Google says its own EU search results just got worse
Google reshuffled its European results to follow EU rules and admits quality dropped. Outside the EU, the story to act on is the one about canned replies to your Google reviews.
What changed
Google now ranks comparison sites above hotels and restaurants in Europe
Google told Reuters that the changes it made to Search in the EU to comply with the DMA (EU rules it must follow to avoid fines) are the "largest reduction in quality" in its 29 year history. The new results put one price comparison site (a site like Expedia that searches many businesses at once) at the top of the page, two more below it, and only then a carousel of hotels, airlines or restaurants with real-time prices stripped out. Barry Schwartz pointed out that Google measures quality here by traffic to hotel websites, the same traffic its own AI Overviews (the AI answers at the top of results) send less of.
Google says it pushed out its "largest reduction in quality" for Google Search in its 29 year history over the EU DMA changes for vertical search services (VSS)
Google rolls out changes to search results in the EU to comply with the DMA, saying they mark the largest reduction in quality of service in Search's history
I do find it funny that Google measures quality here by traffic to the hotel web sites and based on having to do more searches.
Who this affects: Hotels, airlines and restaurants with customers in the EU, and anyone there who competes with price comparison sites.
- Our take: if you run a hotel, restaurant or travel business in the EU, open Search Console, click Performance, and compare clicks for the last 7 days against the period before.
- Our take: check that your listing is accurate on the comparison sites your customers use, since Google now shows those first.
- Our take: outside the EU, do nothing. These results only apply to European users.
Worth watching
Two Google reports are stuck, and it is not your site
The Search Console links report (the list of other sites that link to yours) has not updated since Aug 8th, a month ago. Separately, the Google Business Profile insights report (the views, calls and clicks stats for your listing) is missing all of September 2026 data so far. Glenn Gabe said the lag does not shock him, and that Google will never put its most valuable link data in that report anyway, since spammers could reverse engineer it.
Google Search Console link report not updated for a month - Aug 8th
Doesn't shock me the report is lagging (again). Seems like the last time it was updated was early August.
Google Business Profiles insights report missing all of September 2026 data so far
Who this affects: Anyone who checks links in Search Console or looks at stats in Google Business Profile.
- Our take: do nothing. The delay is inside Google's reports, not a problem with your site.
Things to do
Google may delete review replies that use canned AI phrases
Joy Hawkins shared data from @ownyourserp on why Google is quietly removing thousands of AI-written replies to Google reviews (the public answers a business posts under its customer reviews) every day. An analysis of over 12,000 rejected replies found three triggers: stock phrases like "thrilled to hear" or "your kind words", identical replies sent to multiple reviewers (even a plain "Thank you!"), and mentioning customer names or specific menu items. Our take: this is about canned phrasing and copy-paste, not about getting help drafting a reply.
If your team uses ChatGPT to reply to Google reviews, you might be triggering spam filters without even knowing it.
Overused phrases like "thrilled to hear" or "your kind words" are instant spam triggers.
Who this affects: Any business that answers its Google reviews with ChatGPT or a saved template.
- Cut phrases like "thrilled to hear" and "your kind words" from your replies.
- Write each reply differently. Do not send the same "Thank you!" to several reviewers.
- Our take: open your Business Profile, read your last ten review replies, and check whether any have quietly disappeared.
Quick hits
Google may email you to confirm edits to your listing
Barry Schwartz shared a new Google Business Profile email that asks "Does this look right to you?" about changes to a business listing. Gagan Ghotra called it way better than before, when people could move a competitor's listing to a random location and Google accepted the change without checking.
You get credit for AI answers even when nobody sees them
John Mueller told r/SEO how Search Console counts impressions (the number of times your site appeared) for AI Overviews (the AI answer at the top of results): standard rules apply, so if it loaded on the page it counts, seen or not. Links hidden behind a "Show more" button only count when someone actually expands it.
Short tests may not save your site from bulk-page penalties
Last issue covered Google losing trust in whole sites over low value scaled content (thousands of near-identical pages built from one template); the new bit is Glenn Gabe's warning that short-term testing will not protect you. He says it can take a while before Google's systems change their view of that content, and once they do, the site can get crushed by a spam update or core update (Google's big ranking changes) or even a manual action (a human at Google penalizing your site). r/SEO put it bluntly: it is not about quality, it is about production and manipulation.