Link Building Strategies

On Wednesday, Google announced a number of new AI features, which we covered (links below) but one other feature Google spoke about was "AI-powered article overviews." This is an experiment Google News is trying with a handful of publishers.View the full article

Google is now sending email notifications for when Google Business Profiles has removed the restrictions on your reviews and ratings. The email says, "Restrictions on your reviews and ratings have been removed" and it comes from the Google Business Profiles team.View the full article

Google officially announced the rollout of the December 2025 core update on Thursday at around 12:25 pm ET. This core update is expected to take about 3 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."View the full article

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

Google announced it has updated the links in AI Mode to encourage searchers to click more. Google also introduced contextual introductions to embedded links in AI Mode responses.View the full article

Google announced that Preferred Sources is now rolling out globally, after launching just in the US and India in August, following its beta period in June. Plus, Google announced Spotlighting subscriptions are coming to Gemini, AI Mode, and AI Overviews.View the full article

In June, Google moved Offerwall out of its AdSense beta, making it available to all. Now, if you are using Offerwall, Google will opt you into Offerwall optimization.View the full article

Microsoft is testing out the new Google Ads sponsored results label, ad grouping and hide button with its own Bing Search results ads. Microsoft Advertising search ads in Bing are testing grouping multiple search ads under one "Sponsored results" label, and then at the bottom, there is a "Hide" and then "Show" button.View the full article

Google has officially expanded the Web Guide to the "All" tab. Originally when it launched as a Search Labs beta, it was under the "Web" tab but as we saw, Google began expanding it to the "All" tab.View the full article

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 updated its search documentation to state that it does smaller core updates more often without confirming them. Google Discover is now minimally aligned to search rankings...View the full article

Google has told us that core updates impact visibility within Google Discover, but that may have changed at some point. Andy Almeida from the Google Trust and Safety spoke about Google Discover and one of his slides wrote, "Minimal alignment to Search ranking..."View the full article

Google is testing incorporating Ads Advisor into the contact us page for Google Ads support. Google was doing this for policy disapproval support requests as well. View the full article

14 months ago, Google updated its documentation around its shopping related structured data warning not to generate your structured data dynamically through JavaScript. Yesterday, at the Search Central Live event in Zurich, a Google engineer explained why - it's because the shopping bot crawls a lot and fast.View the full article

Google updated its core update documentation to say it does smaller core updates and does not announce those updates. This is not new; Google told us this back in 2019. What is new is that Google added it to its search developer documentation.View the full article

Microsoft is testing moving the ad labels in the Bing Search results from the left side of the ad to the right side of the ad. I am not sure which makes it harder to see the label or not but I assume Microsoft is testing this to see which will get more clicks.View the full article

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

Microsoft Advertising reportedly made two updates to its ad platform recently. One on how ad disapprovals work and the other on the time it takes to see a conversion be recorded in the ad reporting interfaces.View the full article

Back in October, we saw Google testing having the "Show more" button in the AI Overviews within Google Search jump you to AI Mode with follow-up questions. Well, Google's Robby Stein announced on X yesterday that this is being tested (after it was tested already) in the mobile search results.View the full article

Google's John Mueller said having a 100MB video file on your home page won't have a noticeable SEO effect. This was his response on a Reddit thread to the concern of having such a weighted-down file on your home page.View the full article

Google's Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro is now available in AI Mode in 120 countries and territories in English. This expands it from Gemini 3 in AI Mode's initial launch just a couple of weeks ago.View the full article

It is already December, can you believe it and even crazier, I've been doing this for 22 years! Where does the time ago. In any event, we had some serious Google ranking volatility this month, especially over the Thanksgiving week/end.View the full article

Today marks the 22nd anniversary of when I started this site, the Search Engine Roundtable. I was 23 years old when I started this site, compiling what the search community and search industry was talking about and...View the full article

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

Google has launched a new link on some search / sponsored ads named "Products at this location." Google confirmed this "relatively new feature" and can show up on listings for service businesses and other types of businesses.View the full article

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