Link Building Strategies Latest Topics

Google Search Console Links Report Is Broken

Thu, 21 May 2026 20:14:00 +0000

It looks like the Google Search Console link report has gone haywire and is broken pretty badly. Tons of SEOs are seeing zero links in the report, whereas others are seeing huge drops in the link counts in the report.

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Programming Note: Offline For Shavuot On Friday

Thu, 21 May 2026 19:00:00 +0000

This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the holiday of Shavout/Shavous on Friday, May 22, 2026. Any stories published here will be scheduled, written beforehand, and not written during the holiday hours...

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Google May 2026 Core Update Is Rolling Out - You Felt It

Thu, 21 May 2026 16:04:00 +0000

Google officially announced the rollout of the May 2026 core update just now, on Thursday at around 11:43 am ET. This core update is expected to take about 2 weeks to roll out. Google said this "is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites."

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Daily Search Forum Recap: May 21, 2026

Thu, 21 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google Marketing Live is done and we covered the new conversational discovery ads and highlighted answer ads...

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Google Tests Conversational Discovery Ads & Highlighted Answers In AI Mode

Thu, 21 May 2026 11:51:00 +0000

Google announced at Google Marketing Live two new ad formats that will show up in Google's AI Mode. Google said there are conversational discover ads and highlighted answer ads, and of course, they are labeled as "Sponsored."

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Google AI Mode Shopping Ads, Business Agent For Leads & Direct Offers Coming

Thu, 21 May 2026 11:41:00 +0000

Google announced at Google Marketing Live that it is also bringing Shopping ads, Business Agent for Leads and expanding the Direct Offers pilot for AI Mode in the coming months.

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Google Ask Advisor Brings Together Ads Advisor & Analytics Advisor

Thu, 21 May 2026 11:31:00 +0000

Google announced it is making one uniform AI-agentic advisor named Ask Advisor that brings together Google Ads Advisor and Google Analytics Advisor, and I assume the beta Google Merchant Advisor.

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Google Search Tests For You Label In Product Grid Results

Thu, 21 May 2026 11:21:00 +0000

Google is testing a "for you" label in the product grid, shopping results, within Google Search. It gives you a more personalized response, in this example, a promotion code was available for this merchant.

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Google AdSense Adds Dynamic Anchors Ads

Thu, 21 May 2026 11:11:00 +0000

Google has made a new anchor ads format named Dynamic anchor ads for AdSense. I don't see the announcement for this yet, but Google updated its help document on anchor ads and changed collapsible anchors to dynamic anchors.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: May 20, 2026

Wed, 20 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. I covered all the Google Search related news from Google I/O including the new intelligent search box...

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Google's New Search Bar, The Intelligent Search Box

Wed, 20 May 2026 11:51:00 +0000

Google has released the first major update to the search bar, the search box, ever - Google is calling it the intelligent Search box. We saw variations of this being tested over the past year, and now it is officially rolling out - as per Liz Reid, Google's Head of Search, via Google I/O.

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Google Search Now Powered By Gemini 3.5 Flash With New Agentic Features

Wed, 20 May 2026 11:41:00 +0000

Google Search is now using Gemini 3.5 Flash to power AI Mode globally and also there are several new agentic features in and coming to Google Search. These agentic features include information agents, agentic coding, personal intelligence is expanding and Universal Cart, UCP and AP2.

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Google Tests Preferred Sources Label In AI Mode Citations

Wed, 20 May 2026 11:31:00 +0000

Google is now testing adding the Preferred Sources label in the AI Mode links and citations. It is unclear if Google is showing this link in this AI Mode response because it is a preferred source or if it is just labeling it, and it would show the source anyway - does that make sense?

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Google Adult Property Added To Merchant Listing & Product Variant

Wed, 20 May 2026 11:21:00 +0000

Google added the hasAdultConsideration property to the Merchant listing and Product variant documentation, and it is now officially supported and listed as a recommended property for both Merchant listing and Product variant structured data with Google Search.

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Microsoft Advertising Updates Import Center, Cross-Account Portfolio Bidding & Bidding Strategy Report

Wed, 20 May 2026 11:11:00 +0000

Microsoft Advertising announced its monthly releases, and they include updates to the import center, cross-account portfolio bidding, bidding strategy reports, and custom column conversion metrics (that one we covered earlier).

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Daily Search Forum Recap: May 19, 2026

Tue, 19 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

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Google Adds Markdown Files To Help Docs But Not Used For Search

Tue, 19 May 2026 11:51:00 +0000

Google has added markdown files, .md.txt files, to the Google Search help documents. But John Mueller from Google said that these are not being used for Search or generative AI responses in Search.

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Google I/O 2026 Search Ranking Volatility & Update

Tue, 19 May 2026 11:41:00 +0000

Today is Google I/O, where Google announces many of its new features across its products, including Google Search. It is not uncommon to see Google search ranking volatility spike around Google I/O, and that is exactly what we are seeing today - the morning of Google I/O.

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OpenAI / ChatGPT Has A Web Cache

Tue, 19 May 2026 11:31:00 +0000

OpenAI's ChatGPT web search feature does offer a web cache, an offline, locally stored version of web pages that have been previously crawled. This should not come as a surprise, as all search engines store cached versions of web pages (even if they don't show it to us).

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Bing Tests New Fonts, Links & Products Within Copilot Answers

Tue, 19 May 2026 11:21:00 +0000

Microsoft is running a number of tests and experiments for Bing Search and the Copilot answers within Bing Search. These tests include font changes, link updates, product results and more.

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Microsoft Clarity New AI Citations Report

Tue, 19 May 2026 11:11:00 +0000

Microsoft, not to be outdone by Google, added AI citations to Microsoft Clarity, its web analytics tool. This report shows how your content is referenced in AI-generated answers.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: May 18, 2026

Mon, 18 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

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Google Search On How To Optimize For Generative AI With Myth-Busting

Mon, 18 May 2026 11:51:00 +0000

On Friday, Google published a new help document named Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search. This document covers much of what Googlers have said over the years, including a myth-busting section that will trigger some in the industry.

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66% Of SEOs Say AI Mode Won't Replace Google Search

Mon, 18 May 2026 11:41:00 +0000

I asked the SEO community if they think AI Mode will replace Google Search. With Google I/O coming up this Tuesday, there is a lot of speculation around this. And with over 1,000 poll results in, I wanted to share that most of you think AI Mode will not replace Google Search.

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Google Search Live Results Updated By AI X Minutes Ago Label

Mon, 18 May 2026 11:31:00 +0000

Google Search is sometimes showing a label under the Live search results named "Updated by AI 1 minute ago." So Google is labeling what content was updated using AI, which seems new to me.

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