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 posted three different Google March 2025 core update polls, showing how people fared with this update. Google will now officially allow double serving ads in Google Ads, shocking. Google will pay $100 million to settle 14-year-old geo-target advertiser class action lawsuit. Google News has fully transitioned to automatically generated publication pages. Google Business Profiles bug confirmed over resurfacing removed fake reviews. Google Business Profiles also may have a bug with your edit was not approved.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Google March 2025 Core Update Impact Multiple Poll Results
Now that the Google March 2025 core update is done, I wanted to share some polls I spotted on this update, including some I posted myself. The theme is, most said their rankings stayed the same, while many saw declines and improvements with the update. Which tells us, this was a normal core update. -
Google To Pay $100 Million To Settle Old Ad Lawsuit On Clicks Outside Geo Target
Google is reportedly going to pay $100 million to settle a 14-year-old class action case for allegedly having its Google Ads (as then known, AdWords) serve ads outside of the geographic regions the advertisers targeted. -
Google To Allow Double Serving Ads In Different Ad Locations On Same Page
Well, it seems to be official now. Starting April 14, 2025 Google will update its Unfair advantage policy to say it is allowed to show the same ad, from the same company, going to the same page, as long as the ad is in a different ad location. Google was just experimenting with this earlier and now it is officially going to be allowed. -
Google News Fully Transitioned To Automatically Generated Publication Pages
Last month we reported that Google News Publisher Center changes are coming, well those changes should have happened and been fully completed by today. Google updated its help document on the topic to say "Google News is fully transitioning to automatically generated publication pages in late March 2025." -
Google Business Profiles Bug Resurfacing Old Fake Removed Reviews
Google confirmed it is fixing a bug where old, fake and previously removed reviews are resurfacing in your Google Business Profiles. It is unclear how many Business Profiles are impacted by this, but if you see more reviews pop up that were not previously there, this may be why. -
Google Business Profiles Your Edit Was Not Approved Glitch
Google Business Profile edits may have a bug or some sort of glitch. A number of local SEOs are reporting seeing the message, "Your edit was not approved" when trying to make simple edits to Business Profiles. -
Me With Your Google Enemies
Here is a photo with me (in the middle) with your enemies (as some of you may call them), Danny Sullivan and Daniel Waisberg of Google. This was at the Google Search Central Live in New York City.
Other Great Search Threads:
- AI Overviews appear *far more regularly* than you may think, Mark Williams-Cook on LinkedIn
- Yahoo is testing a new design for their AI overviews with a blue border., Sachin Patel on X
- Yahoo is testing TikTok videos on their search engine page., Sachin Patel on X
- OpenAI is also testing article widgets for news-related queries on ChatGPT, TestingCatalog News on X
- Project Astra! I have early access to new Gemini features and just started testing Gemini Live with screen and camera sharing. This brings some aspects of Project Astra to Gemini. Check out the video below where I ask Gemini about th, Glenn Gabe on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Google settles $100 Million advertising dispute
- The latest jobs in search marketing
- 5 undervalued skills to complement PPC management
- Meet LLMs.txt, a proposed standard for AI website content crawling
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Annotations in GA4, KRM Digital Marketing
- Microsoft Ads Consent Mode: Everything You Need to Know, Measure Minds Group
Industry & Business
- Ad Tech Briefing: The futility of a Google breakup?, Digiday
- Google App Store Billing Policy Anti-Competitive, India Court Rules, Bloomberg
- Google Engineer Has Coolest Night Job on Broadway (Exclusive), People
- Google to pay $100 million to settle advertisers' class action, Reuters
- How I Grew SEOFOMO Into an Email Marketing Empire — Whiteboard Friday, Moz
- OpenAI’s Latest Funding Round Comes With a $20 Billion Catch, Wall Street Journal
- Reddit’s Stock Plunge Fails to Entice Dip Buyers as Growth Slows, Bloomberg
- Googlers Question the Company After Getting Smaller Pay Bumps, Business Insider
- India’s ‘Google Tax’ Move Is a Sneak Peek Into April 2 Tariffs, Bloomberg
- Perplexity CEO denies having financial issues, says no IPO before 2028, TechCrunch
- Rounding Up Recent Copyright and AI Rulings, Eric Goldman
Links & Content Marketing
- Generative AI for Content: The Magic, Mayhem, and Human Touch, Level343
- How to Win in the Age of Conversational Search, Wix SEO Hub
- Friendly Links Unmasked: What SEO Agencies Don’t Tell You, International Search News
Local & Maps
- Google Maps: How to find product ice stock, Android Police
- Google Maps Gets an iPhone Option Americans Can't Have, AutoEvolution
Mobile & Voice
- Google's Gboard might borrow this controversial keyboard layout from Apple, Android Police
- Foldable Smartphone Market to See its First Decline in 2025 Before Robust Comeback in 2026, Counterpoint Research
- When Google Assistant is phased out, what happens to our smart speakers?, Android Police
SEO
- 3 SEO Tactics You Haven't Thought Of, Bill Hartzer
- How to Set Up an AI-Powered SEO Ranking Predictor (Less than $10), Metehan
- Robots Refresher: Future-proof Robots Exclusion Protocol, Google Search Central Blog
- What does the future hold for SEO? - An interview with Patrick Hathaway, Advanced Web Ranking
- Moving Location to the Start of the Title Tag: Does It Improve CTR?, SearchPilot
- Yandex March 2025 Update, International Search News
- SEO Myth Debunked: Longer Content Always Ranks Better, Nikki Pilkington
PPC
- Agencies say Google reps are pressuring clients on AI ad tools, Digiday
- Compounding Results from PPC and SEO: How to Win with Unified Search, PPCChat
- How to Remove Draft Campaigns in Google Ads (Quick Guide), FeedArmy
- Promoting Display & Video 360 API v4 to general availability, Google Ads Developer Blog
- REST code examples now available for the Google Ads API, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Upcoming change to LowerTargetRoas recommendations in the Google Ads API and Google Ads scripts, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Upcoming Performance Max campaign migration to enable brand guidelines, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Maximizing Google Ads Clicks with a Limited Budget, Jyll Saskin Gales
Search Features
- 5 new AI education initiatives from Google, Google Blog
Other Search
- Strategic Brand Positioning in LLMs: A Methodological Framework for Prompt Engineering and Model Behavior Analysis, DEJAN
- Google surprisingly rolling out Gemini 2.5 Pro to all users , 9to5Google
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