Google: Why Split Your XML Sitemap File
For many many years, some SEOs have a strategy of breaking up their XML sitemap files into categories. SEOs do it for various reasons, sometimes it is dependent on the site and site structure.
Are Google Search Console Email Alerts Enough?
Are you the type of SEO that digs into all the Google Search Console reporting every single day, to find technical issues or other problematic issues? Or do you sit back and just wait for an email from Search Console warning you about an issue you need…
Bing Tests Showing Sale Prices In Shopping Ads
Microsoft Bing is testing showing the sale price in the shopping ads within the Bing search results. Bing highlights the sale price in green and crosses out the original price, while also showing a price in a blue highlight. I am not sure what the blue…
Google Tests Was & Usually Pricing Labels In Product Results
Google is testing showing pricing labels on product and shopping results. It shows if the price is current or what the price usually is. Google labels the product results, near the price as “was” or “usually.” I am sure there are more labels.
Google Search Console Links Report Is Broken
It looks like the Google Search Console link report has gone haywire and is broken pretty badly. Tons of SEOs are seeing zero links in the report, whereas others are seeing huge drops in the link counts in the report.
Programming Note: Offline For Shavuot On Friday
This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the holiday of Shavout/Shavous on Friday, May 22, 2026. Any stories published here will be scheduled, written beforehand, and not written during the holiday hours…
Google May 2026 Core Update Is Rolling Out – You Felt It
Google officially announced the rollout of the May 2026 core update just now, on Thursday at around 11:43 am ET. This core update is expected to take about 2 weeks to roll out. Google said this “is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, …
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 21, 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 Marketing Live is done and we covered the new conversational discovery ads and highlighted answer …
Google Tests Conversational Discovery Ads & Highlighted Answers In AI Mode
Google announced at Google Marketing Live two new ad formats that will show up in Google’s AI Mode. Google said there are conversational discover ads and highlighted answer ads, and of course, they are labeled as “Sponsored.”
Google AI Mode Shopping Ads, Business Agent For Leads & Direct Offers Coming
Google announced at Google Marketing Live that it is also bringing Shopping ads, Business Agent for Leads and expanding the Direct Offers pilot for AI Mode in the coming months.
Google Ask Advisor Brings Together Ads Advisor & Analytics Advisor
Google announced it is making one uniform AI-agentic advisor named Ask Advisor that brings together Google Ads Advisor and Google Analytics Advisor, and I assume the beta Google Merchant Advisor.
Google Search Tests For You Label In Product Grid Results
Google is testing a “for you” label in the product grid, shopping results, within Google Search. It gives you a more personalized response, in this example, a promotion code was available for this merchant.
Google AdSense Adds Dynamic Anchors Ads
Google has made a new anchor ads format named Dynamic anchor ads for AdSense. I don’t see the announcement for this yet, but Google updated its help document on anchor ads and changed collapsible anchors to dynamic anchors.
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 20, 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.
I covered all the Google Search related news from Google I/O including the new intelligent search box…
Google’s New Search Bar, The Intelligent Search Box
Google has released the first major update to the search bar, the search box, ever – Google is calling it the intelligent Search box. We saw variations of this being tested over the past year, and now it is officially rolling out – as per Liz Reid, Goo…
Google Search Now Powered By Gemini 3.5 Flash With New Agentic Features
Google Search is now using Gemini 3.5 Flash to power AI Mode globally and also there are several new agentic features in and coming to Google Search. These agentic features include information agents, agentic coding, personal intelligence is expanding …
Google Tests Preferred Sources Label In AI Mode Citations
Google is now testing adding the Preferred Sources label in the AI Mode links and citations. It is unclear if Google is showing this link in this AI Mode response because it is a preferred source or if it is just labeling it, and it would show the sour…
Google Adult Property Added To Merchant Listing & Product Variant
Google added the hasAdultConsideration property to the Merchant listing and Product variant documentation, and it is now officially supported and listed as a recommended property for both Merchant listing and Product variant structured data with Google…
Microsoft Advertising Updates Import Center, Cross-Account Portfolio Bidding & Bidding Strategy Report
Microsoft Advertising announced its monthly releases, and they include updates to the import center, cross-account portfolio bidding, bidding strategy reports, and custom column conversion metrics (that one we covered earlier).
Google Adds Markdown Files To Help Docs But Not Used For Search
Google has added markdown files, .md.txt files, to the Google Search help documents. But John Mueller from Google said that these are not being used for Search or generative AI responses in Search.