Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google AI Home Page Test, AI Local Pack Slop, Google Poaching Advertisers & Meta Building A Search Engine
This week, we of course had more Google search ranking volatility, this time on the 12th. Google is testing new AI buttons on its home page…
Google Ads Language Targeting Update Coming In September
Google Ads will roll out a change to language targeting that will remove the ability to manually adjust the language setting. This change is happening next month, in September 2026. Google said its ad systems already match languages automatically and e…
Google AI Overviews With AI-Generated Images In The Wild
A month ago, we reported that Google said it would be rolling out AI-generated images within AI Overviews in Google Search. Well, it seems Google is starting to roll out those AI-generated images in AI Overviews this week.
Google Merchant Center For Agencies Can Link Up To 1,000 Accounts
Google updated a help document within the Google Merchant Center help area to document that Google Merchant Center for Agencies can now link to up to 1,000 Merchant Center accounts. Previously, that number was not there, and now we know – up to 1,000 a…
Googlebot Say They Are Coming From California But Might Not
As we know, Google has often declared that its crawlers, Googlebot, etc, come from Mountain View, California. But the truth is, that is where they self-declare the bots are coming from. Google has data centers all over the world, and even though Googl…
Google Local Report Owner Response
Google has a new reporting option for reviews in Google Business Profiles and Google Local. This one is called “Report owner response.” It lets you tell Google if an owner response to a review is off-topic, contains profanity, is harassing, discriminat…
Google Search Ranking Volatility Spikes On August 12-13
We saw a spike in volatility yesterday amongst the Google Search results rankings. There was a spike in ranking movement outside the day-to-day norm that seemed to start yesterday and maybe into today. The chatter is somewhat cool, but the tools showe…
Google Lowers Subscriber Requirements For Search Profiles
Google has dropped the minimum number of followers needed to be approved for a Search Profile on Google. Previously, it was 100,000 subscribers across YouTube, Instagram, X and Tiktok. Now it is 35,000 subscribers across YouTube, Instagram, and X but …
OpenAI Makes The ChatGPT Sources Less Visible
OpenAI is testing or rolling out a change to how you can click to see the sources from the ChatGPT responses. It used to be a button named “Sources” in the footer of the response, but now sometimes it is showing up within the three-dot “More actions” m…
Misconfiguring Cloudflare Can Hurt Your SEO Badly
This is just a random tip, make sure not to misconfigure Cloudflare, your content delivery network and/or your hosting server. I see way too many cases of this popping up and causing such a pain for SEOs to fix. All of a sudden, you might notice your …
Spammy Google Selected Canonical In Search Console
When you use the Google Search Console URL inspection tool, Google will show you what it calls the “Google-selected canonical.” Sometimes that URL will look off, weird and even scary, because sometimes it might be a URL for a spammy site.
Yahoo Search is pushing its AI-powered Scout directly into search results
Yahoo launched a new feature called Yahoo Scout back in January, similar in concept to Google’s AI Mode. I spotted this and shared it on X. Just like Google’s AI Overviews, Scout appears above your regular search results, and here’s what it looks like: Yahoo is now testing a section within its search results called […]
The post Yahoo Search is pushing its AI-powered Scout directly into search results appeared first on Search Engine Watch – SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.
The best SEO conferences worth attending in 2026 and 2027
Looking for an SEO conference without opening 28 tabs, finding three different prices and discovering that the “upcoming” event happened six months ago? This is the calendar we wanted too. The remaining 2026 schedule is unusually good. There are focused events for technical SEO, local search, publishers, international teams and the rapidly multiplying world of […]
The post The best SEO conferences worth attending in 2026 and 2027 appeared first on Search Engine Watch – SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.
Positive SurferSEO review: 7,000 words later, here’s what it does best
Here we are on the verge of my 3rd review! I’ve already reviewed SerpStat and SE Ranking, and have decided to review SurferSEO (or is it Positive Surfer?) next. After being acquired by the French company Positive Group they are now referring to themselves as ” AI visibility platform for maximum organic growth”. And yes, […]
The post Positive SurferSEO review: 7,000 words later, here’s what it does best appeared first on Search Engine Watch – SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.
Google Search falsely declared Sam Altman dead, but Google says nobody did it manually
Google Search briefly told users that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had died on August 12, 2026, displaying the false date prominently inside his Knowledge Panel: Google has now responded to the backlash and removed the misinformation. In a public response on X, the company said the result was not manually changed by anyone at Google […]
The post Google Search falsely declared Sam Altman dead, but Google says nobody did it manually appeared first on Search Engine Watch – SEO, AI Search, PPC News & Analysis.
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 12, 2026
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 has amended its lawsuit against SerpApi…
Google Ads New Local Customer Optimization Help Doc
With Google migrating Local Service Ads to the main Google Ads platform, Google is already preparing new Google Ads help documents with more details about the change. A new document named About Local customer optimization within Performance Max campai…
Google Amends Lawsuit Against SerpApi Over Licensed Content
After Google’s lawsuit against SerpAPI, the Google Search scraper tool, was dismissed a month ago, Google has decided to amend the complaint. Google filed the amendment on August 10, 2026 as an “Amended Complaint.” Google is now taking an approach arou…
Google AI Overview Local Results Pulling From Low-Quality Listicles
Google will randomly show AI Overviews for local results, and when it does, It will often show AI-generated information about each local listing. The issue is that Google often cites low-quality and self-promotional listicle articles from across the w…
Google Merchant Center Performance Reporting Update Coming August 24th
Google announced several new updates to the Merchant Center performance report, starting on August 24, 2026. There are four updates: separating YouTube affiliate results from organic traffic, updating the YouTube organic traffic definitions, expanding …