Link Building Strategies

Last week, Google sent out a bulk load of reverification requests to Google Business Profiles. Well, according to Google's Rick Saxe, it was a bug and the bug should be fixed as of the past day or so.View the full article

Bing Webmaster Tools has been down and/or loading incredibly slowly for the past couple of hours. SEOs began noticing this since around 11 am ET and as of the time I posted this story, it is still down or barely loading.View the full article

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

Google has confirmed that the volatility we all saw prior to the official announcement of the Google March 2025 Core Update was not related to the March 2025 Core Update. This is something we expected Google to confirm, as I've asked Google this question numerous times and got the same answer each and every time.View the full article

Google is testing moving the AI Overviews from the top position of the search results page (also known as position zero), to the middle of the search results page. We saw Google test this with featured snippets over the years, so it makes sense Google would test this with AI Overviews.View the full article

Google said it is expanding its AI Overviews and Knowledge Panels to offer more medical and health related answers. Plus, those are being expanded in more counties and languages. Also, Google launched a new "What People Suggest" search feature that shows you what other people are saying on the web about those topics.View the full article

Microsoft has opened access to the Copilot feature within Bing Webmaster Tools. I played a lot with it when I was in the limited beta in December and it is a cool nifty feature to use, but I am not sure how critical of a feature it is.View the full article

You can now compare date ranges of data directly in the Bing Webmaster Tools Search Performance reports without having to export it to a third-party tool.View the full article

Microsoft was caught testing way too many ads on its Bing Search results page. I saw 9 ads and only two organic/free listings on the page for a query on [garage door repair].View the full article

Google Search seems to have accidentally leaked its various AI Search options and features, that go beyond just AI Mode, which it recently launched. 47 different AI Search options are shown including Info Sleuth, Allium, QTalk, MedExplainer, Fantasy Sports Researcher, Smart Kitchen and many more.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 is testing adding links to AI Overviews that generate clicks, but these links go to Google Search...View the full article

While Google keeps saying it values publishers and knows how important it is to link to publishers and site owners from Search and AI Overviews, well, it is just as important for Google to link to their own search results for AI Overviews. Google is testing adding links, more visible and clickable links, right in the AI Overviews, to its own search results.View the full article

Google Ads is testing the ability to not just expand the images in the ad carousel but expand it again. So you can double expand the images and swipe through them either as smaller images or as larger images.View the full article

In December, Google Merchant Center introduced a new field for "first order" discount. Now, we are seeing "First order" labels in the Google Shopping Ads within the Google Search results.View the full article

To be honest, this seems more like a quirk than a test, but Sachin Patel spotted Google showing three rows of Google Shopping Ads in the Google Search results. We've seen two rows on mobile search previously and now three rows on desktop search.View the full article

Labeling your Google Business Profile as kid-friendly is not new, but I don't believe I have ever seen an icon that represents that within the Google Business Profile listing within Google Search. The icon is a pack of crayons that says "Good for Kids."View the full article

Google launched education Q&A carousel back in 2022 for English languages only. Now, Google has expanded support to include also Spanish and Vietnamese language. Spanish is supported in Mexico while Vietnamese is supported in all Google regions.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. Posted a status update on what we're seeing from the Google March 2025 core update...View the full article

As you know, Thursday, March 13, 2025 at around 12:30 pm ET Google announced the March 2025 core update, the first core update of the 2025 year. I was expecting to see a lot of volatility by now and while we are seeing some sites report volatility, it does not feel as widespread or heated as a normal core update - YET.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

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