Google now requires JavaScript for all search users and bots, blocking AI scraping. Google can detect AI-generated content, so AI pages must meet the same quality standards as human-written ones. Google's review snippets now need ratings with review comments and author names to display properly.
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The top SEO news and updates straight from the latest edition of SEO FOMO. A lot happened in the last week, and here are the top trending stories in case you haven't had the chance to go through the latest edition of SEO FOMO. Pretty much your SEO FOMO to Learn didn't read. Let's go through them. The first one by far is that Google started to require JavaScript, making it harder for many rank trackers to obtain the data that they need for their reports. Roger Monte covered the story for Search Engine Journal, and as we can see, he effectively pointed out how Google quietly updated their search box to require all users, including bots, to have JavaScript turned on when searching. He also pointed out how in an email to TechCrunch, a Google spokesperson shared more details about this, mentioning how enabling JavaScript allows Google to better protect their services. Now, here's the thing. Many pointed out that although this change might have affected SEO tools, in reality, this update is likely not targeted towards rank tracking tools. For example, Radu Stojan mentioned in the comments of the story here that I share in LinkedIn how this move is likely not aimed at SEO tools, but at preventing AI LLM platforms from using Google search results to provide more accurate answers. I asked earlier today SimilarWeb, which is our today's sponsor, and they mentioned that Everything is working fine for them. We also talked with Advanced Web Ranking and mentioned that this was as well their case. I want to take this opportunity to thank Similarweb, comprehensive digital marketing platform that allows you to not only do keyword research or benchmark with your competitors, but much, much more. So if you haven't yet taken a look at it, this is an opportunity to try it out. The 2nd most popular story of the week is this other coverage from Roger highlighting the evidence that Google detects AI-generated content, which I have to say is not necessarily that surprising, even if Google has mentioned that they are okay with AI-generated content as long as it fulfills the same type of quality standards as manual content. At the end of the day, it's natural with the popularization of AI-generated content that They try to identify the patterns and behavior of this content. Roger covers how Gagan Ghotra, an Australian SEO, noticed that there is someone from the Search Quality team that manages a global team that builds ranking solutions as part of Google Search detection and treatment of AI-generated content, preventing manipulation of ranking signals, provide qualitative and quantitative understanding of quality issues, addressing novel content issues, detection and treatment of AI-generated content. So this highlights the fact that you should indeed be careful when generating content with AI. And as Google has mentioned in their guidance here is at the end of the day, making sure that even if you leverage AI for it, you still follow the same quality standards that you do with any content independently of how it is produced. If you do want to leverage AI or programmatic SEO to create content at scale, I can highly, highly, highly recommend you to take a look at the how-to-do Successful Non-Spammy Programmatic SEO episode from Crawling Mondays, along with the fantastic Lazarina Stoi and Roxana Stingiu, in which we go through how you can make the most out of programmatic, including AI functionalities, to generate content at scale while keeping quality high. And the third story of the week is the coverage from Matt G. Southern going through how Google pushes for ratings with comments in review snippets. He goes through the update that Google has done into their documentation from the review snippet, in which they are now highlighting in the technical guidelines how they recommend only accepting ratings that are accompanied by a review comment and author's name. While not required, this approach can help users see supporting details that explain the ratings. I actually compared the before and after of this document to identify what changed, and we can see that it was actually not only that section of the recommendation, but also this other bit here mentioning how, for example, if you marked up reviews, users should also be able to see the text of the review and associated rating. If you use aggregated ratings, users should be able to see that aggregate rating on the page. So in general, what I can see that the trend here is that Google wants to make sure that the ratings and reviews are more visible to the user. Can be easily identified by the user and that the user is able to better understand the context of the rating. Also very likely making sure that the rating and review comes from a real person. So it's more useful for the user decision-making journey. This is a good reminder that if it had been a while that you implemented your review structured data, to take a look at it and to make sure that you're following all the latest guidelines to avoid any potential issues. And with that, I wrap up today's edition of the latest hottest news of the week from SEO FOMO. Remember to subscribe to avoid missing out. Thank you very much again to our today's sponsor and see you again next week.
