link-spam-update.md): Google's December 2022 link spam update ran 29 days from 14 December 2022 to 12 January 2023 and used SpamBrain to neutralize unnatural links.
- [December 2024 core update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/december-2024-core-update.md): Google's December 2024 core update ran 6 days from 12 to 18 December 2024, a week after the November core update and just before a spam update.
- [December 2024 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/december-2024-spam-update.md): Google's December 2024 spam update ran 7 days from 19 to 26 December 2024, starting the day after the December 2024 core update finished.
- [December 2025 core update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/december-2025-core-update.md): Google's December 2025 core update ran 18 days, from 11 to 29 December 2025. Dates, what Google said, and how to check your own data.
- [Deepfake ranking update (2024): how Google demotes explicit fakes](https://surfil.com/updates/deepfake-ranking-update-2024.md): On 31 July 2024 Google updated its ranking systems to demote explicit non-consensual fake content and sites with many removals for it.
- [Dewey update (2008): what was reported and what it means now](https://surfil.com/updates/dewey-update-2008.md): Dewey was a Google ranking shuffle first reported on 31 March 2008. Google never confirmed a change; the industry named it after a feedback keyword.
- [Exact match domain update (2012): what changed and what applies now](https://surfil.com/updates/exact-match-domain-update-2012.md): Google's exact match domain update of September 2012 reduced low-quality exact-match domains in results, affecting 0.6% of English-US queries.
- [Featured snippet deduplication (2020): what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/featured-snippet-deduplication-2020.md): From 22 January 2020, Google stopped repeating a page in the first page of results once it was shown as the featured snippet.
- [Page experience update for desktop: dates and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/february-2022-page-experience-update-desktop.md): Google's page experience update for desktop ran 9 days, 22 February to 3 March 2022, bringing mobile's page experience signals to desktop ranking.
- [February 2023 product reviews update: dates and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/february-2023-product-reviews-update.md): Google's February 2023 product reviews update ran 14 days from 21 February to 7 March 2023 in 11 languages. Dates, scope and review guidance.
- [February 2026 Discover update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/february-2026-discover-update.md): Google's February 2026 Discover core update ran about 22 days, 5 to 27 February 2026, for English-language users in the US. What changed and what to do.
- [Florida update (2003): what was reported and what it means now](https://surfil.com/updates/florida-update-2003.md): Florida was an unconfirmed Google ranking shake-up first reported on 14 November 2003. Google never confirmed it; the industry named it.
- [Fred update (2017): what Google said and what it means now](https://surfil.com/updates/fred-update-2017.md): Fred is the name attached to a March 2017 Google ranking change. Google acknowledged an update but never detailed it; here is what is on record.
- [Freshness update (2011): what it changed and what it means now](https://surfil.com/updates/freshness-update-2011.md): Google's freshness update of 3 November 2011 changed when recent results rank. Google said it noticeably impacted 6 to 10% of searches.
- [September 2026 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/google-september-2026-spam-update.md): Google's September 2026 spam update ran 13 days and 16 hours, from 24 September to 8 October 2026. The dates, what Google said and what to do.
- [Hawk update (2017): the unconfirmed local filter change](https://surfil.com/updates/hawk-update-2017.md): Hawk is the industry name for a local search change observed on 22 August 2017 that loosened Possum's proximity filter. Google never confirmed it.
- [HTTPS ranking signal (2014): what changed and what applies now](https://surfil.com/updates/https-ranking-signal-2014.md): On 7 August 2014 Google made HTTPS a lightweight ranking signal, affecting fewer than 1% of global queries. What it changed and what applies today.
- [Hummingbird (2013): what Google changed and what it means now](https://surfil.com/updates/hummingbird-2013.md): Hummingbird was Google's rebuilt ranking algorithm of August 2013, revealed on 26 September 2013 and aimed at the meaning of whole queries.
- [Intrusive interstitials update (2017): what changed and what now](https://surfil.com/updates/intrusive-interstitials-update-2017.md): From 10 January 2017, Google said mobile pages whose content is hidden behind intrusive interstitials may not rank as high. Here is what applies today.
- [Jagger update (2005): what changed and what it means now](https://surfil.com/updates/jagger-update-2005.md): Jagger was a three-part Google update from October 2005 that Matt Cutts tracked on his blog. The industry named it; Google asked for spam reports.
- [January 2016 core update: what Google confirmed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/january-2016-core-update.md): Google confirmed on 12 January 2016 that ranking changes seen that weekend were a core algorithm update, not Penguin. It gave the update no name.
- [January 2020 core update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/january-2020-core-update.md): Google's January 2020 core update went live on 13 January 2020. Google said on 16 January it was mostly done, but never gave a finish date.
- [July 2021 core update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/july-2021-core-update.md): Google's July 2021 core update ran from 1 to 12 July 2021 and delivered the improvements Google held back from the June 2021 core update.
- [July 2021 link spam update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/july-2021-link-spam-update.md): Google's link spam update ran from 26 July to 24 August 2021, nullifying link spam across languages. What Google said about affiliate and guest post links.
- [July 2022 product reviews update: dates and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/july-2022-product-reviews-update.md): Google's July 2022 product reviews update ran 6 days, 27 July to 2 August 2022, for English-language product reviews. What Google confirmed.
- [June 2019 core update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/june-2019-core-update.md): Google's June 2019 core update ran from 3 to 8 June 2019. It was the first core update Google announced before it went live.
- [June 2021 core update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/june-2021-core-update.md): Google's June 2021 core update ran from 2 to 12 June 2021 as the first half of a two-part release completed by the July 2021 core update.
- [June 2021 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/june-2021-spam-update.md): Google's June 2021 spam update ran in two one-day parts, on 23 and 28 June 2021. What Google confirmed about it and what its spam policies say today.
- [June 2024 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/june-2024-spam-update.md): Google's June 2024 spam update ran 7 days from 20 to 27 June 2024. Google gave no figures; sites that dropped should review its spam policies.
- [June 2025 core update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/june-2025-core-update.md): Google's June 2025 core update ran just under 17 days from 30 June to 17 July 2025, inside the up-to-three-weeks estimate Google gave at launch.
- [June 2026 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do](https://surfil.com/updates/june-2026-spam-update.md): Google's June 2026 spam update ran from 24 to 26 June 2026, about two days, globally and in all languages. Dates and what to do.

## Reference

- [Google Search documentation changes](https://surfil.com/google-docs-changes): A dated log of Google's own Search documentation updates, with its What and Why for each entry.

## Topics

- [Core updates](https://surfil.com/topics/core-updates): Coverage of Google core algorithm updates, what each rollout changed, and how to read the movement in your own data.
- [AI search](https://surfil.com/topics/ai-search): How AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude select and cite sources, and what that changes about SEO.
- [Technical SEO](https://surfil.com/topics/technical-seo): Crawl budget, rendering, status codes, canonicals and the infrastructure decisions that decide whether pages get indexed.
- [Structured data](https://surfil.com/topics/structured-data): Schema.org markup that earns rich results and gives answer engines an unambiguous machine reading of a page.
- [Search Console](https://surfil.com/topics/search-console): Getting real answers out of Search Console: query data, index coverage, sampling limits and the traps in the reports.
- [Indexing](https://surfil.com/topics/indexing): Discovery, crawl scheduling, index selection and the reasons Google keeps pages out of the index.
- [Content strategy](https://surfil.com/topics/content-strategy): Topical authority, intent coverage and editorial standards that hold up across core updates and AI answers.
- [Local SEO](https://surfil.com/topics/local-seo): How Google ranks businesses for nearby searches: Business Profiles, reviews, local packs and location pages.
- [Page speed](https://surfil.com/topics/page-speed): Loading, interactivity and layout stability: what Core Web Vitals measure and what field data shows.
- [Link building](https://surfil.com/topics/link-building): How links between sites are earned and measured, and what studies show about links and rankings.
- [Ecommerce SEO](https://surfil.com/topics/ecommerce-seo): Search for online stores: product structured data, Merchant Center feeds, faceted navigation and checkout.
- [SERP features](https://surfil.com/topics/serp-features): Everything on a results page beyond ten blue links: featured snippets, sitelinks, panels and carousels.
- [Analytics](https://surfil.com/topics/analytics): Measuring search performance: click-through rates, zero-click searches, referral traffic and GA4.

## Optional

- [Full corpus](https://surfil.com/llms-full.txt)
- [JSON Feed](https://surfil.com/feed.json)