Google: Changing Lastmod Date In Sitemap Isn't An SEO Hack

Google's John Mueller explained that changing the dates in your XML Sitemaps lastmod date to all show today, the most recent day, won't favor your rankings or SEO. He said on Reddit, "setting today's date in a sitemap file isn't going to be something that works in favor of anyone, it's just lazy."

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Google Tests New Shopping Ads Design

Google is testing a new design for the shopping ads format, one that looks a bit more like the image pack design than shopping ads.

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Bing Search Without Microsoft Name By Logo

Microsoft is testing removing its name, i.e. Microsoft Bing, next to the logo in the Bing Search bar. Normally the search bar has the Microsoft Bing name next to the logo on the left side of the search bar, now Microsoft is just testing showing the logo.

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Bing Copilot Answer More Videos Section

Microsoft Bing is testing placing a "more videos" section in the Bing Copilot answers. Recently we covered how Bing placed images and video links but this implementation makes more sense.

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Google Tests New Shipping, Returns & Payment Section In Retail Knowledge Panel

Last December, we reported how Google was showing a payments option section in the retailer/merchant knowledge panel. Google is now testing a clearer version of it, while adding shipping and return information to the payments section.

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Apple Updates Applebot Docs: Explaining Applebot-Extended vs Applebot

Apple has made some updates to its Applebot documentation, primarily explaining the difference between the normal Applebot crawler and the Applebot-Extended crawler. To be clear, Applebot-Extended is not new, Apple introduced it about a year ago but Apple wanted to clarify how blocking Applebot-Extended impacts Applebot, if at all.

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Google Search Console API Data Stuck On April 22

I am hearing reports that the Google Search Console API and tools that use the API, including Big Query exports, bulk exports and third party tools, are stuck with data from April 22nd but nothing sooner. It seems like there is something stuck in the data pipes within the API.

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Google Search Ranking Volatility Spiked Friday - April 25th

In my Friday video, I mentioned some more volatility heating up on Friday morning and I promised to cover it if I see more signs of that update. Well, many of the other tools noticed volatility around April 25th, this past Friday, in addition to the 22nd and 23rd volatility we covered earlier last week.

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Microsoft Advertising Suspends Client Connection Requests Temporarily

Microsoft Advertising has temporarily suspended the ability for agencies to send out client connection requests. Instead, the agency needs to reach out to Microsoft support and wait 5-7 days to hear back to be able to manage their client's ad campaigns on Microsoft.

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Bing With Two Rows Of Shopping Ads With Option To Expand

Microsoft is now showing two rows of shopping ads at the top of the Bing Search results. There is even an option to expand them to show more ads.

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Google Ad Revenue Up 8.5%, Overall Revenue Up 12%

Google reported earnings and their ad revenue is up again year-over-year, with an increase of 8.5%, and overall revenue is also up 12%. I should note, it is down from Q4 because Q4 is always Google's best performing quarter, which is why you don't really compare the it to the last quarter, but rather the same quarter from a year ago.

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Google Relaxing Local Service Ads Photo Guidelines After May 22nd

Google is relaxing its photo guidelines for Local Service Ads. This may result in photos that were not previously allowed, may be allowed after May 22, 2025. I am not sure if these photos will automatically show up in your Local Service Ads or if you need to manually approve them after May 22nd.

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Google Analytics Campaign Data Quality & Attribution Reporting Updates

A week or so ago, Google Analytics made some updates to how it handles campaign data quality and attribution reporting. Many are now seeing a new label named "Data not available" show up in their GA4 reporting.

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Google Chrome Won't Release Alternative To Third-Party Cookies

Google has just given up on a third-party cookie alternative. Google announced it will maintain its "current approach to offering users third-party cookie choice in Chrome, and will not be rolling out a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies."

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Google Ads PMax Campaigns 90 Characters Of Text For All Descriptions

Google Ads has updated the number of characters you can add for the Performance Max campaigns descriptions to all be 90 characters long. Previously, there was a short description of 60 characters, but now they have all been updated to show 90 characters.

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Bing Webmaster Tools Working To Streamline Email Notifications

Fabrice Canel said Microsoft will streamline the Bing Webmaster Tools notifications because, at times, it can be a bit overwhelming. Fabrice wrote on X, "working to streamline things" when Martin MacDonald complained about getting way too many emails from Bing Webmaster Tools.

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Microsoft Launches Copilot Merchant Program

Microsoft launched the Copilot Merchant Program, a way to feed Copilot more details about your products. Microsoft said this is a way to "integrate your shopping experience with Copilot to help your brand gain visibility, acquire more customers and generate sales, all from a convenient centralized location with AI support at every step."

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Google Discover Cropping Publisher Images In New Full Width Redesign

Google has been rolling out its new full-width redesign of Google Discover. But the issue is that it is taking publishers' images and cropping them to fit this new width.

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Google Tests Video Player To Shopping / E-Commerce Card

Google launched its shopping / e-commerce card in the search results as a test several months ago. Since then, the card has undergone various tweaks. Now, Google is testing showing an animated/playable video in the shopping card block.

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Google AI Mode May Get Direct Query URL Method

While you can access Google AI Mode directly at google.com/aimode, there is currently no way to go direclty to something like google.com/aimode?q=QUERYGOESHERE. But that might come, said Robby Stein, VP, Product at Google Search.

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Google Search ccTLDs Are Going Away

Google.com will soon be the only way to access Google Search. The ccTLD versions of Google will redirect to Google.com. That means if you try to go to Google.ca, Google.fr. Google.co.uk and so on, those will all redirect to Google.com.

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Google Ads Suspended 200% More Advertisers (39.2M) & Removed 5.5 Billion Ads

Google has released its annual Google Ads Safety report and the big number that stands out to me is that Google has suspended over 200% more advertiser accounts in 2024 than it did in 2023; 39.2 million versus 12.7 million. Google also removed 5.1 billion ads, restricted over 9.1B ads, restricted ads on 1.3 billion publisher pages and took broader site-level enforcement action on over 220,000 publisher sites.

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Google Testing New Label In Search Results Snippets

Google is testing a "new" label in the search result snippets. Several people are noticing this "new" label next to search result snippets that have new content.

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Google AI Overviews With Duplicative Links

We know Google loves to link to its own search results from the AI Overviews, and we have seen those links sometimes go in a loop of sorts. But did you know Google can show the same link to a website in the AI Overviews more than once?

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Google AI Overviews Linking Over & Over Again To Itself

As you know, Google is okay with linking its AI Overviews back to more Google Search results. But is Google okay with linking the same query, to the same query, over and over again, through the AI Overviews?

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