Recap of the February 2026 SEO Update by Yoast
The February 2026 SEO Update by Yoast is part of our monthly webinar series covering the latest developments in search and AI. In each session, we review the most important news from the past month and explore how it affects your search strategy. Hosted by Carolyn Shelby and Alex Moss, this month’s update focused on […]
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Google Circle to Search Looks At The Whole Image
Google announced updates to Circle to Search where it now doesn’t just look at the part you circles but apparently the whole image, so it can get more context. “New multi-object image search helps you find more items from one picture at the same time i…
Google Ads API Version 23.1 Now Available
Google has released a minor version update to the Google Ads API, version 23.1. This update has changes to account management, campaigns, conversions, incentives, planning, reporting and more.
Microsoft Updates Bing Webmaster Guidelines (A Bit)
Microsoft has updated the design of the Bing Webmaster Guidelines section and changed some of the verbiage. I think overall these are smaller updates, but I have not gone through every single change to double-check as of yet.
Google To Test Showing Vertical Search Services In EU
Reuters has a headline that reads Exclusive: Google to test changes to search results, source says as EU fine looms. This confuses me because I thought Google had been testing this for a couple of years now.
Google Post Reoccurring Scheduling Coming
Recently, Google rolled out the ability to schedule Google Posts. Supposedly, soon, Google will also roll out recurring scheduling for posts. So you can set a Google Post to repeat and post over and over again on a schedule.
Careful With Google Business Profile Verification Flow
Some time ago, Google updated the flow for the Google Business Profile verification. And the issue is, if you fill it out wrong, it can have consequences for that Google business listing in the future.
Google AI Mode See More Button
Google is showing a “See more” button in some of the AI Mode results. This has been happening for almost the past month on desktop and probably mobile. It seems to come up more often for shopping related results, to load more products from the Google S…
Anthropic Updates Crawler Docs: ClaudeBot, Claude-User & SearchBot
Anthropic updates its crawler documentation explaining what its crawlers do, and what blocking them will result in. Anthropic has three primary bots and they include ClaudeBot, Claude-User and Claude-SearchBot.
Google AI Shopping Pushing Show More Products
Google’s AI Shopping tab is now pushing shoppers and searchers to find more products. The prompt responses to your queries can display “Show more products” and other links to get you to view more products.
Google Search Brief Serving Issue This Morning
Google had a brief issue with serving search results this morning, February 25th. Google documented the issue at around 1:30 am ET on Wednesday, February 25th and said it was resolved a minute later.
Microsoft Thwarts AI Prompt Injection Attacks Aimed To Manipulate AI Engines
Microsoft has implemented and continues to deploy mitigations against prompt injection attacks in Copilot, the company announced last week. Spammers were using the “Summarize with AI” type of buttons to trick AI engines into believing or trusting a spe…
Google Ads Support Form Requires You To Authorize Google To Make Changes
Google reportedly updated its Google Ads support contact form to add a disclaimer and checkbox to say you authorize “Google Ads specialist on behalf of your company to make the changes above directly to your company’s Google Ads account to reproduce an…
Microsoft Advertising Tests Shopping Carousel With Multiple Images Toggle
Microsoft Advertising is testing an update to the shopping ads carousel that can show multiple images in a single card. Essentially, you are seeing a carousel within a carousel for Bing shopping ads.
Google Tests Removing Dates From Articles In Discover Feed
Google is testing removing the dates from the articles shown in the Google Discover feed. This is a limited test, Google confirmed, to see the impact of removing the date value.
Bing Updates Shopping Ads Design
Microsoft Advertising seems to be testing a new design for the Bing shopping ads carousel. The new design fills the screen more from left to right than the old design and is just wider in general.
Google Won’t Use Sitemap Files If Its Not Convinced Of New/Important Content
Google’s John Mueller said that if Google is not convinced that there are new and important content to index on your site, then it won’t use the sitemap file on your site. Just because you have a sitemap file, it does not mean Google will index all the…
Google: A Spike In Impressions Doesn’t Cause Problems For Search
Google’s John Mueller said a spike/increase in impressions within Google Search Console does not cause any specific problems within Google Search. There are a number of posts where some users are seeing a surge in impressions within Google Search Cons…
Bing Tests New UI For AI Responses With New Links & References
Microsoft is testing a new user interface for the Bing Copilot AI responses. The new interface shows these link and references cards both inline and on the right.
Google Business Knowledge Panels With AI Generated Services
We’ve seen Google use AI for local panel descriptions, menus and more. But now Google is also using AI to generate a list of services a local business offers.