Every week, I share newsworthy articles that have caught my attention.
AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5%
Google says AI Overviews boost clicks.
But let’s talk facts: Ahrefs analysed 300,000 keywords and found that when AI Overviews show up in search results, the top-ranking page gets 34.5% fewer clicks on average. As it turns out, handing out answers upfront isn’t great for the rest of the web.
Source: https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks/
Google Search to redirect its country level TLDs to Google.com
Google’s phasing out its country-specific domains like google.fr and google.de. This means that no matter where you are, you’ll be redirected to Google.com.
According to Google, they’ve improved how they deliver local results, so separate country-level domains just aren’t necessary anymore. One global Google, tailored to wherever you are. There was a scare that other webmasters might do the same to their ccTLD setup, but it was made clear that this is not some wider SEO technique. A follow-up article from SEJ says keep hreflang settings and ensure full language and regional signals are present on your websites.
Source: https://searchengineland.com/google-search-to-redirect-its-country-level-tlds-to-google-com-454289 & https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-new-domain-structure-whats-next-for-hreflang/544631/
Google Says LLMs.Txt Comparable To Keywords Meta Tag
Google’s John Mueller weighed in on LLMs.txt—a proposed standard for signaling how website content should be treated by AI agents—and wasn’t exactly impressed. He downplayed its usefulness, likening it to the long-ignored keywords meta tag, echoing what many in the industry have already seen firsthand.
Despite being nicknamed a “robots.txt for large language models,” that comparison misses the mark. Robots.txt tells bots how to crawl a site. LLMs.txt? It’s not about crawling at all. In fact, trying to use it for that would be redundant—robots.txt already has that job covered.
Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-says-llms-txt-comparable-to-keywords-meta-tag/544804/
Google Again Says Structured Data Does Not Make Your Site Rank Better
John Mueller confirmed it (this time on Bluesky): “Structured data won’t make your site rank better.” It’s used to power rich search features, not to climb the SERPs.
You can use schema.org for other purposes (Using structured data is still helpful for LLMs), but don’t expect any ranking benefits as it’s always been.
Source: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-structured-data-ranking-39232.html
Other reads
Financial Times Interviews Head Of Google Search, Elizabeth Reid