SEO Weekly News Roundup [January 20 to 24, 2025]

Last week, Google removed breadcrumbs from mobile search results, started Gemini-powered Google TV News Briefs, advised against updating your site’s robots.txt file too often, and updated its review snippet guidelines to recommend reviews with content and an author name.

Elsewhere, Roger Montii reports on Google’s John Mueller’s thoughts on SEO and AI Overviews and their importance for 2025, and Barry Shwartz provides evidence that Google has enforced its site reputation abuse policy in the EU. 

Google Updates Rating Recommendations In Review Snippets

Google’s new review snippet guidelines now recommend adding content and the author’s name to your reviews, saying it will help increase trust and improve your user experience. 

Key takeaways:

  • Google’s snippet guidelines now recommend including reviews with comments and the author’s names.
  • Local businesses can no longer display self-controlled reviews; all must come from users. 
  • Google says the updates will provide an essential context for why people left the reviews.
  • Google wrote on Search Central: “We recommend implementing a setup that only accepts ratings and reviews that are accompanied by a review comment and author’s name, as this approach can help your users understand the context for a given rating.”

Google Advises Not To Update Robots.txt File Throughout The Day

Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, advises why you shouldn’t update your site’s robot.txt files throughout the day, saying it doesn’t make any difference and is a waste of time!

Key takeaways:

  • Muller was asked if stopping Googlebot from crawling a website at different times of the day would prevent overloading. 
  • John explained that robots.txt often cached every 24-hours, so stopping it at 08:00 am and starting at 4:00 pm won’t make a difference. 
  • Mueller says that dynamically changing a site’s robots.txt files multiple times a day can confuse Google’s crawlers, which could cause even bigger problems by blocking what you want crawled. 

Google TV Starts Gemini-powered `News Briefs` Experiment

Google announced a new experiment: it will add Gemini-powered “News Briefs” to Google TV, providing current leading story overviews for some users in the USA. 

Key takeaways:

  • Google’s new TV feature provides news clips from YouTube and other trusted sources.
  • Google aims to provide “concise, narrated overviews and related videos of top news stories.”
  • Google wrote about the experiment: “Using Gemini models and human evaluation, News Briefs presents overviews of the top news stories and surface-related YouTube videos from trusted news sources so you can learn more. Briefs are updated with top stories throughout the day, so you can easily keep up with the latest news.”
  • Google says the success of “News Briefs” depends on its user’s feedback.

Google Mobile Search Result Drops Breadcrumbs

In a surprise move for many, Google removed its mobile search result breadcrumbs, saying there was no point in having them as they are often cut off on smaller screens. 

Key takeaways:

  • Google’s update aims to simplify how mobile search result URLs appear by only displaying the domain on mobiles and tablets. 
  • Google announced the update on its Search Central Blog.
  • The company said it removed breadcrumbs because they often get cut off on mobile devices and aren’t helpful for searches.  
  • Google’s explanation: “The breadcrumb element isn’t as useful to people who are searching on mobile devices as it gets cut off on smaller screens.” 
  • Site owners using breadcrumbs don’t need to take any action. 


From around the web:

Google Shares Insight On SEO For AI Overviews

Search Engine Journal writer Roger Montti reports on Google’s John Mueller, sharing his thoughts on implementing SEO strategies for AI Overviews and its importance for 2025.

Key takeaways:

  • In a YouTube interview, Mueller gave insights on approaching SEO for AI Search.
  • Mueller says SEO is undergoing massive changes. While many people wish it were dead, SEO drives most of their online activities.  
  • John confirms technical SEO will remain crucial for search engines and AI search.
  • Mueller advises search marketers on what they must do to develop and thrive in a world of AI.

Google Expands Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement To Europe

Search Engine RoundTable editor Barry Shwartz reports that Google is enforcing its site reputation abuse policy in the EU, where manual actions are now being taken against many coupon sites. 

Key takeaways:

  • Google manual actions began in the US in May 2024; now, the penalties are hitting EU websites. 
  • Laura Chiocciora posted on X: “Looks like Google is finally sending manual actions in Europe! Here’s an example from Italy: all the white-label projects are now gone (except Ansa). Seeing similar things in other countries, too.”
  • Glenn Gabe also posted about it on X, writing, “Big news. Looks like manual actions have been applied in Europe for site reputation abuse (at least for coupons).
  • Shwartz provides numerous screenshots from various sources showing EU sites being hit with manual actions.

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Terry O'Toole

Terry is a seasoned content marketing specialist with over six years of experience writing content that helps small businesses navigate where small businesses meet marketing - SEO, Social Media Marketing, etc. Terry has a proven track record of creating top-performing content in search results. When he is not writing content, Terry can be found on his boat in Italy or chilling in his villa in Spain.

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