Link Building Strategies

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

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

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 has posted a new help document named Things to know about Google's web crawling. This document currently lists 9 things on how Google's web crawling works. 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

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

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...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 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 be rolling out a new format for some of the AI Overviews it shows within search. This format shows a drop-down, expandable, accordion-style interface that you can expand to show more.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

Google has removed a whole section from its JavaScript SEO documentation because it was outdated and Google says loading content with JavaScript does not make it hard for Google Search.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 AI Mode has better link cards to recipe sites now...View the full article

Google sent out emails to some advertisers about changes coming to the Customer Match uploads in the Google Ads APl. After April 1, 2026, those data uploads are no longer going to work in the Google Ads API and must be done in the Data Manager API instead.View the full article

Google Local Service Ads can be super expensive; each call or click can cost hundreds of dollars. Which is why Google has generally been good about refunding for mistaken leads or issues with those leads. View the full article

A few years ago, Microsoft Advertising the support of Asian owned labels and attributes on its search ads within Bing. Google has a similar attribute, by the way. Honestly, I've never seen the label on Bing, until now.View the full article

A new survey from the aptly named PPCsurvey.com shows that the majority of PPC practitioners believe that PPC is getting MORE difficult.View the full article

Google is testing a larger header image for the Google Discover publisher header images. It looks a lot more magazine-type and style. View the full article

Robby Stein, VP, Product at Google Search, was interviewed by Zain Kah on Google AI Search features. While most of the conversation are items we already know, he did say a few interesting things that I want to pull out.View the full article

Yep, more of the same - the Google Search ranking volatility remains heated. Many are asking when we will see an officially announced Google core update. But it has not been announced yet.View the full article

This is a programming note that I will be not be posting here for the next several days. I am not exactly sure how long it will take and when I will be back at 100% but I am expecting it to take at least several days.View the full article

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

Google's John Mueller revealed an interesting tip on Bluesky the other day for anyone still disavowing links. John explained that site owners can indeed disavow entire TLDs if they want to. Note...View the full article