Archive of May, 2026

May, 11 2026

The new AI-powered Google Finance is expanding to Europe. This week, the new, AI-powered Google Finance is launching across Europe, with full local language [...] - Inside Search
Winning the next era of local visibility: How AI is changing local search by SOCi Learn how to optimize for AI-driven discovery across Google Search, Maps, and Gemini in this [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Search Drops FAQ Rich Results In Search & Search Console Google announced on Friday that Google Search, as of May 7th, no longer shows FAQ rich results [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Ads Posts Site Visits Assets Documentation Google Ads has posted new help documentation on site visits assets, which we covered as tests [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Vehicle Ads Now In Standard Shopping Campaigns Google now allows you to run vehicle ads in your Standard Shopping campaigns. Previously, this was [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Merchant Center Gains More Out-of-Stock Options Google has updated its Google Merchant Center landing page requirements help documentation to [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Tag Manager May Be Coming To Google Ads Interface Google may be integrating Google Tag Manager directly into the Google Ads interface. The [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 11, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google may be about to widen the SEO playing field Court testimony and new Google research suggest Google could soon evaluate a much larger pool of [...] - Search Engine Land
Why Google Ads, GA4 and CRM numbers never match Attribution models, reporting windows, and customer journeys all create measurement gaps between ad [...] - Search Engine Land
The legal consequences of using AI — and the safest way to do it AI creates growing risks around copyright, privacy, misinformation, and compliance. Here’s [...] - Search Engine Land
Google rolls out Merchant Center for Agencies globally Agencies can now manage and optimize product data across all clients in one place as Google expands [...] - Search Engine Land
The new reality of Google’s spam enforcement A Google spam update targets manipulative content, links, and behaviors that violate Search [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Ads to auto-link YouTube channels starting June 10 Advertisers will soon gain automatic access to YouTube engagement data and audiences, without [...] - Search Engine Land

May, 10 2026

Google Drops FAQ Rich Results From Search via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern Google deprecated FAQ rich results, completing a removal that started years ago. FAQ rich results [...] - Search Engine Journal

May, 8 2026

The latest jobs in search marketing Land your next job in SEO or PPC. These brands and agencies are hiring to fill open search [...] - Search Engine Land
Google AdSense Vignette Ads Drops Back Button Trigger Over Hijack Penalty Google AdSense (and Ad Manager) will drop the browser back button trigger for vignette ads [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Ads To Require Passkey For Certain Sensitive Actions After July 15 Google sent out emails to advertisers that starting July 15, 2026 the Google Ads system will [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Microsoft Advertising Custom Columns Supports All Conversion Metrics Microsoft Advertising custom columns now support all conversion metrics - instead of just specific [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google May Adjust Its Site Reputation Abuse Policy For EU News Sites Google proposed a number of changes to the EU in order to avoid fines from the European Union. One [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Why intent alignment matters more than perfect technical SEO Technical fixes alone won’t resolve weak relevance signals. Here’s how to identify and [...] - Search Engine Land
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google AI Systems Black Box, Links In AI, UCP Checkout Expands, ChatGPT Ad Manager, Ask.com Shutters & More This week in search we covered more heated Google ranking volatility this morning, it seems big - [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Search Ranking Volatility Heated Today - May 8th Many of the third-party tracking tools, not all, but many, are showing some heated volatility this [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Ads Journey-Aware Bidding, Expands Smart Bidding Exploration & Budget Pacing Google Ads announced it is expanding both Smart Bidding Exploration and budget pacing. Smart [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
New AI Search Links, Core Update Winners And Losers – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern Google adds subscription labels and inline links to AI Search. Amsive maps core update winners and [...] - Search Engine Journal
SEO’s new goal in 2026: Recognition, not rankings Visibility today depends on authority, citations, entity clarity, and brand presence across the [...] - Search Engine Land
How to run prompt-level SEO experiments for AI search Learn how to isolate variables, measure prompt-response inclusion, and build repeatable frameworks [...] - Search Engine Land
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 8, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google to no longer support FAQ rich results FAQ rich results will no longer show in search and the Search Console features will go away. - Search Engine Land
Google Ads surfaces Tag Manager controls inside its interface Google Ads may soon let advertisers manage tags in-platform, streamlining setup and reducing [...] - Search Engine Land
Veronika Höller talks on a perfectly set-up but poor performing campaign A “perfect” PPC account delivered zero revenue—until one critical mistake [...] - Search Engine Land

May, 7 2026

Google Answers If Preferred Sources Overrides Low Quality Signals via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google's John Mueller answers if Preferred Sources overrides ranking signals. Could it be a [...] - Search Engine Journal
AI SEO punishes lazy marketing strategies by Brick Marketing AI-driven search draws on broader signals, exposing gaps in fragmented campaigns and favoring [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Ads AI Max Content & Titles Exclusions On Account Level Coming Google will be bringing content and titles related exclusions to the account level to Google Ads AI [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Bing Places For Business Finally Mobile Friendly It is 2026 and finally Bing Places for Business is finally mobile friendly. Microsoft Bing sent me [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Ads Call Recording To Default To Yes On July 1st Google sent out emails notifying applicable advertisers that they will default call recording to [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
How to use Google and LLM insights to improve international SEO Turn Google and AI search signals into localized content structures that better match regional user [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Improves Links Within AI Mode & AI Overviews In 5 Ways Google announced five new ways in how it is improving linking to web pages from AI Mode and AI [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Microsoft Bing On Search Indexing vs. Grounding Indexing The folks over at Microsoft Bing put together a blog post explaining the differences between [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
8 GEO metrics to track in 2026 AI search is creating new visibility gaps for brands. These metrics help you track presence, [...] - Search Engine Land
5 JavaScript SEO lessons from top ecommerce sites See how Chewy, Harrods, Under Armour, and more brands handle rendering, navigation, structured [...] - Search Engine Land
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 7, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today... - Search Engine Roundtable
Google adds AI-powered bidding and demand-led budgeting to Search and Shopping Google is aiming to help advertisers capture untapped demand and optimise spend in real time whilst [...] - Search Engine Land
New AI-powered bidding and budgeting innovations in Search and Shopping New AI-powered bidding and budgeting tools help you meet your goals, manage your budgets and stay [...] - Inside Adwords
Google AdSense removes browser back button trigger for vignette ads This is due to the new Google search penalty for back button hijacking. - Search Engine Land
AI Max vs DSA: Advertisers question control as Google responds Advertisers are questioning AI Max’s lack of granular landing page control compared to DSA, [...] - Search Engine Land
Tools and software to manage AI crawlers accessing your site Learn how to use AI crawler tools and software to optimize for AI crawlability, allow, block, or [...] - Search Engine Land
How to optimize a website for AI crawlers and AI agents Learn how to optimize your site for AI crawlers with technical SEO best practices — and [...] - Search Engine Land
What are AI crawlers and bots? What are AI crawlers? Learn about the different types of AI crawlers, their purposes, what they can [...] - Search Engine Land

May, 6 2026

Google Local Service Ads Account Access Not Loading For Advertisers The Google Local Service Ads account access tab has not been loading and working for advertisers [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Tests Gemini 3 Model Options In Search Bar Google is testing letting searchers select the Gemini 3 model they want to use directly in the [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Official: OpenAI Beta Self-Serve Ads Manager For ChatGPT Ads A few weeks ago, we uncovered the beta self-serve Ads Manager for ChatGPT Ads. It was before it [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google AI Overviews With Author Names & Source (Again) Google is showing the full author name and the source, like LinkedIn - and name or Medium - and [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Tests New Anchor Links & Favicon Experiences In AI Mode Google is testing an update to the citations, anchor links, and favicons within the AI Mode [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Expands UCP Checkout To Main Search Results In February, Google announced that UCP, Universal Commerce Protocol, powered checkout is available [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google updates links within AI Overviews & AI Mode Google says these updates make it "easy for you to connect with authentic voices and explore [...] - Search Engine Land
AI is reshaping ad creative. Here’s how brands can get it right. AI makes it easy to generate ad creative quickly, but that speed can’t come at the cost of [...] - Inside Adwords
5 new ways to explore the web with generative AI in Search New updates to AI Mode and AI Overviews in Google Search make it easier for you to dive deeper [...] - Inside Search
Your managed WordPress might be blocking AI bots and you can’t see it Your SEO tools show nothing wrong. But platform-level limits may be quietly blocking AI systems [...] - Search Engine Land
How to use Call assets, lead forms, and Message assets in Google Ads Are you making it too hard for customers to reach you? Learn three essential ways to get more leads [...] - Search Engine Land
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 6, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
The real strategy behind negative keywords in 2026 From match types to automation, learn how to make smarter exclusion decisions that align with [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Analytics Data API adds cross-channel conversion reporting (alpha) Developers can now access unified paid and organic conversion data programmatically, though the [...] - Search Engine Land
Evolving role of the index: From ranking pages to supporting answers Search indexing was built to help humans decide what to read. Grounding is being built to help AI [...] - Bing Search
5 gardening tips you can try right in Search We’ve rounded up the top ways you can use Google’s AI Mode, Search Live and Shopping to [...] - Inside Search
Microsoft: AI answers need a smarter search index AI search is pushing indexes beyond relevance, with Bing focusing on facts, attribution, and [...] - Search Engine Land

May, 5 2026

Google On Keyword Fragmentation And User Needs In AI Search via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google's Liz Reid unpacks consequential changes to user search behavior that also impact how to [...] - Search Engine Journal
Unifying the search experience for real growth in 2026 by Level Agency Your customers see the whole SERP. You should too. - Search Engine Land
Google: AI Makes Human Experience More Important For Content via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google says AI's ability to surface common information makes human experience and subjective [...] - Search Engine Journal
Google Ads Data Retention Policy Updated Google has posted an update and emailed advertisers on changes to its Google Ads data retention [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Similarweb Data: ChatGPT Ads Click-Through Rates Similarweb published some data sharing the click-through rates for OpenAI's ChatGPT ads. The [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Web Bot Auth: Validate Authentic Bots Google posted new developer documentation for how to authenticate requests with Web Bot Auth. This [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
How China’s fragmented search ecosystem is reshaping SEO in 2026 Baidu still drives B2B demand, while AI and ecommerce platforms reshape discovery. Here’s how [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Says A New Wave Of AI Users Is Transforming Search via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google says a new wave of users are learning that Search can handle more complex questions, [...] - Search Engine Journal
Google Business Profile Suspensions Spike Over User Account Restrictions Google seems to be suspending Google Business Profiles due to user account restrictions. There may [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Bing: 1 Billion Monthly Users Are Human, Not Agents Microsoft, during its earnings call last week, announced that Bing hit a huge milestone of 1 [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Query intent vs. conversion intent: Why the difference matters What users type isn’t always what they want. Learn how aligning intent signals, behavior, and [...] - Search Engine Land
Turn your data into decisions: 3 things your business needs for growth in the AI era To move at the speed of AI, simplify your data and understand what’s driving growth. Learn [...] - Inside Adwords
Web Bot Auth, Google’s new experimental method to validate authentic bots This is just a limited test now for some AI agents hosted on Google's infrastructure but it may [...] - Search Engine Land
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 5, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today... - Search Engine Roundtable
The 10-gate AI search pipeline: Find where your content fails AI search is a multiplicative system where one weak signal limits results. Diagnose bottlenecks, [...] - Search Engine Land
Google rolls out new data, experimentation and MMM tools to improve measurement Google is rolling out new measurement tools to help advertisers better connect data, prove impact [...] - Search Engine Land
Google expands UCP checkout to main search shopping results UCP-powered checkout initially went live only in AI Mode but it now seems to be available for some [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Testing Web Bot Auth To Verify AI Agent Requests via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern Google is testing Web Bot Auth, an experimental protocol for verifying some AI agent requests with [...] - Search Engine Journal
Google Is Testing New Bot Authorization Standard via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google is testing a cryptographic protocol for verifying bot traffic that could make unwanted [...] - Search Engine Journal

May, 4 2026

Google Advises Using AI In Best Possible Way For AI Search via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google's Director of Software Engineering recommended using AI to boost providing value and said, [...] - Search Engine Journal
Google Ads Adds Use AI To Add Products Google Ads has added a new option (although, I think Google has said this is coming) under the [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google On AI Overviews & AI Mode Being Isolated Systems (Or Not) Nikola Todorovic, Director of Software Engineering at Google Search, spoke about a presentation he [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Tests Fresh Updates Label For Search Snippets Google is testing a new label for the search results snippet named "Fresh updates." This [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Why AI visibility starts before search and ends with citations Most visibility is shaped before the query. Learn how influence, entity signals, and original data [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Search Console Fixed The 50 Week Data Logging Issue A month ago, Google posted that between the dates of May 13, 2025 through April 27, 2026, just [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Ask.com Shut Down After Almost 30 Years IAC, the owners of Ask.com, have decided to get out of the search business and shut down one of the [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
7 tools for doing AEO right now From AI assistants to analytics platforms, here’s how to use today’s tools to [...] - Search Engine Land
Why brand authority beats topical authority in AI search More content won’t make you an authority. AI search rewards brands with visibility, mentions, [...] - Search Engine Land
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 4, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google fixes Search Console’s year-long data logging issue – well, kind of… The data going forward should be correct but the 50 weeks or so of data in the past will not be [...] - Search Engine Land
Google On AI Search & Why Browsy Queries Favor Full SERPs via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google's Liz Reid says AI Mode is suited to complex follow-up queries, while browsy searches may [...] - Search Engine Journal

May, 3 2026

Ask Jeeves Is Gone After Nearly 30 Years Of Search via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern Ask.com, the search engine formerly known as Ask Jeeves, has shut down. IAC discontinued the search [...] - Search Engine Journal
Ask.com shuts down after over 25 years The turn down web page says, "Jeeves’ spirit endures." - Search Engine Land
Google’s March Core Update Shifted Visibility Away From Aggregators via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern Data shows YouTube, Reddit, and aggregators lost US search visibility after Google's March core [...] - Search Engine Journal

May, 2 2026

What Google & Microsoft Earnings Say About Search via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern Alphabet and Microsoft earnings show search ad revenue growing while Google Network revenue fell to [...] - Search Engine Journal

May, 1 2026

Performance Max for B2B: 5 best practices Learn how to guide AI, improve lead quality, and use signals, creative, and reporting to get better [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Ads AI Max: AI Brief, Text Disclaimers & Shopping & Travel Expansion Google annnounced a number of new updates for AI Max within Google Ads. These include (1) AI Brief, [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Preferred Sources Now Available For All Languages Globally Back in December, Google expanded Preferred sources globally, but only for English-language [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Discover With New You Asked To See Label Google is showing a new label on the Discover feed that says "You asked to see." This [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
April & May 2026 Google Webmaster Report I missed last month's Google Webmaster Report, so I am combining both April and May into one big [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
A blueprint for semantic programmatic SEO Learn how to map authority, embed brand context into AI, and build a semantic linking system that [...] - Search Engine Land
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Ranking Volatility, Back Button Hijacking Notices & AdSense Triggers, Bing Webmaster Tools Teases AI Reporting & More This week in search, we are seeing yet again more Google search ranking volatility. Google sent [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Search May Be Deindexing URLs At Higher Rates SEOs and site owners are always complaining about indexing issues with Google Search. Why is this [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
AI Overviews Clicks Get Tested, Earnings Tell Two Stories – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern Google repeats the bounce clicks claim. Alphabet and Microsoft report from the revenue side. More [...] - Search Engine Journal
How to build SEO agent skills that actually work Most AI SEO “skills” are just prompts. Learn the system behind reliable agents: tools, [...] - Search Engine Land
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 1, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today... - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Ads API v20 sunset set for June 10 Google Ads API v20 will stop working on June 10, requiring advertisers to upgrade or risk [...] - Search Engine Land
Advanced technical SEO tips: 14 technical SEO issues you’re missing Think you've got your technical SEO buttoned up? Think again! Find out what you may have overlooked [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Tells Developers To Build For AI Agents, Not Just Humans via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern Google's web.dev guidance advises developers to treat AI agents as a distinct visitor type and [...] - Search Engine Journal
Google’s Preferred Sources Is Now A Global SEO Signal via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google's Preferred Sources is now available as a global signal that can help SEO for Top Stories [...] - Search Engine Journal