Microsoft Advertising Relaxes Advertiser Identity Verification
In June, we reported that Microsoft Advertising would require advertiser identity verification. Well, Microsoft posted an update relaxing those requirements in a big way.
Google Business Profile Posts Image Upload Not Working
Google Business Profiles posts feature is not accepting images for the past day or so. When you try to upload an image or photo to your new Google Posts, nothing…
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 15, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
New Google Merchant Center 3D Model Link [virtual_model_link] Att...
Google has a new 3D model link [virtual_model_link] attribute, or at least new documentation on the 3D model link [virtual_model_link] attribute. This lets you provide 3D and/or AR models of…
Google: If You’re Using AI To Write Your Content, It’...
Google’s John Mueller had a nice one-liner on Reddit again, this one he said “By definition (I’m simplifying), if you’re using AI to write your content, it’s going to be…
Google Navigational Queries Shouldn’t Trigger Search Genera...
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, said on Twitter that Google probably shouldn’t trigger a Search Generative Experience answer for navigational queries. You can always manually trigger the SGE response, but…
Google Ads Beta AI Generated Help Guide
Google Ads is testing a new AI-generative solution for help guides and answers. Google is inviting some advertisers “to try AI-generated answers in help guide,” it emailed some advertisers.
Google: Best Way To Block Search Traffic Is To Disable DNS Resolu...
I should start by saying, this is super dangerous and you probably should not do this unless you really know what you are doing and why you are doing it….
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 14, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Bing Chat New Infrastructure Upgrade Is 99% Done
A few weeks ago we reported that the Bing Chat infrastructure upgrade that Microsoft is working on was taking longer than expected. Well, on Friday, Microsoft Bing’s CEO, Mikhail Parakhin…
Microsoft: Bing Chat Outperforms GPT-4 But Its Pricey
Microsoft Bing’s CEO, Mikhail Parakhin said on Twitter that Bing Chat outperforms raw GPT-4 but it comes at an expense. He said, “It is outperforming according to our measurements,” when…
Google: Your Domain Will Never Make Or Break Your SEO
Google’s John Mueller said on Mastodon a few tips on domain names, but one line was pretty strong. He said, “your domain name is never going to make or break…
Google: CNET’s Content Pruning Plans Reasonable But SEO Imp...
Remember all that debate and chatter around Google saying not to delete old helpful content? A lot of people in our industry jumped on CNET for doing it but the…
Google Ads Shopping Campaigns Enhanced CPC Deprecation
Google Ads is deprecating Shopping campaigns using Enhanced CPC starting one early October 2023. Google said any Shopping campaigns using Enhanced CPC will behave as if they are using Manual…
Vlog #236: Lance Bachmann On Local Search Marketing & Getting...
In part one with Lance Bachmann, we spoke a lot about business, growing a business and his passion for his employees. In part two…
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 11, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google News Publisher Bug, FAQ &...
For the original iTunes version, click here. Google has a bug with the Google News Publisher Center where some publishers’ feeds were days behind…
Google Tests Local Service Ads List View
Google is testing showing two local service ads in a list view, a change from it showing three local service ads in a carousel format. Google actually switched to three…
Google Tests Colored +Topics Search Bar Refinements
Google is testing using colors for the +topic search bar refinements, those bubble buttons you sometimes get under this search bar in Google Search. I am seeing normal white buttons,…
New: Bing Search Select Text To Search Bing Chat
We previously reported how Bing Chat lets you select text on the Bing search results to conduct another search. Now Bing is expanding that to also let you search directly…
Google: Text To HTML Ratio Makes No Sense For SEO & Ignore It
Google’s John Mueller is at it again, saying that text-to-HTML ratios are not a thing for SEO. He said on Reddit, “It makes absolutely no sense at all for SEO,”…
Google: Human Oversight For AI Generated Content Is Important
Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said it is important that there is human oversight when it comes to using AI-generated content. He said this on Twitter after speaking at the…
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 10, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Google Business Profiles Adds “Fix Photo That Doesn’t...
Google has added a new option in the Google Business Profile appeal for “Fix photo that doesn’t show.” This means you can submit a support request for when you know…
Google Ads API Version 14.1 Now Available
Google has released a minor release for its Google Ads API, version 14.1. This comes just about two months after version 14 was released. New in 14.1 includes new recommendation…
Google: No Points For Trying To Provide A Good User Experience
Google’s John Mueller said trying to provide a good user experience but not succeeding will not result in any ranking benefit in Google Search. John said during office hours at…
Google Local Service Ads Photo Guidelines Now Faster Reviews &...
Google is now saying that its new Local Service Ads guidelines are faster for reviews and also more flexible by allowing more creative images. What that really means, well, time…
Google Ads Tests Scan To Call QR Code Extension
Google is testing a new phone ad extension that lets you scan a QR code on your phone to call the number. Also, you can see three images across the…
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 9, 2023
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 will show…
Google Ads Gains New Ads & Reporting Insights For Upcoming Ho...
Google announced several new features for the upcoming holiday season; yea, it is coming… These features include Customer Acquisition with High Value optimization, local ad changes, new product reporting, and…
Google Search “From Publishers You Follow” Section
Google Search now has this section titled “From publishers you follow” in the search results. That is if the query returns content from a Google News publisher you actually follow.
Google Search To Show FAQ & HowTo Rich Results Less Often
Google said you will soon see fewer FAQ and HowTo rich results showing up in the Google Search results. Why? I assume because there is just too many of these…
75% Of SEOs Are Not Happy With Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Krista Seiden, a Google Analytics expert, posted a poll on Twitter asking if SEOs thoughts on Google Analytics 4 (GA4). 45% said they “hate it” and about 30% said they…
Google: Don’t Delete Older Content, It May Be Helpful Conte...
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, posted a PSA on Twitter that you should not delete old content from your site because you think Google Search doesn’t like old content. He…
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 8, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Google Search Tests Star Store Badge
Google is testing replacing the “top quality store” badge with a “star store” badge in the search results. Previously it was a “Trusted Store” badge but that was replaced by…
Google Search Major League Baseball “Recent Featured Highli...
Google has a new search feature titled “recent featured highlights” for Major League Baseball players. It showcases stats for recent games, short video clips and more.
Google: Maybe Don’t Let Google Search Index Your AI Chatbot...
With all these AI chatbots out there now, Google Search seems to be seeing more and more of them publishing AI-generated outputted content in the wild. And if you don’t…
Google: You Don’t Need A Niche Site To Rank On A Topic
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter, “You don’t need to have a niche site in order to rank in Google; in fact, sometimes that’s a good way not to rank.”…
Google Images Now Shows Site Name, Favicon & Page Title
Google Images are now showing the site name, favicon and below that, a second line, for the page title that image is sourced from. Previously, Google showed just the image,…
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 7, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
OpenAI’s ChatGPT New Web Crawler – GPTBot
OpenAI, the folks behind ChatGPT, have published information on its web crawler named GPTBot. You can now see if OpenAI is crawling your site, how much so, and you can…
Google New Publisher Center Complaints – More Google News I...
Over the past several days, some news publishers have complained that their new articles are not showing up on time in Google News and the Google News Publisher Center.
Vlog #235: Lance Bachmann On Growing A Winning Digital Marketing ...
I met up at one of Lance Bachmann’s businesses, 1SEO Digital Agency, where we chatted about marketing and running a business. Lance started doing digital marketing over 20 years, and…
Inappropriate Title Google Merchant Center Warning
Google Merchant Center can now issue warnings for “inappropriate titles.” This can happen for your Google Discover or Demand Gen ads within Google Merchant Center.
New Google Business Profiles Pets Attribute (Are Dogs Allowed)
Google has added a new attribute to Google Business Profiles. This one is titled “Pets” and you can specify if dogs are allowed inside and/or if dogs are allowed outside…
Google Ads Releases New Responsive Search Ads Guide (PDF)
Google has released a new Google Ads PDF guide for RSAs, responsive search ads. The new guide is a 9-page PDF document that can be downloaded here.
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 4, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Finally: Bing Chat Works On Chrome, Firefox and Other Browsers
This morning Bing Chat started to work across non-Edge browsers. That means, if you are logged into Bing, you can use Bing Chat on Chrome and Firefox and likely other…
Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update – August 3-4 (Unconf...
It has been a full 9 days since I last reported about a Google Search ranking algorithm update and now I am seeing signs of another one starting yesterday, August…
Google Search Generative Experience From Google Cards
It looks like Google recently added a “from Google” card to the Google Search Generative Experience AI-generated answer section. This is when Google sources from its own data, like Google…
More Links Now Displaying In Google Search Console’s Links ...
A couple of weeks ago we reported that there was a bug with the Google Search Console link report. Google’s John Mueller eventually confirmed the issue and said a fix…
New Top Google Ad Format In Search Generative Experience
We know Google has demoed some of its ads for the new Search Generative Experience but now some are seeing a new ad format in the Search Generative Experience in…
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google SGE Gains Links & Videos...
This week we covered a possible Google algorithm updater yesterday and today. We also covered how the new Google Search Generative Experience now can show both links to sources and…
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 3, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Google Ads Outages Impacting Majority Of Advertisers
Google just confirmed an issue with Google Ads that has been impacting advertisers all day. Advertisers are getting notices that read “Google Ads can’t complete your request right now. Please…
August 2023 Google Webmaster Report
Buckle up – it was one insane month of changes that all SEOs who care about Google need to catch up on. We had very unstable and heated Google search…
Google Search Generative Experience AI-Generated Answers Gain Vid...
Google is also adding videos to its Search Generative Experience AI-generated answer section. So now when Google thinks a video is helpful to answer the question, Google may embed a…
Google Search Console Performance Reporting Not Tracking Search G...
With the new Google Search Generative Experience, we are all hopeful that Google will give us reporting and filtering in Search Console. This way, we can track how well our…
Google’s John Mueller On When To Worry About Keyword Stuffi...
Ever wonder at what point you need to worry that there are too many of the same keywords on the page? Well, John Mueller from Google said it is not…
Google Business Profile Tests Generative AI To Help Owners Write ...
Google Business Profiles is testing using generative AI to help business owners write descriptions about their businesses. When you edit your business profile in Google, and then edit your business…
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 2, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Google Search Showing Too Many Ads – Google To Fix
Google, for some users, is showing up to five search ads on a page. Google generally won’t show more than four ads on a search results page. Google’s Ad Liaison,…
Google Tests New Local Search Ad Format
About a month ago, I spotted a new ad format in the Google Search results that had this local pack vibe. I shared it around, seeing if anyone else would…
Google Search Explore Tests “Return to Top” Button
Google is testing a “return to top” button at the bottom of the Explore section in the search results. Previously, you had to manually scroll to the top, but now…
Google Removes @ID from Site Name Markup Documentation
Google has removed the @id mentions in the site name documentation calling the use of @id “unneeded.” If you compare the old version of the page to the new version,…
Google Ads New Trademarks Policy Now Requires An Appeal Form
A couple of months ago we reported Google will be changing its Google Ads trademark policies to do away with the ability to have industry-wide blocks for trademarked terms. Instead,…
Google Search Generative Experience Tests Links In AI-Generated A...
Looks like all the negative feedback around the lack of links within the AI-generated answers that are generated by Google’s Search Generative Experience has made a difference. Google is testing…
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 1, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Google Search Generative Experience Does Not Show Snapshot Answer...
The other day Agile SEO posted on Twitter an example of Google’s Search Generative Experience not showing any answer boxes, aka snapshots, for an answer it generated. Danny Sullivan, Google’s…
Google: We Don’t Archive Our Own Search Result Pages
Google’s John Mueller was asked if Google stores a permanent or semi-permanent copy of its own search result pages for future reference. John replied basically saying no, because it is…
Google: Content Written By Tapping Into Popular Searches Is Likel...
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, commented about a popular tactic content marketers use before writing content – using trending keyword tools to find topics that are trending or popular now….
New Google Business Profile Policies Overview Page
Google has launched a new help document that gives business owners an overview of the Google Business Profile policies. I received an email about this update yesterday that read, “we’re…
Google Business Profile Adds View As Customer Link
Google is testing adding a “view as customer” link to your Google Business Profile web search dashboard. This, I assume, allows you to view your business listing in web search…
Daily Search Forum Recap: July 31, 2023
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Vlog #234: Fabrice Canel On Sitemaps & Next Big Thing In Sear...
In part one, we learned more about Fabrice Canel of Microsoft Bing and spoke about indexing quality. In part two we dig more into the concern around content generation through…
Google’s Revised Site Name Questions & Resources Thread
With the updates to Site names last week, Google decided to post a revised set of questions, FAQs, resources, support and timelines on the whole Google Search site name bit…
Google Search Tests Bold & Underlined Title Links For Snippet...
Google seems to be testing bolding and underlining the title links in the search results snippets in the mobile search interface. Google is also testing a triangular format for the…
Google Drops Google News Sitemap Validation & Errors Help Doc...
Google has removed a couple of the Google News sitemaps help documentation. I should note, it seems these were removed a very long time ago, but the links to those…
Bing Chat New Infrastructure Upgrade Taking Longer Than Expected ...
Microsoft is working hard to upgrade the Bing Chat infrastructure. This will not only make Bing Chat faster and more reliable but also enable features like third-party plugins and nosearch….
Can You Spot The Ad Label On These Microsoft Bing Search Ads?
Here are two screenshots of search ads in the Bing Search results. Let me know how long it takes you to find the “ad” label on these ads. It took…
Daily Search Forum Recap: July 28, 2023
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 says AI-generated…
Google Site Names In Search Results Updated With More Subdomain S...
As Google promised, it has updated its support for site names in its search results. Google said it has expanded support for subdomains and also has compiled more information on…
Google Officially Rolling Out New Search Settings Interface
Ashwarya, Google Search Community Manager, posted that Google Search will soon roll out “a new experience to make access to key items easier on the Search Results Page on the…
New Google Merchant Center Policy Says AI Generated Reviews Are S...
Google has posted a new policy saying AI-generated reviews are against its policies, disallowed and considered spam. If you find such content, Google said you must mark it as spam…
Google Merchant Center Next Wants You To Add Your Customer Suppor...
Google wants you to add your customer support details to Google Merchant Center Next. Google said, “Shoppers are often dissatisfied when they can’t easily find customer support and returns related…
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Ranking Cooling But Chatter ...
This week, we noticed that many, but not all, of the Google rank tracking tools were cooling, but then later this week, the SEO chatter heated up. Google Merchant Center…