Search Engine Optimization & Updates | SketchWeb Blog
&hl=for language&gl=for country- YMYL and non-YMYL content
- High vs. low search volume
- Commercial vs. informational intent
How Google Maps Uses User-Generated Content to Build a Safer, Smarter World
Google Maps isn’t just a navigation tool—it’s a dynamic, user-driven platform that reflects the real world in near real-time. Behind every review, photo, and edit is a person contributing to a map that informs billions of decisions daily.
Google’s latest Content Trust & Safety Report gives us a rare look into how much user-generated content fuels Maps, and how the platform maintains quality and safety at scale.
Inside Google’s Ranking Systems: What a DOJ Deposition Just Revealed
A recently published deposition from a Google engineer has given the SEO community something rare: an official glimpse into the inner workings of how Google ranks pages. While heavily redacted, the document—shared as part of the ongoing DOJ antitrust case—outlines several important components of Google’s ranking system, including hand-crafted signals, static page quality scores, and a Chrome-based popularity metric.
This article breaks down what we learned and what it means for marketers and SEOs today.
Google’s Hidden Click Signal: DOJ Docs Reveal Ranking Bias Adjustments
New court documents from the DOJ v. Google antitrust case have revealed a rarely discussed truth about Google’s search rankings: clicks matter, but they’re not treated equally.
Google has long collected data on how often a result is shown versus how often it’s clicked—a signal known internally as Impressions-to-Clicks Ratio. But now we know they also created bias correction mechanisms to avoid overvaluing links just because they were higher up on the page.
Google Is Rebuilding Search From Scratch With LLMs at the Core
In a quiet yet groundbreaking revelation, a DOJ court document has confirmed what many AI observers have speculated: Google is completely rethinking its search stack from the ground up, placing large language models (LLMs) at the center of its future.
Rather than retrofitting AI into its legacy search system, Google is asking a much deeper question: What does search look like when AI isn’t just a layer—but the architecture?
Google Clarifies: All AI Overview Links Share One Position In Search Console
When your site appears in Google’s AI Overview, do you rank higher? That depends on how you define “position.”
Google has now confirmed something the SEO world has long debated — every link inside an AI Overview shares the same ranking position in Search Console.
How to Change Google Search Country and Language Using URL Parameters ?
Want to see what Google Search results look like in another country or language — without changing your settings or using a VPN?
You can do it with a quick URL tweak.
Instead of opening advanced settings each time, just add two simple parameters to the end of your Google Search URL:
This method is quick, browser-friendly, and often used by Google’s own John Mueller.
Here’s how to do it.
Google Is Rewriting 76% of Title Tags – Here’s What You Should Actually Do
If you’ve spent hours crafting the perfect title tag, only to see something else appear on Google — you’re not alone. A new data study shows that Google rewrote 76% of title tags in Q1 2025. That’s not just a trend. It’s a shift in how Google controls what users see.
This research uncovers how and why Google makes these changes — by industry, by search intent, and by content sensitivity (like health or finance).
Let’s dive in.
📊 What the Study Looked At
The analysis covered 30,000 keywords across:
Product Comparison in Google AI Overviews
Back on May 14, 2024, Google released AI Overviews in the US and then soon after 5 months (i.e. in October 2024), made it available to over 100 countries and territories.
Since then, Google brings several new features to AI overviews, for example, solving complex maths queries, coding queries, multimodal search and more.
Now, to help out users coming with commercial intent, Google AI overviews has brought a new feature. It can do product comparisons.
For example, if you place queries like “iphone 15 vs iphone 15 pro”, it will give you a detailed comparison report (based on product specification or any other differentiating factor).
Impact
This new feature will impact websites doing product comparisons or affiliate marketing. However, it will give a new place for advertisers to put their ads on.
Google Rolling Out AI Organized Search Result in US
To improve the user’s experience and ease of accessing accurate information, Google has started rolling out AI Organized Search Result in the US. But, what is so special about these results and how will it be different from the existing results, let’s explore the same.
What is AI Organized Search Result?
As the name gives hint, it means the search results are organized by Artifical Intelligence.
This new Google Search feature will give you personalized result based on your entered query.
For example, if you search a keyword say “vegetarian pizza receipe”, you will get different results grouped by category/section. Each of these category showcase the results from different perspective, for eg. a section dedicating results for top vegetarian pizza receipes, another section for easy vegetarian dips, and another one titled “Explore by Ingredient” and so on. Do check the image below to get more understanding about this feature.
Note: While writing this blog post, this new feature has been rolled out for queries related to receipes and meal inspiration, but it will not take longer for Google to roll out this feature for other niche keywords as well.
Well, this is not a new feature as the Google Search team is testing this feature since 2007. However, the feature is now rolling out, starting with the US for select niche keywords.
If you have any helpful information for this new topic, feel free to let me know in the comments down below.