Search Engine Recap - July (2024)

We're bringing you a special edition of our weekly recaps, this time covering the entire month of July.

A month typically associated with summer holidays worldwide, yet still bustling with activity on search engines.

July brought news and updates on AI developments at both Google and Bing, updates on Core Web Vitals, considerations on content scaling, an introduction to OpenAI's new search engine, and Alphabet's Q2 results. Here is an overview.

AI Developments at Google, Bing, and OpenAI

Let's start with the status of AI developments. Google, Bing, and OpenAI have all been active recently.

Google's Documentation for AI-Generated Images

Google has updated its documentation to fully support the labeling of AI-generated and AI-manipulated images.

The new metadata, including labels like "AI-generated" and "compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia," helps identify images created or altered by algorithms such as inpainting and outpainting.

This update, no longer in beta, integrates with IPTC standards and provides detailed information about image creation and manipulation.

The changes aim to enhance transparency and trust in search results by clearly indicating AI's involvement in image production.

Google Expands Translated Search Results with Eight New Languages

Google has also expanded its translated search results to include eight new languages: Arabic, Gujarati, Korean, Persian, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

This update allows users to see title and meta descriptions in their native language, with automatic website translation upon clicking the link.

The expansion aims to increase global accessibility and visibility for publishers' content, broadening the audience for these new languages and enhancing global marketing strategies.

New Statistics on Google's AI Overviews

BrightEdge's new research has confirmed that AI Overviews’ keyword triggers are rapidly evolving in the US.

Keywords like "best," "what is," "how to," and "symptoms of" have seen an increase this summer. E-commerce searches with AI overviews rose by nearly 20% since the start of July, with product searches showing a 66.67% increase.

But Google isn't the only player in the AI results market...

Bing Updates Its AI Search Layout

Bing has updated its AI search layout, now prioritizing both AI-generated answers and traditional organic search results, maintaining traffic to websites.

The new design features a table of contents, AI answers with source links, and organic results, ensuring user engagement and exploration.

Microsoft's tests show that this layout maintains the number of clicks to websites, supporting an ecosystem beneficial to businesses.

This approach contrasts with other search engines' zero-click layouts, highlighting Bing's commitment to benefiting both users and content creators.

OpenAI Launches New Search Engine: SearchGPT

From Bing, we move to OpenAI, which has launched SearchGPT, an AI-driven search engine designed to provide direct answers with source references, rather than just links.

This new search engine integrates real-time information, enabling conversation-based follow-up questions and inline attributions.

OpenAI has also introduced tools for publishers to manage how their content appears in SearchGPT results, providing performance insights and feedback options.

SearchGPT is currently in limited availability as a prototype, with plans to integrate its features into ChatGPT in the future.

It's early days, and access is limited, but it will be interesting to see how this challenges Google's own AI developments as an alternative to search.

Improved Core Web Vitals Results in Google's CrUX Report

Google's CrUX report from June 2024 shows improved Core Web Vitals (CWV) results, positively impacting the Page Experience Ranking Factor. Metrics like LCP, CLS, and INP have all seen improvements.

Changes in how Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is measured have contributed to these improvements.

This update underscores the ongoing focus on page experience and its impact on user experience and rankings.

Google Warns: Too Much Content Too Quickly Can Lead to New Site Evaluation

Staying with Google, John Mueller has warned that exponential growth in a website's content can lead to a new evaluation by Google's algorithms.

A dramatic increase in content over a short period can cause Google to treat the site as new, requiring a reevaluation of its rankings and quality.

This process, which can take months, is recommended to be approached strategically and phased to avoid potential SEO issues and ensure smooth integration with existing content.

In general, a sustainable SEO strategy should aim for a content velocity that builds on delivering and optimizing content monthly, providing a more consistent development.

Google Search Increased Revenue by 14% in Q2

We end with Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, which reported a 14% increase in Google Search revenues for Q2 2024, totaling $48.5 billion.

Google Cloud also surpassed $10 billion in quarterly revenues for the first time. YouTube ad revenues rose from $7.7 billion in Q2 2023 to $8.7 billion in Q2 2024.

Their CEO, Sundar Pichai, highlighted their focus on AI innovation and the reorganization of AI teams. Overall, the figures show continued growth for Alphabet and significant investments in Google Search.

Takeaways and Recommendations

Despite a month of summer holidays in many places, search engines were far from idle.

Both Google, Bing, and OpenAI continued their AI developments, with SearchGPT's development being particularly intriguing.

However, Google remains the largest, and globally they have regained market share.

This is where we should focus when updating our SEO strategies. Alphabet's Q2 results emphasize this point.

We saw several exciting updates and comments from Google in July. Their comments on content are particularly relevant, as content velocity is crucial for sustained and stable growth today.

What updates August will bring remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: we will cover it all here at Bonzer, so you can keep your SEO strategy ahead of the competition.

Need help boosting your SEO results? Contact Bonzer. As a specialized SEO agency, we work diligently to elevate businesses to top search engine rankings.