Link Building Strategies

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 Ads launched new AI Mode retailer ads...View the full article

Microsoft is testing underlining the product name and product price in the shopping ads carousel at the top of the Bing Search results. I am not sure how much this adds to the interface but maybe it drives a bit more attention and thus clicks?View the full article

Google's John Mueller said he still recommends you have visible anchor text for your links in order to "provide more context for search engines." Don't just use title elements in the link attribute; make sure the link has actual visible anchor text.View the full article

Google is losing one of its main sources of information for its Knowledge Graph, the CIA World Factbook. This was a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency between 1962 and 2026 with almanac-style information about the countries of the world.View the full article

Google Ads is now showing in the "When and where ads showed" report, the ability to see PMax, Performance Max, reporting. So you can see the placement, type, network and impressions you are getting from your PMax campaigns.View the full article

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

I am seeing some early signs of yet another unconfirmed Google Search ranking update with more volatility touching down today, February 10th. The chatter within the SEO community is starting to spike, and some of the third-party tracking tools are showing volatility.View the full article

Google will stop showing the business short names on Google Business Profiles in Search and Google Maps. The short name will still work, if you have one, but going forward, the link in your Google Business Profile will no longer be displayed to you or searchers.View the full article

Google Ads now has a new recommended experiments box in the Experiments page. This should offer you customized and personalized recommendations that Google Ads thinks you should try based on your account setup and performance data.View the full article

On February 10th, we reported the beginning of yet another unconfirmed Google Search ranking update. The volatility has not cooled yet and it seems it may have even heated up through the weekend.View the full article

Google AdSense has ended its Parked Domains (AFD) as an ad surface within the Search Partner Network effective February 10, 2026. Google wrote, "Parked Domains (AFD) will cease to be an ad surface within the Search Partner Network effective February 10, 2026."View the full article

Google's John Mueller warned one site owner not to load "not available" in the JavaScript before the actual content that loads is available. It can lead Google to believe the page does not exist, preventing indexing and ranking in Google Search.View the full article

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

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

This week, we covered the first core update of 2026, the February 2026 Discover core update. Meanwhile, there is an ongoing super-heated and volatile Google search rankings. Google has nothing to share about the recent unconfirmed ranking updates...View the full article

Microsoft Bing is testing a dynamically loading results count under the search box. So when you enter your search phrase, the results count will dynamically count up from 0 to the number of results found.View the full article

A couple of weeks ago I reported Bing was beta testing a new AI performance report within Bing Webmaster Tools. These reports are now available as a public preview for all to see. Plus, Bing Webmaster Tools has a whole new slick design.View the full article

There is some new data out that shows that yes, Google's AI Overviews are causing a huge decline in clicks to websites organically but it is also showing that for e-commerce queries, there is a massive increase in clicks on search ads and product/shopping ads.View the full article

Google AI Mode has this feature where you can ask about a specific product, it is called "Ask about." Now when you hover over a product, the "Ask about" will overlay so you can more easily trigger the feature.View the full article

There is a new Google Ads help document named About the Results tab in Google Ads Recommendations. It explains that in the Results tab, you can now view the performance impact after you apply them.View the full article

Earlier this month, we covered Google testing what we called contextual overlay link cards in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Well, Google officially began rolling them out yesterday, and they are more like hover-over pop-up link cards.View the full article

Google has finally fully rolled out the Google Search Console AI-powered configuration tool. Google wrote on LinkedIn, "The Search Console's new AI-powered configuration is now available to everyone! Have you already tried it?"View the full article

Microsoft has implemented and continues to deploy mitigations against prompt injection attacks in Copilot, the company announced last week. Spammers were using the "Summarize with AI" type of buttons to trick AI engines into believing or trusting a specific company or response.View the full article

Asad Awan, who is in charge of monetization at OpenAI was interviewed by his own company on "The Thinking Behind Ads in ChatGPT." It is a 25 minute interview and one part he discusses how he would like to see advertisers simply prompt to create ads and ad campaigns and not have to hire an agency or "performance marketers" to run ads on ChatGPT.View the full article

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