Link Building Strategies

There have been several complaints over the past week about Google showing searchers its old Google Search design. Some of those search results seem to lead to a broken interface, while others just look like they are from a decade or so ago.View the full article

Google is testing showing favicons logos in its shopping ads, in the carousel of sponsored product results. Ginny Marvin, Google's Ads Liaison, confirmed this with me on X last night.View the full article

Google is testing showing a call to action in the search results that says, "Skip digging, start guided research" which drives users to a Web Guide-like results page.View the full article

Google seems to be testing showing up to 10 sitelinks on some of the search result snippets. Normally, Google will show about 4 sitelinks, but here Google is showing 6 more.View the full article

Google is testing a new version of AI Mode responses in the wild, directly in the Google Search AI Mode interface. Google even tells the searcher, "You're giving feedback on a new version of Al Mode. Which response do you prefer?"View the full article

Google is now testing a new accommodations carousel in the search results for hotel-related queries. The new accommodations carousel shows up under the hotel pack.View the full article

Google was previously testing placing AI-generated snippet summaries below each search result snippet. Now, Google is testing replacing the search result snippet's description with its own AI-generated description. View the full article

Google is testing adding an AI label to some of the search ads, the sponsored results, within the search results. Clicking on the AI label does nothing, according to Brodie Clark who spotted this.View the full article

Google is testing ways to get more people to try AI Mode with a new AI Mode button in the Google Search bar on the Google home page. We've seen Google test AI Mode promotions with banners in the search results but now Google is placing large buttons in the search bar to get people to use AI Mode.View the full article

Google is testing a new shortcut location for AI Mode in the Google App on Android. Google is placing the shortcut button directly in the search bar.View the full article

We generally see the AI Overviews show at the top of the Google search results page, I mean, it is an overview, so you'd expect them at the top. But we've seen them show up in the middle of the search results, sometimes even in position two. Now we are seeing examples of them showing at the botton of the search results page.View the full article

Google is testing replacing the "Dive deeper in AI Mode" button with "Follow up in AI Mode." This is the button you can sometimes see at the bottom of the AI Overview, after you expand the AI Overview within Google Search.View the full article

While we've seen AI Overviews in the United States for a while now, and while Google has expanded them to 100+ countries - they are still not officially launched in many European countries like Germany, Switzerland, Italy and others. Well, now we are hearing that Google is testing AI Overviews in those countries.View the full article

Google is testing moving the AI Overviews from the top position of the search results page (also known as position zero), to the middle of the search results page. We saw Google test this with featured snippets over the years, so it makes sense Google would test this with AI Overviews.View the full article

Google seems to be on the verge of rolling out AI Overviews in within Google Search in more countries and regions. We are seeing signs of Google testing AI Overviews in the wild in Turkey, Sweden and the Netherlands. This is a week or so before Google's big conference, Google I/O.View the full article

Google is testing showing AI Overviews on the right hand side of the search results page. I am not sure if this is specific to local queries and a replacement of sorts for the local panel, I hope not.View the full article

Google Search seems to have accidentally leaked its various AI Search options and features, that go beyond just AI Mode, which it recently launched. 47 different AI Search options are shown including Info Sleuth, Allium, QTalk, MedExplainer, Fantasy Sports Researcher, Smart Kitchen and many more.View the full article

Google is testing opening the normally closed/collapsed AI Answer box. Meaning, normally you need to manually tap to expand the answer, here Google is testing opening these boxes by default, without you needing to click expand.View the full article

Google is testing a slightly different layout for its search result snippets. Google seems to be indenting the title link, URL and description to the right and placing the favicon indented to the left of that placement.View the full article

Google is testing spelling out the search menu and instead of saying "All," Google is testing writing out "All results." I am not sure why Google is testing this, but Google is always testing these small changes.View the full article

Google is testing replacing the low key website / URL button in the knowledge panels within Google Search, with a large blue button. I mean, this blue button makes it was more clickable, a much larger and more visible call to action, than the normal button you see in Knowledge Panels.View the full article

Google is testing bolding the site names in the search results. We've seen Google bold many other elements of the search result snippet, but I don't think I've covered Google testing bolding the site name portion of the search snippet.View the full article

Google is testing the paperclip style icon in the search results, by the search result snippets and description. Clicking anywhere on the paperclip or the snippet will take you to the webpage.View the full article

Google is testing a "contactless" label in place of the curbside pickup labels in the shopping search results. The curbside label became popular during COVID and has stuck around as a convenience factor for shoppers after.View the full article

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."View the full article