It’s been a quiet start to 2025 with no core or spam updates. However, Google’s Search Relations team has been busy advising against over-using JavaScript and explaining how to identify and resolve JavaScript issues.
Google made one announcement last week, informing users that its hourly performance reports are now available on Google Search Console. And a recent study shows that sites ranking high on search engines are getting more mentions on large language models like ChatGPT4o.
From around the web, Barry Schwartz reports on Reddit`s sudden ranking drop on Google, and Roger Montti writes about Google Chrome’s Barry Pollard’s advice on optimizing for Largest Contentful Paint, which Barry says every SEO needs to know.
Google Warns Against Over-Using JavaScript
In January’s edition of the Google Search Off The Record podcast, Google’s Search Relations team told us that site developers are overusing Javascript, saying doing so can reduce a site’s visibility.
Key takeaways:
- Google’s Search Relations discusses the problems that AI search crawlers have with rendering sites using JavaScript.
- Google’s John Mueller said, “I’ve heard at some events that developers really love JavaScript, and everyone wants to convert their websites to JavaScript frameworks.”
- Search Relation team member Gary Splitt explains why overusing JavaScript is a bad idea and provides an example of what you should use it for.
- Muller says many website developers over-rely on JavaScript. While it has its purposes, it isn’t suitable for modern-day search because AI crawlers can’t render it, which could decrease a site’s visibility.
Google Explains How To Identify JavaScript Indexing Issues
In a follow-up to the previous post, Google Search Relations team member Martin Splitt explains how to determine whether JavaScript is causing indexing problems for your site and provides page audit tips on how to fix them.
Key takeaways:
- Splitt tells us he receives hundreds of messages saying JavaScript is causing SEO problems, but to date, only once was it a JavaScript issue.
- Martin then explains how to identify if JavaScript is causing your site’s indexing issues.
- Splitt says the best way to tackle debugging rendering problems is to use Google Search Console to see what Google saw when it last crawled your site.
- Martin finishes by saying, “If people were doing that, just that, which I think is very basic, 90% of the people showing up in my inbox would not show up; that’s what I would do.”
Google Hourly Data Exports Now Available On Search Console Reports
On January 7, Google announced that hourly export data was available on its Google Search 24-hour performance reports on Google Search Console, enabling you to review your most recent content performance.
Key takeaways:
- Google added the hourly export data feature in response to positive user feedback.
- The hourly reports provide near real-time insights on your content’s performance on Google Search, News, and Discovery.
- You can download your data reports using Google Sheets, CSV format, and Excel.
- Before Google launched its 24-hour performance report feature, we had to wait 48 hours. With the new hourly reports, you can view crucial information, including your site’s average position and click-through rates, in almost real-time.
Google Search Rankings Influencing ChatGPT Mentions
Digital marketing agency Seer Interactive released the results of a recent study that proves the correlation between Google and ChatGPT40 answers, with brands ranking high on the search engine getting more mentions.
Key takeaways:
- Seer Interactive said it conducted the study to determine how AI-generated answers affect people’s search for brands and their visibility.
- The company used GPT4o API to run 10,000 questions related to the SaaS and finance industries to identify which generated brand mentions.
- Seer Interactive said: “AI is changing how your customers search and rewriting the rules of brand visibility. As marketers, we need to understand what makes large language models (LLMs) call out some brands and not others when relevant questions are asked.”
- The study says the results prove that search engine rankings influence AI-generated mentions.
From Around The Web
Reddit Not Ranking As Well In Google Suddenly?
Barry Shwartz from Search Engine RoundTable reports how Reddit is experiencing a ranking drop on Google Search, which is probably music to the ears of most publishers and site owners!
Key takeaways:
Shwartz says:
- “It seems Reddit is losing Google Search visibility when you look at its ranking reports in Semrush and Sistrix.”
- “It is super early, but it seems Reddit has seen some sort of ranking drop with Google Search in the past couple of days.”
- “I am unsure if this will upset its $60 million deal with Google—maybe it is just temporary.”
- Quora and Stackexchange are ranking well on Google Search.
Google Shows How To Fix LCP Core Web Vitals
Search Engine Journal writer Roger Montti unpacks Google Chrome’s Barry Pollard’s advice on optimizing for the Largest Contentful Paint. Montti says every SEO should read this.
Key takeaways:
- Google Chrome’s Web Performance Developer Advocate Barry Pollard explains how to identify the cause of a “poor Lowest Contentful Paint score” and how to fix it.
- Pollard says a common mistake that SEOs and publishers make after PageSpeed Insights (PSI) reports a page with a low LCP score is debugging the problem through Chrome Dev Tools or the Lighthouse tool.
- Instead, Pollard advises using PSI as it provides clues on what might cause a poor LCP performance.
- Pollard also recommends reviewing the Time-to-First-Byte (TTFB) score because “that’s the first thing that happens to your page.”
- Barry warns that “focusing efforts optimizing a web page will never fix a problem rooted in a poor TTFB score.”
