Archive of August, 2026

August, 11 2026

Google confirms testing new buttons on home page to drive users to AI-powered search features Google said this is a limited test where they add create images, ask about files and brainstorm [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Ads & Google Analytics Gain New AI Features Google announced a number of new AI features for Google Ads and Google Analytics aimed to [...] - Search Engine Roundtable

August, 10 2026

Microsoft Advertising Bulk Edit/Appeal Disapproved Assets Microsoft has released the ability to adjust and appeal disapproved assets in bulk. This feature is [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Home Page Create Images, Ask About Files & Brainstorm Buttons The Google home page is testing or rolling out now, new AI features and buttons in place of the [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
How customers build confidence across the search journey AI, Google, Reddit, YouTube, and brand sites help resolve different kinds of uncertainty. Here's [...] - Search Engine Land
Meta/Facebook Crawling Web & May Be Building Search Engine Meta, the social media company that operates Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads, [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Local Disallows Repeated Bilingual Names & Transliterations Google has updated its guidelines for representing your business on Google in the Google Business [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google: Hreflang URLs Not Indexed In The Proper Sense Google's Gary Illyes said that hreflang alternates, hreflang URLs are not "indexed in the [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google AI Labels On Local Pack & Google Discover Ads A month ago, Google said it would now label ads created or edited with AI with an AI label within [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Why the traditional link building model no longer works for AI search High-DR links, paid mentions, and link exchanges can look authoritative without giving AI systems [...] - Search Engine Land
Technical SEO testing: How to build a stronger experiment The hardest part of an SEO test is knowing what caused the result. Choose comparisons and metrics [...] - Search Engine Land
Google brings new AI agent capabilities to Ads and Analytics Google is bringing automated dashboards and conversational reporting to Google Ads and Analytics [...] - Search Engine Land
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 10, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today... - Search Engine Roundtable
Google investigates Merchant Center outage Google says it is investigating reports of an issue affecting Merchant Center, but has not yet [...] - Search Engine Land
Evolve your marketing with new AI tools Learn how new AI and agentic experiences across Google Ads and Google Analytics can simplify your [...] - Inside Adwords

August, 7 2026

Google Ads Live Tests Of Strong Match Labels Google Ads is now testing the "Strongest match" and "Strong match" labels it [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
You can’t demand the click if you won’t give the link Publishers demanding citations and traffic from AI platforms should give the same credit to the [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Ads Phone Conversions Report Gets View Call Report Link Google Ads added a "View call report" link in the Phone Call conversions leads report. [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
On Sep 1 Google Ads To Migrate ACA & Campaign-Level Broad Match To AI Max Google Ads will begin migrating or "upgrading" Automatically created assets and [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Crawlers Send HTTP Requests: HEAD, OPTIONS, PUT, PATCH, DELETE Gary Illyes from Google said that Google's crawlers do not only send HTTP requests such as GET and [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Your rankings aren’t telling you what your customers see Customers don't search in the controlled environment your SEO tools measure. That gap changes how [...] - Search Engine Land
New Google Ads Report On New Customers Acquired Google Ads is rolling out a new customer acquisition option named "Report on new customers [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
ChatGPT Ads Updates: oCPC, Dynamic URLs, Muti-Product Carousel & More Earlier this week, OpenAI sent an email to advertisers about new ChatGPT Ads Manager product [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Wild Google Ranking Volatility, Reddit Special Preference, Big Google Executive Shakeup & More Search News This week, we covered two unconfirmed Google search ranking updates, one mid-week and one over the [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google’s Ex-AI Chief Jeff Dean Explains How To Improve Context Engineering via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google's former Chief Scientist explains why AI models are less important and why context [...] - Search Engine Journal
What six perspectives reveal about demand generation in AI search SEO, PR, analyst relations, and publishers are solving the same AI measurement problem from [...] - Search Engine Land
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 7, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today... - Search Engine Roundtable
How business context changes AI recommendations See how three AI models responded as business context became progressively richer for the same [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Ads adds dedicated reporting for new customer acquisition Google now lets advertisers measure new customer acquisition without affecting bidding, replacing a [...] - Search Engine Land
YouTube tests image ads during horizontal mobile playback YouTube is overlaying static image ads during landscape mobile videos, potentially giving [...] - Search Engine Land
Google expands Limited Ad Serving policy across all Ads Google is introducing new qualification criteria based on trust signals, verification and account [...] - Search Engine Land

August, 6 2026

Google leadership changes with Jeff Dean out, Demis Hassabis role change and more Jeff Dean has been with Google for over 27 years, and helped build Google Search in the early days [...] - Search Engine Land
Microsoft Ads New Exclude Audience Ads Placements Within PMax Campaigns Microsoft Advertising is rolling out a new feature for advertisers to allow you to exclude Audience [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Ads Video Q&A On August 17 Bidding Update Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, posted a video Q&A on the upcoming bidding update coming [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
New Google Product Listing Ads Deal Ends Experimental Annotation Google has a new specialized feature within Product Listing Ads within Merchant Center named Deal [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Ads Won't Let Free Email Accounts Take Sensitive Actions Google Ads is testing a new security feature to disallow free domain email addresses (such as [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
How SEO and PPC build trust across search: Case study A 26-week case study shows how connected search marketing efforts improved visibility, addressed [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Into August 5th & 6th Yes, I reported Google Search ranking volatility over this past weekend, but I am seeing a large [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google AI Leadership Changes: Jeff Dean Leaves, Demis Hassabis Change & More Google announced a number of big changes within its executive AI leadership ranks, including Jeff [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Search Console Shows AI Mode Queries, Not In Generative AI Reports While the Google Search Console generative AI performance reports do not share query data, you can [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
How to spot an emerging category in search data Most trends fade. Some become entirely new markets. The difference is visible in search data if you [...] - Search Engine Land
The demand capture trap that’s making search more expensive Search can only capture existing demand. Learn why YouTube helps create future buyers, making [...] - Search Engine Land
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 6, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google explains what advertisers should expect from Smart Bidding changes Google says its Aug. 17 Smart Bidding update will make budget-limited campaigns more predictable. - Search Engine Land
New Google Ads help doc outlines corporate email rules A new Google Ads help document explains how corporate email requirements will affect sensitive [...] - Search Engine Land
New Google help doc details Deal Ends annotations for Shopping ads A new Google help document explains how experimental Deal Ends annotations highlight eligible [...] - Search Engine Land
Google to auto-upgrade automatically created assets to AI Max Google will upgrade eligible Search campaigns to AI Max from Sept. 1, enabling search term matching [...] - Search Engine Land

August, 5 2026

Reddit CEO Intends To Show More Reviews And Recommendations via @sejournal, @martinibuster Reddit CEO Steve Huffman revealed intent to leverage the platform's vast amount of evergreen [...] - Search Engine Journal
How to launch a news publication that earns visibility in Google A six-month case study reveals what helped a new publication earn visibility in Google Search, AI [...] - Search Engine Land
Google releases help doc for Performance Max pay-per-lead goals The new guides explain how advertisers can set up, target and optimise Performance Max campaigns [...] - Search Engine Land
Google launches secure API access pilot for manager accounts The new pilot lets advertisers restrict sensitive API actions to approved applications, adding an [...] - Search Engine Land
Google tests clickable hyperlinks in Search ad descriptions Google is highlighting selected phrases within ad copy as clickable links, potentially helping [...] - Search Engine Land
Why the F.A.C.T.S. model is the key to search everywhere optimization by SOCi Learn how to boost visibility across search, social, reputation, and AI using SOCi's F.A.C.T.S. [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Ads Government Documents & Services Policy To Be Updated Google will be updating its Other restricted businesses: Government documents and services policy [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Bing Top Source Search Feature Microsoft is testing a "Top Source" section within the Bing Search results interface. [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Local Services Platform Policies Now Local Services Ads Requirements Google has renamed the Local Services platform policies document to Local Services Ads [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google: Reddit Gets No Special Preference In Google Search Rankings Google's communications representative, Jennifer Kutz, told The Verge that Reddit gets no [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Assistant Shutting Down On Mobile Devices On September 4 We knew this day was coming, and now Google has sent out emails announcing the date when Google [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Assistant to be discontinued on Android starting September 4 Gemini will be replacing the Google Assistant on these devices. - Search Engine Land
What happens when AI Overviews contradict paid search ads? AI recommendations can steer users toward competitors, leaving advertisers to absorb the impact on [...] - Search Engine Land
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 5, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today... - Search Engine Roundtable
10 SEO use cases for auditing your accessibility tree for AI search Go beyond HTML with practical workflows to uncover rendering issues, weak site structure, and other [...] - Search Engine Land
Google tightens Ads policy for government document providers Advertisers now need to prove explicit government authorisation before promoting government [...] - Search Engine Land
Does topical focus make your brand more visible? New research reveals why AI cites brands across many topics but recommends them only where they've [...] - Search Engine Land
How to de-risk your SEO strategy when Google keeps changing the model behind your rankings Google keeps changing the models behind your rankings. How can you plan ahead and avoid risks? Read [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Loses Engineer Who Helped Build Search And Modern AI via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google loses Jeff Dean, who helped build Google Search and AI, replaced by DeepMind's Demis [...] - Search Engine Journal

August, 4 2026

Google Ads Text Disclaimer Override Pinned Descriptions Position One Google Ads is testing a new text disclaimer feature that lets you set the text disclaimer to [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Handle Swapping Coming To Google Search Profiles Google is currently beta testing a new Search Profiles feature named Handle Swapping. Handle [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Ads Ad Preview & Diagnosis Captcha Bug The Google Ads Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool, where you can preview your ads in the Google Search [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
August 2026 Google Webmaster Report Here is the big Google Webmaster Report for August 2026, including of course the ongoing Google [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Ads Tests Anchor Text Hyperlinks In Ad Descriptions Google is testing adding keyword-rich anchor text hyperlinks to the ad descriptions in the [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
The latest AI news we announced in July 2026 Here are Google’s latest AI updates from July 2026 - Inside Search
Google Search testing forcing searchers to sign in to get more search results This is instead of using a captcha to verify the searcher is human and not a bot. - Search Engine Land
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 4, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today... - Search Engine Roundtable
Report That Cloudflare AI Bot Blocking Prevents Googlebot From Indexing Sites via @sejournal, @martinibuster Anecdotal report that blocking AI training bots with Cloudflare blocks Googlebot from indexing [...] - Search Engine Journal

August, 3 2026

Google’s Documentation Refresh Offers Ideas For SEO Content Updates via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google's updated documentation refresh shows where to focus on when updating your own content for [...] - Search Engine Journal
EU Commission Article 50 AI Transparency Law Has Four Exemptions via @sejournal, @martinibuster The European Commission's AI transparency law that has taken effect contains four exemptions from [...] - Search Engine Journal
Bing Webmaster Tools Page & Query Level Filtering Coming To Reports Microsoft has confirmed it is working on bringing filtering capabilities to the Bing Webmaster [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Search Tests Sign In To Verify Searches Are Human (Not Captcha) Google Search is testing asking searchers to sign in to verify they are humans and not bots [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Trends Lets You Compare 220% More Search Terms Google Trends now lets you compare up to 400 search terms across 8 groups of terms and up to 50 [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Bing Webmaster Tools SOAP/POX APIs To Be Retired On August 31, 2026 Microsoft will be retiring the Bing Webmaster Tools SOAP/POX APIs on August 31, 2026. If you use [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
GEO for people who have to hit revenue targets Most GEO advice optimizes for visibility. If you're accountable for business results, that's the [...] - Search Engine Land
Google Search Ranking Volatility Hits August 1st & Heats Up Into August 3rd I am seeing signs of another Google Search ranking update with a lot of volatility hitting this [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Business Profiles Protect From Fraudulent Calls and Texts Updated The Google Business Profile help page on Help protect against fraudulent calls and texts has been [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
Google Recommends Using 304 Status Code To Conserve Crawl Budget via @sejournal, @martinibuster Google's updated crawl budget documentation recommends serving a 304 response code to Googlebot for [...] - Search Engine Journal
Keyword research meets prompt research: A smarter way to prioritize topics Some topics look small in search but dominate AI conversations. Compare keyword and prompt demand [...] - Search Engine Land
Free Advanced Link Training Lessons via @sejournal, @martinibuster One of the most advanced SEOs of all time, Bill Hartzer, is giving away free advanced link training [...] - Search Engine Journal
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 3, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine [...] - Search Engine Roundtable
How to measure your brand’s visibility in Gemini Your brand could be influencing buying decisions in Gemini long before analytics ever sees it. [...] - Search Engine Land
4 Google Ads settings and recommendations worth a closer look Auto-apply, Display Expansion, Search Partners, and budget recommendations deserve a closer look. [...] - Search Engine Land
Google publishes guidance for text disclaimers in Search ads Google explains how advertisers can add legal disclosure assets to Search campaigns and what to [...] - Search Engine Land
Microsoft Clarity adds branded and non-branded AI queries You can now see numerous AI analytics reports broken down by branded and non-branded queries. - Search Engine Land
Google expands Data Manager API with smarter audience management Google is providing flexible audience management, smarter validation and richer Google Analytics [...] - Search Engine Land

August, 2 2026

Google Search Filter By Recent Broken If you try to filter you Google Search or Google News tab results by the recent search tools [...] - Search Engine Roundtable

August, 1 2026

What Opting Out Of Google’s AI Search Features Means Now via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern Google's AI search opt-out is rolling out as Top Stories appear inside AI Overviews. What the [...] - Search Engine Journal