Barry Schwartz
Every SEO Weekly story that cites Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick), newest first. 59 stories since September 2026.
On X: Search Geek
- Google's missing AI answer links look like a test
Two SEOs see two different things, which usually means Google is trying it out on some people and not others.
- Ranking swings got worse again, with no explanation
Barry Schwartz says the movement is heating up, and he will not say whether the cause is bad tracking data or Google.
- Google may ask for your tax ID to edit your listing
An Employer Identification Number is showing up as a verification step for some people editing their business listing.
- Google rankings are swinging harder again today
Google has still not announced anything, so nobody knows yet what is causing the movement.
- Google may penalize sites where users can publish pages
Updated spam guidance warns platform owners to watch what their users get indexed.
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- AI answers now show on most searches, even your brand name
Three separate data sets put AI Overviews above 80% of queries, and brand name searches are not exempt.
- AI tools still send almost no visitors next to Google
Three studies landed this week saying AI search visibility may not be worth paying for yet.
- Google fed rank trackers results for one word of your query
A week of frozen, scrambled and heated search results means your keyword chart probably lied to you.
- Ahrefs says it is deleting bad rank tracking data
A statement shared by Glenn Gabe says past affected results are being cleaned up, but nobody has said yet whether old charts get fixed.
- Google lists the ways to keep pages out of AI answers
The help page now gathers the existing settings in one place, and nothing about your site has changed.
- Google is dropping the "AI Overview" label from some answers
Unlabelled AI answers may be why tracking tools suddenly show fewer of them.
- Google may ask for your ID to verify your business
Government ID uploads are now part of Google Business Profile verification, and review appeals are running slow again.
- Google adds more links to its AI answers, again
Nick Fox of Google laid out five changes to how AI answers link out, including a new section at the top for the one or two pages that finish the job.
- Google is putting more links inside its AI answers
Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode will link out more often, and place some of those links higher in the answer.
- Rankings moved today with no Google update confirmed
One well known search reporter flagged a spike in ranking chatter, and Google has announced nothing.
- ChatGPT traffic has now disappeared from analytics
The tracking tags that told your analytics a visitor came from ChatGPT are now gone from every link, one SEO reports.
- Google has switched on a universal shopping cart
Barry Schwartz says the new cart runs on something Google calls the Universal Commerce Protocol, and sellers do not yet know what they need to do.
- Moving your site to a new domain keeps going wrong
Barry Schwartz asked why Google still showed an old domain four months after a move, and two SEOs said they see the same thing all the time.
- Google penalties are now hitting ordinary businesses
Several SEOs say the wave of hand-issued Google penalties is landing on normal companies, not just obvious spam sites.
- The spam update is over, so rankings should settle
Google's long spam update is done, and attention is already turning to the next core update.
- Your ranking numbers are unreliable this week
Google's own traffic report and the outside tools that track your positions are both wobbling at once.
- Google calls hand-checking AI writing "critical"
Three well known SEOs have now pointed at the same line in Google's refreshed AI content guidance.
- Top SEOs expect a big Google update very soon
Three well known search experts read the same signals in Google's documentation edits and came to the same conclusion.
- Made-up authors now count as deception to Google
Google updated its helpful content document with new language on fabricated creator profiles.
- Google now says bulk AI pages count as low effort
Google's own documentation now spells out what its human reviewers treat as real work on a page.
- Spam update hit a second time on September 30
Sites that came through the first wave untouched are now reporting sudden drops.
- Google's pay-for-content test pays almost nothing
Small sites in Google's AI payment pilot are earning less than one tenth of 1% of their ad revenue.
- Google can now watch a topic and ping people about it
Anyone can now tell Google's chat style search to keep an eye on a subject, and Google will send a phone notification when something new shows up.
- Strangers can change your Google listing in four days
Google gives you a short window to reject a suggested edit before it may go live on its own.
- Spam update hit hardest over the weekend
Friday looked quiet, then rankings moved sharply across several countries.
- Search Console now shows visits from photo searches
A new filter separates people who searched with a camera or a screenshot from people who typed words.
- Google tests setting business hours by typing them out
A small test could replace the day by day hours form with a single box you type into.
- Google rankings are moving again this week
One tracker says the shifting started Tuesday and carried into Wednesday, and Google has not confirmed anything.
- Links inside Google's AI answers may be rising again
A fresh report points to another jump in outbound links, and one well known SEO says his own checks match.
- Google pulled the spammy AI notebook pages from search
Shared pages from Google's own AI notebook tool are gone from search results after spammers filled them with junk.
- Some AI answer links now open more AI, not your site
A link inside Google's AI answer can now lead to another Google AI answer.
- SEOs pile on after research says AI answers cut clicks
Lily Ray says the findings confirm what people in search have been saying all along.
- Google is testing payments for content used in AI answers
The pilot runs through Search Console, and Barry Schwartz says it was first spotted back in April.
- Same rankings, less traffic, as Google adds more boxes
Google's first page now splits roughly in half between normal results and its own features, according to one SEO's comparison.
- The early September ranking crash has fully reversed
Sites hit around September 4 were back where they started by September 13, and Google never said a word about either swing.
- Google is testing an AI summary inside its news feed
A new button in Google's phone feed sends readers to a summary page first, and it starts with videos.
- Google is dropping free product listings in Europe
Unpaid Google Shopping results are vanishing across the European Economic Area, and comparison shopping sites are taking the space.
- Your rank tracking tool may be showing old numbers
Two well known SEOs say Google is blocking the bots that rank tracking tools rely on, and the three big tools now disagree.
- Google's business info box is turning into an AI answer
Three well known SEOs say the box that shows your hours and reviews is starting to include an AI summary.
- Google search profiles now open at 10,000 followers
Google cut the bar for getting a Search profile by 90 percent, and added a few other changes for publishers and creators.
- Google is testing ads that look like normal links in AI answers
Sponsored links written as plain text inside AI Mode answers blend in with the rest of the answer.
- Google rankings moved a lot on Tuesday
Site owners reported big swings in where their pages rank, and Google has not said why.
- Google Business Profile has a new Collected info tab
Barry Schwartz says the feature he wrote about two months ago is now officially live.
- 131 SEO experts name relevance and links as top factors
It is expert opinion rather than data from Google, and one SEO says parts of it are nonsense.
- Nearly every "people also ask" answer is now AI
The related questions under Google's results now open into AI written summaries instead of links to sites.
- Sites that vanished from Google came back nine days later
Glenn Gabe says sites that lost nearly all search visibility around September 4 have fully recovered, and nobody outside Google knows why.
- Missing June data in Search Console is a Google bug
Two well known SEOs saw the same gap in the same report on the same morning, so it is not your site.
- Your Google position number may not mean what it used to
Google's John Mueller says the old idea of ranking one to ten is hard to map onto search results now.
- That scary homepage warning in Google was just a bug
Search Console briefly told site owners their homepage was not in Google. It was wrong.
- Google's AI search briefly stopped linking to websites
A new Gemini model went live in AI Mode with almost no citations, and Google called it a bug.
- Google is building simple free tools into its answers
A working character counter now appears inside Google's AI answer box, and SEOs say any simple tool site could be next.
- Google puts comparison sites above hotels in Europe
Hotels, airlines and restaurants get pushed below three comparison engines in EU results, and Google says quality drops because of it.
- Google can lose faith in a site for months over bulk pages
Three SEOs are now showing sites that dropped after publishing pages at scale, and Google has put the reason in writing.
- Two Google reports are stuck, and it is not your site
Barry Schwartz flagged both gaps, and Glenn Gabe says the lag is nothing new.
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