Technical SEO “best practices” increasingly reflect CMS and plugin defaults, not individual site decisions, according to 2025 HTTP Archive analysis. The post Web Almanac Data Reveals CMS Plugins Are Setting Technical SEO Standards (Not SEOs) appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Microsoft has implemented and continues to deploy mitigations against prompt injection attacks in Copilot, the company announced last week. Spammers were using the “Summarize with AI” type of buttons to trick AI engines into believing or trusting a specific company or response.

Google reportedly updated its Google Ads support contact form to add a disclaimer and checkbox to say you authorize “Google Ads specialist on behalf of your company to make the changes above directly to your company’s Google Ads account to reproduce and troubleshoot the issue.”

Microsoft Advertising is testing an update to the shopping ads carousel that can show multiple images in a single card. Essentially, you are seeing a carousel within a carousel for Bing shopping ads.

We have some big news: HubSpot Media is acquiring Starter Story , one of the most trusted and beloved media brands in the entrepreneurship space. If you’ve spent any time in the world of bootstrapped businesses, online startups, or the indie founder community, you already know what Starter Story is. But if this is your first introduction, buckle up, because this brand has a story worth telling. T

How often do you review your PPC ad copy? Not just analyzing the performance of each asset within the ad platform, but also reviewing your ads in the context of how they appear next to competitor ads? Are you using the exact same messaging as your competitors? Does your offer stand out from theirs? Which ads are bland and generic, and which provide concrete calls to action and compelling selling

Google is testing removing the dates from the articles shown in the Google Discover feed. This is a limited test, Google confirmed, to see the impact of removing the date value.

Microsoft Advertising seems to be testing a new design for the Bing shopping ads carousel. The new design fills the screen more from left to right than the old design and is just wider in general.

For serious WooCommerce operators, Airtable can become the operational brain of your store. Air WP Sync for WooCommerce makes that shift seamless. The post ” ” first appeared on WP Mayor .

Are you spending thousands of dollars on video production when you could create professional content yourself? Do you think AI video requires extensive technical expertise you don’t have? You’ll discover how to create high-quality AI videos for your business using a proven three-phase production framework, the specific tools and workflows that deliver professional results, and […]

There are two feet of snow blocking your car from the road. This is a problem. Except it’s not a problem if you don’t need to leave the house for a few days—the snow will melt on its own. And it’s not a problem if you had decided to move to the island of Saba a few years ago. It never snows there. Traffic on the way to an important meeting is only a problem because we didn’t leave twenty minutes

Managing clients means remembering a lot. Meeting outcomes, special requests, project preferences, follow-up tasks… the list goes on. And when that information lives across email threads, documents, and random notes, staying organized becomes its own job. That’s why we built Client Notes. Now you can capture and store client information directly on their individual profiles in the Hub, keeping ev

Gartner predicted traditional search volume will drop 25% this year as users shift to AI-powered answer engines. Google’s AI Overviews now reach more than 2 billion monthly users, ChatGPT serves 800 million users each week, and Perplexity processes hundreds of millions of queries every month. Getting found online is no longer just about ranking on Page 1. It’s about being the source AI engines

Early third-party tracking data offers a first look at how Google’s February Discover core update is changing what users see in their feeds. The post Google Discover Update: Early Data Shows Fewer Domains In US appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Thinking of verifying your LinkedIn account so you can get that coveted blue checkmark badge? You may want to hear this first. One observant anonymous user is warning other LinkedIn users that the Microsoft-owned social network for professionals utilizes a third-party verification service that, in turn, shares users’ data with other companies. Inc highlighted a story posted on The Local Stack , a

Advertisers contacting Google Ads support may now need to grant explicit authorization before they can even submit a help request — giving a Google specialist permission to access and make changes directly inside their account. Here’s what’s happening. Users are first routed to a beta AI chat. If they opt to submit a support form instead, they must tick an “Authorisation” box. The wording allows

SerpApi filed a motion to dismiss Google’s DMCA lawsuit, arguing the search giant lacks standing to invoke copyright law over publicly visible search results. The post SerpApi Challenges Google’s Right To Sue Over SERP Scraping appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

As businesses adjust to the new AEO landscape, marketers are seeing increasing convergence with marketing automation—HubSpot’s recent acquisition of Xfunnel signals this shift, bringing AI search optimization directly into the CRM ecosystem where attribution and revenue tracking happen. As a result, Marketers need the right AEO tools to reach their audience, who are flocking to AI search engines

Demand Gen marks a shift in Google Ads toward visual advertising beyond keywords and text. Relying on traditional strategies when testing it wastes budget, hurts performance, and limits opportunity. To succeed, you have to think more like a social advertiser than a search advertiser. At SMX Next, Industrious Marketing owner Jack Hepp explained why many businesses struggle with demand gen campaign

Most SEO professionals give Google too much credit. We assume Google understands content the way we do — that it reads our pages, grasps nuance, evaluates expertise, and rewards quality in some deeply intelligent way. The DOJ antitrust trial told a different story. Under oath, Google VP of Search Pandu Nayak described a first-stage retrieval system built on inverted indexes and postings lists, tr

SerpApi is asking a federal court to dismiss Google’s lawsuit, arguing the company is misusing copyright law to restrict access to public search results. The motion was filed Feb. 20, according to a blog post by SerpApi CEO and founder Julien Khaleghy. Google sued SerpApi in December, alleging it bypassed technical protections to scrape and resell content from Google Search. The details: SerpApi

Discover how the December 2025 core update impacted 4 sites and the factors that contributed to their improvement. The post 4 Sites That Recovered From Google’s December 2025 Core Update – What They Changed appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Google’s John Mueller said that if Google is not convinced that there are new and important content to index on your site, then it won’t use the sitemap file on your site. Just because you have a sitemap file, it does not mean Google will index all the pages in that file.

As AI Mode enables on-platform transactions, ecommerce visibility now depends on schema completeness, feed accuracy, and third-party validation. The post Agentic Commerce Optimization: A Technical Guide To Prepare For Google’s UCP appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Google’s John Mueller said a spike/increase in impressions within Google Search Console does not cause any specific problems within Google Search. There are a number of posts where some users are seeing a surge in impressions within Google Search Console but clicks and traffic have not changed.

Microsoft is testing a new user interface for the Bing Copilot AI responses. The new interface shows these link and references cards both inline and on the right.

We’ve seen Google use AI for local panel descriptions, menus and more. But now Google is also using AI to generate a list of services a local business offers.

Google is now (past few weeks?) sending out emails when it detects fake or incentivised reviews on your Google Business Profile. Google also says it has removed the fake or incentivised reviews that were identified.

The Google Search Console page indexing report seems to be missing a chunk of data. The missing data is from December 15th and earlier, but we do have data from December 15th (14th) through today.

Google’s page indexing report within Google Search Console is missing a block of data earlier than December 15th. It seems like some sort of reporting bug that is impacting all users. Google has not yet commented on the reporting issue but again, it is widespread and impacting everyone. What it looks like. Here is a screenshot from Vijay on X but you can see it yourself by checking your page inde

Google’s John Mueller points to site content as the reason for Search Console sitemap error messages The post SEO Fundamental: Google Explains Why It May Not Use A Sitemap appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

I remember reviewing my site analytics years ago and seeing a sudden burst of traffic from São Paulo. I felt a rush of excitement seeing my content reach people across the globe. Then it hit me: was my site actually legal for those readers, or was I accidentally inviting a massive fine into my inbox? That’s because your Brazilian readers, customers, and visitors are protected by the Lei Geral de

Sarcasm is an easy way to amplify feedback. It has two hidden costs: It reveals low status. People with power don’t need to use sarcasm to make a point. If you want to lead with status, using sarcasm undermines that goal. It adds emotion where it’s not always needed. The emotion is an amplifier, but it often causes division and defensiveness. If you have confidence in your standing and your idea,

Millions of folks are about to get snowed in. Stay safe. Here’s a code for last year’s Thriving with AI course on Udemy. It’s free for the first 1,000 people. Sorry, we hit Udemy’s limit. That was quick. Here’s an unlimited 50% off for the Strategy course. And I see that This is Marketing is currently half-price on Amazon. Or you could build a snowman.

Some are wondering when the Google Search ranking volatility will begin to cool down a bit. While many of the tools continue to show heated volatility over the past weeks, some are starting to show signs of cooling.

It depends. A freelancer, a brand, a musician–they’re here to serve. If people come to the restaurant for your famous marinara sauce, if new clients hire you to architect your signature style home or they want to dance to your top 40 hit, that’s what you’re here for. Brands shouldn’t change their logo or their offerings when they get bored. They should do it when their accountant gets bored.

Rice is one of the most consumed foods in the world, and it gives us insight into our relentless search for status and for affiliation. Once rice is harvested for consumption, it’s brown. The outer layers of the rice husk contain the bran and many of the nutrients in the rice. And yet, most people, including many of the poorest people in any population, only eat white rice. White rice takes more

Analyze early data from Google’s AI Mode in STAT. This study of 40,000 keywords reveals a mere 12% overlap with traditional organic rankings and explores how the verbose, text-heavy nature of AI Mode is shifting the search landscape.

Microsoft found 31 companies hiding prompt injections inside “Summarize with AI” buttons aimed at biasing what AI assistants recommend in future conversations. The post Microsoft: ‘Summarize With AI’ Buttons Used To Poison AI Recommendations appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Google Ads PMax placement reporting is now populating with data for more accounts, revealing Search Partner domains and impression counts for brand safety review. The post Google Ads Surfaces PMax Search Partner Domains In Placement Report appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

The internet has fallen in love with Punch , the 7-month-old macaque who clings to a stuffed animal for comfort. So when a video (since deleted) surfaced showing him being dragged across the ground by another monkey inside his enclosure at the Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan, people online panicked. Clips spread rapidly across social media this week, with viewers accusing the other monkeys of abusing

Google Merchant Center is investigating an issue affecting Feeds, according to its public status dashboard. The details: Incident began: Feb. 4, 2026 at 14:00 UTC Latest update (Feb. 20, 14:43 UTC): “We’re investigating reports of an issue with Feeds. We will provide more information shortly.” Status: Service disruption The alert appears on the official Merchant Center Status Dashboard, which tra

PPC is evolving beyond traditional search. Those who adopt new ad formats, smarter creative strategies, and the right use of AI will gain a competitive edge. Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Product Liaison, and Navah Hopkins, Microsoft’s Product Liaison, joined me for a conversation about what’s next for PPC. Here’s a recap of this special keynote from SMX Next. Emerging ad formats and channels When d

is ready for download and testing! This beta release is intended for testing and development only. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, use a test environment or local site to explore the new features. How to Test WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 You can test WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 in any of the following ways: Plugin Install and ac

We all use LLMs daily. Most of us use them at work. Many of us use them heavily. People in tech — yes, you — use LLMs at twice the rate of the general population . Many of us spend more than a full day each week using them — yes, me. Even those of us who rely on LLMs regularly get frustrated when they don’t respond the way we want. Here’s how to communicate with LLMs when you’re vibe coding . The

A practical explanation of vector space models, transformers, and cosine similarity, and what modern information retrieval means for SEO and AI search. The post appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

The latest SEO Pulse examines how AI interfaces reshape link visibility, redirect clicks, and filter sources before rankings apply. The post Google AI Mode Link Update, Click Share Data & ChatGPT Fan-Outs – SEO Pulse appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

On episode 352 of PPC Live The Podcast, I spoke to Emina Demiri Watson, Head of Digital at Brighton-based Vixen Digital, where she to shared one of the most candid stories in agency life: deliberately firing a client that accounted for roughly 70% of their revenue — and what they learned the hard way in the process. The decision to let go The client relationship had been deteriorating for around

Automation has long been part of the discipline, helping teams structure data, streamline reporting, and reduce repetitive work. Now, AI agent platforms combine workflow orchestration with large language models to execute multi-step tasks across systems. Among them, n8n stands out for its flexibility and control. Here’s how it works – and where it fits in modern SEO operations. Understanding how

This week’s PPC Pulse covers Google’s new Meridian Scenario Planner and Microsoft’s hands-on Performance Max training updates. The post New Meridian Tool, Performance Max Learning Path – PPC Pulse appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Google is updating how it attributes conversions in app campaigns, shifting from the date of the ad click to the date of the actual install. What’s changing . Previously, conversions were logged against the original ad interaction date. Now, they’re assigned to the day the app was actually installed — bringing Google’s methodology closer in line with how Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) like Ap

Google’s John Mueller said that he discourages large sites from force indexing its pages to Google Search. He said on a comment on LinkedIn, “I strongly recommend not relying on trying to force indexing.”

As I noted in my story yesterday about Google reviews dropping out, Google has updated the Google Business Profiles review policies, the Prohibited & restricted content section.

Google sent out an email to some Google Ads advertisers about changes coming to Google Ads budget pacing for ad scheduling. These changes go into effect on March 1, 2026.

As you know, OpenAI said they would release ads in ChatGPT and then about ten days ago, said the ads went live for a limited number of users. Since then, we have not seen reports of anyone seeing ads in the wild within ChatGPT until now.

Data isn’t just a report card. It’s your performance marketing roadmap. Following that roadmap means moving beyond Google Analytics 4 ’s default tools. If you rely only on built-in GA4 reports, you’re stuck juggling interfaces and struggling to tell a clear story to stakeholders. This is where Looker Studio becomes invaluable. It allows you to transform raw GA4 and advertising data into interacti

Google Ads is now displaying examples of how “Landing Page Images” can be used inside Performance Max (PMax) campaigns — offering clearer visibility into how website visuals may automatically become ad creatives. How it works . If advertisers opt in, Google can pull images directly from a brand’s landing pages and dynamically turn them into ads. Now when creating your campaigns, before setting it

Google may be testing a new ad unit named Sponsored Places. I think this is new, I mean, have any of you seen this before in the search results? Instead of it saying “Sponsored results” or a local pack with sponsored listings.

I stopped using press releases several years ago. I thought they had lost most of their impact. Then a conversation with a good friend and mentor changed my perspective. She explained that the days of expecting organic features from simply publishing a press release were long gone. But she was still getting strong results by directly pitching relevant journalists once the release went live, using

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