Link Building Strategies

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

Some time ago, Google updated the flow for the Google Business Profile verification. And the issue is, if you fill it out wrong, it can have consequences for that Google business listing in the future.View the full article

Google seems to be rolling out colorful sections in the knowledge panels. Sometimes you will see gray, sometimes blue, sometimes orange and sometimes green and maybe more. We saw this on mobile over a decade ago, so this does seem new, especially on desktop.View the full article

Google AI Mode doesn't always pass referrer data from the links on the sidebar. This is supposedly being looked at by the Google Search team and hopefully will be fixed soon, if not, already.View the full article

Google Search may have rolled out an update for the images it shows in the search results All tab. For some queries, Google is showing a full-width image pack, but with only four wider images, not the five images we saw before.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 announced it updated AI Mode to link to more recipe sites and bloggers. "Starting today, when you search for meal ideas like 'easy dinners for two,' you can tap on the dish to see links to relevant recipe sites, plus a short overview of the dish to help with inspiration," Robby Stein from Google said on X.View the full article

Google seems to have a bug with the Crawl Stats report in Google Search Console. The date selector appears to be acting a bit weird, where it doesn't let you select the before or after date.View the full article

Google Ads is rolling out Google AI voice models as a new asset optimization feature for your video ads. This is for your existing Performance Max video ads.View the full article

Google has offered this feature that shows you your past searches, including being able to see your related activity searches from the Google Search results. Now, it seems, Google added a chart to show that search activity over time.View the full article

A few weeks ago, we covered how damaging the Google Search results were for recipe publishers and bloggers. It was nicknamed Frankenstein recipes because it would take pieces of these recipes from bloggers, mash them together and ruin them, all while also mentioning the brand name - hurting the brand. View the full article

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

On February 10th, we reported the beginning of yet another unconfirmed Google Search ranking update. The volatility has not cooled yet and it seems it may have even heated up through the weekend.View the full article

Google AdSense has ended its Parked Domains (AFD) as an ad surface within the Search Partner Network effective February 10, 2026. Google wrote, "Parked Domains (AFD) will cease to be an ad surface within the Search Partner Network effective February 10, 2026."View the full article

There is some new data out that shows that yes, Google's AI Overviews are causing a huge decline in clicks to websites organically but it is also showing that for e-commerce queries, there is a massive increase in clicks on search ads and product/shopping ads.View the full article

Did you know that the Google AI Overviews link citation paperclip icons are blue before you click to see more of the overviews and then after you click on them, that icon turns to a gray color.View the full article

Google sent out an email to some Google Ads advertisers about changes coming to Google Ads budget pacing for ad scheduling. These changes go into effect on March 1, 2026.View the full article

Microsoft has implemented and continues to deploy mitigations against prompt injection attacks in Copilot, the company announced last week. Spammers were using the "Summarize with AI" type of buttons to trick AI engines into believing or trusting a specific company or response.View the full article

Google is testing adding "web mentions" to the retailer store page under the reviews section. I cannot replicate this yet, but web mentions shows what people are saying about the retailer on sites like Reddit and other social platforms, whereas reviews are reviews left on Google.View the full article

Google has reportedly confirmed that the Google Discover feed has recently increased how often it shows social media posts in the feed. We covered this in January, and while we know Google does show social media in the Discover feed, it seems Google is more likely to show these social media posts more often now.View the full article

OpenAI announced GPT-5.3 Instant and said it "delivers more accurate answers, richer and better-contextualized results when searching the web, and reduces unnecessary dead ends, caveats, and overly declarative phrasing that can interrupt the flow of conversation."View the full article

Google has added a new attribute to the Google Merchant Center availability options within vehicle listings. The new one is named "Build to order" and only works for Google Vehicle ads.View the full article

Google is testing a new AI Mode widget within the main search results that drives searchers away from the core search results and recipe listings/cards and into AI Mode, which then shows those horrible AI-generated Frankenstein recipes.View the full article

This week, we covered the doubly heated Google Search ranking volatility, but nothing was confirmed by Google. OpenAI will soon test ads in ChatGPT responses and they will charge on an impression basis...View the full article

A thread at Reddit asked if a one-year-old website can beat a four-year-old website in SEO and perform better in Google Search. John Mueller from Google answered with his classic "it depends."View the full article