SEO Weekly Roundup: July 14 - July 21, 2025
Welcome to this week's SEO News Roundup, where we delve into the most impactful developments shaping the digital landscape from July 14 to July 21, 2025. This week, the SEO community witnessed significant shifts as major search engines rolled out updates aimed at enhancing user experience and refining search algorithms. These changes promise to redefine content strategies and challenge experts to adapt swiftly. Meanwhile, emerging AI technologies continue to disrupt traditional SEO practices, offering innovative tools that promise to elevate organic reach and optimize keyword strategies.
In addition to these pivotal shifts, the week also brought fresh insights into mobile-first indexing and its implications for website performance. As mobile usage continues to dominate, search engines are doubling down on ensuring that mobile-friendly sites rank higher, prompting businesses to prioritize seamless, responsive design. Join us as we unpack these themes and explore the latest trends that are poised to influence SEO strategies in the months to come.
In This Issue
- Google Updates and Features
- SEO Tools and Techniques
- AI and Search Optimization
- Google Search Console and Ranking Factors
- Miscellaneous Search Engine Features
Google Updates and Features
Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Days After Core Update Completed
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Days after Google's June 2025 core update was completed, significant volatility in search rankings continues, causing widespread instability and confusion among website owners and SEO professionals. Despite the update's official conclusion, many are experiencing fluctuating traffic and rankings, leading to speculation about whether additional changes are being implemented by Google.
Video: Google June Core Update Done, Local Ranking Update, AI Mode Updates & AI Calling Businesses
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google's June 2025 core update has completed, exhibiting significant volatility and some recoveries during its 16-day rollout. Key developments include enhancements to Google AI Mode with the introduction of Gemini 2.5 Pro and Deep Search, updates to local ranking documentation, and the testing of a new AI local calling feature. Additionally, Google has made changes to its merchant return policies, loyalty programs, and Google Business Profiles, including a tool for showing rejection reasons and requesting WhatsApp and text numbers.
Google Testing Much Larger Favicons In Search
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google is testing significantly larger favicons in mobile search results, sometimes even removing site names entirely. This experiment, noted by Brodie Clark, is part of Google's ongoing efforts to tweak the appearance of search result elements.
Google AI Overviews For Movie Related Queries
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google has introduced AI Overviews for movie-related queries, providing users with summarized information when searching for movies. This new feature could potentially impact publishers in the movie industry by affecting their website traffic and clicks.
SEO Tools and Techniques
Google's Top 5 SEO Tools
Source: Search Engine Journal
The article highlights Google's top five SEO tools, focusing on Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights as essential resources for site audits and performance optimization. Lighthouse offers insights into performance, accessibility, and SEO fundamentals, while PageSpeed Insights combines lab and field data to assess site speed, a critical ranking factor after Google's page experience update. The article also emphasizes the importance of Google's Safe Browsing Test for site security, illustrating how these tools provide invaluable insights and protection for maintaining and improving search rankings.
How to Find Backlinks to Your Site + Tips for More Backlinks
Source: Semrush blog
The article provides a comprehensive guide on how to analyze and improve your site's backlinks, emphasizing their importance for search engine ranking. It outlines tools like Google Search Console, Semrush, and Bing Webmaster Tools for finding existing backlinks and suggests strategies such as competitor link gap analysis and broken link building to discover new backlink opportunities. The guide highlights that while top-ranking pages often have numerous backlinks, a median of just 13 can be sufficient, underscoring the quality over quantity approach in backlink acquisition.
How to Create Local Business Listings & Optimize Them
Source: Semrush blog
A local business listing, or citation, is an online profile that includes key information such as the business name, address, and phone number (NAP), which should be consistent across all directories to aid customer discovery and enhance search engine credibility. Optimizing these listings is crucial for improving local SEO, voice search visibility, and in-car navigation, while augmented reality (AR) experiences can further boost foot traffic. Businesses can create and manage these listings on major platforms like Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, and Yelp to ensure accurate and comprehensive online representation.
AI and Search Optimization
How to Optimize for AI Search Results in 2025
Source: Semrush blog
The article discusses the importance of optimizing content for AI search results as AI systems like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews become more prevalent in providing synthesized information. It introduces the concept of AI search optimization, or generative engine optimization (GEO), which focuses on making content frequently referenced and prominently featured by AI platforms. The article emphasizes the growing significance of AI visibility in SEO, noting that AI search visitors convert better than traditional ones, and provides strategies for improving AI visibility, such as ensuring AI systems can access content, incorporating specific statistics, and structuring content for direct answers.
Your Reviews Are Ranking You (Or Not): How to Stay Visible in Google’s AI Era
Source: Search Engine Journal
In the era of Google's AI Overviews (AIOs), online reviews have evolved from mere trust signals to critical ranking signals that influence business visibility in search results. Businesses need a consistent, multi-channel review strategy, incorporating both first-party and third-party reviews, to maintain visibility and credibility across Google's AI layer. Agencies can support this shift by helping clients manage their online reputation through steady review generation, response strategies, and by diversifying review platforms to enhance search inclusion and customer trust.
Google Search Console and Ranking Factors
Is It Time To Remove Focus From Average Position In GSC?
Source: Search Engine Journal
The article argues that the average position metric in Google Search Console (GSC) has become misleading due to Google's integration of generative AI features like AI Overviews and AI Mode, which distort traditional ranking data. It suggests retiring average position as a primary SEO KPI and instead focusing on metrics that measure authentic user engagement and conversions. By classifying rankings by feature type and analyzing click-through rates and conversions, businesses can gain a more accurate picture of SEO performance and make more informed strategic decisions.
Google Says Login Service Pages Are Hard To Rank In Search
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google's John Mueller stated that service-oriented login pages, such as those for account access or analytics, are difficult to rank in search engine results on platforms like Google and Bing. This issue was highlighted in a discussion on Bluesky, where users expressed frustration over incorrect search results for login pages, a problem that has been ongoing with services like Search Console.
Miscellaneous Search Engine Features
Daily Search Forum Recap: July 17, 2025
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
On July 17, 2025, Google completed its June 2025 core update rollout, which took over 16 days and introduced significant volatility. The company also launched Gemini 2.5 Pro for AI Mode and Deep Search, available for a fee, and officially rolled out AI-generated summaries for Google Discover in the U.S. Additionally, Google tested larger favicons in search results and introduced AI-powered local business calling features.
Google Business Profile Check Edit Status
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google has introduced a new feature for Google Business Profiles that allows users to check the status of their edits to local listings. This tool, which resembles the reinstatement or suspension appeal workflow, was spotted by OMG National and could indicate a shift in how Google manages profile-related issues.
Google Ads Rolling Out Smart Bidding Exploration To Some
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Google Ads is introducing its Smart Bidding Exploration feature to select advertisers, marking its most significant bidding update in over a decade. This new tool aims to capture high-performing but less obvious search queries, potentially increasing conversions by up to 20% without additional costs, as observed by Google employee Maximilian vom Eyser. The update allows advertisers to use flexible ROAS targets to find new, qualified leads.
Bing Testing Sitelinks With Light Gray Underlines
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Microsoft is testing a new feature in Bing search results, where sitelinks are shown with light gray underlines instead of the usual format without any underlines. This subtle change was spotted by Sachin Patel and may not be noticeable to the average user.
Wrapping Up
As we wrap up this week's SEO news roundup, we hope these insights have provided you with valuable strategies and updates to enhance your digital presence. Staying informed about the latest trends and algorithm changes is crucial in navigating the ever-evolving landscape of search engine optimization. Thank you for joining us on this journey to better understand the world of SEO. We appreciate your readership and look forward to bringing you more exciting updates and expert analyses next week. Until then, keep optimizing and stay ahead of the curve!
