Link Building Strategies

Google is testing having the citations stick to the top (of the AI Overview section only) as you scroll down past the AI Overview. This keeps those citations more in view, as you scroll over the AI Overview.View the full article

Google released an update to Nano Banana yesterday named Nano Banana Pro and it is super impressive as an image generation tool. But it is also incorporated into Google Search via Google AI Mode and available within Google Ads to help you make ad creatives.View the full article

It's been calm for the past two weeks but we are seeing Google ranking volatility hit on May 8th. Google held another creator summit, this one in Washington, D.C. Apple said Google searches are declining in Safari, but Google said...View the full article

Google is testing using the italic font type for the links in AI Mode. So the links have a bit of a slant to them, compared to the other text in the AI Mode response.View the full article

Google Ads added a new channel control for Demand Gen to show ads in Google Maps. Some advertisers see the ability to select Maps as a placement in Demand Gen.View the full article

Google is reportedly working on a "fix" for the AI spam that routinely shows up within users' Google Discover feed. Google issued a statement to the Press Gazette saying, "We're actively working on a fix" for the fake AI spam stories showing up in Google Discover.View the full article

This week we covered the ongoing Google Search ranking volatility. I posted the big Google webmaster report for May. Google admitted in a deposition that it used its search data for Gemini AI. Google Search Console leaked that it was showing desktop data...View the full article

This week, we covered, you guessed it, more Google search ranking volatility. Google also said they are rethinking its search stack from the ground up because of LLMs. Google is testing AI Overviews in more regions and languages prior to Google I/O/ Google is testing AI Mode buttons throughout Google...View the full article

Google's John Mueller said that it is impossible for Google to pre-announce quality improvements to Google Search, including core updates. He said, "having quality changes ready for a specific date/time is never a given, and pre-announcing for a fixed date isn't possible."View the full article

When you go to the Google AI Mode home screen, the quick way to do that is to go to google.com/ai. You may see a small disclaimer under the search box that says "Based on your Google activity."View the full article

Google is testing replacing the definitions box in the search results with AI Overviews. I am personally able to replicate this but this was posted in Reddit a couple of months ago - I didn't think it was new, but yea, this is been an ongoing test for some time.View the full article

Some Google Ads MCC, Manager Accounts, are seeing channel performance reporting. This does not seem to have been rolled out to all advertisers yet, but Mike Ryan noticed it was rolling out on some of his MCC accounts.View the full article

Google confirmed it is essentially removing the Q&A feature within Google Maps, and instead, searchers can use the new AI-powered Ask button on a Google Business Profile to get the answers they are looking for.View the full article

As you may have heard, the latest AI-powered web browser launched yesterday, the much-anticipated OpenAI ChatGPT web browser. OpenAI named its web browser Atlas. The built-in search features seem to be mostly powered by Google Search, for some reason.View the full article

There are reports that Google is showing more free product listings from Google Merchant Center in the Google AI Overview responses. I am told there are two variations of this AI Overview response: one where the favicon and price appear as an overlay, and another where the free listings look more like a map pack.View the full article

Over the years, we have written that service areas are not used as a local ranking factor by Google Search. Well, the API leak document also implies this to be true. View the full article

Google is testing an option to read aloud the AI Overviews by clicking on a speaker icon at the top of the AI Overview within Google Search. And the crazy thing, this is being tested in the US. View the full article

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

Google updated its JavaScript SEO best practices document with a new section on how to set the canonial URL when using JavaScript. Google wrote, "The best way to set the canonical URL is to use HTML, but if you have to use JavaScript, make sure that you always set the canonical URL to the same value as the original HTML."View the full article

Google has clearly documented how it tracks link clicks, impressions and positions for AI Overviews in this help document. But if you ever saw an AI Overview and interacted with them, you'd know that (1) when you click on a link icon, the citation cards on the right change and (2) running the same query a minute later may return different citation cards.View the full article

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 announced new message assets requirements for Google Ads. These new requirements aim "to ensure a good user experience" and go into effect on October 30, 2025.View the full article

Google's John Mueller posted saying "Authentication for your personal crawlers & SEO tools is going to be more and more of a topic." I believe, but I can be wrong, this is alluding to the num parameter being disabled and how tools are having issues now with scraping Google.View the full article

Google has updated how it shows events within AI Overviews. It can now show the direct display of events, instead of an event summary. It is also a bit buggy, but here is how it looks.View the full article

Business Insider interviewed both SEOs and representatives from Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity on what it calls the "GEO rush." The rush for SEO companies or other companies to sell GEO (AI SEO) related services. There are quotes from Danny Sullivan from Google, Krishna Madhavan from Microsoft and more.View the full article