Have your Instagram posts been turning black and white without your consent? You’re not alone. According to Engadget , some users on Facebook and presumably elsewhere (though I wasn’t able to find a lot of complaints on X) have complained that photos uploaded to the Instagram app in color were being automatically and unintentionally turned black and white at some point in the uploading process. I

Google Ads now enables call recording by default for eligible AI-qualified call leads, changing how call conversions are evaluated in the U.S. and Canada. The post Google Ads Makes Call Recording Default For AI Lead Calls appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

The industry has been building top-down for 30 years. Start with awareness, get in front of as many people as possible, and work them down through the acquisition funnel. The logic made sense in the broadcast era, and it wasn’t entirely wrong in the search era. In AI-driven environments, it’s simply wrong. Search engines, assistive engines, and agents build their ability to recommend your brand f

Google is adding three new “agentic” safety features to Ads Advisor, its AI assistant inside Google Ads, aimed at reducing manual work while tightening security and compliance. As campaigns grow more complex, advertisers are spending more time fixing policy issues, managing access, and handling certifications. Google’s pitch: let AI handle the heavy lifting so marketers can focus on performance.

Analysis across four LLMs reveals how citation and mention behavior differs, and why it matters. The post The Ghost Citation Problem appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google says when it comes to SEO…

Creating video content takes time and budget, so understanding how it performs is critical. YouTube ’s native analytics in YouTube Studio are robust, but they’re locked behind account access. That can make reporting difficult — especially when you need to share data or don’t have direct login access. Moving that data into Google Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) makes it easier to analyze and

Search has changed, and brands need to catch up fast, according to IBM’s Alexis Zamkow (global lead of Marketing Transformation solutions) and Sandhya Ranganathan Iyer (associate partner – AI), speaking yesterday at Adobe Summit. AI tools don’t just help people search. They answer questions, compare products, and recommend brands. In many cases, users never even visit a website. That means if you

GEO has found its place in the search landscape, and it’s reasonable to think that the future of generative engine optimization is guaranteed. According to Datos’s State of Search report , Q4-2025 saw some interesting changes. For the first time, AI tools had a consistent 1.31% to 1.34% of visits in the U.S. In previous quarters and reports, traffic to AI tools was growing. This stability in traf

Picture this: Your company relies on Data Studio for SEO reporting. It’s right before your next big meeting when you’re planning to present results… but Data Studio has an outage (again) and suddenly you have nothing to show. That’s embarrassing. And it happens more than it should. It wasn’t even a year ago that I touted the benefits of Looker Studio (now Data Studio) for SEO reporting . Now the

Microsoft is rolling out a suite of updates across Microsoft Advertising to help brands stay visible — not just to people, but to AI agents increasingly making decisions on their behalf. What’s new . The update spans measurement, commerce, and media, with new tools designed to help advertisers show up in AI-driven experiences and transactions. On the ads side . Microsoft is introducing AI Max for

SEO tools are useful, but over-relying on them creates blind spots. Here’s what raw data reveals that tools never will. The post What’s The Biggest Technical SEO Blind Spot From Over-Relying On Tools? – Ask An SEO appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Google’s John Mueller said the other day that “SEO is not belief-based, nobody knows everything, and it changes over time.” Super true, I’ve been covering SEO changes over the years and I spot this all the time.

Google’s John Mueller said that since SEO is complex, multifaceted, and resilient, you “can do a lot of things that don’t work & still do ok.” Meaning, you can mess up on several SEO things and still do well with search rankings.

Google is reportedly showing shopping ads in the free listing grid in the Google Shopping tab. Previously, Google was better at showing more free listings but that seems to have changed.

Google Search Console seems to have a bug with the performance report, specific to the jobs listing and jobs search appearance filter. The report is showing zero impressions and clicks since the 16th of this month.

Several months after Google launched the Read more links within the Google search results snippets, Google decided to post some best practices how Read more links work. These should help you encourage Google to show the read more links and thus help increase click-through rates from Google Search.

Demand Gen campaigns have high visibility across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. However, they pose a key challenge: the “attribution illusion.” You’ll often question whether reported conversions in the platform are truly incremental or if these users would’ve converted through search either way. That’s why in November, Google launched asset uplift experiments , giving you the ability to measure th

For 20 years, Google Ads management has followed the same basic model: you log in, review performance, make changes, and hope they work before the next check-in. Agencies, freelancers, and in-house teams all work this way, even as the tools have changed. Spreadsheets gave way to scripts, and scripts gave way to automated bidding, but the core loop never changed — someone still had to sit in the a

Yelp is rolling out its most significant AI update yet, centered on a new conversational “Yelp Assistant” designed to move users from searching to actually booking, ordering, and scheduling — all in one flow. What’s new . Yelp Assistant sits at the center of the update, acting as a chatbot that can answer complex queries, recommend businesses, and complete actions like reservations or appointment

Google announced new tools that further transforms Search to a tasked-based platform. The post Google Adds New Tasked-Based Search Features appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Are you ready to start building AI agents for yourself, but worried the process is too technical? What if the power to build a custom AI workforce was already in your hands, no coding required? In this article, you’ll discover what OpenClaw is, what it can do for marketers and business owners, and how to […] The post appeared first on Social Media Examiner .

Welcome to DEV, your fortnightly roundup of WordPress news, clever builds, and the humans (for now) behind it all. Things are changing fast. We’re here to try to keep up… and help you stay in the loop. Stick around to the end to see the cutest unboxing video of all time. In today’s edition: WordPress hands AI the keys. (Don’t worry, it asked first.) Meanwhile in Opposite Land, EmDash is the one o

If we remove impediments that are in the way of where our customers seek to go, they support us. But when we remove the friction that gives people traction on their journey, they flounder. Remove the hassles that people don’t care about, but celebrate the hassles that make it worth the effort.

Organizing your WordPress media library with folders has always meant using separate plugins. Infinite Uploads changes that with nested folders, drag-and-drop, 8-way sorting, and search with 6 selectable filters, all included in one solution.

Google updated its YouTube and Discover Feed ad requirements as of April 2026 to clarify how election-related ads are handled, without changing how the rules are enforced. Why it matters . Advertisers using YouTube and Discover placements already operate under tight guidelines, and election ads have historically been a gray area. This update is meant to remove confusion rather than introduce new

Explore effective frameworks for enhancing AI visibility to attract buyers and adapt to the new search dynamics. The post How To Build AI Visibility In 90 Days [Webinar] appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Google is experimenting with video ads inside the local pack, signaling a shift toward more immersive, visual formats in location-based search. Driving the news . The test was spotted by Anthony Higman, who shared that Google is integrating “immersive map view videos” into PPC ads tied to local results. These video ads appear within the local pack — the map-based listings that show businesses nea

Every digital PR (DPR) team’s been there: New data drops and the team huddles while someone stares at a blank Google doc spiraling over angles and journalist targets. Eventually, a pitch limps out the door just in time to hit “Send” before end of day. The pitch then lands in a top-tier publication, everyone celebrates, and the next month the whole team does the exact same thing over again, like i

In 2026, news SEO content performance isn’t just defined by page views and clicks — brand awareness is taking center stage. With the emergence of multimodal search , digital editorial strategy is no longer just about the first page of Google. You have to meet readers anywhere and everywhere they consume content. Amid this industry shift, AI platforms are an increasingly important traffic source f

Back in December, Google began showing read more links on some of the search result snippets within Google Search. Today, Google published new documentation around best practices on how to show Read more links in the Google search results. The best practices. The new documentation was posted over here in the snippets section and it lists three best practices: Make sure content is immediately visi

Watch this video on YouTube Rand Fishkin didn’t get into SEO because he saw the future. He got into it because he had no choice. In the early 2000s, Fishkin helped run a small web business with his mom in Seattle. They hired another company to do SEO until they couldn’t afford to pay them anymore. That moment pushed him into search marketing. More than 20 years later, Fishkin has become one of th

If you know anything about Google Ads Asset Studio , you’ve heard the hype: “Google just killed every excuse for not running video ads.” “Total game changer! You don’t need a production budget anymore.” “Upload a few product images and get campaign-ready video in minutes.” From Google Ads > Tools > Asset Studio , you can build, manage, and scale images and videos across ad formats. The recent add

Google is reportedly testing opening search results in a new window. Yes, there is a setting to turn this on or off, but the setting is turned off and Google is testing opening these clicks in a new window.

The European Commission proposed Google share data with rival search engines and qualifying AI chatbots in the EU/EEA. The post Google May Have To Share Search Data With Rivals appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Many ecommerce brands misapply Meta-style thinking to Google Ads, leading to wasted spend and weak performance from poorly structured accounts. The post Winning Google Ads Campaign Structures For DTC Ecommerce appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Google has outlined best practices that can increase the likelihood of “Read more” deep links appearing. The post Google Lists Best Practices For Read More Deep Links appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Trust in search is now dynamic, requiring ongoing authority building, content maintenance, and structured delivery to remain visible. The post What Search Engines Trust Now: Authority, Freshness & First-Party Signals appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

You’ve audited your client’s website and compiled performance data. You’ve identified what’s working, what can be improved, and your recommendations for future strategies. But how do you turn that data into a presentation that’s easy to explain and builds trust? Start with stories. Storytelling isn’t just for entertainment. It’s how people make sense of information. That’s what makes it so effect

Google is testing showing video ads within the local pack ads. This is also known as immersive map view videos, I am told.

A Reddit thread asks if there are any issues with Google Search handling a domain name that has a single letter change in the domain name from another domain name. John Mueller from Google said that usually this is not a problem from Google Search.

Are ChatGPT ads allowing advertisers to go after competitors with greater specificity, or is this just a topical fluke?

The folks at the Internet Archive are having issues with archiving the web. Something it has done since 1996 and is such a foundational website that it is sad to see. That being said, Fabrice Canel from Microsoft Bing wants to help.

Your store might have exactly what a visitor needs. But if they can’t find it easily, then they’ll leave without buying. A product quiz fixes that by asking a few short questions, returning a tailored recommendation, and capturing their email address in the same step. It’s one of the easiest ways to make product recommendations feel more personal. Plus, quizzes are interactive and fun to take, wh

AI has quickly become the most overconfident line item in the modern marketing roadmap. Budgets are shifting. Teams are being restructured. Vendors are being evaluated almost exclusively through the lens of how “AI-powered” they appear. There is a growing assumption that once the right models are in place, performance will follow. Better targeting. Smarter segmentation. Higher conversion. More ef

Research on 68 million AI crawler visits show what SEOs should do to improve AI search performance The post 68 Million AI Crawler Visits Show What Drives AI Search Visibility appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Sometimes, back pain is felt in the thighs or even the ankles. But treating the part that hurts does nothing to address the real problem. Most business challenges have a similar pattern–it might feel like the problem is your customer’s attitude or how busy a location is–but it’s probably a different problem, something more systemic, well-concealed and highly leveraged. Find the system and you’re

The next phase of ecommerce is being shaped by AI agents, open commerce protocols, and payment systems built for transactions without a human at checkout. The post Selling To AI: The Complete Guide To Agentic Commerce appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

80 years ago, the most important person in the music business was James Petrillo. It’s difficult to imagine the head of the musician’s union on the cover of Time magazine, but there he was. Petrillo saw how technology was changing an industry and pushed for changes in the flow of credit and royalties. The story of how recorded music, movies and then streaming turned into a mess is illustrative

Stanford’s 2026 AI Index covers 400+ pages of data. Here’s what search professionals should take from the adoption numbers, reliability gaps, and transparency decline. The post AI Adoption Outpaced The PC & Internet: Dive Into The Stanford Report Data appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

“Wait a second.” That’s difficult advice. In a world that moves faster with each cycle, where urgencies are prioritized and last-minute saves are celebrated, it’s not always welcome advice. And so we’ve ended up concerned. Fretting. Worried. Looking for the next thing to drop everything for. is more than a conceptual hack. It’s an actual physical intervention, and it might be worth trying for a

Did you know there is only a 12% overlap between organic and AI search rankings? Navigate the shift to AI search with these fundamental episodes of Whiteboard Friday from industry experts. Learn about query fan-outs, AI citations, and how to build content workflows that preserve your voice.

OpenAI is emerging as a new advertising channel, but early advertiser sentiment is mixed as brands grapple with limited data, unclear performance, and a rapidly evolving product. Driving the news . Two months after launching ads in ChatGPT, advertisers are experimenting — but still lack clear measurement tools and performance benchmarks. Early campaigns are largely impression-based, with little i

Google is tightening security across its ads ecosystem, requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) for API users — a move that could impact how developers and advertisers access and manage accounts. Driving the news . Google will begin rolling out mandatory MFA for the Google Ads API starting April 21, with full enforcement expected over the following weeks. The update applies to users generatin

Bluesky , the social media app popular with X expatriates, suffered a widespread outage on Thursday, April 16. And in a thread posted on the official Bluesky profile , the app’s leaders revealed the cause of the outage — a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. “Our team received a report of intermittent app outages at about 11:40pm PDT on April 15, 2026,” the post read. “They worked throug

OpenAI is continuing its push into ad-supported monetization — a strategy it began earlier this year — by expanding ads to more countries while keeping premium tiers ad-free. Driving the news . OpenAI is starting to roll out ads for users on Free and Go plans in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The rollout applies only to lower-tier plans. Paid tiers — including Pro, Business, Enterprise, and

Google may be streamlining one of the most error-prone parts of campaign setup — conversion tracking — by reducing the need for manual tag implementation. Driving the news. Google Ads is testing a new “Set up in Google Tag Manager” option within its conversion setup flow, according to screenshots shared by Google Ads Specialist, Natasha Kaurra. The feature appears alongside existing installation

Google search traffic is dropping. If you’ve spent years building organic strategies, watching it happen in real time is uncomfortable. But it’s also clarifying. I started seeing the shift across SaaS clients. Pages that had driven steady traffic for years — educational, top-of-funnel (TOFU) content — were losing ground. Not because the content got worse, but because users no longer needed to cli

Traffic from AI sources increased 393% year-over-year in Q1 and 269% in March. But the real surprise? AI traffic is converting better than last year. AI-driven visits converted 42% better than non-AI traffic in March. A year ago, AI traffic was 38% less likely to result in a purchase. By the numbers. Traffic from AI sources increased engagement by 12%, time on site by 48%, and pages per visit by

Search remained the largest force in digital advertising in 2025. However, its growth slowed as total U.S. ad revenue climbed to a record $294.6 billion. Search still dominates. Search generated $114.2 billion, accounting for 38.8% of total digital ad revenue, according to the latest IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report. But growth slowed to 11%, down from 15.9% in 2024, as advertisers shi

Google can render JavaScript . That’s no longer up for debate. But that doesn’t mean it always does — or that it does so instantly or perfectly. Since Google’s 2024 comments suggesting it renders all HTML pages, many developers have questioned whether no-JavaScript fallbacks are still necessary. Two years later, the answer is clearer and more nuanced. Google’s stance on JavaScript rendering In Ju

While many are still skeptical, the global creator economy is expected to reach $1.18 trillion USD by 2032 . And for minority creators and entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups, this moment is especially significant. The digital age has created endless avenues for self-expression, connection, and community among niche audiences. It’s brought to light pain points and business opportunities th

An ecommerce company hires your PPC agency to explore paid search. A solid plan follows, and after approval, the campaigns go live. Soon, you’re seeing stellar results: high conversion volumes and a healthy ROAS. On the surface, the strategy is a resounding success. But look closer. Some of these conversions might have occurred anyway via direct or organic search traffic — meaning the campaigns m

Google targets back button hijacking as a spam violation, says spam reports may trigger manual actions, and expands agentic restaurant booking to more markets. The post Google Bans Back Button Hijacking, Agentic Search Grows – SEO Pulse appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

This week we covered a new Google Search spam penalty for back button hijacking. Google also updated its spam report, it may now be used for manual actions. Google is aware of self-serving listicles and warns not to…

Google also released the annual Google Maps safety report saying blocked or removed over 292 million policy-violating reviews and removed over 13 million fake Business Profiles. Google also said it blocked 79 million inaccurate or unverified edits and placed posting restrictions on more than 783,000 policy-violating accounts.

Google has released its annual Google Ads safety report and the big number that stands out to me is that Google removed 8.3 billion ads, which is up almost 63% from last year’s number of 5.1 billion. Google did say that 99% of those were removed before serving the ad, thanks to Gemini.

Microsoft is testing animating the Bing “people also search for” boxes. Bing will run this animated outline around the boxes when it loads, to give it more attention to the searcher.

Google rolled an important change with how AI Mode works yesterday and it can have a big impact on the experience for desktop users. Now when users click a link in AI Mode…

Google has updated its reviews policy to add two items; (1) do not have your staff solicit a certain number of reviews and (2) the content of the review should not mention the staff member’s name and information.

Google sent out emails to some of its Local Service Ads advertisers introducing “rich content” that can be pulled from your URLs. Rich content includes service descriptions and special offers.

Sometimes the keywords you need to rank for are the ones you’re not allowed to use. Whether it’s trademark restrictions, brand guidelines, or industry stigma, you might be asked to capture demand without using the exact terms people search. Here’s how to navigate that challenge, align with search behavior, and still build visibility. When the keyword you need is off-limits It’s a common scenario

Have you ever wondered how many sales you lose because shoppers aren’t sure if an item will actually fit them? When buying clothes or shoes online, a customer’s biggest worry is getting the right size. This uncertainty often leads to them closing the tab and looking for a store that provides clearer information, resulting in abandoned carts and lost sales for you. I understand how frustrating it

Google’s product data push goes beyond Shopping ads. Learn why feed optimization now matters for AI search, free listings, YouTube, and retail visibility. The post Google’s Product Feed Strategy Points To The Future Of Retail Discovery appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

What do your supporters tell their friends? That’s the unseen force behind every successful brand, movement or idea. Most people don’t care about you. They’re not listening to you, not wondering what you’re up to, and certainly not taking the time to seek you out. All you have is a small circle, your supporters. And yet, we spend most of our time treating people like customers, not supporters. We

Struggling to earn LLM citations without a playbook? Discover 10 expert-backed strategies to boost AI visibility and long-term brand impact.

Google is updating AI Mode in Chrome with side-by-side page viewing and a plus menu for adding tabs, images, and files as context. The post Google AI Mode in Chrome Gets Side-by-Side