Link Building Strategies

In a rare Sunday launch, Google announced new AI Mode ads named Direct Offers. Google also announced branded AI agents and a new open standard for agentic commerce it calls Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).View the full article

Google's Robby Stein reiterated that Google's AI experience, such as AI Mode and AI Overviews, integrates Google's core search signals. This helps Google provide more useful and helpful responses to users in the AI experiences. But it doesn't always get it right, as many of you know.View the full article

Google Shopping is updating its promotions policy to now allow for promotions on subscription fees and abbreviations. This was updated as of this month, January 2026.View the full article

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

Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind CEO, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Google does not have "any plans" to bring ads to Gemini. This comes even after OpenAI announced ads are coming to ChatGPT.View the full article

Google Ads lets you see how your product ads are performing across all your campaigns in a single view. Some advertisers are saying this is a new report, so I figured I'd share what they're noticing. View the full article

Google Ads has a new help document named Campaign Mix Experiments (Beta). This describes how advertisers can test multiple campaign types, budgets, and settings across campaigns in a single experiment. View the full article

I ran a poll yesterday on X asking Would you block Google from using your content for AI Overviews and AI Mode. About 33% of the over 350 responses said they would block Google from using and showing their content in the AI search experiences. 42% said they would not block Google and 25% are not sure yet.View the full article

Google reportedly updated its Google Ads support contact form to add a disclaimer and checkbox to say you authorize "Google Ads specialist on behalf of your company to make the changes above directly to your company's Google Ads account to reproduce and troubleshoot the issue."View the full article

This week we covered the Google AI Mode news that it is more visual for many queries, including shopping queries. Google AI Mode agentic capabilities can now be opted into. Google AI Overviews...View the full article

Liz Reid VP, head of Search at Google, was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal's Bold Names podcast. They spoke about AI, AI Search, how ads are impacted by AI results and other Google features, and AI-generated content's impact on the web and search, plus more.View the full article

Google's John Mueller announced Google is "simplify the search results page" by removing "some features that aren't being used very often and aren't adding significant value to users." This means more structured data types will be removed, but for some reason, Google did not specify exactly which ones are going away.View the full article

Google now lets you add your shipping and returns information within Google Search Console, even if you do not have a Google Merchant Center account. Previously, Google let you do this only if you had a Merchant Center account, that is no longer a requirement.View the full article

Google is testing shading the background color behind the search ads, sponsored results, and the local pack in the Google Search results. I do like that Google is testing differentiating the organic/free listings with the search ads/sponsored listings.View the full article

Can you imagine you manage hundreds of clients in your Google Ads Manager Accounts (MCC) gets hijacked. Or your Google Account and your ad campaigns gets hijacked due to an MCC hijack? Well, this stuff happens and it can be incredibly scary and painful.View the full article

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

Google Ads published new documentation on a tool called "Website Optimizer." Now, some of you OGs may remember Website Optimizer from 2008 or so. Well, it was renamed to Google Optimize and then sunset on September 30, 2023. Google Ads may be bringing it back or making something new within Google Ads named Website Optimizer.View the full article

Google is testing a new widget at the top of the Google Discover feed. It is called "Top Searches," and it will randomly show some of the top searches across Google Search. And guess what, when you click on them, it takes you into AI Mode, not Google Search.View the full article

Google is reportedly working on a new Gemini App user experience, which it is calling 2.0. The company is putting "huge investment" into this update of the Gemini user experience but we are not sure when this new look and experience will be released.View the full article

Google just posted its annual Seasonal Holidays Doodle, Google logo, for the 2025 holiday season. We have Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa coming up really soon now and since it is December 1, Google posted the Doodle.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

Google Ads may be testing the ability to subscribe to support updates via WhatsApp. Google has rolled out a new option to get real-time support case updates directly on WhatsApp, at least some folks are seeing this.View the full article

Microsoft is testing a "see more" button in the Bing Search results, which, when you click on it, loads more search results in the middle section.View the full article

Nick Fox is the SVP of Knowledge and Information at Google was interviewed again on the AI Inside channel by Jason Howel and Jeff Jarvin. He said a lot of interesting things but said no, Google won't be offering standarized licensing deals for all publishers. He also said that optimizing for AI Search is the same as what you do for web search and normal SEO.View the full article

Back in October, many businesses reported that reviews left on their Google Business Profiles were disappearing. It wasn't happening to every business, but it was widespread. Last night, I was told the bug had been fixed and that the reviews should be returning.View the full article