SEO News You Can Use: Google Discontinues Optimize and Optimize 360

Google recently announced that it would discontinue Optimize and Optimize 360 as of 30 September 2023. Google has advised those who use either to start finding another solution; however, it is looking into providing an alternative solution to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) users.

Optimize has helped provide insights on user experiences so that businesses can make necessary improvements to landing pages and their websites, among other digital content, that will benefit their customers. Users are now encouraged to download and gather any data before the end of September.

The tool has only been around for five years but is considered one of the most useful, despite its short run. The reason for Optimize and Optimize 360’s being sunset is because there are some features and services that Google feels are lacking. The goal is to provide more conducive solutions. If you plan to renew your Google Analytics 4 contract for the first half of the year, you will still be able to do so. For those planning to move over to GA4 but want to use Optimize 360 to help ease into the transition, Google will give free access until the sunset date in September.

More SEO News You Can Use

Google Provides Tips on Optimizing Merchant Listing Experiences: In the latest Google eCommerce series, Alan Kent, Google Developer Advocate, has provided some useful insights into optimizing product pages to help improve the chances of being eligible for merchant listings in search results. This will be of tremendous value to eCommerce sites as he shares tips on structured data, product identifiers as well as a Merchant Center feed to improve the overall Merchant listing experience. This experience includes shopping knowledge panels, popular products, snippets and image searches. Kent speaks of how important rich product data is to qualify for these types of experiences. The most important thing to remember is to provide product data that relies heavily on structured data. It’s also essential to provide product pricing data and product identifiers as this will help to boost visibility and push sales.

Google’s Founders Approve Plans For ChatGPT To Be Added to Search: Google has announced that it will be adding a chatbot as a feature to search results. This comes as ChatGPT continues to succeed and stand as a direct competitor to Google. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have started to speed up their plans to integrate chatbot features as OpenAI’s ChatGPT continues to gain momentum, even though it has only been released for two months. Google plans to release not only one but twenty AI features this year alone. Microsoft has similarly announced integrating chatbot features into Bing by March this year. It seems ChatGPT has undoubtedly ruffled a few feathers, and we wonder who is next in the pursuit of AI integration.

Google Image Search Engine Optimization Best Practices and Discover Documents Get Updated: Google has recently added some new information to its SEO best practices and Discover documentation. Firstly, Google has added new information regarding the Google Discover Feed. It places specific emphasis on the feed title and item link elements as being the most essential when it comes to Follow feature content. Secondly, Google clarified that it resolves <img> elements when enclosed in other elements. Previously, Google simply made reference to HTML being parsed to index images, except for CSS images. This is particularly helpful if you’re looking to boost your image SEO performance. Search Engine Land suggests testing these changes for both positive and negative impacts they could have on your website.

Google Announces Google Business Profiles Can Now List Car Inventory: Google is adding a new feature for US-based car dealerships. Local inventory will now be able to be listed on Google Business Profiles (GBPs). This “Cars for Sale” feature can be used for any car or product with a vehicle identification number (VIN). Before, merchants were only allowed to list cars. Now anything with a VIN can be listed, including motorcycles, recreational vehicles (RVs), and commercial and power sports vehicles. This feature is still in the beta testing phase and can be found under “Vehicle Listings.” This feature is intended to help users filter their searches to make it easier to find available products at the best price point and potentially help boost sales for dealerships too.

Update to Yoast SEO 20.0 Brings With It Significant Changes: Yoast has recently made changes to its interface that will change how users interact with it. Users no longer have to click on various tabs to be able to access pages offering various options – introducing a card-type feature. This feature offers different features that users can choose from and activate or deactivate. Each category has a dedicated row with different cards for different settings. When deactivated, the card remains, yet is colored gray. This change has also been implemented on its “API Integrations” setting page. After testing this new interface, Roger Montti of Search Engine Journal reported that the interface is well thought out and very user-friendly, even for beginners, as each card provides helpful information on each setting.

Editor’s Note: “SEO News You Can Use” is a weekly blog post posted every Monday morning only on SEOblog.com, rounding up all the top SEO news from around the world. Our goal is to make SEOblog.com a one-stop-shop for everyone looking for SEO news, education and for hiring an SEO expert with our comprehensive SEO agency directory.