Google hosts events around the world for SEOs, content creators, webmasters, site owners and marketers named Google Search Central Live. They’ve been doing it for years and I’ve attended many over the years. This is the first time the event was held in the new St. John’s Terminal, which is made to impress – let me say.
The event was from 11am to 6pm, with plenty of networking and plenty of talks. It honestly is a great event and it is a ton of work and money for Google to put this together.
I will say, the majority of the content presented was not new and more so, mostly from content published on Google’s help documentation or previously written on their blog. But not all, just most.
I just wanted to share my takeaways from the event, for those who do not follow me on X or Bluesky:
I first met up with Danny Sullivan and Daniel Waisberg from Google to catch up quickly:
Better photo maybe pic.twitter.com/NPva6qw5ww
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
Then we went to the event, there was a networking space on the outside that had light refreshments.
Then we entered the auditorium for the presentations, here is a video:
Big crowd at the @googlesearchc NYC event pic.twitter.com/FqfmYzLmvw
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
Now @searchliaison is up pic.twitter.com/LOmMfppDHK
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
Here are some slides and comments that caught my attention:
Google defines EEAT but says you can’t sprinkle EEAT on your site. It doesn’t work like that. Via @JohnMu pic.twitter.com/DmjC0tg9Rk
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
@searchliaison said 50% of the content on the web is spam pic.twitter.com/pKTInyBo1u
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
There is no list of freelancers that can cause a site to get a Google site reputation abuse penalty says @searchliaison pic.twitter.com/6vBuOmyuFf
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
More on scaled content abuse and AI content – it’s not specific to AI… via @searchliaison pic.twitter.com/DkRe13UmEh
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
How Google defines RankBrain, MUM and Bert via @JohnMu pic.twitter.com/WhGKloglmz
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
Now @JohnMu talks about Google Search Console search performance reports including AI features – he reiterates AI Overviews you can’t filter out pic.twitter.com/O0aaiFBzyJ
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
You can use snippet controls to try to control your content from showing in the snippet of the AI Overview via @JohnMu – (my thoughts ,it’s a hack job) pic.twitter.com/paG4oYtoBi
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
Google said on stage that these users are spending more time on publisher sites after clicking over from an AI Overview. How do they measure this? GA data which they said they don’t use? – covered this earlier – but they said it again here at the event https://t.co/AkGJ57CapM https://t.co/EgoCKBgnVy
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
More details pic.twitter.com/HDKs9uI45a
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
Google Search Console data reports are all on California time zone except for the 24 hour view says @danielwaisberg pic.twitter.com/8pEzNqDeGK
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
via @danielwaisberg
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
Pre submitted Q&A with the Google Search team – might be time for live questions at the end but unknown pic.twitter.com/d3uN0ldREi
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
He said not now but maybe in the future.
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
Danny covers “independent” content creators.
“How do we spend more time to guide smaller independent sites to succeed”
Reference to a trip to Zurich where they discussed how they could do more. What could they do internally.
Reference to “we’ve done things to help”
Unlikely… https://t.co/tzt9xvkfoO pic.twitter.com/Ob2C8KNNwt
— Mr Jonathan Jones 🇹🇼🇬🇧 (@Jonny_J_) March 20, 2025
The Google @searchliaison said he is on X every day and interacts with people here every day pic.twitter.com/RANE1W0l0z
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) March 20, 2025
I hope this is useful to some of you all.