Link Building Strategies

Microsoft is testing putting a shopping bag icon on its "Shop Now" Bing Ads layout. I cannot replicate this but normally Bing shows a button that says "Shop Now" and that is it, but in this test, Bing is adding a bag icon before the "Shop Now" text.View the full article

Google Search ranking volatility is heating up today, June 4th. Many of the tools and some of the chatter within the SEO community are showing signs of a Google ranking update of some sorts. Again, Google has not confirmed an update since the March 2025 core update but we've seen volatility since then almost every week.View the full article

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

Google is testing a new AI Search based option codenamed Darksteel. This reminds me of when we caught Google testing 47 different AI Search options back in March but Darksteel was not one of them.View the full article

Google has completed the rollout of the August 2025 spam update, following a 27-day rollout cycle. This update started on August 26, 2025 and 12 pm ET, and was completed on September 22, 2025. This was a broad spam update, not a link spam update and was a pretty big and widespread update, similar to the December 2024 spam update but took 20 days longer to rollout.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 completed the rollout of the August 2025 spam update today...View the full article

This is a programming note that Tuesday and Wednesday are Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 23rd and September 24th...View the full article

Google is testing moving your query from the left top position to the right top position of the AI response within AI Mode. This is a subtle change but it is interesting to see Google test these small changes to AI Mode.View the full article

Microsoft is testing various interfaces for the sitelinks in Bing Search. We've seen and reported on Bing testing sitelinks many, many times here, so here are a few more variations.View the full article

Microsoft is testing bolding the title links in the Bing search results for both the organic and paid listings. I am not sure if this was a bug or a test, but I suspect it was a test.View the full article

Google's John Mueller posted saying "Authentication for your personal crawlers & SEO tools is going to be more and more of a topic." I believe, but I can be wrong, this is alluding to the num parameter being disabled and how tools are having issues now with scraping Google.View the full article

Google AI Mode has had travel planning for some time but according to some in the travel industry, Google recently began rolling out more of these features in the wild. These include dynamic day-by-day trip plans, hotel add-ons, tickets, and dining stitched into a single AI conversation.View the full article

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

Google is testing a shaded box design for the stock pricing and information in the Google Search results. Google has these shaded designs in other areas as well but for now, this may just be a test.View the full article

Google is testing a new sponsored ads section in the search results named Featured Stores. This reminds me of the from online stores but that was organic/free, not ads.View the full article

Microsoft is testing showing text attributes that can say things like "Free Shipping on Qualified Orders" with an icon next to the search ads on Bing Search. This is not just the CTA buttons that these ads have supported for a while but additional text attributes.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. The Google Ads sponsored results grouping interface expanded and it is borderline deceptive...View the full article

Back in May, we covered how Google was testing a new sponsored results label that placed a few ads beneath it, as opposed to labeling each and every ad as sponsored. Well, that version seems to be expanding and more and more people are seeing it and many are not liking it.View the full article

Google seems to be testing showing the local pack, Google Business Profile listings, at the top of the Google Shopping results in the Shopping tab. Normally, Google does not show local packs in the Shopping tab, I believe...View the full article

Google Ads seems to be rolling out a change to the campaign set up screen and flow. Instead of being asked what ad format you want to run, you must select all for PMax or specific campaign types for display, search, discover and so on. View the full article

This week we covered the completion of the Google August 2025 spam update and then we saw ranking volatility heat up again post spam update. Google Search Console impressions are impacted by Google blocking bots...View the full article

A number of local SEOs are noticing a lift in the number of suspensions they are dealing with in Google Business Profiles. Many local SEOs are reporting that they are dealing with these suspensions and reinstatements more often now than before.View the full article

On Friday, I reported on some folks gaining access to agentic features in AI Mode. Well, Robby Stein from Google announced later that day that anyone in the US can now opt into Agentic capabilities in AI Mode.View the full article

A month ago, Google announced new agentic (agent based) features for AI Mode. Well, some are now seeing this live in AI Mode, specifically making reservations at recommended restaurants. View the full article

Google said it will be strict in enforcing accurate pricing for lodging listings on Google, both for ads and free booking links. There is no policy change but they will have a "higher standards for price accuracy."View the full article