Search Engine Recap - Week 23 (2024)

This week, we cover a new Core Web Vitals report, the status of SGE in the US, and insights into the importance of structured data. Here's an overview.

New Core Web Vitals Report Evaluates Popular CMS Platforms

A new Core Web Vitals report reveals significant performance drops for some of the most popular CMS platforms between January and April 2024.

Duda leads with 71% of sites scoring well on Core Web Vitals, followed by Squarespace, Drupal, Wix, Joomla, and lastly, WordPress.

Despite improvements in WordPress 6.5, the CMS remains at the bottom. Interaction to Next Paint (INP), replacing First Input Delay (FID), is likely the cause of the overall decline. Squarespace is the only CMS that improved its performance during this period.

The relevance of this analysis lies in the fact that many businesses worldwide continue to use WordPress.

However, we consistently see performance declines, often due to insecure plugins, compared to other CMS platforms.

At Bonzer, we've covered this issue before and are always ready to offer alternative solutions to improve your business's performance.

We specialize in Webflow, which scores significantly better than WordPress and generally offers better SEO opportunities for modern businesses.

Google Limits AI Overviews on Select Searches

Google is limiting AI overviews for non-serious or nonsensical searches to address concerns about inaccurate answers.

Google has implemented many improvements to enhance AI accuracy and limit content from satire sites, for example.

As a result, there are generally fewer searches with SGE in the US than initially anticipated, although it is still widely rolled out.

Despite the criticism, Google reports high user satisfaction with the feature and is committed to refining AI capabilities. The adjustments aim for more relevant and precise search results to maintain user trust and utility.

Topics More Prominent in Google's Search Generative Experience

New research from BrightEdge reveals that Google's AI overviews appear more frequently for healthcare, B2B technology, and e-commerce searches, but less for local and branded searches.

This shift again indicates AI's growing precision and its role in anticipating user needs.

For everyone in SEO, this means optimizing for AI overviews by focusing on comprehensive, high-quality content that fits featured snippets and common queries.

Understanding which searches trigger AI responses can help fine-tune strategies to increase visibility and drive organic traffic. And since it's only rolled out in the US for now, other markets have even more opportunity to prepare.

New Case Study from Google Highlights the Importance of Structured Data

We conclude with a new Google case study emphasizing the crucial role of structured data in improving visibility and driving more traffic.

In the case study, publisher Vidio saw a threefold increase in video impressions and nearly doubled clicks.

The case highlights the importance of using strong URLs for video files and ensuring properly set up structured data.

Structured data enables better indexing and improved search performance, especially through Google's advanced search features like featured snippets. An area we always focus on here at Bonzer.

Takeaways and Recommendations

Week 23 provided us with more insights into the strengths of various CMS platforms. As previously noted, the large and well-known WordPress is not as technically strong as many newer and more modern CMS platforms, like Webflow.

Additionally, Google's case study with Vidio provided further insights into the power of structured data, emphasizing its importance for SEO.

Lastly, we received updates on Google's AI overviews, which are continuously adjusted and improved based on experience. AI overviews are limited for certain types of searches while being more prominent in selected topics.

Need help understanding all these updates and how to integrate them into your strategy? Feel free to reach out to us. As a specialized SEO agency, we work every day to get businesses to the top of the search engine results.