Google Emails Reminder About Business Profile Policies

A couple of days ago, Google sent out an email to owners of Google Business Profile listings. The email was a reminder about the Google Business Profile policies, and it highlighted policies around reviews.

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Google iOS App Drops Gemini Toggle

A year or more ago, Google added a toggle switch to use Gemini directly in the iOS Google Search app. Well, that was removed this week and you now need to go to the native Gemini app to use Gemini, you cannot use the Google app.

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Bing Tests Outlining Search Result Snippets

Microsoft is testing outlining the individual search result snippets within Bing Search. So when you look at a snippet, it has this outline around it, and then when you hover your cursor over it, it highlights more.

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Google Shopping Adds Search Google Button For Some Queries

If you go to Google Shopping and enter a query that is not shopping related, Google will add a button above the shopping results asking you to search Google for that query.

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Google Ads High Value New Customer Mode Live For Some

Google may be rolling out the high value new customer mode for Google Ads advertisers, after it has been in beta for some time. This setting lets you set different bidding priorities for high value new prospects, regular new customers and existing ones.

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Google Local Service Ads Booking Links Now Charges Like Calls Automatically

Google has sent out an email to its Google Local Service Ads advertisers, notifying them that they are now letting searchers use a booking link to schedule an appointment or service, when the booking link is detected on the Google Business Profile of that business.

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Bing Tests Underlined & Bold Sponsored Results

A few weeks ago, we saw Microsoft testing green colored sponsored URLs for the Bing search results. Now I am seeing reports of both underlined and bolded URLs and titles of the sponsored results, where the organic/free listings are not underlined or bolded.

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Google: There Is A Lot More Work To Do To Make Crawling More Efficient

Last April 2024, Gary Illyes from Google said he was on a mission to make web crawling more efficient, he wanted to "figure out how to crawl even less, and have fewer bytes on wire." Gary updated us saying "there's lots more in works" for this but implies some improvements have already been made.

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Bing Tests New Links UI For Copilot AI Answers

Microsoft is testing another user interface and experience for the links they show within its AI Answers, the Copilot responses. These links show with a hyperlink icon and the domain name spelled out, and then when you mouse over it, it has a carousel you can flip through for more links.

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Google Sued Over AI Overviews For Hurting Traffic & Revenue

18 year old, publicly traded education technology company, Chegg, has sued Google over its AI Overviews and how it has hurt their traffic and revenue. Chegg has "filed a complaint against Google, which has unjustly retained traffic that has historically come to Chegg, impacting our acquisitions, revenue and employees," said Nathan Schultz, CEO of Chegg.

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Google Merchant Center Next Physical Stores Section

Google seems to have added, for some merchants, a new section named Physical Stores to the Google Merchant Center Next console. In this section is random data from within the store's Google Business Profiles listing.

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Apple Intelligence With Google Gemini Integration Coming?

Apple seems like it may be preparing integration Google Gemini in Apple Intelligence as an option for its users to select. Aaron Perris from MacRumors spotted hints in the iOS 18.4 beta code that Google is listed alongside OpenAI as a "third party model."

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Google Ads To Stop Placing Your Ads On Parked Domains By Default

Google will soon stop placing your Google Ads on parked domain names by default. Instead, you will need to opt in to showing your ads on these parked domains.

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Google Sponsored Ads For People Also Consider?

Last week, Shameem Adhikarath spotted a sponsored label on top of the "People also consider" box within the Google Search results. I figured it was a bug with ads not loading but then Shay Harel spotted the same thing a week later. Is this another bug or is this a new ad unit?

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Google: Audio Version Of Page Does Not Benefit Your Google Rankings

Martin Split from Google said that having an audio version of a page or a blog post, does not impact your Google rankings. He said it is good for your users, but has no SEO impact.

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Google Business Profile Listings With Yandex Reviews

We know Google can show reviews from third-party sources in Google Business Profile listings. We've seen Google take reviews from Yelp, travel sites and other third-party websites. But these days, more often than not, you see reviews only from Google. But have you ever seen a review from Yandex on Google?

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Google Search Tests New Grid Boxed Design

Google is testing a new design for its search results that are more of a grid format, more of a boxed in design. They are not on all the search results elements but more of the search features.

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Google Search: Find Results Based On Images You've Viewed

Google has this feature in its search results that lets you find results based on the images you've view within Google Image Search. It places this button in the search results that reads, "Find results based on images you've viewed" with a link to "more like these."

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Google Tests All Results Vs All In Search Menu

Google is testing spelling out the search menu and instead of saying "All," Google is testing writing out "All results." I am not sure why Google is testing this, but Google is always testing these small changes.

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Google Search Testing Background Section

Google Search is testing a new section in the search results titled or named "Background." This includes articles from news publishers, with I guess, more background information than you would find from others.

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Google Ads Advanced Plans

Google Ads has this section (not sure if it is new) named Advanced Plans. This feature allows you to select a "mix of ad types based on goals" and Google will create conversion creation and capture plans for you.

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Bing Tests Knowledge Panels With Related Searches Box

Microsoft is testing adding a new box to the knowledge panels within Bing that show related searches. This is obviously to encourage searches to do more queries, to generate more ads and more revenue. Or maybe to help searchers find a more diverse set of topics to search for.

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Google Search Testing New Pagination Bar Without Numbers

Google is testing removing the numbers from the pagination menu at the footer of the Google Search results page. The normal pagination bar shows the page number you are on, the test just shows a next button.

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Google Business Profiles Verification Failure Email With Reasons

Google has upgraded the emails Google Business Profiles sends when your verification has failed. It now shows the reason(s) a verification has failed and what you need to do to become verified in Google Business Profiles.

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Google Merchant Center AI-Generated Summaries

Google Merchant Center recently began showing AI-generated summaries for how well your performance is doing with Merchant Center in Google Search. These are labeled as "experimental" and "AI-generated."

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Google Search Results Snippets Tests Page Includes

Google is testing adding to the search results snippet a section that is named "page includes." To be honest, this reminds me of the tags we saw on the search result snippets in 2021, 2019 and 2017 - but I am not sure if they are the same.

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Google: Why Search Engines Don't Need To Do Anything Special For Pagination

In 2019, Google stopped using rel prev and next as a signal for its search engines to combine or understand paginated results on your site. Then Google offered up some other advice over the years on the topic. Now, John Mueller of Google explains why Google or other search engines don't need to do anything special for pagination or paginated results on your site.

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Google Ads New Performance Max Search Themes Indicator

Google Ads has added to Performance Max campaigns, the search themes, an indicator to tell you what is driving a specific change in your ad performance. This shows a trend icon near the campaign and then shows you why it is performing, as it is.

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Bing Shopping / E-Commerce Card With Ads

Remember the Bing shopping / e-commerce cards? Well, now it looks like Bing is putting an ad slot in them and labeled them as ads.

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Google: Google Reviews Count Bug Not Fully Fixed Yet

Google has posted an update on the reviews bug we first reported on a week ago, that it later confirmed this past Monday and we saw a fix rolling out starting on Tuesday. The short, it is not yet fully fixed but it should be in the coming few days.

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Yahoo Search AI Answers Now Showing Link Sources

Initially, when Yahoo Search launched AI-generated answers, they did not contain sources or links. Now it seems Yahoo is adding "Learn more" links to these AI answer boxes in Yahoo Search.

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Google Search Snippet Showing Future Date: Bug Or Feature?

Google Search is showing a snippet that has a date in the future. Normally the snippets have dates from the past; such as this content was found by Google X days or Y hours ago. But this one is now showing "in 7 days" from now.

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Bing Webmaster Tools Updates Date Selectors

Microsoft has updated Bing Webmaster Tools to make selecting the date ranges a lot easier in the performance reports. Now the date selectors are very quick to select, and not deeper inside a menu option.

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Google Ads Posts Notice For Brand Guidelines March 2025 Update

Google has posted a notice in the Google Ads console reminding advertisers about the upcoming brand guidelines changes that are now slotted for March 2025. This change was communicated numerous times and the deadline has been pushed off here and there.

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Google Tests Filters On Latest Posts Carousel

Google is testing adding filters to the latest post carousel. These filters can show recent posts, video posts, posts from Instagram, or Facebook.

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Google Review Count Bug Fix Rolling Out

The big Google review count bug, that we first reported on Friday and that later Google confirmed on Monday afternoon, is now being fixed. We can now see review counts climbing again and many small business owners and local SEOs are reporting improvements.

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Google Ads Gambling and Games Policy Update On April 14th

Google will update its advertising policy around gambling and gaming on April 14, 2025. Google posted a preview of the upcoming changes but said the final version may change, so this is just a draft.

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Google Confirms Review Count Issue - Working On Fix

On Friday, we reported that the Google local reviews seem to be disappearing or being counted wrong. Well, Google finally confirmed the issue, just minutes ago, in the Google Business Profiles Forums.

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Google AdSense Combines Marketing Email Preferences - Expect More Emails...

Google has combined the marketing email preferences within Google AdSense, which may lead to you getting more emails from the Google AdSense team. Google merged the "Customized help and performance suggestions" and "Periodic newsletters with tips and best practices" email lists into one.

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Search Bugs: Google Weird Snippet Spacing & Bing URLs Cut Off

One can always find weird bugs in the Google and Bing Search results but these two really caught my eye. Bing Search seems to have a bug for some searchers where the URL in the search result snippet is being cut off. And Google might have a bug that leads to way too much white space between search result snippets.

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Google Search Bitcoin Charts Gone - It's A Bug

Google is no longer showing the price of Bitcoin when you search for it in Google Search. Google's VP, Engineering for Search, Rajan Patel, said this is "Not intended" and he will investigate the issue.

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New Google Doc On Using Google Analytics & Search Console Data Together

Google added a new developer document and video explanation on how to use Google Analytics data and Google Search Console data together. One of the biggest confusions I see is when people try to compare the data between those two analytics tools - they measure different things in different ways.

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Google: Don't Update Lastmod Date With Copyright Date Changes

Gary Illyes from Google ranted on Bluesky about folks updating the lastmod date in their sitemap files when all they have changed was the date in their footers copyright line from 2024 to 2025. Gary said, don't do it, it is not enough of a change to the page's content to warrant a lastmod date update.

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ChatGPT Search More Open; Google Expands Gemini 2.0 & Microsoft Think Deeper in Copilot

OpenAI announced big news that its ChatGPT Search service is now open and no longer requires a login or an account. It comes the same day that Google expanded access to Gemini 2.0 to all users and where Microsoft said Think Deeper in Copilot is free for all users.

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Microsoft Advertising Lists Performance Max & Feature Updates

Microsoft published its new Microsoft Advertising features that it released over the past month. This goes across Performance Max tools, reporting, new values, targeting, and more.

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Google AI Overviews With Detailed Comparison Mode

Google AI Overviews are now able to show super detailed comparison within Google Search. If you search for two very specific models, Google may give you a ton of details directly in the AI Overview.

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Alphabet Google Ad Revenue Up 10% Again, Hitting $72.5 Billion

Google / Alphabet reported its Q4 2024 earnings last night, where its ad revenue hit $72.46 billion, up 10.6% from last year's quarter of $65.52 billion. Google's revenue was up 12% with $96.47 billion and its profit was up 30.7% to $30.9B. Search revenue specifically was up 12.5% to $54 billion.

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Report: Google AI Overviews Are Killing Click Through Rates

The folks at Seer put together a study looking at how the click-through rates of the Google organic and paid search results are impacted by having AI Overviews on the page. And the short answer is, AI Overviews seem to be hurting the click-through rates in a big way.

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Yahoo Search AI Features Powered By Microsoft Copilot?

Ever since we began seeing the new Yahoo Search AI features and AI Chat, we've been asking if they were powered by their own AI, by maybe OpenAI or maybe Microsoft Copilot. Well, it seems there is evidence that these features are powered by Microsoft Copilot.

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Google: Embedded Resources Are Cached For A While

If you embed resources on your pages, those embedded resources can be cached longer than other parts of the page in Google Search.

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Google Ads Prompt To Book A Tagging Appointment

Google Ads is offering some advertisers the option to book a tagging appointment with a Google Ads representation through the Google Ads console. This will help you set up an appointment to have a Google rep help you set up proper tracking of your campaigns.

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Google Search Related Places Carousel Map

Google has this new map unit that is titled "Related places" and shows a map with a carousel beneath it of related places. This actually comes up for brand name searches, which isn't great - why would you want Google to show competitor names when you search for a specific brand name.

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