Google Exploring Ways To Allow Sites To Opt Out Of AI Overviews & AI Mode
Google just announced it is looking into ways to allow websites to specifically opt out of Google using its content in the Search generative AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode. This comes based on UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)…
New GoogleBot: Google Messages
Google added a new crawler, robot, to its list of user-triggered fetchers in the Google crawlers documentation. This specific bot is named Google Messages and it is a fetcher “used to generate link previews for URLs sent in chat messages,” Google wrote.
Google Search Monopoly Appeal Legal Docs Mention Search Signals
As you know, Google has appealed its search monopoly ruling and with that, filed a number of new documents with the court. One is an affidavit of Elizabeth Reid, Google’s Vice President and Head of Search. The other is of Jesse Adkins Director of Produ…
Google Search Team Does Not Endorse LLMs.txt Files
Yep, back on comments from Google on the LLMs.txt file. Another question came up on Bluesky asking if the fact that some Google properties still have the LLMs.txt files up, if that is some sort of endorsement from Google. John Mueller from Google said…
Google Warns On Hosting With Free Subdomain Hosts
Google’s John Mueller once again warned about hosting your website on free subdomain hosting service because they are magnets for a “lot of spam & low-effort content.”
Google: Comments Link Spam Has No Effect On SEO/Search
Google’s John Mueller said that link spam left in the comments section have no effect on Google Search or SEO, (and maybe even your website’s performance in Google Search?). He wrote on Bluesky, “These links all have no effect – they’re from spammers d…
Google To Prioritize Removing Prediction News Content From Search & News
Rajan Patel, the VP of Engineering for Search, said on X that Google is making “changes to ranking” to remove prediction content from showing up in the Google Search top stories and news sections. This comes after some sites are posting “prediction” c…
Google: Favicons In Search Not Impacted By Google Core Updates
While a number of Google Search features are impacted by Google’s core update, favicons showing up or not is not one of them. Yes, your site can drop in the rankings, or not show up in Google Discover, or be removed from Top Stories and other features …
Google: Linking Brand Websites Together At Reasonable Scale Is Fine
Google’s John Mueller was asked if it was acceptable to link your brand websites together on a brand page to communicate to your users that the company owns multiple brands. John said, it is pretty common to do so and if done as a reasonable scale, it …
Google Talks On Hiring A GEO/AEO/SEO & Buying AI-Optimization Tools
Google’s Danny Sullivan and John Mueller spoke on the Search Off the Record podcast about whether hiring an AEO/GEO or buying an AI-optimization tool is any different than hiring an SEO or buying an SEO tool. In short, the advice is the same – both Go…
Google: Don’t Turn Your Content Into Bite-Sized Chunks
Google’s Danny Sullivan said on the Search Off the Record podcast that was published yesterday that Google does not want you to turn your content into bite-sized chunks to rank well in LLMs. He said, “we don’t want you to do that” and he even spoke to…
Google’s John Mueller Answers If You Should Invest In GEO
John Mueller, a Google Search Analyst, responded to a question on Reddit named Is SEO still enough, or do we need to start thinking about GEO too? In short, John said you should look at the “full picture, and prioritize accordingly.”
Google Merchant Center Updates Multi-Channel Products Rules
Google will update how it handles multi-channel products, products sold both online and locally in the store, to help with managing inventory. Google emailed merchants that this applies to and the changes go into effect this March.
Google Practice Problems Structured Data Help Documentation Removed
Last November, Google announced it was dropping support for a number of structured data types and search features. One of those was practice problem structured data types, and now, Google has removed the help documentation along with it.
January 2026 Google Webmaster Report
It is January 2026, and it is now time for the monthly Google Webmaster report, where I recap the most important Google organic stories of the past month. Obviously, the Google December 2025 core update was the big one, it ran for 18 days and it reall…
Google Search Console Links Report Missing Data?
Google Search Console’s link report seems to be either missing data or is now showing fewer links. I suspect it is a bug but I also don’t think Google spends too much time monitoring this report within Search Console.
Some News Publishers Saw Big Declines With The Google Core Update
Now that the December 2025 core update is officially done, some are looking at the damage it caused. A number of very visible news publishers saw some significant declines in Google Search visibility with this latest core update.
Google: Why 404s Don’t Matter For SEO
Google has been saying that 404 error codes are a normal part of the web, that 404s are not a low quality signal and that they don’t use up your crawl budget. Now, John Mueller of Google explained why 404s don’t matter for SEO.
John Mueller (Personally) On If Schema Helps With LLMs & Google
John Mueller, who works on the Google Search team, responded to a question that asks, “Does extensive Schema markup actually help Large Language Models (LLMs) understand your entity better, or is it just for Google Rich Snippets?” He responded to the …
Google’s John Mueller Calls Some SEO Content – Digital Mulch
Google’s John Mueller posted one of his one-liners, where he called some forms of SEO content as “digital mulch.” He wrote, “And let’s be honest'”most of that SEO content is just digital mulch. (…) If your blog exists solely to rank, it’s living on …