Welcome to the week’s Pulse for SEO: updates affect how Google ranks content in Discover, how it plans to monetize AI search, and what content you serve to bots. Here’s what matters for you and your work. Google Releases Discover-Only Core Update Google launched the February 2026 Discover core update, a broad ranking change targeting […]
As AI-driven bidding and automation transform paid media, first-party data has become the most powerful lever advertisers control. In this conversation with Search Engine Land, Julie Warneke, founder and CEO of Found Search Marketing, explained why first-party data now underpins profitable advertising — no matter how Google’s position on third-party cookies evolves. What first-party data […]
AI is no longer an experimental layer in search. It’s actively mediating how customers discover, evaluate, and choose local businesses, increasingly without a traditional search interaction. The real risk is data stagnation. As AI systems act on local data for users, brands that fail to adapt risk declining visibility, data inconsistencies, and loss of control […]
Google Search is entering an “expansionary moment,” fueled by longer queries, more follow-up questions, and rising use of voice and images. That’s according to Alphabet’s executives who spoke on last night’s Q4 earnings call. In other words: Google Search is shifting toward AI-driven experiences, with more conversations happening inside Google’s own interfaces. Why we care. […]
Most PPC teams still build campaigns the same way: pull a keyword list, set match types, and organize ad groups around search terms. It’s muscle memory. But Google’s auction no longer works that way. Search now behaves more like a conversation than a lookup. In AI Mode, users ask follow-up questions and refine what they’re […]
Google’s John Mueller was asked how many megabytes of HTML Googlebot crawls per page. The question was whether Googlebot indexes two megabytes (MB) or fifteen megabytes of data. Mueller’s answer minimized the technical aspect of the question and went straight to the heart of the issue, which is really about how much content is indexed. […]
Learn The Signals Shaping Marketing, Efficiency, and AI Planning As 2026 rolls on, many teams find themselves adjusting how they approach overall business and marketing growth. What is the most efficient use of this year’s tighter budgets? Priorities are shifting across industries. Understanding how peers are responding can help teams make better strategic decisions. Join […]
For many local businesses, performance looks healthier than it is. Rank trackers still show top-three positions. Visibility reports appear steady. Yet calls and website visits from Google Business Profiles are falling — sometimes fast. This gap is becoming a defining feature of local search today. Rankings are holding. Visibility and performance aren’t. The alligator has […]
Google has launched a core update specifically for Discover, rather than Search more broadly. The February Discover core update began Feb. 5 for English-language users in the U.S., with plans to expand to other countries and languages. Google says the rollout may take up to two weeks. Google has started a Discover […]
Google has released the February 2026 Discover core update, this is a core update specific to how Google surfaces content within Google Discover. Google wrote, “This is a broad update to our systems that surface articles in Discover.” This is first rolling out to English language users in the US, and will expand it to […]