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June 2023: This Month in Search

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June’s top SEO stories included the launch of Google’s new Perspectives search filter, and better video indexation reporting.

In other search news, Google is removing Canada news links in response to new legislation, there is some algorithm update chatter (although nothing confirmed), and Google has provided updated Merchant Center data specs. Google and Bing have also both been busy rolling out a number of new SERP features and testing others, including multiple featured snippets, larger product images, a price range product slider and more. 

John Mueller shared some insights and clarifications around a few topics, including a warning about using custom elements in the head of the page, answered a question about whether security headers are a ranking signal, offered some nuance regarding the topic of “index bloat”, and more. We’re also seeing a lot of conversation and updates on the AI front, with both Google and Bing iterating rapidly and rolling out a lot of updates to their various AI offerings.

June’s Top Stories

Google launches new Perspectives search filter: after formally announcing this new feature at Google I/O in May (although we’ve been hearing about it for longer), Google started rolling out their new “Perspectives” search filter to mobile search results over the first weekend in June. The feature sits with the rest of the filter options under the search bar, and is intended to pull in a compilation of commentary on a searched topic from video, social media, news, forums and similar.

Screenshot from Google, June 2023

Improved video indexing reporting: Google has also been making some changes recently to how and when video content is indexed and displayed in SERPs. The latest guidance has emphasized that video should be the “main element” on the page for it to qualify for a SERP thumbnail, and Gary Ilyes has now further clarified that while it does not need to be the first element on the page, the video  should be “in their face right away”. Alongside this update to the guidance, they have rolled out changes to the video indexing reporting in GSC, to provide more specific reasons for why “Google could not determine the prominent video on the page”. The three new issues they are reporting on are: “video outside the viewport”, “video too small”, and “video too tall”.

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Read on for our roundup of what else is new in search this month:

Industry News and Updates

Algorithm Updates

General News and Updates

SERP Tests and Updates

AI Updates

GSC and BWT Updates