😱 What is Google Doing? Why Are You Losing Traffic? I'm Sharing All the SEO Nuggets for FREE.


Feb 17, 2025

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Your Essential Dose of SEO:

Hi there! Olga Zarr here. I hope you are all having a great time. I'm bringing you the latest and most important SEO news today and sharing some of the new stuff from me for you. Let's dive in!

Top SEO News

A lot has been happening in SEO recently. Here is the most important news.

Google News automated publication pages to start in March
This comes after Google announced in April 2024 that Publisher Center will stop allowing you to add publications manually.

Google AI Overviews Found In 74% Of Problem-Solving Queries
AI Overviews mostly appear in mid-volume searches, not high-traffic queries. Problem-solving and question-based searches trigger AI Overviews most often.

Google Clarifies Site Reputation Abuse Policy
Google clarified its site reputation abuse policy by adding FAQ guidance to its documentation. While the policy remains unchanged, the update makes it easier to understand violations and compliance.

My Slides from AFT 2025 ↓

Last week I was speaking at Agency Fast Track 2025 conference which was an absolute blast. I was talking about the main mistakes people make when doing a website traffic/rankings drop analysis. I shared a lot of nuggets you can now learn for free.

Local SEO

And here's what's up in local SEO.

Google Working to Fix Review Count Display Issue in Business Profiles
Google is still resolving a bug affecting review counts in Google Business Profiles.Google representative Victoria Kroll confirmed that affected profiles should return to normal within days. She also noted that no reviews were actually deleted during this issue.

Google Business Profiles Verification Failure Email With Reasons
Google has upgraded the emails Google Business Profiles sends when your verification has failed. It now shows the reason(s) a verification has failed and what you need to do to become verified in Google Business Profiles.

Using Cora SEO for Local SEO
I've been talking about Cora SEO Software, my favorite SEO tool, for ages. I've recently started using it for local SEO and I'm really loving the results.

I created a special Cora SEO hub where you can learn all about the tool and see loads of screenshots.

More SEO News

Google Expands Whisk AI Tool to 100+ Countries

Whisk, Google’s AI image remix tool, Whisk, is now available in over 100 countries. Users can drag and drop images to generate new visuals using Gemini and Imagen 3.

Google Search now uses Speculation Rules API to make search faster
Chrome is rolling out prerendered search results pages—for users with preload enabled—when users type search queries in the Chrome address bar, and in other places like the search box on Android.

Reddit Misses Growth Targets, Blames Google Changes
Reddit's user growth fell short of expectations. Reddit had 101.7M daily users, which was below the target of 103.3M. CEO Steve Huffman said this was due to Google changing how it shows Reddit in search results.

Google Removes Breadcrumbs from Mobile Search Results
Google is simplifying mobile search results by removing breadcrumbs, showing only the domain instead. This change aims to improve readability on smaller screens.

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New Expert Interviews & Resources

I have three new interviews for you, each with an absolute SEO star in their niche.

Enterprise SEO Secrets + Website Migration Nuggets with Charles Taylor

video preview

International SEO Masterclass You Can't Miss (with Kira Khoroshilova)

video preview

SEO Jesus Predicts SEO’s Survival in an AI-Driven World!

video preview

Resources from other SEOs

Discovered – Currently Not Indexed in Google Search Console
My to-the-point guide on how to fix “Discovered – currently not indexed” in Google Search Console, what it means, and when to ignore it.

Crawled – Currently Not Indexed in Google Search Console
A sibling guide to the most popular Google Search Console report "Crawled - Currently Not Indexed", what it means, and how to fix it.

Checking for lost URLs after a CMS migration
Sometimes you might find, that after a CMS migration, some things are missing. Obviously nobody would do such a thing on purpose, right? But it can happen. John Mueller proposes a quick & dirty hack to check for important, lost URLs.

Google Updates Rater Guidelines: Focus on AI, Scaled Content, and Site Reputation
Google’s January 2025 rater guidelines update highlights concerns around filler content, scaled content abuse, and AI-generated content. The update emphasizes the importance of original, high-value content and warns against low-effort paraphrased material.

HubSpot’s Search Traffic Drop—What It Really Means for SEO
Aleyda Solis analyzes HubSpot’s organic search traffic decline, showing it’s not the "end of SEO" but a shift in rankings. HubSpot lost visibility for broad, less relevant queries while maintaining rankings for high-value, business-related terms.

Tracking AI Overview Clicks Through a Google Loophole
Glenn Gabe discovered a loophole where sites with manual actions are removed from traditional search results but still rank in Google’s AI Overviews. This presents a rare opportunity to track clicks and CTR for AIOs using Google Search Console.

Google Says “Links Matter Less”—We Looked at 1,000,000 SERPs to See if It’s True
Google has said links are less important than they used to be, and most SEOs have come to accept that as true. Our findings indicate that this is true overall, but for certain types of queries, links matter more.

Building Efficient Local SEO Processes for Agencies
Brendan Whipple emphasizes the importance of structured processes in scaling a local SEO agency without sacrificing quality. He highlights setting clear goals, defining an ideal client, and creating adaptable workflows to improve efficiency and decision-making.

What is the 'perfectly optimised' article for SEO?
It can be daunting to decide how to give your news article the best chance of performing in Google. Here Barry Adams looks at the seven most valuable optimisation elements. Make sure you subscribe to the SEO for Google News by Barry Adams!

That's all I have for you today!

See you in the next episode!

Best,

P.S. Do you want me to share a specific article or resource in the newsletter? Do you want me to give a shout-out to some SEO? Let me know by replying to this e-mail!

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SEO Newsletter by Olga Zarr

Hi, I’m Olga Zarr. I’m a professional SEO consultant with over a decade of experience. SEO isn’t just my career—it’s also my biggest passion and hobby. .

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What Does “Crawled – Currently Not Indexed” Really Mean? I've just published an article about the famous "Crawled - Currently Not Indexed" report in Google Search Console. If you are looking for a more condensed version, you will find it below. 😊 ↓ When you see “Crawled – Currently Not Indexed” in your Page Indexing report in Google Search Console, it means Googlebot accessed your page, processed it, but decided not to include it in the index at that moment. Sometimes those pages eventually...