Link Building Strategies

The Google local pack within the Google Search results changes, I think. When you click on the "More businesses" button at the bottom of the local pack, you aren't taken into Google Maps anymore; you are taken to the Google Places tab. And then when you scroll to see more, the pagination is broken.View the full article

Google Ads has supported adding WhatsApp Messenger for a while to your ad extensions. Now, it seems Google is also rolling out support for more messaging apps, including Facebook Messenger and Zalo, the Vietnamese instant messaging multi-platform service.View the full article

Google rolled out Ads Advisor, its AI-based chatbot for Google Ads, a couple of weeks ago. But some are noticing that if you have an MCC account, where you manage multiple advertisers under one account, the Ads Advisor responses can mix advice from one chat you had about one client account, to a new chat on a totally different client's account.View the full article

I know Google said on November 18th that Gemini 3 was "shipping in Search on day one." But no, it shipped on November 26th instead. Nick Fox, SVP at Google, said on X, "We've just shipped intelligent automatic model routing to Gemini 3 Pro for your toughest questions in AI Mode."View the full article

Today marks the 22nd anniversary of when I started this site, the Search Engine Roundtable. I was 23 years old when I started this site, compiling what the search community and search industry was talking about and...View the full article

Google has launched a new link on some search / sponsored ads named "Products at this location." Google confirmed this "relatively new feature" and can show up on listings for service businesses and other types of businesses.View the full article

For the original iTunes version...View the full article

Google dropped a number of search features and structured data types. Google is testing a new version of AI Mode. Google AI Mode gained three new agentic capabilities. Google AI Overviews continue to result in a drop in click-through rates...View the full article

Google is testing shading the background color behind the search ads, sponsored results, and the local pack in the Google Search results. I do like that Google is testing differentiating the organic/free listings with the search ads/sponsored listings.View the full article

Only two months ago, Google officially rolled out the follow feature on Google Discover. Now, that feature is no longer active and Google has removed the documentation associated with it.View the full article

A court document from the Department of Justice Google monopoly case shows Google internally discussed six different options for giving (or not giving) publishers control over AI usage. The options range from do nothing new to add options to opt out of just AI Overviews (formerly known as SGE).View the full article

I am seeing some signs of a Google search ranking update over the past day or so but the chatter is super limited right now. Many of the tools spike yesterday but like I said, the SEO community chatter was calm. I wonder if this volatility was related to maybe the Cloudflare outage or Gemini 3 rolling out.View the full article

As you know, Google has been testing a way to click a button to message multiple businesses through the Local Service Ads. Google now calls that message fan out. That being said, Google seems to be testing variations of that button.View the full article

In April, we saw a small disclaimer on the Google AI Overviews within Google Search to "Check important info." Well, Google is testing a much larger disclaimer, at the bottom of the AI Overview that says, "Double-check important information" and "It's a good idea to check info in multiple places" with a "Learn more" button.View the full article

Google has updated the list of countries where using Google Ads for offline gambling advertising is prohibited. Google updated the list on November 19, 2025 to match countries where offline gambling is not allowed.View the full article

Google is now showing the "What to know" section within web search, not just AI Mode, within the product summary bar on the right side. This shows up when you click on a product.View the full article

Google uploaded its Thanksgiving Doodle to the Google Search home page, google.com. It is a typical and expected cute Google Doodle - more on that later. But when you click on it, you are not taken to the Google search results page, instead you are taken directly into AI Mode.View the full article

Google's John Mueller said that rewriting AI content by a human won't change the site's ranking in Google by default. Instead, he said, you need to rethink your whole content strategy and the purpose of the site.View the full article

Google has updated how it shows events within AI Overviews. It can now show the direct display of events, instead of an event summary. It is also a bit buggy, but here is how it looks.View the full article

The CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, said he spends time on X on launch days to monitor how real people are using, interacting, and experiencing new Google product releases. He said he is "pretty active on launch day trying to understand what's working."View the full article

Google is testing using inline, hover-style links for citations in the AI Mode results. When you hover your mouse cursor over the link card, it will hover the link card sources over the answer. View the full article

Google is testing a new widget at the top of the Google Discover feed. It is called "Top Searches," and it will randomly show some of the top searches across Google Search. And guess what, when you click on them, it takes you into AI Mode, not Google Search.View the full article

Google Ads updated its gambling policy to disallow all promotion of online gambling-promoting content for horse racing targeting the United States. Google said this goes into effect as of December 1, 2025.View the full article

Google's John Mueller said having a 100MB video file on your home page won't have a noticeable SEO effect. This was his response on a Reddit thread to the concern of having such a weighted-down file on your home page.View the full article

Microsoft Advertising reportedly made two updates to its ad platform recently. One on how ad disapprovals work and the other on the time it takes to see a conversion be recorded in the ad reporting interfaces.View the full article