Stories, page 2
- Paying for mentions in AI answers may now backfire
Glenn Gabe says the new Google spam update could land on the businesses buying AI search visibility, though Google has not said that.
- Most shoppers say a chatbot talked them out of a purchase
A survey of 2,338 US consumers suggests buyers are checking your business with AI before they pay.
- Google tests setting business hours by typing them out
A small test could replace the day by day hours form with a single box you type into.
- Google rankings are moving again this week
One tracker says the shifting started Tuesday and carried into Wednesday, and Google has not confirmed anything.
- Links inside Google's AI answers may be rising again
A fresh report points to another jump in outbound links, and one well known SEO says his own checks match.
- Google pulled the spammy AI notebook pages from search
Shared pages from Google's own AI notebook tool are gone from search results after spammers filled them with junk.
- Some AI answer links now open more AI, not your site
A link inside Google's AI answer can now lead to another Google AI answer.
- Spammers are flooding Google search with its own AI notebooks
Public pages from Google's own AI notebook tool are being filled with junk and ranking in search results.
- SEOs pile on after research says AI answers cut clicks
Lily Ray says the findings confirm what people in search have been saying all along.
- Google is testing payments for content used in AI answers
The pilot runs through Search Console, and Barry Schwartz says it was first spotted back in April.
- Same rankings, less traffic, as Google adds more boxes
Google's first page now splits roughly in half between normal results and its own features, according to one SEO's comparison.
- Publishing 200 pages a day tends to catch up with sites
Older domains can hold up for a while, but two well known SEOs say bulk AI pages still land badly.
- The early September ranking crash has fully reversed
Sites hit around September 4 were back where they started by September 13, and Google never said a word about either swing.
- Google is testing an AI summary inside its news feed
A new button in Google's phone feed sends readers to a summary page first, and it starts with videos.
- Google is dropping free product listings in Europe
Unpaid Google Shopping results are vanishing across the European Economic Area, and comparison shopping sites are taking the space.
- Your rank tracking tool may be showing old numbers
Two well known SEOs say Google is blocking the bots that rank tracking tools rely on, and the three big tools now disagree.
- AI-built sites can point Google at the wrong web address
A single line of leftover code can tell Google to index a page nobody can visit.
- Cloudflare change shifted which AI bots reach your site
A study of 1,046 sites found search crawlers got in far more often after the change, and training crawlers got blocked slightly more.
- Google's business info box is turning into an AI answer
Three well known SEOs say the box that shows your hours and reviews is starting to include an AI summary.
- Google says bulk pages are judged on quality, not method
Notes from a Google talk say template pages and AI writing are fine, thin output is not.
- Google search profiles now open at 10,000 followers
Google cut the bar for getting a Search profile by 90 percent, and added a few other changes for publishers and creators.
- More AI use did not make content perform better
The things that did predict strong results are the ones marketers are quietly dropping.
- Google is testing ads that look like normal links in AI answers
Sponsored links written as plain text inside AI Mode answers blend in with the rest of the answer.
- Google rankings moved a lot on Tuesday
Site owners reported big swings in where their pages rank, and Google has not said why.