Link Building Strategies

There are a nice number of reports of GA4, Google Analytics, showing a huge surge in organic search traffic over the past couple of days, but Google Search Console is not showing any increase, it remains flat. Some are suspecting this is the result of fake bot traffic not being filtered by GA4, but others are not sure.View the full article

Google is testing a new section within the Google Ads advertising console named "Missed Growth Opportunities." This section shows you the "performance you could've achieved in the last year if you'd adjusted your bids and budgets for campaigns with growth opportunities," according to Google.View the full article

Google has published a new help document on the topic of Google Business Profile negative review extortion scams. The document explains what they are, how to report the scam, what to expect and more importantly, what not to do.View the full article

For the original iTunes version...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 Business Profiles has a new way to report review extortion scams...View the full article

Google has updated its Auto-Apply Recommendations setting within the Google Ads interface. The button moved to just above the regular recommendations section.View the full article

A couple of weeks ago, Google added a new help page titled Discover feed source overview. This page discusses those cards in the Google Discover feed and when Google gets the source name wrong, like for those entity Discover pages.View the full article

Have you heard of the Google Goldmine Scoring System? It supposedly looks at your page, your content, and Google gives it a goldminePageScore, title tag factor, body factor, anchor factor, heading factor and more.View the full article

Lenny Rachitsky interviewed Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google, who we cited here numerous times over the past couple of years. The interview covers how AI is not replacing search, search is not dead, how AI Mode will be incorporated within Google Search, how to do AEO or SEO for AI answers, how AI Mode came to market and more.View the full article

Over the past few days, the local SEO community is pretty upset that Google appears to be testing removing the call button from the local results. I am not sure if this is a bug or part of the design of the new Web Guide interface that more people are seeing. Either way, I do think this must be an oversight and the call button should be added back, I would hope.View the full article

This is a programming note that Tuesday and Wednesday are Simchat Torah and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 14th and October 15th.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 local results without the call button...View the full article

Google has officially launched the new grouped sponsored label in the search results. This is where Google groups multiple ads under one larger sponsored label, and then places a "hide" button at the end of the sponsored results.View the full article

Google is looking to hire a software engineer with the responsibility of improving the quality of User Generated Content (UGC) contents in Google Discover.View the full article

Google is testing a new optimization insights layer or recommendation interface for Google Ads. This has three columns named (1) build a foundation, (2) drive performance and (3) expand and grow.View the full article

Google has updated its Misrepresentation policy for both Shopping ads and free listings within Google Merchant Center. Google said the "update provides additional examples of what the policy covers, more guidance on how to be compliant, and more information about our appeals process."View the full article

There is a report coming out of a Google event named Google Access that has a Googler saying that ads are coming to AI Mode very soon in the EU. The thing is, ads in AI Mode, even in the US, is just a test, and is not fully live. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...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's John Mueller said that there was no change to how fast and frequently the Google Search Console API sends data. This comes after some are questioning the speed of the API and why there may be recent data slowdowns.View the full article

For the original iTunes version, click here. This week we covered the new Google Ads label, which Google says improves navigation but in my opinion...View the full article

There may have been another unconfirmed Google search ranking update that occurred between October 15th and October 18th. The bulk of the volatility seemed to be around Thursday, the 16th.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's head of search, Liz Reid, was interviewed about Google Search, AI, ad clicks, publishers...View the full article

The crawl stats report in Google Search Console is missing a day of data again. The data gap is for October 14, 2025. If you look at the chart, you will see a hole in the data, where it is missing a full day of data.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