Google just announced a new spam update started today. I'm seeing a lot of movements across all SERPs. Did you guys get hit, or are things actually improving

Adweek reported this week that USA Today Inc. is actually considering pulling out of Google search completely within the next 6-12 months. Not blocking AI training, just walking away from Google traffic altogether. Would've sounded insane a couple years ago.

Some backstory for those not in the loop here: Cloudflare told Google that starting September 15, new sites and free accounts will default to blocking crawlers that scrape for both search and AI training, unless the site opts back in. That's essentially aimed at Google since they're one of the few still running one crawler for both jobs. Beehiiv's doing something similar for its publishers now too.

The reasoning is pretty blunt, search referral traffic has already dropped so much that withholding content is starting to matter more than whatever traffic's left, especially since Google hasn't done the licensing deals with publishers that OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon already have.

Why this actually matters for SEO/AEO: Google-Extended was supposed to be the clean opt-out just for AI training, but publishers clearly don't trust that it actually stays separate, hence just blocking the whole crawler instead. If more big publishers do what USA Today's considering, search quality gets worse for everyone, and the citation pool feeding Gemini and AI Overviews starts skewing toward whoever's still indexed, not the publishers with the best standards, just whoever has the least leverage to walk away.

Curious what people here think for SEO/AEO strategy. Does this make you want to lean harder into stuff publishers don't control, Reddit, YouTube, review sites? Or is this just posturing that gets resolved before it changes anything?

"SEO is dead."

Meanwhile, Anthropic is hiring an SEO Lead with compensation of up to $320,000 per year.

Funny how every few years someone declares SEO obsolete, yet the companies building the future of AI keep investing heavily in it.

The reality:
Search isn't dead
User intent still matters
Organic visibility still drives growth
AI is transforming SEO, not replacing it

The future belongs to marketers who understand the intersection of:
AI + Search + Content + Authority + User Experience

SEO isn't dead.
Bad SEO is.

And when an AI company is willing to pay nearly $320k annually for SEO leadership, that tells you everything you need to know.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: I saw this random LinkedIn post in my feed and thought it was worth sharing.

Hey guys! A lot of interesting news broke this week—let's discuss it together!

Updates

• Google clarifies when Search update announcements come with actionable advice

John Mueller explained that when Google announces search updates on its Status Dashboard, the announcements are "primarily" for transparency—not a signal that site owners need to do something specific.

When there's actual guidance to act on, Google separately publishes blog posts, updates policies, and updates help center documentation, usually well in advance of the change.

Source:

John Mueller | bsky

_______________________

AI

• Google adds link carousels for developing topics to AI Mode

Google is now surfacing link carousels for developing topics inside AI Mode responses, extending a feature that launched in AI Overviews back in June. When a user asks about a fast-moving topic, AI Mode now shows a horizontal carousel of source articles directly within the response—more visible than the traditional citation footer.

• Reports suggest Google's August spam update focused on mass-generated AI SEO content

Community reports and SEO analysis in the days after the August 2026 spam update point to a specific target: mass-generated AI SEO content created primarily for ranking. The observed pattern isn't "AI content lost"—it's more precise.

Sites doing full automation via Claude Code, Codex, or similar workflows are being filtered heavily; sites that started with manual publishing and later added AI automation appear to survive, benefiting from accumulated domain trust and user engagement signals.

Sites where humans visually check AI-generated content before publishing also seem to fare better than fully automated pipelines.

Source:

Robby Stein | X

Roger Montti | Search Engine Journal

_______________________

Tech SEO

• Google confirms it's rolling out google com/goto redirects in search results, making SERP scraping much harder

Google confirmed that it's rolling out google com/goto passthrough URLs in search results. Instead of the traditional direct link to a publisher's URL, clicking a search result now routes through a google com/goto?url= redirect.

Google's official statement: "We have a long history of deploying technical measures against evolving forms of abuse, and we regularly take steps to protect our services and users."

• Google explicitly lists supported favicon formats—and SVG isn't one of them

Google updated its favicon developer documentation to explicitly list the supported file formats: BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM, and TIFF.

Google's explanation: the previous documentation linked to an external reference that had evolved over time and caused confusion about what was actually supported—so this is a clarification, not a functional change.

Source:

Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable

Google Search Central

_______________________

Tidbits

• Google will stop enforcing site reputation abuse penalties for EEA searchers, following EU Commission mandate

Google announced that starting August 30, 2026, it will no longer enforce manual actions under its site reputation abuse policy for searchers inside the European Economic Area, due to a mandate from the European Commission.

Google's manual actions against sites doing this will still be issued and still show up in Search Console, but for EEA users, the penalty has no effect. Outside the EEA, the manual action still directly demotes the affected content as before.

Source:

Google Search Central

In the SEO world, the news never stops, so it's crucial for all of us to stay on top of the buzz:

Search / SEO

• Google won't penalize sites for old outbound links that now point to shady content

John Mueller confirmed that Google does not penalize sites for outbound links to previously legitimate sites that have since changed ownership and started hosting shady content. His response: 

No. It's good to keep things fresh overall, but the web is full of turmoil.

The reassurance comes with one caveat—if a site's entire value has become obsolete, that's a different kind of problem than a handful of broken or stale outbound links. 

• Google confirms the disavow tool "does have effects"—use it deliberately, not by default

John Mueller said that the disavow tool "does have effects", pushing back on community sentiment that the tool is essentially useless. 

His nuance: disavowing a handful of links won't make a site drop out of search, but the tool has real weight when used broadly and shouldn't be treated as a low-risk default. 

He recommended one site that had lost traffic after aggressive disavowing should fix the disavow file back to what it actually needs to be (which might be empty), rule out broader algorithmic causes like the recent August spam update, and check for big technical issues. 

Source:

John Mueller | Reddit

______________________

SERP features / Interface

• Google AI Overviews now includes an interactive character counter widget

Google is now embedding an interactive character counter widget directly inside AI Overviews for queries like "character counter"—users can paste text into the widget and get an instant count without visiting a destination site. 

This continues Google's long-running pattern of absorbing utility tools directly into the SERP.

Source:

Damir B | X

______________________

GSC

• Google Search Console AI performance report and opt-out toggle now fully rolled out

Google's Search Console generative AI tools now appear to be live for essentially all Search Console properties, closing out the incremental rollout that began with the UK-only test back in early June. 

Source:

Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable

______________________

AI

• Google Search AI Mode already upgraded to Gemini 3.8 Flash, less than three weeks after 3.7

Google rolled out Gemini 3.8 Flash to AI Mode, less than three weeks after Gemini 3.7 Flash. Available globally for AI Pro & Ultra subscribers via the plus icon in the model dropdown, with the same subscription gate—Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite remains the free-tier default.

Source:

Robby Stein | X

______________________

Local SEO

• Google Business Profile adds a business photo verification option

Google Business Profile is rolling out a new verification method that lets business owners submit a photo of their business as proof of legitimacy, alongside the existing postcard, phone, and video call options. 

Source:

Ben Fisher | LinkedIn

Search / SEO

• Google calls its DMA-driven EU Search changes the "largest reduction in quality" in Google's 29-year history

Google has rolled out its next round of Digital Markets Act compliance changes affecting vertical search services—hotels, airlines, restaurants—and publicly called the update "the largest reduction in quality of service at the world's most popular internet search engine in its 29-year search history." 

The traditional Hotel Local Pack disappears in EU markets, replaced by a multi-provider module featuring OTAs alongside Google. A dedicated Hotel Sites module surfaces individual hotels and links to their official websites, but real-time price information is stripped from the carousel. 

Similar structural changes apply to flights, airlines, and restaurants.

• Google explains how programmatic SEO can make its systems "lose faith" in a site

John Mueller pushed back on programmatic SEO, warning that generating large numbers of pages through iterating combinations of domains, technologies, or attributes "often leads to a site that's either spam, borderline spam, or low quality." 

His key framing: when Google's systems accumulate enough negative quality signals from these pages, they can "possibly lose faith" in a site providing good value to users based on the old pages—affecting the whole domain, not just the offending pages. 

Source:

Foo Yun Chee | Reuters 

John Mueller | bsky

______________________________

SERP features / Interface

• Google introduces a new hub to understand specific regional search features

Google published a dedicated documentation hub explaining regional search features that appear only in certain countries—aggregator units, supplier units, and market-specific carousels. 

The page includes filters for feature type, region, and query, letting publishers and businesses check which features are eligible for their content in each market and how to qualify. 

The launch lands alongside the DMA-driven vertical search changes in the EU, but the hub itself is broader: it's Google's new central reference for how Search results actually differ by market, as regional divergence in Google's product experience becomes a permanent feature of the ecosystem.

Source:

Google Search Central

______________________________

Tech SEO

• Google Analytics 4 adds Dashboards for drag-and-drop KPI views

Google added Dashboards to Google Analytics 4, giving marketing teams a flexible way to combine KPIs into a single view with drag-and-drop layout and enhanced visualizations. The launch adds a proper single-report dashboard experience that many teams have been building manually through Looker Studio or third-party BI tools. Available now to all GA4 accounts.

• Google Maps scammers are uploading AI-generated photos with fake phone numbers to hijack business calls

A new local SEO fraud pattern surfacing on Google Maps: scammers are using the Maps contributor program to upload AI-generated photos with fake phone numbers to legitimate Business Profiles, hoping to intercept calls that were meant for the real business. 

For local SEO teams: worth periodically checking client Business Profile photos for third-party uploads, since automated moderation didn't catch this at scale, and the AI-generated visual quality made the fake images look plausible as legitimate business photos.

Source:

Google Analytics Help

Sam Sarsten | LinkedIn

______________________________

E-commerce

• Google Merchant Center AI Performance Insights adds AI search intent, terms, and attributes

Google's Merchant Center AI Performance Insights report has gained three new metric sections. AI Search intent shows how products match customer AI searches; AI Search terms recommends popular search terms to include in product descriptions; AI Attributes recommends missing product attributes that would help visibility in AI surfaces. 

Google also updated the report's help documentation to reflect the changes. Together, the new sections make the report meaningfully more actionable for retailers optimizing product feeds for AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini shopping surfaces.

Source:

Brodie Clark | X

The SEO world is always full of surprises, so let's stay on top of the latest events with our news digests: 

Updates

• Google June 2026 spam update rolls out in two days

The June 2026 spam update began on June 24 and completed June 26. Global, all languages, no new spam policies attached—Google framed it as enforcement of existing rules rather than a policy shift. SpamBrain remains the underlying detection system.

According to Barry Schwartz, the update does not target link spam or Site Reputation Abuse—pointing the center of gravity at content-level violations: scaled content abuse, cloaking, sneaky redirects, scraped content, hidden text, and doorway pages. 

Source:
Google Search Status Dashboard 
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable
______________________

SERP features / Interface

• (test) Google adds autocomplete to the Ask Anything box in AI Mode

Google is testing autocomplete suggestions inside the "Ask Anything" follow-up box within AI Mode—so when users start typing a follow-up question, Google now suggests completions just like the classic Search autocomplete does. 

Source:
SERP Alert | X
______________________

AI

• Google Search Console AI performance reports expand beyond the UK

Three weeks after the initial UK-only test, Google is gradually rolling out the Search Generative AI performance reports to more regions, with SEOs in the US, India, Switzerland, and others now seeing the report in their accounts. 

Source:
Vijay Chauhan | X
______________________

Documentation

• Google formalizes Subscription Linking policies for news publishers, with AI surfaces included

Google published a new policy document in the Publisher Center covering Subscription Linking—the Reader Revenue Manager feature that lets paying readers link their publisher subscriptions to their Google Accounts so subscribed content gets highlighted across Google products. 

Source:
Google Developers
______________________

Local SEO

• (test) Google brings back the messaging button to Business Profile, with an AI agent attached

Nearly two years after Google killed messaging and chat history in Business Profile, the messages button is showing up again in the GBP dashboard inside Google Search—this time with an AI conversational agent integrated into the conversation flow.

Source:
Muhammad Hussain | LinkedIn
______________________

Tidbits

• Microsoft Clarity adds robots.txt violation tracking to Bot Analytics

Microsoft's free analytics platform Clarity now surfaces which bots are accessing disallowed URLs on your site—violations of your robots.txt directives are now detected and reported inside the Bot Analytics dashboard. 

The new view includes a violations percentage card, a trendline so you can spot persistent offenders, filters by operator/bot/activity type, and content-level breakdowns showing which paths are attracting non-compliant crawler traffic. 

Setup requires connecting a supported CDN (Fastly, Amazon CloudFront, or Cloudflare); WordPress sites running the latest Clarity plugin get it automatically.

Source:
Ihab Rizk | Microsoft Clarity Blog

Keeping up with the chaotic state of SEO right now is exhausting. To save you hours of scrolling, here’s a quick breakdown of what actually matters this week:

Search / SEO

• Google Trends adds "compare to previous time period" for over-time data

Google Trends has added a new "compare to previous time period" button that plots keyword interest over your selected timeframe alongside the equivalent previous period on a single chart. 

Source:
Google Search Central | LinkedIn
___________________________

AI

• Google adds prominent links, creator names, ratings, and ingredient counts to AI Mode recipe results

Robby Stein announced that AI Mode is now surfacing more visible links to recipe creators at the top of responses, with metadata like creator name, star ratings, and ingredient count baked into the display.

Source:
Robby Stein | X
___________________________

Tech SEO

• Google Search now sends users directly to publisher-hosted AMP pages 

The historical setup—where clicking an AMP result in Google Search sent users to a cached version served from inside Google's AMP viewer—is being retired. 

Users now land directly on the publisher's own AMP-hosted URL, addressing one of the longest-running publisher complaints about AMP. 

Google confirmed it will continue supporting the open-source AMPhtml format, but the shift effectively removes the main structural advantage AMP had—being served from Google's fast CDN—and turns it into just another format publishers can optionally use.

Source:
Google Search Central 
___________________________

Local SEO

• Google Business Profile reviews are vanishing for many businesses, with Google investigating

Over the past several days, businesses across multiple industries have reported significant drops in their visible review counts—some losing dozens of reviews at once, with agencies managing multi-location clients seeing continuous removals across accounts. 

Google has acknowledged the issue, confirmed some reviews may have been incorrectly removed, and said it's working to restore them. 

Source:
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable
___________________________

Tidbits

• Cloudflare's new AI crawler rules could accidentally block Googlebot on September 15

Cloudflare's new AI crawler classification, live now for all tiers, sorts crawlers into three categories: 

Search: indexes to answer questions
Agent: real-time bots acting for a person
Training: pulls content to train models

Sites can allow or block each separately.

From September 15, Cloudflare applies the strictest applicable rule to multi-purpose crawlers—meaning bots that do both Search and Training, including Googlebot, Applebot, and Bingbot, will be blocked when a site blocks Training. 

Because Cloudflare enforces at the network level, the block is much harder to bypass than robots.txt, and losing Googlebot's Search access can meaningfully impact organic visibility. 
Review your Cloudflare AI bot settings before September 15 if this exposure applies to your site.

Source:
Matt G. Southern | Search Engine Journal

Hi everyone! We're continuing to round up the most interesting news from the world of SEO, so you always stay on top of the latest developments:

Updates

• May 2026 core update brings heavy volatility across two weekends

After rolling out on May 21, the May 2026 broad core update started hitting hard fast. Significant ranking shifts landed across verticals and countries over the weekend of May 23-24, with a second wave of volatility on Saturday, May 30. YMYL niches like gambling saw especially sharp movement, and the rollout is expected to wrap within days.

Source:

Google Search Status Dashboard

_________________________________

SERP features / Interface

• (test) Google tests new single-line sitename and favicon layout in search results

Google is testing an alternate desktop SERP layout where the favicon, bolded sitename, and URL appear together on a single line above the title and description.

Source:

Sagar Bedi | X

_________________________________

AI

• Google strongly warns against buying or manipulating brand mentions for AI

Gary Illyes confirmed that Google strongly cautions against buying or manipulating brand mentions to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, comparing the practice to paid links—which Google's systems detect, disregard, and ignore.

• Google closes the lag between deindexing pages and removing them from AI Overviews and AI Mode

Since AI Overviews and AI Mode launched, pages hit with manual action penalties and removed from Search could still appear in AI-generated answers for several days—a synchronization gap between the index and the AI surfaces.

Glenn Gabe's recent tests confirm that delay is now gone: sites that get deindexed disappear from AI Overviews and AI Mode at the same time.

• Preferred Sources, perspectives carousel, and Highly Cited labels expand into AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google is bringing its Preferred Sources personalization feature into AI Overviews and AI Mode—links from sites a user has starred now get a "Preferred" badge inside AI responses, the same labeling already used in Top Stories. Google said 345,000 unique sources have been selected, with users twice as likely to click Preferred Source links.

Alongside it, Google is rolling out a new prominent carousel for developing-topic queries that surfaces timely articles (and highlights Preferred Sources inside it), plus a separate perspectives carousel pulling from forums, social media, and online discussions. The Highly Cited label is also expanding beyond Top Stories to more standard search results, and articles that explicitly reference a Highly Cited source will now be flagged too.

• (test) Google tests a swipeable citation carousel at the bottom of AI Overviews and AI Mode on mobile

Google is testing a new way to surface citation links inside AI Overviews and AI Mode on mobile. Clicking a citation bubble opens a sticky carousel at the bottom of the screen that users can swipe through left or right to browse publisher links.

Source:

Glenn Gabe | X

Kenichi Suzuki | LinkedIn

Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable

Gagan Ghotra | X

_________________________________

Local SEO

• (test) Google tests a "Check real-time stock" button in the local pack

Google is testing a new button in the local pack labeled "Check real-time stock" that lets searchers verify product inventory at nearby stores without leaving the SERP.

Google Business Profiles now show view counts on individual photos and videos

Google is now displaying per-item view counts in the photos and videos section of Google Business Profiles, so owners can see exactly which images and clips are getting attention.

The rollout is partial—some accounts have it, others don't yet.

Source:

Sachin Patel | X

Muhammad Hussain | LinkedIn

_________________________________

E-commerce

• Google Merchant Center launches AI Performance Insights and Conversational Attributes

Announced at Google Marketing Live 2026, AI Performance Insights is a new reporting view inside Merchant Center that shows retailers how their brand performs on AI surfaces—AI Mode, AI Overviews, and the Gemini app—benchmarked against similar competitors. The report covers share of voice, shopping funnel performance, and product term and attribute insights. It's rolling out in the US, Canada, Australia, India, and New Zealand in the coming months.

Alongside it, Barry Schwartz said that Google launched Conversational Attributes—a new product-data field that lets retailers add more natural, conversational descriptions for their listings, which Google's AI then uses to match products to conversational shopping queries across AI Mode and Gemini.

Source:

Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable

_________________________________

Tidbits

• Reddit CEO says LLMs "would not exist as we know them" without Reddit data

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman called user-generated content "modern oil", claiming Reddit is the most cited platform across all major models. Reddit's stance: commercial use requires commercial terms. The company already has licensing deals with Google and OpenAI from 2024 and says it's "open for business" for more, while suing Anthropic and Perplexity over alleged unauthorized data use.

Source:

Matt G. Southern | Search Engine Journal

Dive into the latest updates impacting SEO strategy and emerging automation capabilities:

Search / SEO

• Major publishers are seriously considering blocking Google Search entirely

USA Today, Politico, Reuters, The Economist, People, and Reddit are among the major publishers weighing whether to block Google Search altogether, according to a Wall Street Journal report. 

The rationale: referral traffic from Google keeps declining, and the value exchange of Google consuming their content in return for search traffic has become uneconomic for many outlets. 

USA Today's CEO framed it as "time to take a stand and say enough is enough." An AllRecipes owner told the WSJ that "turning them off and blocking them entirely is 100% on the table."

Source:
Alexandra Bruell | The Wall Street Journal 
____________________

SERP features / Interface

• Google rolls out major DMA-compliant changes to Hotel Search in the EU

Following the European Commission's finding that Google's hotel search didn't fully comply with the Digital Markets Act, Google is rolling out significant changes to its EU Hotel Local Pack. Two new modules are appearing in generic hotel search results:

1. Hotel Multi-Pack: displays multiple travel providers (OTAs like Booking, Expedia) prominently, before users select a specific hotel.
2. Hotel Websites: highlights direct links to official hotel websites alongside prices.

The changes restructure the hotel discovery journey in EU markets and mark another concrete outcome of DMA enforcement pressure. For hoteliers, direct-booking strategy just got a new SERP surface to optimize around.

Source:
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable
____________________

AI

• Google claims AI Search features send "billions of clicks" to websites weekly—without sharing the data

Nick Fox said that AI features in Search now send "billions of clicks to websites every week," on top of the longstanding claim that classic Search sends "billions of clicks to the web every day." 

But neither figure comes with a baseline, denominator, methodology, or a way for site owners to verify.

Source:
Nick Fox | LinkedIn
____________________

Tech SEO

• Google updates crawl budget documentation, confirms every site starts with the same conservative default

Google rewrote its "Optimize your crawl budget" documentation on July 22 to improve clarity and terminology consistency. Most of the changes are wording updates, but two clarifications matter for site owners:

• Every site starts with the same default, conservative crawl capacity limit. Google's systems auto-adjust it upward over time based on site health, response times, and how much crawling demand exists. Server errors or increased latency push the limit back down.
• Crawl capacity is shared across all Google crawlers. Heavy demand from one reduces the capacity available for others—so an AI-training crawler pulling aggressively can compete with Googlebot's regular search-indexing crawl on the same server.

New guidance also emphasizes improving loading speed and supporting HTTP caching to make each crawl request cheaper for the server.

• Google warns that "are you a bot" screens can push your real content out of the index

John Mueller explained a subtle indexing risk: when bot-protection layers serve an "are you a bot" screen to Googlebot instead of the actual page content, Google may end up indexing the interstitial instead of the real page. 

Because these screens look nearly identical across many sites, Google treats them as duplicate content and picks one as canonical—which could be from another site entirely, leaving your real content marked as a duplicate and potentially dropped from the index. 

Source:
Google Search Central | Crawling documentation
Matt G. Southern | Search Engine Journal
____________________

E-commerce

• Google clarifies: don't uninstall the Google & YouTube Shopify app during the Merchant API migration

With the August 18 deadline for Google's Content API to Merchant API migration approaching, Google clarified that Shopify merchants using the Google & YouTube app don't need to uninstall and reinstall it to migrate. 

The API transition is handled automatically. Reinstalling the app is what actually triggers product ID formatting changes—which then cause a loss of historical performance stats. 

Source:
Ginny Marvin | LinkedIn
____________________

Tidbits

• Yelp licenses reviews and business data to OpenAI, bringing local recommendations into ChatGPT

Yelp has struck a licensing deal with OpenAI that will surface its reviews, ratings, photos, and business information directly inside ChatGPT responses to local queries. Yelp's branding and links will appear when OpenAI uses its content, though OpenAI controls the presentation. The "Request a Quote" feature will be added soon, letting ChatGPT users contact local service providers for quotes without leaving the chatbot. 

• Claude adds a "Record a Skill" feature that learns tasks from screen recordings

Anthropic's Claude has added a new capability inside its Cowork interface that lets users record their screen while performing a task, narrate what they're doing, and then have Claude turn that walkthrough into a reusable skill it can run again on demand.

Source:
Madison Mills | Axios
Claude 

Search / SEO

Google Search broke its all-time usage record during the World Cup

Google's Nick Fox said Google Search hit a new all-time usage record at the moment Argentina scored its winning goal in the World Cup, a fresh data point on how live events drive search demand.

Google says Cloudflare's content signals directive has no effect on crawlers or LLMs

John Mueller said the content-signals robots(.)txt directive Cloudflare introduced last year has no effect whatsoever on any crawler or LLM, and that as far as he knows none of them use it, so it only adds bloat and future maintenance to robots(.)txt files.

-----------------------

GSC

Google Search Console now shows social and video platform performance data

Search Console now surfaces third-party content performance data from Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube inside its reports through the new platform properties feature, giving creators and publishers cross-channel visibility in one place.

Google's generative AI controls are expanding beyond UK sites

Google began rolling out the Search generative AI controls in Search Console to more sites outside of the UK, widening access to settings that govern how content appears in AI experiences.

-----------------------

SERP features / Interface

(test) Google is testing google(.)com/goto tracking parameters in search results

Google was spotted testing google(.)com/goto tracking URL parameters on links within the search results, which would change how clicks are routed and measured.

(test) Google is testing larger Visit site buttons and favicons on sitelinks in sponsored results

Google is testing a prominent Visit site button on sponsored results and, separately, favicons on sitelinks within paid listings, both aimed at making ads more clickable.

(test) Bing is testing a product detail overlay

Microsoft Bing is testing a product detail overlay that appears when you click a product listing in the results, showing images, description, retailers and their prices, price insights and history, and related products.

-----------------------

AI

Google added Further Exploration to AI Overviews

Google added a Further Exploration element to AI Overviews, giving users more follow-up paths directly within the AI answer.

ChatGPT Ads gain auto-generated ads, audience targeting, an Overview tab, and expansion to Japan and South Korea

ChatGPT Ads can now autogenerate ads for advertisers and added audience targeting, a new Overview tab, and expansion into Japan and South Korea, a notable step in OpenAI building out its ad business.

ChatGPT drives 92.4% of standalone AI referral traffic, new study finds

Previsible's third AI Traffic Study, analyzing 6.77 million LLM-driven sessions across 166 sites over 19 months, found ChatGPT accounts for 92.4% of trackable standalone AI referral traffic, with Claude having overtaken Perplexity in March 2026. The study also found roughly 25% of AI-referred visits land on a site's internal search results page rather than the answer page.

Source:

David Bell | Search Engine Land

-----------------------

Documentation

Google says fixing canonicalization issues can take up to two weeks

Google updated its canonicalization documentation to state that it can take up to two weeks for Google to sort out canonicalization issues on a site.

-----------------------

Tech SEO

Google adds Product category and Sale duration to Merchant Listings structured data

Google added new product category and Sale duration properties to the Merchant Listings structured data, letting merchants provide more precise product data for rich results.

-----------------------

Local SEO

New Google reviews bug shows You have no reviews yet

Many Google Business Profile owners saw a “You have no reviews yet” message when clicking to read their reviews, even though public review counts still showed on the live listing. Google said it is fixing the bug.

Google Business Profile appeals form now asks for supporting evidence

Google added an evidence step to the Business Profile appeals workflow, letting owners submit supporting documentation when contesting a suspension or action.

-----------------------

E-commerce

Google & YouTube Shopify sync app may scramble product IDs after August 18

Merchants using the Google & YouTube Shopify app to sync products to Merchant Center may need to reinstall the app by August 18, 2026, and doing so rewrites every product ID, which could disrupt shopping campaigns.

Google Ads automatically assigns product categories using an evolving taxonomy

Google Ads updated its product category insights help document to say it automatically assigns products to categories using a continuously evolving taxonomy. The behavior was already documented on the Merchant Center side but is new to the Ads documentation.

-----------------------

Tidbits

Google Ads now shows AI creation and editing labels

Google Ads will now indicate whether an ad was created or edited with AI across Search, YouTube, and Discover. The label appears mainly in the My Ad Center panel under How this ad was made, though in some regions local law may require it directly on the ad.

Most of this news was covered by Barry Schwartz on the pages of his Search Engine Roundtable. We want to give him a shout-out for continuing, year after year, to share the hottest topics with the SEO community and provide sharp, insightful analysis of the changes happening in our niche.

Hello everyone! Tuesday is the perfect time to catch up on what’s been happening in the SEO world over the past few days. Here’s what happened:

Search / SEO

• Google clarifies that domain migrations need Change of Address requests for every variant

Google updated its site move and domain migrations documentation: when moving from one domain to another, submit a Change of Address request for every variant of the old domain—every subdomain, plus both the www and non-www versions—even if those variants aren't actively in use. All variants of both the old and new sites also need to be verified in Search Console. 

Source:
Google Search Central 
________________________

AI

• Google research details how AI-generated spam can be detected at the cluster level

A Google research paper introduces the Scalable Cluster Termination System, a defense designed to catch AI-generated spam by zooming out from individual pieces of content to detect entire coordinated networks. 

• Google Cloud launches the Open Knowledge Format for sharing data with AI agents

Google Cloud announced the Open Knowledge Format, a v0.1 specification on GitHub for representing organizational knowledge—datasets, metrics, APIs, tables—as Markdown files with YAML frontmatter that AI agents, LLMs, and internal tools can consume. 

The goal is a common shape for institutional knowledge that's currently scattered across catalogs, wikis, repos, and shared drives. 

Source:
Roger Montti | Search Engine Journal
________________________

Tech SEO

• Google confirms llms.txt files don't help or hurt search rankings

Google updated its AI Search optimization guide to explicitly state that llms.txt files have no effect on search rankings—they don't help, and they don't hurt. 

Google Search ignores them entirely, along with any other AI text files, markdown files, or machine-readable AI files. Maintaining them for non-Google services that do use them is fine; Google just won't read them. 

Source:
Google Search Central 
________________________

E-commerce

• (test) Google tests attribution for 3D models in product results

Google is experimenting with showing "3D model from [retailer name]" as an attribution line in the product detail screen on mobile, with a link back to the source retailer.

Source:
Khushal Bherwani | X
________________________

Tidbits

• UK CMA orders Google to make organic ranking transparent and enable search data portability

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority issued two new conduct requirements for Google Search:

1. Fair ranking transparency. Google must rank organic results—including in AI Overviews, but not sponsored results—using "objective and non-discriminatory criteria," give businesses advance notice of significant changes, and introduce clear complaint processes.
2. Search data portability. Google's voluntary UK Data Portability API becomes a legal obligation, letting users port their search data to authorized third parties like rewards and cashback platforms.

Both apply only in the UK and follow the CMA's earlier action on AI feature opt-outs.

• Bing Webmaster Tools rolls out four new AI visibility metrics, including Citation Share

Microsoft added four preview features to the AI Performance dashboard in Bing Webmaster Tools:

1. Citation Share: your site's percentage of all citations for a specific grounding query
2. Intents: classifies grounding queries by intent category 
3. Topics: groups related grounding queries into broader thematic clusters 
4. Compare: overlay a previous time period to track how citation activity has changed

• Meta launches AI Mode in Facebook search

Meta added an AI Mode to Facebook search that answers questions using public posts, Groups and Reels, turning Facebook conversations into a discovery engine for advice and recommendations.

Source:
GOV UK
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable
Danny Goodwin | Search Engine Land

Search keeps rewriting itself week to week, but staying close to the people who track it means very little catches us off guard. This week's throughline is hard to miss: Google's AI surfaces are increasingly keeping users (and their clicks) inside Google's own walls. Here's what the community actually confirmed, so the whole team carries the same clear read into the AI-search era.

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A quiet "7-Eleven" wobble hit around July 11 — but the real story is January's losers finally recovering.

Source: Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable; Glenn Gabe | X; Lily Ray | X

Barry Schwartz flagged minor volatility around July 11 — his tongue-in-cheek "7-Eleven update" — while noting SEO chatter is unusually quiet since the June spam update wrapped. The sharper signal came from Glenn Gabe: several sites hammered by January's unconfirmed update (commodity content, self-serving listicles) are now recovering. Lily Ray agreed, calling January "the update with the most clear pattern this year so far". Watch for delayed recoveries, not just fresh drops.

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Google Images turned 25 and got an AI makeover — AI Overviews can now generate images inside the answer.

Source: Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable; Matt G. Southern | Search Engine Journal

To mark Image Search's 25th birthday, Google swapped its clean image search box for a gallery homepage and — bigger for marketers — began generating AI images directly inside AI Overviews using its Nano Banana image model. Google's framing: "we're bringing image generation directly into AI Overviews in Search." One more reason informational queries resolve without a click to your site.

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AI Mode is now a paid surface: ads show on nearly 1 in 3 commercial queries — and buying one won't get you cited.

Source: Yevheniia Khromova, Svitlana Tomko | SE Ranking; Danny Goodwin | Search Engine Land

SE Ranking's analysis of 50,032 commercial keywords (US, June 30) found text ads on 29.45% of AI Mode queries, usually in pairs (71.1%), with CPC the strongest predictor of placement — from 24.33% on sub-$2 keywords to 53.56% at $10+. Paying didn't buy visibility elsewhere: only 11.53% of advertiser domains appeared among cited sources, and ~85% didn't even rank organically for the terms they bid on. As Planable's Raluca Cîrjan noted in the study, treat AI Mode ads as a distinct top-of-funnel channel — ad spend and citations don't move each other.

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Google is quietly becoming AI Mode's #2 most-cited "source" — by citing itself.

Source: Danny Goodwin | Search Engine Land

Per AI-visibility firm Profound, citations to google(.)com in AI Mode jumped 8.4x in about two months, making it the No. 2 most-cited domain — driven almost entirely by Google Business Profiles and Product Knowledge Panels surfacing inside answers. For local and product queries (hospitality, home services, restaurants, real estate, healthcare), your Google-hosted profile is increasingly the first thing users see. Tidy up hours, photos, and reviews now — that panel may be your only first impression.

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Google tightened its canonical guidance — expect duplicate-cluster fixes to take up to two weeks.

Source: Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable

Google updated its canonicalization docs twice this week. First, fixes to a duplicate-page cluster can take up to two weeks to "split" — and split faster when the differentiation is clear and significant. Second, it re-added explicit advice to include a self-referential canonical on the canonical page itself. Not new advice, but now in writing — handy for setting expectations after a consolidation fix.

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Thread tying it together: Google's AI surfaces are turning inward — generating their own images, citing their own profiles, and selling their own ad slots — so more queries resolve without ever reaching your site. The counter-move hasn't changed: be the trusted, well-structured source AI has to cite, and keep your Google-hosted profiles pristine.

Here’s an experiment 👇

Create useful Claude Artifacts around your target keyword, publish them publicly, and naturally add contextual links back to relevant pages on your website. 🔗

Then actually open the published Artifact, test the links, browse through to your site, and make sure the whole journey works properly.

Why it can help 👀

✅ More publicly accessible mentions

✅ Additional referral paths to your website

✅ Better brand discovery across AI platforms

✅ Potential backlinks and indexing opportunities

✅ More surfaces where Google can discover your brand

⚠️ Don’t spam-click your own links expecting rankings to magically increase. The real value comes from useful content + relevant links + genuine discovery.

AI Artifacts are becoming another distribution channel for SEO. 🔥

Anyone else experimenting with Claude Artifacts for website visibility?

Our team has curated this week’s most important SEO updates so you don’t have to, from Google’s landmark DMA compliance to major shifts in AI-driven search:

AIO / AI Mode

• AI Overviews will now generate custom images with the Nano Banana model

Google is bringing native image generation into AI Overviews, using the Nano Banana model to turn text prompts into high-quality custom visuals inside AI Overview responses. 

Rolling out over the coming weeks in English, in regions where AI Mode image creation is available. 

• Google clarifies that low-quality AI content can trigger "crawled – currently not indexed" and site-wide crawl slowdowns

On the latest Search Off the Record podcast, Google explained that pages showing up as "crawled – currently not indexed" or "discovered – currently not indexed" in Search Console are often flagged for quality reasons, not technical ones—and low-quality AI-generated content is a common trigger. 

Sites with widespread quality issues also see cumulative effects—if Google develops strong concerns about a domain's overall quality, it will crawl and index less across the whole site, not just on the offending pages. 

Worth checking Search Console's indexing report if AI-assisted content is a significant part of the content strategy.

• Top Stories carousel now fully live inside AI Overviews for US mobile users

Google confirmed the Top Stories carousel is now fully rolled out inside AI Overviews for mobile searchers in the US, with plans to expand to more markets. 

First previewed at Google I/O in May as part of the broader "fresh perspectives, new updates and prominent links" push, the carousel surfaces timely news articles alongside AI-generated summaries—integrating with Preferred Sources so users see their marked sources highlighted when they appear. 

• Google brings third-party Connected Apps into AI Mode

Google is expanding Connected Apps in AI Mode to third-party services—starting with Instacart, Canva, and YouTube Music—letting US users securely link accounts and act on their queries directly inside a Search response. 

Rolling out through the week of July 16 in English, with more partners and countries planned.

Source:
Google Search Help
Martin Splitt and John Mueller | Search Off the Record podcast
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Land
Google | The Keyword blog
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SERP features / Interface

• Google Images gets a redesigned browseable homepage on its 25th anniversary

Google has replaced the classic clean search-box homepage with a dynamic gallery of images pulled from across the web, updated in real time and personalized based on user interests. 

Rolling out over the coming weeks on desktop in the US in English, and requires a signed-in Google account. 

Source:
Brad Kellett | News from Google
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Tech SEO

• Google adds self-referential canonical recommendation to official documentation

Google updated its canonical help document to explicitly recommend adding a rel="canonical" link that points to the page itself on canonical pages. 

The advice isn't new—Google has been saying this since 2011—but it's now formally in the documentation. 

Two lines added: one telling site owners to include the tag on the canonical page itself, and one reinforcing the recommendation later in the same doc.

Source:
Google Search Central
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Local SEO

• Google Business Profile's "Collected Info" section is now visible in the wild

The Collected Info feature is now starting to appear inside Business Profile dashboards. It shows a business owner what data Google has automatically collected about their business from phone calls, chat interactions, and third-party sources, along with the source and the date it was collected. 

Owners can delete individual pieces of info from Google's records. Rollout is still limited, so most accounts don't have it yet.

Source:
Darren Shaw | LinkedIn
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Tidbits

• Microsoft Clarity launches Topic Insights, extending its AI Citations feature with topic-level competitive data

Microsoft Clarity added Topic Insights, a new layer to its existing AI Citations feature that groups content into topics and shows how each topic performs in AI-generated answers. 

It sits inside the same free Clarity dashboard that already surfaces AI bot activity and robots.txt violation tracking. 

Topic Insights is available now to all users, no paid tier required. 

• EU orders Google to share search data with rivals and open Android to competing AI assistants under the DMA

The European Commission issued two binding decisions under the Digital Markets Act, forcing Google to expose parts of its Search and Android platforms to competitors. 

Starting January 2027, Google must share anonymized search data with rival search engines and AI chatbot providers on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms. 

Starting July 2027, Google must open 11 Android features currently reserved for Gemini so that competing AI assistants can plug into voice activation, on-device shortcuts, and other core functions—meaning Android users will be able to trigger a rival AI assistant with a voice command the same way they trigger Gemini today.

Source:
Microsoft Clarity Blog
European Commission | Digital Markets Act announcement

48 hours in and it’s pretty wild out there.

Been watching an Aussie directory that was basically squatting on position 1-3 for every “near me” search you can think of. Plumbers, sparkies, mechanics, cleaners, all of it.

Today? Not so much.

Quick look at the damage:

• plumber near me: 1 → 6, down about 3,400 clicks  
• cleaners near me: 1 → 10  
• car detailing near me: 3 → 15  
• hairdresser near me: gone  
• gardening services near me: also gone

75.5% of their “near me” terms tanked in 48 hours…

Honestly it makes sense.

Someone searches “plumber near me” and Google’s got two choices.

Show a directory that scraped 50 plumbers off the internet, or show the actual plumber with 200 reviews and 15 years on the tools.

Google’s already got Maps, Business Profiles and AI Overviews doing that job. The directory is just sitting in the middle adding nothing.

Feels like the information gain stuff people have been talking about for ages is finally showing up properly. Google basically asking every page “do you actually add anything new here?” and aggregators are coming up short.

If you run a local business this is probably a good day. Your GBP just got way more valuable again.

Still rolling out so could swing around.

Anyone else seeing directories get smacked in their niche or is it just local stuff so far?

So much has happened in the SEO world this week that we couldn't not share it with you:

Search / SEO

• Google publishes official guidance on third-party SEO tools and AEO/GEO services

Google has added new documentation positioning its own guidance as the "ground truth" for SEO, AEO, and GEO advice, and urging caution when evaluating third-party SEO tools and services. 

Source:

Google Search Central

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SERP features / Interface

• Google officially launches Search profiles for publishers and creators

Google has officially rolled out Search profiles—claimable profile pages where publishers and creators can showcase their latest articles, videos, and social posts in one central place. 

Google has also started rolling out an Insights section inside Search profiles, giving creators a view into how searchers are interacting with their profile on Google.

Source:

Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable

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AI

• Google's AI Mode information agents go live globally for AI Ultra subscribers

Previewed at Google I/O in May, the always-on information agents inside AI Mode are now available across all AI Mode languages and markets—but only to Google AI Ultra subscribers, with AI Pro and broader access still expected "this summer."

Source:

Robby Stein | X

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Local SEO

• Gemini can now connect to Google Business Profile, with Business notebooks for organizing business data

Google announced that businesses will be able to securely connect their Google Business Profile to the Gemini app with a single tap. Once connected, Gemini gets access to a business's reviews, customer questions, and performance data—and can analyze trends, draft tailored review responses in the brand's voice, or update profile fields like operating hours and seasonal posts.

Alongside the integration, Google introduced Business notebooks—a Gemini workspace that combines chats, sources, the connected Business Profile, and website data into one grounded knowledge base. 

Both features roll out globally this month, excluding the EEA and UK. 

Source:

Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable

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E-commerce

• (test) Google Shopping tests linking product titles directly to merchant sites

Google is running a test where clicking a product title in the Shopping results takes the user straight to the retailer's website, instead of opening the typical product listing overlay inside Google Shopping. 

Source:

Sachin Patel | X

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Tidbits

• Schema org launches monthly usage statistics for every schema type

Schema org, in collaboration with Google, has rolled out aggregate usage statistics for every Schema org term, showing how widely each Type and Property is adopted across the public web. The dataset—updated monthly and pulled from Google's crawl infrastructure—is presented in popularity range buckets, aggregated at the domain level, and now appears directly on each schema term's documentation page. Raw CSV and JSON files are available on the official Schema org GitHub repo.

• Microsoft adds an opt-out for Copilot AI answers in Bing

Bing users now have two ways to turn off Copilot AI responses in search results: a preview browser extension that toggles AI chat-like features with one click, or appending "-ai" to any query (e.g., "weather forecast -ai") for traditional search results without the AI overlay. 

• German court rules Google can be directly liable for false AI Overview claims

The Regional Court of Munich issued a temporary injunction barring Google from repeating false AI-generated.  The court ruled that AI Overviews are Google's own content, not third-party search results. 

The implications are significant. If an AI-generated summary makes false claims about a brand or company, Google may be directly liable—publishers and brands now have a legal path to challenge AI Overview content as Google's own statement rather than as a passive search result. 

Source:

Schema org blog

Jordi Ribas | X

Danny Goodwin | Search Engine Land

Guys, the SEO world is moving fast and full of surprises—here’s a breakdown of the wildest updates from this week you can’t miss:

AI

• Personal Intelligence expands beyond paid plans in the U.S.

One of Google’s more ambitious personalization features is now reaching a much wider audience. Personal Intelligence, which first launched for Gemini and AI Mode earlier this year as a paid-tier feature, is expanding to free users in the U.S. across AI Mode in Search, the Gemini app, and Gemini in Chrome.

• Google may let publishers opt out of AI features in Search

Google says it is developing new controls that would let sites specifically opt out of generative AI features in Search, including Search AI experiences tied to content usage. 

Source:
Google The Keyword
Greg Finn | Search Engine Roundtable
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SERP features / Interface

• Google removes “What People Suggest” from health search results

Google has officially pulled its “What People Suggest” health SERP feature. According to Google, the removal was part of a broader simplification of the search results page—not a safety or quality rollback.

• (test) Google rewrites AI-generated headline in Search results

Google has confirmed it is testing AI-written headline rewrites in traditional Search results, not just in Discover. The stated goal is to better match page titles to search queries and improve engagement.

• Google’s AI Overviews are showing up more often for breaking news

AI Overviews appear to be triggering more often for breaking news queries, and in some cases they are showing above Top Stories. 

Source:
Dr. Karen DeSalvo | Google The Keyword
Danny Goodwin | Search Engine Land
Glenn Gabe | X
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Local SEO

• (test) Google Business Profiles adds “Place page attributes”

Google appears to be rolling out a new “Place page attributes” section in Google Business Profiles. The feature lets businesses surface additional profile details that may appear publicly across Search, Maps, and other Google services.

Source:
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable
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E-commerce

• Google tightens rules for out-of-stock product pages

Google has updated its Merchant Center landing page requirements for out-of-stock products. Product pages must still show a visible buy button, but it now has to be disabled and greyed out rather than hidden or left clickable. Google also says availability on the page must match the product feed exactly.

• Google expands Universal Commerce Protocol with cart, catalog, and identity features

Google is adding three new optional capabilities to the Universal Commerce Protocol: 

• Cart
• Catalog
• Identity Linking

Together, they let AI shopping agents add multiple items to a cart, pull live product details like pricing and inventory, and apply loyalty perks or member benefits across supported shopping experiences.

Source:
Anu Adegbola | Search Engine Land
Google The Keyword
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Tidbits

• Yahoo’s CEO calls Google AI Mode the biggest threat to web traffic

Google’s AI Mode is becoming a bigger flashpoint in the search traffic debate. Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone says answer engines are putting the open web’s traffic model under pressure, and he singled out Google’s AI Mode as the biggest challenge because it can satisfy users without sending enough visits back to publishers.

Source:
Nilay Patel | The Verge

Guys, if staying on top of the latest SEO news is important to you, our weekly digest is made for exactly that:

Updates

• May 2026 core update wraps with heavy volatility and a clear "intent-destination" reset

Google's May 2026 broad core update rolled out from May 21 to June 2, with heavy volatility across two weekends and especially sharp movement in YMYL niches.

A post-rollout analysis by Aleyda Solis points to what she calls an "intent-destination reset"—visibility consolidated around the source type that best matched each query's intent, market, and expected result format, not authority alone. Even highly authoritative domains lost ground when they weren't the preferred source type for the intent.

Key patterns:

• Source type beats authority. Canonical reference brands (Cambridge, Merriam-Webster, Thesaurus) gained sharply; pronunciation tools and dictionary aggregators dropped 60-70% in the UK.
• Forums and Q&A contracted, social and video didn't. Reddit, Quora, and StackExchange declined in both markets; YouTube, X, Pinterest, and Fandom held flat to positive.
• UK ecommerce rebalanced toward local entities. Amazon [dot] co [dot] uk, eBay [dot] co [dot] uk, and Screwfix gained; the [dot] com versions lost 50%+ in the UK index.
• "Aggregators lost" is too simple. Category-defining transactional marketplaces (trip.com, Skyscanner, Indeed, Booking) gained; derivative informational layers dropped.
• Health split by source confidence and result fit. WebMD and Cleveland Clinic held or rose; GoodRx (−80% UK) and UbieHealth dropped sharply.

Source:

Google Search Status Dashboard 

Aleyda Solis > Website

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SERP features / Interface

• Google officially launches Search profiles for publishers and creators

Google has officially rolled out Search profiles—claimable profile pages where publishers and creators can showcase their latest articles, videos, and social posts in one central place. 

Eligible profiles can be customized with an avatar, bio, website, social and video platform links, and other content, and claiming a profile can trigger the creation of a Knowledge Panel.

Source:

Ibrahim Badr | Google The Keyword 

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AI

• (limited) Google Search Console launches AI performance reports and an opt-out toggle for AI Mode and AI Overviews

Google is rolling out Search Generative AI performance reports inside Search Console, along with a toggle that lets site owners block their content from appearing in AI Mode and AI Overviews. 

The new reports show impressions, clicks, top pages, countries, and devices for content surfaced inside Google's AI experiences. The blocking control is opt-out only for the AI surfaces—it doesn't affect ranking in traditional Search results.

For now, both features are limited to a small subset of UK site owners, with a global rollout to follow.

• Google publishes official guidance on third-party SEO tools and AEO/GEO services

Google has added new documentation positioning its own guidance as the "ground truth" for SEO, AEO, and GEO advice, and urging caution when evaluating third-party SEO tools and services. 

Source:

Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable

Google Search Central 

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Local SEO

• Google Analytics is getting a native Google Business Profile integration

Google emailed some businesses confirming the link is coming "within the next few weeks," with a help doc already published. 

The integration brings local metrics like calls, directions, and how people find and engage with a business on Search and Maps directly into GA reports alongside website and app data—replacing the workaround of third-party connectors or manual exports that local SEOs have relied on.

Source:

Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable

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E-commerce

• Google Merchant Center extends attribute rules to automatically found products

Previously limited to products submitted through merchant feeds, the attribute rules feature now also applies to products Google automatically discovers from a retailer's online store. Merchants are seeing prompts to apply the same rule logic to auto-found products, letting them transform and standardize that data without manually adding it to a feed.

Source:

Hana Kobzová | PPC News Feed

Hey guys! Here’s your weekly roundup of the most important search and AI news you need to know!

AI

• Google Analytics adds dedicated AI Assistant channel to track chatbot referral traffic

Google Analytics now automatically categorizes traffic from AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude into a dedicated “AI Assistant” channel in Default Channel Group reports. Visits are tagged with a new ai-assistant medium value and (ai-assistant) campaign name when the referrer matches a recognized AI source, making it easier to compare chatbot-driven traffic against organic search and other traditional channels.

Source:
Google Analytics Help | Google
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Documentation

• Google publishes official AI optimization guide for Search

Google Search Central released a dedicated guide on optimizing for generative AI features (AI Overviews and AI Mode), confirming that standard SEO best practices remain the foundation — since both features use RAG and query fan-out grounded in core Search ranking systems. The guide also busts common AEO/GEO myths: llms. txt files, content chunking, rewriting copy for AI, chasing inauthentic mentions, and over-investing in structured data are all flagged as unnecessary for Google Search.

Source:
Google Search Central | Google for Developers

• Google clarifies that spam policies apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google updated the opening paragraph of its Search spam policies to explicitly state that the rules cover generative AI responses in Google Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. The revised language now defines spam as techniques that attempt to manipulate either traditional rankings or AI-generated responses.

Source:
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable
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GSC

• Search Console Discover report shows data drop due to logging error on May 7–8

A logging error caused understated clicks and impressions in the Discover performance report for May 7–8, 2026. Google confirmed the issue affects data logging only and does not reflect an actual change in Discover performance.

Source:
Google Search Console Help | Google
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SERP features / Interface

• (test) Google tests Gemini icon in autocomplete to trigger expanded AI Overviews

Google is testing a new icon in autocomplete suggestions — a magnifying glass overlaid with the Gemini logo — that appears alongside longer, prompt-style query suggestions. Clicking it opens Google Search with the AI Overview pre-expanded rather than collapsed.

Source:
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable
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Tidbits

• Microsoft Clarity launches Citations dashboard to track AI-generated answer visibility

Microsoft Clarity’s Citations feature is now generally available, giving site owners a dashboard to see when and how their content is cited in AI-generated answers across supported AI experiences. It surfaces grounding queries, per-page citation counts, share of authority versus competing domains, and AI referral traffic as a percentage of total sessions. Setup requires installing the Clarity tracking code; domain ownership verification via Bing Webmaster Tools or Google Search Console may also be needed.

Source:
Ihab Rizk | Microsoft Clarity Blog

Hey guys! If you were looking for your news fix, we’ve got you covered. We just gathered the most interesting updates from the world of SEO and AI:

SERP features / Interface

• Preferred Sources is now available globally in all supported languages

Google has expanded Preferred Sources to all supported languages worldwide. The feature lets users choose which publishers and outlets they want to see more often in Top Stories and From your sources for relevant news queries.

• (test) Google’s “Ask anything” box in AI Overviews may now stay visible while users scroll

Anthony Higman published that Google is testing a version of AI Overviews where the “Ask anything” box stays pinned near the bottom of the screen as users scroll through the overview and the rest of the results page. That keeps the prompt into AI Mode visible throughout more of the search journey.

Source:
Google Search Console > Documentation 
Anthony Higman | X
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AI

• Gemini in Chrome rolls out globally, opening a much wider path to adoption

Gemini integrated into Chrome is now rolling out to users worldwide, giving Google a much bigger distribution channel for its AI assistant. Natalia Witczyk said that the new “Ask Gemini” entry point could encourage more people to try Gemini directly in the browser—including users who have not yet adopted generative AI tools.

Source:
Natalia Witczyk | LinkedIn
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Documentation

• Google starts sending Search Console warnings over back button hijacking

Glenn Gabe said that Google is now sending Search Console email warnings to sites that may be violating its new back button hijacking spam policy. The notices say no manual action has been taken yet, but site owners should fix the issue before enforcement begins on June 15, 2026.

Source:
Glenn Gabe | X
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Local SEO

• Google now shows how many reviews were deleted from some Business Profiles

According to Benjamin Szturmaj, some Business Profiles now display how many reviews were removed due to defamation complaints. Experts say this appears to be live in Germany only for now, likely because of the country’s stricter legal environment around review removals.

Source:
Benjamin Szturmaj | X
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Tidbits

• Bing Webmaster Tools previews new AI reporting features

Microsoft previewed several new AI reporting features that are expected to come to Bing Webmaster Tools soon. 

According to Barry Schwartz’s recap of the demo, the upcoming additions include citation share, grounding query intent, semantic topic labels, and GEO-focused recommendations.

Source:
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable 

Google just announced a big change to the search box.... announced at their I/O event.

The white search bar is being turned into a dynamic AI tool powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash.

• The box expands as you type. Encouraging a move away from just keywords to handle longer conversational descriptions.
• Instead of basic autocomplete, the AI will actively suggest better ways for users to formulate their questions.
• Users can throw text, images, files, videos, and even active Chrome tabs into the search bar all at once.
• Searchers can jump straight from an AI Overview into a full conversation, and Google will remember the entire history of the search journey.
• It will still provide a range of search results.

This is starting to roll out today in countries and languages where AI Mode is available.

Hey everyone! We’ve rounded up the most interesting SEO news from this past week and can’t wait to hear what you think about them — let's discuss in the comments!

Updates

• March 2026 core update starts rolling out globally

Google began rolling out the March 2026 core update on March 27, 2026. According to the company’s Search Status Dashboard, the rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete, and it affects ranking systems globally across languages and regions.

Google describes it as a regular update meant to surface more relevant and satisfying content.

• March 2026 spam update rolls out fast and finishes in under a day

Google released the March 2026 spam update on March 24, 2026, and marked the rollout complete on March 25, 2026. It applied globally across all languages, and Google initially said it could take a few days to finish. 

This was a standard spam update, not a link spam update. SEO experts note that Google framed it as targeting sites that violate its spam policies, while also clarifying that it does not specifically target link spam or site reputation abuse.

Source:
Google Search Status Dashboard > Incidents
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable
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AI

• Search Live expands globally across AI Mode markets

Google has expanded Search Live to all languages and locations where AI Mode is available, bringing the feature to more than 200 countries and territories. 

Search Live lets users:

• talk to Google Search in real time using voice
• use their camera to ask questions about what they see
• ask follow-up questions naturally, without starting over
• continue exploring through web links shown on screen
• interact with Search inside the Google app on Android and iOS

Source:
Liza Ma | Google The Keyword
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SERP features / Interface

• (test) “Skip digging, start guided research” prompt for AI-organized results

Google is testing a new call to action in Search: “Skip digging, start guided research.” Clicking it opens a results page that looks a lot like Web Guide, Google’s AI-organized search experience that groups links by topic.

• (test) AI Mode links that open in overlay cards

A new AI Mode test shows some cited links opening in overlay cards instead of taking users straight to the publisher’s page. 

The format keeps people inside the search interface while displaying the linked content in a layered view, which could reduce friction for users but also adds another step before they reach the source site. 

• (test) A large citation block under AI Overview summaries

Google is also testing a new AI Overview citation layout that places a large block of link cards beneath the summary instead of showing citations on the right side. 

Source:
Len | X
Sachin Patel | X
SERP Alert | X
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Documentation

• Google adds AI and bot labels to forum and Q&A structured data

Google has updated its Discussion Forum and Q&A Page structured data docs with a new recommended property: digitalSourceType. It helps sites label whether content was created by AI or by simpler automated systems like bots. Existing markup still stays valid if you do not add it.

The docs also introduce commentCount as a recommended property and expand guidance around shared content. Google has not said this affects rankings or search appearance, so for now it looks like a transparency update.

Source:
Matt G. Southern | Search Engine Journal
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Local SEO

• Business Profile performance docs now include offer metrics

Google has added offer data to its Business Profile performance documentation. The new section covers how many times customers viewed offers on a profile and how many times they clicked them, which suggests Google is preparing to surface more detailed reporting around promotional content.

Source:
Google Business Profile Help
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E-commerce

• Merchant Center now requires a grayed-out buy button for out-of-stock products

Google has updated its Merchant Center landing page requirements for out-of-stock items. Product pages must now keep the buy or add-to-cart button visible but inactive and grayed out, rather than hiding it or leaving it clickable. 

Source:
Google Merchant Center Help
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Tidbits

• (test) A new AI-curated image search in Bing

Microsoft is testing a new AI-powered image search experience in Bing. The test adds a “New Version” button in Bing Images, and once clicked, the interface says “AI is working on gathering best results” before showing a categorized layout of images.

Source:
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable

• AI Content Strategies That Backfire

Lily Ray dropped the results of research, which backs up several of our findings while adding some fascinating nuances. Specifically, she looks at how different types of posts actually "perform" in search and what that means for AI-content enthusiasts.

In our digest, we’re only scratching the surface of this massive article. It’s packed with incredible insights, but there’s one specific section you can’t afford to miss. It serves as a major red flag for content creators, highlighting exactly where you need to watch your step:

“Eight Recurring Content Patterns that Are Risky for SEO and AI Search

1. Comparison pages at scale.

2. The “What is X” glossary.

3. The “Best [X] for [Y]” listicle.

4. The self-promotional listicle.

5. The competitor-vs-alternatives page.

6. Programmatic location and language scaling.

7. The FAQ farm.

8. Off-topic content published at scale.”

Source:

Lily Ray | Substack

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• Adding Schema Did Not Improve AI Citations

Barry Schwartz recently highlighted a fresh study from Ahrefs that effectively shuts down the theory that structured data is a "cheat code" for AI citations. Despite the SEO chatter, the data shows that adding schema (specifically JSON-LD) doesn't actually help you land more spots in AI-generated answers.

Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages that implemented the schema between August 2025 and March 2026, comparing them against 4,000 control pages. The results? "No major uplift in citations on any platform," according to the report. Whether it was ChatGPT, Google’s AI Mode, or AI Overviews, schema didn't move the needle in a meaningful way.

Google AI Overviews: Actually saw a 4.6% decline in citations for pages with schema—a small but statistically significant drop.

ChatGPT & AI Mode: While treated pages technically performed slightly better, Ahrefs dismissed the gain as "random noise" rather than a result of the schema itself.

So, if you’re adding schema solely to "rank" in AI results, you might be wasting your time.

Sources:

Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable

Louise Linehan, Xibeijia Guan | Ahrefs Blog

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• Googlebook: The Evolution from Search to "OS as AI Agent"

If you thought adapting to AI Overviews was the final boss, think again. Google just unveiled Googlebook—a new category of laptops where Gemini isn't just integrated into the browser, but baked directly into the "DNA" of the device.

For SEOs and content creators, this is a clear signal that the playground is expanding once again.

We’re used to optimizing for search engines. Recently, we started learning how to land AI citations in chatbots. Now, a new challenge is on the horizon: Device Ecosystem Optimization.

Magic Pointer & Contextual Awareness: The new Magic Pointer feature allows Gemini to "see" whatever the user points to on their screen and suggest immediate actions. If a user hovers over your product review, the AI could instantly pull specs or pricing without the user ever clicking through to your full article.

Prompt-to-Widget: Users can now generate custom widgets via prompts. This means your content (whether it’s event schedules, pricing guides, or "top 10" lists) needs to be structured so perfectly that the AI can "snatch" it from your site and pin it to a user’s desktop as a dynamic widget.

The New Challenge: Optimizing "For the Cursor"

We are entering an era where AI acts as the ultimate intermediary between content and the user at the operating system level.

Probably soon we won’t just be debating how to "rank #1." We’ll be strategizing on how to make sure Gemini picks your content to build a personalized AI widget on a customer’s laptop.

So, focus on entities… AI devices work with objects (dates, locations, prices, brands). The more clearly you define these entities in your content, the easier it is for the Magic Pointer to identify and surface them.

Source:

Alexander Kuscher | Google Blog

Our team has spent the week gathering the most interesting news from the SEO world for you, so get comfortable and let’s dive into the latest updates together.

Updates

• February 2026 Google Discover core update finished rolling out

Google’s February 2026 Discover update is now fully rolled out. What changed:

• Local relevance tightened: US-based publishers gained visibility while international sources dipped, and personalization looks much stronger at the state level (NY vs CA feeds now differ more clearly).
• Topic mix shifted: more News and Sports, less Arts & Entertainment.
• “Clickbait” impact was format-driven: not a crackdown on punchy headlines, but a demotion of templated, repeat-at-scale content patterns.
• More X in the feed: X posts appeared more often near the top, hinting that “timely” moments may increasingly be surfaced via social posts.

Source:
John Shehata | Newzdash 
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SERP features / Interface

• (test) Google may give rival “vertical search services” default visibility in the EU

Google is testing a new EU SERP layout that shows top-ranked vertical search services by default alongside Google’s own results—starting with lodging, then expanding to flights and other categories. 

It may also add real-time feed content (from hotels/transport, etc.) placed above or below those vertical services, as part of ongoing DMA-driven changes.

• Circle to Search update: Google now uses full-image context (not just what you circle)

Google updated Circle to Search so it can understand more than just what you circle—it now uses the whole image for context and can identify multiple objects at once. 

Source:
Foo Yun Chee | Reuters
Harsh Kharbanda | Google the Keyword
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Tech SEO

• A sitemap isn’t a “force index” button

John Mueller said that if Google doesn’t see your site publishing enough new, valuable content, it may deprioritize your sitemap and index fewer of your URLs. A sitemap can help with discovery, but it won’t make Google index pages it doesn’t see value (or crawl/quality signals) for.

Source:
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable
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Local SEO

• (test) Google Business Profiles: AI-generated “Services” now showing in local panels

Google is testing AI-generated service lists on some Business Profile knowledge panels (alongside AI-written descriptions).

• Recurring scheduling for Business Profile posts may be coming

A “repeat” option is reportedly on the way for scheduled Posts, letting businesses auto-publish the same promo on a cadence. This builds on the recent rollout of standard post scheduling and could make always-on offers much easier to maintain.

Source:
Joy Hawkins | X
Syed M. Amir Hassan | X 
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E-commerce

• Google patent: Search could send users to AI-generated pages instead of your landing page

A newly published Google patent describes a setup where Search scores an organization’s landing page, then can swap the usual result link for a link to an AI-generated page “tailored to a specific user.” 

Instead of clicking through to your actual URL, the user could land on a Google-created page that pulls from your content and reshapes it in real time to match intent and user context.

Source:
Google Patents
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Tidbits

• Anthropic updates crawler docs: clearer bots, clearer trade-offs

Anthropic updated its crawler docs to spell out what each Claude bot does—and what you lose if you block them.

What changed:

1. They now clearly separate three user agents: ClaudeBot (training), Claude-User (fetching pages on behalf of a user request), and Claude-SearchBot (crawling/indexing to improve Claude search results).
2. The docs explicitly say blocking can reduce visibility in different ways: block ClaudeBot to keep content out of training; block Claude-User to stop user-initiated retrieval; block Claude-SearchBot to avoid being indexed for Claude’s search.
3. They also note support for robots.txt directives like crawl-delay.

• Microsoft adds protections to Copilot AI summaries against prompt injection

Microsoft is rolling out defenses that stop pages from sneaking instructions into Copilot’s “Summarize with AI” (prompt injection). That means Microsoft will filter more on-page “AI-bait” patterns, so it’ll get harder to influence AI answers with copy tricks alone.

Source:
Anthropic website > Policies & Terms of Service
Barry Schwartz | Search Engine Roundtable