Link Building Strategies

Google is testing an option to read aloud the AI Overviews by clicking on a speaker icon at the top of the AI Overview within Google Search. And the crazy thing, this is being tested in the US. View the full article

Google is testing a new feature in the AI Overviews (although, they look familiar to me for some reason). When you click or hover over on a word in the AI Overview, Google will bring up a menu to get an AI explanation, show related images or copy to clipboard.View the full article

Google seems to be testing showing author names and website citations in the AI Overviews. I am honestly not sure if this is new but Christian Kunz said it was and posted about it on his blog and on X.View the full article

Google AI Overviews are now able to show super detailed comparison within Google Search. If you search for two very specific models, Google may give you a ton of details directly in the AI Overview.View the full article

We know Google loves to link to its own search results from the AI Overviews, and we have seen those links sometimes go in a loop of sorts. But did you know Google can show the same link to a website in the AI Overviews more than once?View the full article

Google AI Overviews can now show an image carousel that you can swipe through to go to images. I am not able to replicate this myself but it seems like when you click on the images, it takes you into Google Image Search.View the full article

Google is testing having the citations stick to the top (of the AI Overview section only) as you scroll down past the AI Overview. This keeps those citations more in view, as you scroll over the AI Overview.View the full article

Last November, Google began using AI to generate review summaries in Google Maps. Well, now they seem to be showing up in the local knowledge panels on the right side of the Google Search results page.View the full article

Google has rolled out fewer confirmed search ranking updates in 2025, then it did in all the past years where Google confirmed these updates. Google rolled out only four confirmed updates in 2025, before than seven in 2024, nine in 2023 and ten in 2022 and 2021.View the full article

A week or so ago, Google Analytics made some updates to how it handles campaign data quality and attribution reporting. Many are now seeing a new label named "Data not available" show up in their GA4 reporting.View the full article

I am seeing a number of complaints that Google Analytics real-time reporting is not working properly. Many are complaining that the data looks off and is underreporting, at best.View the full article

Google Analytics real time reporting seems to be lagging again this morning. I woke up to a ton of complaints on social about the real time reporting reports in GA4 are simply not working as expected.View the full article

Google has posted some fresh data, saying they answer over 5 trillion searches per year. The last time we saw this data was in 2016, when Google was at 2 trillion searches per year and then 1.2 trillion in 2012.View the full article

Over the years, we have written that service areas are not used as a local ranking factor by Google Search. Well, the API leak document also implies this to be true. View the full article

Google added a carousel to the top of the image tab within some Google Search apps, I think it might be a test. The carousel lets you scroll through some ideas to get you started with your image search.View the full article

We are less than a week after the Google March 2025 core update finished rolling out and we are seeing some heated volatility again, maybe more heated than what we saw during the last core update.View the full article

Google seems to be adding links to review publishers when you hover over some of the product results, popular products, snippets. The links show only after the box expands, and it includes a snippet of content and then a link to the source.View the full article

Google is testing yet another search feature that generates new queries on Google Search. This one is named "Ask a follow-up" and they are sported with the Gemini stars next to them.View the full article

Google Search is testing a new carousel to promote AI Mode named "Ask AI Mode anything." It gives you ideas on how to "Explore" new or related topics in AI Mode.View the full article

Google has a new Search Labs feature named Ask for me. Ask for me will have Google call businesses for you, to figure out the cost of the service and when it can be scheduled for you. It is like that Duplex feature we saw years ago, where Google would try to schedule a restaurant reservation for you.View the full article

The time has come for the Google Assistant to be replaced by Gemini, Google's younger and better assistant (despite it being wrong way too often). Google announced, "Over the coming months, we're upgrading more users on mobile devices from Google Assistant to Gemini; and later this year, the classic Google Assistant will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices or available for new downloads on mobile app stores."View the full article

Six years ago, Google dropped some of its search tools date filters and then added new operators for before: and after: that let you filter content by specific dates. Well, six years later, that feature is still in beta.View the full article

Since the weekend, Google has started to roll out Google Discover on desktop in many countries and regions. I personally can trigger it in Google New Zealand and some other locations but I am not yet able to trigger it on Google.com in the United States.View the full article

Google is once again showing a local pack in the AI Overviews, formerly known as SGE (Search Generative Experience). Google removed the local pack from those AI Overviews back in September 2023 after having a 5 pack during the early months of SGE. Now, I am seeing them return.View the full article

There seems to be a bug that is impacting the first image in the product snippet image carousel set. I was notified about this a few times in the past few days by various people and while I cannot replicate this, many can.View the full article