Link Building Strategies

Google has shut down, turned off, and disabled, its new page annotations feature. The feature where Google hijacked your content, placed links in your content, links you didn't add yourself, and directed your content to Google Search. It is no longer, Google shut it down. View the full article

Google has this new "Know before you go" section in the search results. I mean, it is new for search, not new for Google Maps and not new for local. But I've never seen a Know before you go box in the search results before.View the full article

Microsoft is now showing why it selects or chooses to show a specific ad directly in the Bing search results. When you click on the arrow down by the URL of the search ad snippet, you will get window dialog that may explain why the ad was shown.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 launched its AI mode, but it is in beta and you need to be added to a waitlist...View the full article

Google has officially announced Google AI Mode, after hearing rumors about it for months and then seeing leaked screenshots of it a few weeks ago. Google said AI mode gives you more advanced reasoning, thinking and multimodal capabilities so you can get help with even your toughest questions.View the full article

In December, Google told us they are testing powering AI Overviews using Gemini 2.0. We think we even saw Google testing this in the wild with deeper AI Overviews with tons of links. Well, now, in the U.S. AI Overviews are officially powered by Gemini 2.0, it is no longer a test.View the full article

Google is testing more favicon designs within Google Search. I mean, we cover these way too often but hey, I like favicons, don't you? View the full article

It looks like Microsoft is testing search ads that auto expand to reveal sitelinks under those ads within the Bing Search results. You don't need to click or do anything and the ad will dynamically expand to show more sitelinks underneath the search ad unit.View the full article

Rajan Patel, a VP, Engineering for Search at Google and the Co-founder of Google Lens, is now also offering an assist to Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liason. For the past several weeks, Rajan Patel's X profile also was tagged as being associated with the Google Search Liaison account.View the full article

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

I've been watching the volatility ever since the unconfirmed February 26th or so ranking volatility when the tools didn't show much of a spike but the chatter was super high. Well, the tools started to show the spike around March 1st and the chatter is still heated.View the full article

Google is now using generative AI, and labeling it as such, within the Google Search product details overlay. When you click on a product listing in Google Search, the overlay window has a section called top insights. That section can be generated using AI.View the full article

Google now supports expressive reactions for Google reviews on mobile search and maps. This shows up when viewing a Google Business Profile's reviews on mobile.View the full article

Google is now showing AI Overviews within the movie review summaries in Google Search. Under the review summaries is a disclaimer that reads, "Al overviews are experimental."View the full article

Google announced a number of updates to Google Shopping and Search with AI enhancements and expansions. Specifically rolling out vision match, a new try out new looks feature and expanding the try on feature to more clothing.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 posted new data that says they answer over 5 trillion queries per year...View the full article

Google has posted some fresh data, saying they answer over 5 trillion searches per year. The last time we saw this data was in 2016, when Google was at 2 trillion searches per year and then 1.2 trillion in 2012.View the full article

A new report released by Rand Fishkin at Sparktoro with the help of Datos' panel measure web browser activity showed that about 1/3rd of active web users don't use Google all that much, by that much it means they only do 1-20X searches per month.View the full article

Google has made a number of updates to the product analytics section within Google Merchant Center Next. Organic conversions have been renamed to Purchases. Plus, Google lets you specify it's traffic to PDPsm instead of products, and labels.View the full article

Google added QR codes that you can give your customers to quickly leave you a review for your business on Google Search and Google Maps. This can be accessed in your Google Business Profiles under the reviews section.View the full article

Did you know that 10% of all searches on Google from a younger audience start with Google's new circle to search feature? That is what Roma Datta Chobey, the Managing Director at Google India, said last week.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 Ads stopped running for many advertisers over the weekend...View the full article

It is time for the monthly Google Webmaster Report. We are now in March as we continue to wait for the first Google core update of 2025. We did have a number of big unconfirmed Google updates, as documented below. View the full article

Have any of you heard of the Google Ads mystery shopping rating? Well, it may be used by Google for the overall store rating, which is calculated from customer reviews and a "Mystery Shopping Rating," according to a Google Ads rep.View the full article

Last December, Google confirmed they are testing double serving ads on the search results. Double serving ads is showing the same ad from the same advertiser more than once on the search results page. It was something against the Google Ads policy. Well, now Google is triple serving ads on the same page!View the full article