Knowledge base v2.13.0 · Community edition · data through 2 October 2026
Topic · Working with Google
SEO is not only content; it has many parts, as was said on Day 1. On Day 2 a community speaker extended this to rendering: many SEOs still treat everything beyond the raw HTML as the developers' business, while developers often do not handle rendering problems. Because even established brands showed rendering problems that were not fixed promptly, he argued that most sites probably have them too and that ignoring rendering is reckless. On Day 3 a community speaker argued that SEO is for humans, writing for people and their problems rather than to please Googlebot, and another said the challenge is no longer ranking but measuring and showing SEO's value to stakeholders as AI features take clicks. Google said it does not tell community speakers what to present and judged from their talks that the vast majority of SEOs have a very good handle on what is happening in Search. The second recording of Day 1 added the community's own framing. Google received close to 200 submissions for the lightning talks and gave each selected speaker seven minutes, because the community holds knowledge worth highlighting; on Day 2 it added a poster session for topics that need a longer one-to-one discussion, with posters ranging from SEO testing in CI/CD pipelines to complex migrations, and one by a Googler on bringing Google's tools into WordPress. Community speakers said the industry turned everything into a metric and reduced Google's push for fast sites to a checklist, and contrasted real audience understanding with keyword tools that turn People Also Ask questions into headings, but said much SEO work is plumbing, not gaming, since a site must be crawlable and visible before it is even considered. Another argued that search no longer happens in one place and that SEO's target expands rather than moves: technical SEO stays the foundation, and the new question is whether a page's information is useful and easy to extract as a source.
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Google received close to 200 submissions for the community lightning talks of the Deep Dive, reviewed them over about a month, and gave each selected community speaker seven minutes on stage.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
Google's hosts said the lightning talks exist because the SEO community holds a lot of knowledge, some of it untapped, and highlighting the people who have it serves the community best.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker contrasted real audience understanding (reading logs, tracking how the brand is mentioned and perceived, letting customer complaints change pricing pages and products) with keyword-tool research that turns People Also Ask questions into H2s and blog posts.
Speaker Thiago PojdaIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker said the SEO industry turned everything into a metric because budgets are approved on numbers, not ideas.
“an idea doesn't get you budget approval; a number does.”
Wording checked against the slide or recording
Speaker Thiago PojdaIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker said not all SEO work was wrong: a site still has to be crawlable and visible before it is even considered, and much of that work is plumbing, not gaming.
“There's a lot of plumbing that's not gaming.”
Speaker Thiago PojdaIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker said Google's AMP project, meant to get people building fast websites and addressed directly to engineers and marketers, was smart, but the industry reduced it to a metric and a checklist ('now I have an AMP website').
Speaker Thiago PojdaIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker argued that search no longer happens in one place, so SEO is about how content is found, understood and trusted wherever search occurs.
Speaker Jovana AvramovicIn Day 1, 16:20 · Lightning session C: CrawlingEvidence transcript
A community speaker said technical SEO remains the foundation for AI search, with site architecture showing the structure and thematic connections of content and structured data adding clarity, but that a technically sound site is only the beginning.
Speaker Jovana AvramovicIn Day 1, 16:20 · Lightning session C: CrawlingEvidence transcript
A community speaker summed up the shift as SEO's target expanding rather than moving: besides asking whether a page can rank, ask whether its information is useful as a source and easy to extract.
“The target is not shifting; it is expanding.”
Speaker Jovana AvramovicIn Day 1, 16:20 · Lightning session C: CrawlingEvidence transcript
SEO is not only content; it has many parts.
In Day 1 · session not recordedEvidence notes
Many SEOs still treat everything beyond the raw HTML as the developers' business, but developers often do not handle rendering problems, a community speaker warned.
Speaker Sören BendigIn Day 2, 10:40 · Lightning session D: Rendering and JavaScriptEvidence transcript
Because even established brands have these rendering problems and every modern website uses a lot of JavaScript, a community speaker argued that most sites probably have them too and that ignoring rendering is reckless.
Speaker Sören BendigIn Day 2, 10:40 · Lightning session D: Rendering and JavaScriptEvidence transcript
None of the rendering problems a community speaker showed from established brands' sites had been fixed promptly: some were fixed by the time of the talk and some were still live.
Speaker Sören BendigIn Day 2, 10:40 · Lightning session D: Rendering and JavaScriptEvidence transcript
Google added a poster session to the Deep Dive because some topics need a longer, more one-to-one discussion than a seven-minute lightning talk allows.
Speaker Community speakersIn Day 2, 14:45 · Poster session H: IndexingEvidence transcript
The Day 2 poster topics included technical SEO testing in CI/CD pipelines, internal links that move rankings, Search Console's URL Inspection tool and API, getting everyone on board during complex site migrations, a CMS migration from WordPress to Contentful, the 'global Spanish' problem and going beyond prompts.
Speaker Community speakersIn Day 2, 14:45 · Poster session H: IndexingEvidence transcript
One Day 2 poster was presented by a Googler, about bringing Google's tools into WordPress sites.
Speaker Community speakersIn Day 2, 14:45 · Poster session H: IndexingEvidence transcript
In Lightning session K (Facets of quality), a community speaker argued that SEO is for humans: write for people and the problems they have, rather than to please Googlebot.
“SEO is for humans”
Speaker Community speakersIn Day 3, 10:45 · Lightning session K: Facets of qualityEvidence transcript
Because Googlebot is not a human, the speaker's team at the time thought more about Googlebot than about human readers, a community speaker said.
Speaker Community speakersIn Day 3, 10:45 · Lightning session K: Facets of qualityEvidence transcript
A community speaker said the problem SEOs face is not ranking but positioning SEO differently and measuring and showing its value to stakeholders while AI features take away clicks, some of which were probably not relevant anyway.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Google does not tell lightning-talk and poster speakers what to talk about; they bring their own ideas.
Speaker Gary IllyesIn Day 3, 16:00 · Wrapping all up: AI, Search, and making sense of everything.Evidence transcript
Gary Illyes said he hoped the community lightning talks and posters confirmed Google's on-stage message, and judged from them that the vast majority of SEOs have a very good handle on what is happening in Search.
Speaker Gary IllyesIn Day 3, 16:00 · Wrapping all up: AI, Search, and making sense of everything.Evidence transcript
Many SEOs still treat everything beyond the raw HTML as the developers' business, but developers often do not handle rendering problems, a community speaker warned.
Google does not tell lightning-talk and poster speakers what to talk about; they bring their own ideas.
Google received close to 200 submissions for the community lightning talks of the Deep Dive, reviewed them over about a month, and gave each selected community speaker seven minutes on stage.