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Bing now asks some searchers to verify they are human
Search Engine Roundtable reports Bing showing a verify-you-are-human checkbox before results. The trigger is unknown and the check was not reproduced.
SEO news
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Algorithm updates, search announcements and platform changes, with what each one changes in practice.
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OpenAI tests Sponsored Agents as a new ChatGPT ad format
OpenAI is testing Sponsored Agents: labeled conversations with a business agent that users start after clicking a ChatGPT ad, with select US advertisers.
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Google Discover on desktop has disappeared, and Google is silent
Search Engine Roundtable reports Discover no longer appears on desktop Google.com, with no explanation from Google. What is verified and what is not.
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Google tests an AI Mode button in the results page search bar
Google is testing an AI Mode button in the search bar on results pages, not only the home page. The button is inconsistent and regular search still works.
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Google Search profiles get new article cards and a lower bar
Google cut the follower requirement for Search profiles to 10,000, added richer article views, and lets one account manage up to 10 profiles.
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Google Analytics rolls out drag-and-drop custom dashboards
GA4 Dashboards let you drag dimensions and metrics onto a grid canvas, combining six chart types into one KPI page instead of separate reports.
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Search Central Live returns to India for a Bengaluru date in October
Google's Search Central team holds a free, one-day Search Central Live event in Bengaluru on October 30, 2026, its first India event since 2023.
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Logging bug undercounted impressions in Search Console's AI report
A logging error cut reported impressions in Search Console's Generative AI report from August 13, 2026, Google says, with no real drop in visibility.
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Google ranking volatility spikes sharply, no update confirmed
SEO chatter and rank-tracking tool activity spiked hard on 15 September 2026. Barry Schwartz suspects an update is starting; Google has confirmed nothing.
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An unconfirmed September update hit big sites, then fully reversed
Glenn Gabe tracked large sites dropping hard around September 3-4, 2026, then surging back on September 13. Google confirmed neither move.
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Google documents its EEA-only aggregator and supplier units
Google's September 2026 changelog documents aggregator units, supplier units and carousels: result formats limited to the EEA, South Africa and Turkiye.
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Google splits site reputation enforcement along the EEA border
From 30 August, a site reputation manual action changes results only outside the EEA. Inside it, the section is separated and left to rank on its own.
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Bing reports how often AI answers cite your pages
AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools counts citations in Copilot and AI answers, names the cited URLs, and shows the queries behind them.
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Search Console now reports impressions from Google's AI features
Google added a generative AI performance report to Search Console, showing how often your pages surfaced inside AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover.
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Search Console now measures your TikTok, X and YouTube posts
Platform properties let a creator see the queries that lead people to their Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube content on Google Search and Discover.
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The August 2026 spam update finished after three days
Google's August 2026 spam update ran from 18 to 21 August. Here is how to tell a spam-update drop from a core-update drop in your own data.
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Google opens AI Mode ads to exact and phrase match keywords
Google confirmed on 4 September 2026 that exact and phrase match keywords can serve text ads in AI Mode, once reserved for AI Max and Performance Max.
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Bing tests bolded HTTPS and snippets without site names
Two separate September 2026 Bing tests change result snippets: one bolds the https segment of the URL, the other drops the site name line.
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Publishers report Google News sitemap data stuck in Search Console
Webmasters say the indexed pages report for their news sitemap has not moved since August 28, even though new articles are indexed and visible.
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Google confirms AI Overviews now auto-expand on some queries
Google confirmed on 28 August 2026 that AI Overviews can dynamically expand into a full, detailed answer for some queries, dropping the Show more control.
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Google fixes Search Console favicon bug and a crawl stats data gap
Google fixed a bug replacing site favicons with a default globe icon in search results, and separately restored a two-day gap in Crawl Stats data.
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ChatGPT Ads adds oCPC bidding and a product carousel
OpenAI added beta conversion bidding, dynamic URL macros and a multi-product carousel to ChatGPT Ads product feed campaigns on August 7, 2026.
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Google's AI Mode terms for French publishers
Ahead of its French launch, Google told publishers it would offer an opt-out, separate AI traffic reporting, and neighboring-rights compensation.
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Search Console configures Performance reports from a prompt
AI-powered configuration turns a natural-language request into Search Console filters, comparisons and metric choices, no manual setup required.
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Bot traffic passes human traffic on Cloudflare's network
Cloudflare's CEO says automated requests for HTML pages now outnumber human ones, 18 months ahead of his own forecast.
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llms.txt and robots.txt have two separate, unrelated standards tracks
A W3C tracking issue on llms.txt and an unrelated IETF working group on robots.txt-adjacent AI signals are getting blended into one false headline.
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Google removes FAQ rich results from Search
FAQPage markup no longer earns an expanded snippet in Google Search as of 7 May 2026, though the schema stays valid and other crawlers still read it.
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Publishers with OpenAI deals get 48% more ChatGPT citations
A study joining licensing-deal records to 129.3 million AI citations finds a ChatGPT premium for OpenAI partners, but no matching edge on Google.
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IETF's AI Preferences group is still drafting, not shipping
The IETF's AI Preferences group is standardizing AI training and search signals that extend robots.txt. Still an Internet-Draft, not a shipped standard.
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IndexNow adoption grows in 2026, but not at Google
Bing's own published numbers show IndexNow submissions climbing steadily since 2022, yet Google still has no roadmap to join the instant-indexing protocol.
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What Google and Bing actually say about schema and AI
Schema.org's own numbers, Google's AI documentation and Bing's public statements, separated from unverified SEO claims.
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Gemini 3.7 Flash reaches AI Mode, a day after its release
Google added Gemini 3.7 Flash to AI Mode's model picker on 14 August 2026, limited to AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, one day after the model shipped.
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Search Console adds a branded vs non-branded query filter
A new Performance report filter splits branded and non-branded queries using an AI-assisted classifier, not manual keyword rules.
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Search Central Live expands to Bogota and Ciudad de Mexico
Google's Search Central team adds Bogota to its live event roster and returns to Ciudad de Mexico in October, alongside a three-day Deep Dive in Barcelona.
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The May 2026 core update finished after 11 days, its second this year
Google's May 2026 broad core update ran 21 May to 2 June, its second confirmed core update of 2026. What the dates mean for reading your own traffic.
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Merchant Center adds AI Performance Insights for share of voice
A new Merchant Center report benchmarks brand visibility on AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini, plus shopping funnel and attribute-gap data.
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Google's 2026 Merchant Center product spec, three effective dates
New shipping and video attributes, a higher minimum image resolution and a longer rollout: what changes on 14 April 2026, 30 June 2026 and 31 January 2027.
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AI Overview citations are decoupling from search rank
Ahrefs data shows top-10 pages went from 76% to 38% of AI Overview citations in eight months. Ranking well no longer guarantees a citation.
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Google ships its first Discover-only algorithm update
Google's first Discover-only core update ran three weeks, targeted clickbait and thin republishing. Discover clicks arrive fast: over 70% land on day one.
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AI Mode passed 200 countries and territories, and entered the EU
Google added more than 35 languages and 40 countries to AI Mode, including its first EU markets: Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland.