Link Building Strategies

Fabrice Canel from the Microsoft Bing team told SEOs that instead of focusing on traffic and rankings, they should focus on conversions and click value. He said on X, "SEOs should focus on conversion."View the full article

Digiday reported that a Google spokesperson told them they made link updates to AI Overviews in May 2024 that added more links and made it easier for searchers to click on links. But I don't think that is true, that didn't come until August 2024, and did they really help drive clicks to your sites?View the full article

Google added returnPolicyCountry to the return policy code examples within the Google Merchant Center structured data document. This is because Google requires returnPolicyCountry for MerchantReturnPolicy.View the full article

Imagine you own a restaurant and you get all your reservations online through your booking system; you even tell people to book online when they call, via an automated message. But then, all of a sudden, Google decides to hijack that booking link and replace it with Google Assistant's calling feature.View the full article

Google has switched from updating its googlebot.json file, the file that contains the list of IP addresses Googlebot uses, from weekly to daily. Gary Illyes from Google said this was done based on feedback from the community.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 began rolling out the March 2025 core update yesterday...View the full article

For the original iTunes version, click here. This week we covered Google's March 2025 core update being released. Google responded to some complaints or concerns about Google's new AI Mode. A study showed Google grew 22% over the past year...View the full article

Google officially announced the rollout of the March 2025 core update yesterday at around 12:30 pm ET. This core update is expected to take up to two weeks to roll out. Google said this is a regular core update but did make a note about helping surface content from content creators. View the full article

Google Ads now allows some advertisers to do messages, like add WhatsApp numbers, to their Performance Max campaigns. Previously, Google Ads added messaging for WhatsApp about a year ago, but not it is also available for PMax campaigns.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

Microsoft is testing a new Copilot answer interface and layout in the Bing Search results. Instead of the grid/block design, Microsoft is testing a more bullet point design, and when you hover over each answer, you get the sources overlay.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

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 says hotlinking protection is fine for search engines...View the full article

Google's John Mueller said that implementing hotlink protections with carve-outs for search engines are fine. He added that this is not really a thing sites do that much these days, stating it was a thing in 2010's or so but not now.View the full article

Google Merchant Center has apparently added the ability to dispute and/or request a review in bulk. This does not work for all notices but it works for some and it can save you a lot of time, if the same disapproval is issued across a number of products or issues. View the full article

Microsoft Advertising is reportedly testing a new reporting template design, which is refreshed and looks new to look at. The new design is under the reporting and then templates section of the Microsoft Advertising console.View the full article

Microsoft is testing placing a new tag on some sponsored ads within the Bing Search results. This tag is in blue and says "Local Business," which I guess helps promote local businesses near you.View the full article

Earlier this year, we spotted a new type of Google Ads campaign option named Search Max. Well, now it was spotted again, the configuration and set up of Search Max with a beta label on it.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 increased the negative keywords for PMax from 100 keywords to 10...View the full article

Initially when Google Ads released the ability to add negative keywords to your Performance Max campaigns, Google limited it to 100 keywords. We asked why only 100 back then. Well, Google listened to the ad community and increased that from 100 to 10,000 negative keywords.View the full article

Google has updated its Google Ads review process policy documentation to clarify that it uses both AI and human evaluation for removing ads, assets, destinations, accounts and other content that goes against the Google Ads policies. View the full article

Google is testing a quick way to copy a link to a search results page and share it with a friend. There is this paperclip icon at the top right of the search results page that lets you copy link to the clipboard. That then generates a goo.gl URL shortener link to share.View the full article

Google has released version 2.9 of the Google Ads Editor. This new update brings a number of new features including support for manager account (MCC) owned labels, shopping ads on excluded brands, age exclusions in PMax campaigns, enhanced CPC deprecation, multi-tab export/import to Google Sheets, ad previews for RSA and asset groups and more.View the full article

Google Ads may now be pushing you to create an experiment ad when you dismiss the recommendations Google Ads is suggesting. So when you dismiss a recommendation, Google Ads can get feisty and push you to at least create an experiment based on that recommendation.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. A new study shows AI search engines way too often gets the answer wrong...View the full article