A little over a year ago, the introduction of AI Overviews (AIO, for short) by Google was not simply an enhancement of how search results were presented; it represented a significant upheaval for the digital marketing industry and, in particular, for search engine optimization (SEO). Google’s promise was to offer concise and direct answers generated by artificial intelligence, displayed at the very top of the SERP, while continuing to channel traffic to websites.

However, this naturally raised a pressing concern for brands and content creators: if users could obtain the answer directly from Google, why would they click on an organic result? Why would they choose to visit my content, regardless of how prominently it appeared in the results?

For years, the primary SEO objective for any content creator had been to achieve the top organic ranking. Yet, AIOs not only displaced these results, but they also fundamentally changed user intent, transforming the search process from a navigational portal to a tool for generating answers. How would this affect websites that rely on Google traffic as part of their business model?

Now, with 15 months of concrete data compiled by Seer Interactive, the answer is clear: the initial concern was justified, but the impact has proven to be even more complex than anticipated.

CTR in free fall

Seer’s analysis, which covers data gathered from June 2024 to September 2025 and reviews millions of impressions across various search queries, confirms the damage inflicted on CTR.

Organic results CTR

On the organic front, the trend indicates a steep decline for queries where an AIO is present. Starting from a CTR of 1.76% in June 2024, the click-through rate dropped by almost two-thirds, stabilizing at 0.61% by September 2025, after hitting a low of 0.57% in July. This 61% reduction demonstrates that AIOs are indeed fulfilling their purpose of resolving user needs without requiring them to visit a website.

Paid results CTR

However, the most alarming scenario emerges in the CTR for paid results. Ads for these queries with AIOs began with a CTR of 19.70% in June 2024 but suffered an even more dramatic decline, with an overall decrease of 68%. The most concerning moment occurred during July 2025, when paid CTR fell to just 3.26%. Although a slight recovery followed the summer, this volatility highlights the instability of the current environment. For advertisers, these figures serve as a serious wake-up call.

Does being quoted matter?

According to the study’s data, for queries where an AIO was present and the brand was not cited, organic CTR plummeted by 65.2% year-over-year. This drove the average CTR down to 0.52%. Furthermore, paid content also suffered: the paid CTR dropped by 78.4%.

The study also makes it clear that being cited by Google’s AI Overview has become a strategic necessity. Brands that were cited experienced a significantly smaller drop in CTR and superior performance: citation is associated with a 35% higher organic CTR and a 91% higher paid CTR compared to not being cited at all. In any case, the study explicitly warns that it cannot establish causality between these factors, since it may simply be the case that brands with higher authority are cited more frequently.

• Google’s AI Overviews are causing a 50% drop in organic CTR

CTR is falling, even without AI Overviews

Another of the study’s most noteworthy findings is that the CTR crisis is not limited to queries containing AIOs. Seer Interactive refuted its own initial hypothesis by demonstrating that queries without AIOs have not become a safe haven, but are also experiencing a decline. Organic CTR for these queries fell by 41% during the analyzed period, settling at 1.62% in September 2025.

This finding is essential because it suggests that the problem is broader than simply the appearance of Google’s AI. According to the study’s authors, users—particularly for informational queries—may be migrating away from Google or using the SERP differently. They are seeking fast, direct answers via large language models (LLM) such as ChatGPT or Perplexity, or turning to social platforms. Google continues to be the starting point, but the willingness to click on traditional results has decreased dramatically across the web.

And now… What comes next?

The study also revealed an insight regarding the causality of AIOs: Google’s AI tends to appear in queries that have historically generated fewer clicks. In other words, AIOs are intensifying a pre-existing pattern of low CTR in informational searches, rather than arbitrarily eliminating high-performing results.

The final point from Seer Interactive is that marketing professionals must stop expecting a recovery in CTR. The digital landscape has changed, and it appears to have done so permanently. The solution is not to try to evade AIOs, but to change the KPI. The metric can no longer be simply traffic acquisition, but rather “visibility share” and “citation rate” within AIOs. Therefore, SEO strategy must, by necessity, become a strategy of authority and AI-driven visibility, where optimization focuses on becoming the trusted source that Google must cite—redefining what it means to “win” in the age of artificial intelligence.

Image: Gemini

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This year, Google has decided that its 2025 Halloween Doodle will represent a dual celebration. On one hand, this creative redesign of the company’s logo commemorates the October 31st holiday, and on the other, it marks the 45th anniversary of the iconic video game Pac Man.

Help Pac Man complete all 8 levels

As could not be otherwise, this year’s Halloween Doodle features a mini-game in which you must help Pac Man complete eight mazes in various haunted houses. Although this entertaining mission will only be accessible from Google’s homepage today and tomorrow, you will always be able to play it through this link.

• You may also be interested in: This is Google’s Halloween Doodle for 2024

In order to enjoy some time with this new version of the arcade classic, you only need to access Google from any device and click on the Doodle. Please note that depending on the device you use to play, the controls will be somewhat different: from a computer, you may use the keyboard arrows; from a mobile phone, you must guide Pac Man by moving your finger across the screen.

For this special occasion, four of the eight mazes included in the game are unique haunted house designs developed in collaboration with Bandai Namco Entertainment, the parent company of Pac Man.

“Your mission is to guide PAC-MAN through these festive levels, helping him devour every dot and avoid the iconic, colorful ghosts: Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde. Pay close attention to the interior of each haunted house, as its layout directly reflects the personality of the ghost who inhabits it. Collect power pellets to turn the tables and pursue the ghosts yourself,” explains Google.

As an additional note, let us inform you that, although Google has taken this occasion to honor Pac Man, his 45th birthday was actually celebrated on May 22 of this year. Yes, Pac Man is a Gemini, and it does, indeed, suit him rather well.

Photo: Google

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When it comes to ranking content in its search engine, Google does not only focus on the proper use of keywords and links; it also rewards pages that prove to be a trustworthy and relevant resource. That is precisely what we are going to discuss today: your website’s authority and how to enhance it to become more competitive in search results.

Authority is a fundamental pillar of Google’s EEAT concept (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), which measures the quality of content and its creator. In essence, being an authority means that your brand, your website, or even your personal authorship is recognized and respected within a specific niche. If you succeed in having your website regarded as a reliable source of information, you will not only improve your ranking but also build a strong and lasting brand.

Try Semrush for free

Authority Score: a Metric for Measuring Authority

But how is authority measured? This is where SEO tools come into play. Semrush, for example, has its own metric, the Authority Score, which allows you to quantify your domain’s strength on a scale from 1 to 100.

This is not merely an abstract number, but rather it is calculated based on three key factors:

• Backlink signals: the quantity and quality of links pointing to your website from other domains.
• Organic traffic: the estimated monthly visits your website receives from search engines.
• Spam factors: the presence of manipulation indicators or suspicious patterns (such as unnatural growth in links or too many links from the same IP address). These factors negatively impact your website’s rating.

In practice, a high Authority Score indicates that your website has a robust link profile and that Google considers it relevant. However, the true value of your score will also depend on the segment in which you compete and on your specific competitors. This means that if your website has an Authority Score of 30 while other similar sites you compete against have an average of 20, your score is actually quite favorable, even if it may not seem so at first glance.

How to Find Out Your Authority Score in Semrush

To get started, you only need to log in to Semrush and go to the “Domain Overview” section under “SEO”; one of the first figures you will find on the dashboard is the “Authority Score.” Another option is to use the free tool Website Authority Checker directly.

These panels will provide you with valuable information about key indicators such as: the number of backlinks, the number of referring domains that have at least one link pointing to the analyzed domain/URL, the number of monthly visits, organic traffic estimates, toxicity score, the trend of your Authority Score over the last 12 months, and more. In addition, if you would like to see the results of your competitors, you only need to repeat the same steps with their websites and compare the data.

How to Improve Your Authority Score

Once you have analyzed your score and your competitors’, it is time to take action to maintain a good score or, if you do not yet have it, to strive for improvement. To that end, Semrush recommends the following:

Obtain high-quality links: Seek out and build backlinks from websites that are both relevant and trustworthy within your industry. A link from a reputable site is far more valuable for your authority.

• Obtain high-quality links: seek out and build backlinks from websites that are both relevant and trustworthy within your industry. A link from a reputable site is far more valuable for your authority.
• Create high-quality content: apply SEO on-page best practices to achieve better rankings and gain more traffic from search engines.
• Monitor your backlink profile regularly: conduct periodic reviews and, if you find many unreliable or low-quality links, contact the websites that are linking to you to request their removal.
• Distribute authority through internal links: use internal linking to spread authority across the various pages of your website. This helps Google understand your site’s structure and strengthens the relevance of your content.

Of course, we would like to remind you that SEO is a complex recipe composed of many ingredients, so you must ensure quality is present in each of them. While a high Authority Score can help your rankings, on its own it is not an absolute guarantee of success in search results.

Building Authority for Generative Search Engines

Improving your Authority Score is not only a strategy for traditional SEO, but it also prepares you for the future of search. Indeed, we are referring to generative search engines—those new systems that feed on website content to generate their responses.

Authority is a foundational element of GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), the practice of optimizing website content so that generative search engines will cite it in their answers, according to research from Princeton University.

Furthermore, a study by the platform Rankscale.ai analyzed nearly 8,000 citations in 57 different queries performed in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini to determine which factors influence whether these AIs choose to rank a piece of content. Authority was one of the common factors, making it clear that building authority, trust, and credibility on your website will increase your chances of being cited by generative search engines.

In summary, authority is the currency of SEO today and for the future. It is how Google and other search engines recognize experts in every field. To audit your competitors’ backlink profiles, search for new link-building opportunities, and of course improve your Authority Score, it is advisable to rely on SEO analysis and optimization tools such as Semrush.

Try Semrush for free

Photo: Flux Schnell

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Google has completed its summer spam update, which began on August 26. It had been some time since one of Google’s regular algorithm updates had taken so long to roll out, which may indicate the significance that the search engine has attached to this particular case. As before, websites affected by this update will have experienced a decrease in their visibility within search results, while those that had previously been impacted have viewed this as an opportunity to regain their positions.

It is worth recalling that this is the first spam update of 2025, as compared to the three that were deployed in 2024. In previous updates, Google explained that it had incorporated a series of significant changes aimed at reducing the presence of spam and improving the quality of search results. These updates sought to better understand whether websites are useless, offer a poor user experience, or appear to be designed for search engines instead of for people.

This same objective has been extended to other core updates. Among these, the focus has been on combating the mass creation of low-quality content, whether produced automatically or with human intervention, with the intent of manipulating search rankings. In addition, specific actions were announced to address the abuse of the reputations of trustworthy sites—where third parties publish poor content—and the misuse of expired domains repurposed to artificially enhance the ranking of low-quality content.

• Google completes its summer core update. It is time to review how you have been affected.

The importance of spam updates for the health of the algorithm

Google’s spam updates are targeted improvements released periodically to identify and penalize websites that attempt to manipulate search results. Their main objective is to ensure that the content users encounter is of high quality and genuinely useful, while reducing the visibility of those sites that do not adhere to best practices.

Essentially, these updates are focused on identifying tactics that violate Google’s guidelines. This includes practices such as:

• Keyword stuffing: Using an excessive number of keywords in an attempt to rank content.
• Automatic content: Generating irrelevant content automatically.
• Manipulated links: Employing unethical strategies to acquire links that improve a website’s ranking.

Furthermore, spam updates not only target known practices, but also adapt to new techniques as they arise. This encompasses the detection of content generated en masse by artificial intelligence without quality oversight, as well as the abuse of expired domains used to manipulate search rankings.

Image: Gemini

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The objective of Google Discover is to provide users with a space where they can access a selection of relevant news based on their interests. To advance this mission, the technology company has announced that it will incorporate new content formats that will go beyond web articles and additional personalization features.

Find the latest updates from your favorite creators in discover

Google has announced that in the coming weeks, Discover will begin to display a greater variety of content types from both publishers as well as media outlets or creators. In this way, the selection of content available in Discover may include not only web articles and YouTube videos but also posts from X, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts. The technology company intends to add more platforms and formats in the near future.

This decision stems from research conducted by Google, in which they discovered that people enjoyed encountering a variety of content in Discover, ranging from videos to news articles or social media posts. This development will assist users in staying up to date on their preferred topics, publishers, media outlets, and creators more easily.

• You may be interested in: Posts from professional Instagram accounts will have direct visibility on Google

You will now be able to follow creators, publishers, and media outlets on Discover

Personalization is the key ingredient and the driving force behind Discover. To enhance this aspect, Google has decided to introduce the ability to follow creators, publishers, or media outlets. You simply need to click on the “follow” button that will appear in the upper right corner next to their name and on their content.

In addition to this, you will also be able to access a content view for any creator, publisher, or media outlet by clicking on their name. In this new tab, you will find an overview of their activity, including articles, YouTube videos, or social media posts.

These efforts by Google to broaden the reach of publishers, media outlets, and creators have also been mirrored in its other services. For example, the company recently introduced a feature in “Top Stories” that allows users to select their preferred news sources.

Image: Google

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Google has launched AI Max for Search campaigns, its new AI-assisted advertising solution focusing on target audiences and creativity, globally for advertisers. According to the tech company, advertisers who activate this toolset will obtain, on average, 14% more conversions with a similar CPA/ROAS.

AI Max for Search campaigns was announced in May this year, and its beta version is now available in Google Ads, Google Ads Editor, Search Ads 360, and through the Google Ads API.

What AI Max offers for Search Campaigns

AI Max consists of a set of advanced AI-powered features designed to enhance the performance of Google’s Search campaigns. Some of the features and capabilities included are as follows:

Search Term Matching

The search term matching expands the possibilities of your existing keywords. You can use expanded matching and the keyword-free technology to capture more relevant search queries (which were previously inaccessible) and that provide high performance.

Furthermore, Google’s AI has the ability to learn from your current keywords, creative assets, and URLs, to help you appear in more relevant searches. “The way you prioritize your keywords and keyword-free matching is the same as with current Search campaigns and with Performance Max“, explains Google.

Asset optimization panel

Now that it is possible to appear in new relevant searches thanks to the search term matching, it is necessary to adapt creative assets in real-time to users based on their intent. To address this, Google has integrated a text customization feature in its asset optimization panel.

This feature, formerly known as “automatically created assets,” allows you to quickly and easily generate new text resources, from headlines to descriptions, based on your website’s information, your advertising, and your keywords.

The company states: “we have improved our ability to generate assets with clear calls to action and unique selling propositions, alongside the expansion of final URLs, with the aim of redirecting users to the most relevant pages of your website“.

Control tools for greater precision

These tools allow you to have extensive control over the brands you wish to associate with or not. That is to say, you will be able to specify which brands your ads should associate with or alongside which they should not appear.

A gear that works as a whole

Google emphasizes that it is possible to combine all AI Max features to optimize your results and accurately target your audience’s interests.

The tech company presents the following example to illustrate: “suppose you have a clothing brand and want to promote a new summer line. If someone searches for ‘mid-calf skirt dresses with vibrant colors for spring and summer’, a campaign based exclusively on exact keyword matching, such as ‘red mid-calf skirt dress’ would have missed this search. Now, it is enough to assign that term an expanded match, and AI Max will ensure your ad is relevant, intelligently adapting the content to the search query“.

Photo: Google

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What does it matter if you have an entire island to yourself… if you can’t contact anyone from it? You’d be just a castaway, in the true style of Robinson Crusoe.

The same happens with your website. You need a network of roads (links) that connect it to other countries to achieve international positioning. And for that, there are many platforms that can lend a hand.

A netlinking marketplace is an online platform that facilitates the purchase of links by advertisers, brands, and communication agencies with the aim of improving search engine rankings. The links available on these marketplaces are usually high quality and relevant, targeting specific pages on a website to increase its authority and visibility in search engines.

Remember that netlinking is a digital marketing strategy that can allow you to appear in some of the best media and improve your traffic.

We have gathered some of the best on the market according to their organic traffic in Semrush. We will tell you how you can use them to boost your international SEO strategy and position yourself globally.

PRnews.io

PRnews.io defines itself as a “global sponsored content marketplace open for collaboration with news websites and blogs worldwide”. It helps businesses increase awareness among potential partners and investors, boost sales, and improve SEO with high-quality backlinks. Gone are the days of searching through hundreds of platforms to share your news, to get noticed online with just a few clicks.

It was founded in 2005 by Alexander Storozhuk and Alex Nigmatulin, it has grown from a small team of internet journalism professionals to a global company. With offices in Ukraine, Estonia, the United States, and Hong Kong, it has developed into a renowned marketplace, removing communication barriers between small businesses and the press.

The platform allows you to choose the best-fitting media outlets for your needs, ensuring that your content reaches the right audience. It covers a wide range of media types, helping businesses of any size or location get their content in front of leading media organizations.

As a publisher, you can set your own price, brands will pay in advance and you will get your income after teh content is published. Remember that sponsored content on your website will allow you to receive an extra fixed income.

Whitepress

Whitepress was founded in Poland in 2013, but it wasn’t until 2018 that they launched the international version of the platform. This allowed them to expand into more and more countries. They now have available 34 languages.

Over time, they have managed to implement 100,000 portals on their platform, allowing users to find the best places to advertise their content.

They offer:

• Article publication
• Copywriting
• Link insertion
• Free SEO audit
• Backlink manager

It is a great opportunity for publishers, as you are the one who set the prices and the payment will be received within one business day from receiving the invoice. You can sing up on your own or contact their team for further information. Once you have started, they will provide detailed reports and statistics.

Moreover, to avoid bad quality content, all of it is verified by Copyscape, a plagiarism checker that allows you know whether te content is copied or not.

Fatjoe 

FatJoe, founded in 2012, has grown into one of the world’s largest providers of outsourced link building, digital PR, SEO services, content creation, design, and video services. The company is aimed to help SEOs, marketers, and agencies scale their efforts and achieve greater success. By offering efficient and effective solutions, FatJoe supports businesses in improving their online presence, driving traffic, and enhancing their overall digital marketing strategies.

Among their services you can also find AI SEO services, which helps companies to build brand presence in Google AI Overviews and LLMs like ChatGPT, prices range from £500 to more than £3,500.

• You may be interested in: What is GEO: the new era of SEO for Generative AI

According to their website, in their platform there are more than 100 approved writers, ensuring quality content written in both UK and US English. You juist need to choose the type of content you want to publish, submit a bried and that’s it.

Adsy 

ADSY is a content marketing platform that serves as your hub for SEO, digital PR, and content distribution. Since its inception in 2018, ADSY has evolved from a guest posting service into a comprehensive solution designed to help clients improve SERP rankings, build quality backlinks, and enhance brand visibility.

Advertisers can easily place content on over 100,000 high-quality sites across various geographic locations (USA, UK, France, Australia, Spain, Germany, etc.) and select sites from more than 50 categories. Publishers, on the other hand, can monetize their platforms by offering them to thousands of advertisers, earning fair compensation twice per week. ADSY is dedicated to providing tools that cater to the growing needs of clients looking to boost their digital presence and achieve lasting success in online marketing.

Qwoted

Its goal is to connect multimedia professionals (journalists, freelancers, podcasters, producers, etc.) with the right experts to tell their story, show, or website.

An interesting feature of this platform is that you can check its status to see if it is down or not. That way, if it isn’t working for you, you can check its status page to see if the problem is with your Wi-Fi or not 😉

Connecting with sources is made easier through a system that uses technology and Natural Language Processing to match media requests with relevant experts. The team can also provide support by assisting with research and outreach when needed.

Bazoom

This platform contains a network of more than 85,000 outlets around the world.

They operate froom offices in Spain, Malta, United States, and Denmark.

Its platform allows you to use advanced filters to tailor it to your needs, no matter how niche they may be. Once you have done that, you can choose the one that best suits your needs and place your order. Bazoom will take care of the rest. You can then monitor your campaign at all times with real-time updates.

It integrates with major companies in the SEO industry such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, and Search Console.

Getfluence

Getfluence is a global marketplace dedicated to branded content campaigns. With this platform, you can attract and educate users to your website. This will give your brand a good reputation by publishing it in leading media outlets (such as ours, for example). Getfluence has worked with companies such as Canva, L’Oreal, Samsung, Dentsu, and Uber.

The platform has an extensive directory of media outlets (more than 20,000) in various industries and countries, allowing brands to find the ideal target audience for their campaigns.

Although its main focus is digital media, it also facilitates collaboration with influencers. The platform helps connect with professionals who have a solid reputation in their niches.

Getfluence seeks to streamline campaign management. Instead of contacting each media outlet individually, the platform centralizes the entire process, from planning and negotiation to dissemination and monitoring of results.

Backlinked

The platform has a catalog of over 100,000 “offers” (websites) where links can be purchased. They offer link packages, grouping multiple backlinks at reduced prices, which is ideal for larger projects.

Prices vary considerably and depend on the quality of the website where the link is placed. Prices for a single backlink can range from €99 to €800, depending on metrics such as Domain Rating (DR), Domain Authority (DA), and site traffic.

Plus, if you find the same link at a lower price elsewhere, they will match it.

SourceBottle

Sourcebottle is an online platform that connects journalists, bloggers, and other content creators with experts and sources for their articles, stories, and publications.

• For journalists and content creators: You can post a “call out” describing the topic you are writing about, the type of source you need, and the deadline. Sourcebottle sends this request to its network of subscribed experts.
• For experts and sources: You register and subscribe to the categories that interest you. You receive emails with “call outs” from journalists looking for someone with your profile. By responding to one of these call outs, you have the opportunity to appear in a publication. This can give you visibility, increase your brand’s authority, and, in many cases, get a backlink.

The good thing about Sourcebottle is that the basic service is free. However, there are also paid options ranging from $25 to $130 per month.

Image: Gemini Nano Banana

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The antitrust case between the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and Google reached a significant turning point yesterday with the ruling issued by Judge Amit P. Mehta of the United States District Court. He has determined that Google will not be required to sell Chrome nor divest its Android operating system.

While at first glance it may appear that Google has achieved its objectives (and to a large extent, it has), the reality is the technology giant has not obtained everything it sought, as the judgment also sets forth a series of obligations and restrictions. Among these, the most notable is that Google must share its data with competitors and may not establish contracts that grant exclusivity to its products.

What the Ruling states

The U.S. judiciary has ultimately rejected some of the plaintiff’s most drastic requests (such as forcing Google to divest Chrome) and has accepted a portion of the proposals submitted by Google, although with some modifications. These are the main conclusions of the ruling recently issued by Judge Amit P. Mehta:

• Google will not have to split up its business: The court will not require Google to sell or separate key products such as Chrome or Android.
• Prohibition of exclusive contracts: Google may not enter into or maintain agreements that grant exclusivity for the distribution of its Search engine, Chrome, Google Assistant, and Gemini. Consequently, Google will not be permitted to have any agreement that conditions the licensing of Play Store or any other Google application on the distribution, preloading, or installation of its other services. It may also not make the receipt of revenue-sharing payments contingent upon the installation of certain applications or services. Nor may it prohibit its partners from simultaneously distributing any other GSE product, browser, or GenAI.
• Payments will not be prohibited: Google will be able to make payments to its partners (such as phone manufacturers or browser developers) for the pre-installation of its Search products.
• Sharing data with competitors: Google will be required to provide certain data from its search index and from user interactions to “qualified competitors” in order to encourage competition.
• Google will not have to present choice screens: The court did not impose on the technology company the obligation to display choice screens to users within its products, nor will it be required to encourage its Android distribution partners to do so.
• Creation of a technical committee: The court has mandated the formation of a committee to supervise the implementation and compliance with the final judgment.

The objective of this ruling is to ensure market balance and to curb Google’s anticompetitive conduct. The document establishes that the final judgment will remain in effect for six years.

The role of AI as a key factor in the case

It should be noted that the decisions made by Judge Mehta have been influenced by the rapid development of artificial intelligence in recent years, which has altered the competitive landscape and introduced new market participants.

“Google remains the dominant company in the relevant product markets. No existing competitor has wrested market share from it. And no new competitor has entered the market. Yet artificial intelligence technologies, particularly generative AI (“GenAI”), still have the potential to make a difference,” the document explains.

The ruling issued by Judge Mehta affirms that the emergence of generative AI changed the course of the case: “Therefore, these remedial proceedings have focused both on promoting competition among GSEs and on ensuring that Google’s dominance in search does not extend into the GenAI field”.

Next steps

This case, initiated in 2020 with an antitrust lawsuit filed by the DOJ, gained particular significance in August 2024, when Judge Mehta ruled: “Google is a monopolist and has acted to maintain its monopoly”. Since then, we have witnessed proposals and counterproposals submitted by both parties involved.

Although Judge Mehta’s ruling does not constitute a final judgment, it does represent a meaningful step toward resolving the case. Now, Google and the DOJ will have to convene and deliberate in order to submit “a joint revised final judgment that is consistent with this Memorandum Opinion” by September 10.

Likewise, Google did not delay in stating its position regarding the decision of the U.S. judiciary and states that it is reviewing the matter thoroughly. “The Court has imposed limits on the distribution of Google’s services and will require us to share search data with the competition. We are concerned about the impact these requirements will have on our users and their privacy, and we are carefully analyzing the decision.

The Court recognized that forcing divestiture of Chrome and Android would have gone beyond the scope of this case concerning search distribution and would have harmed consumers and our partners.”

Read our statement on today’s decision in the case involving Google Search:

Earlier today a U.S. court overseeing the Department of Justice’s lawsuit over how we distribute Search issued a decision on next steps.

Today’s decision recognizes how much the industry has changed…

— News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle) September 2, 2025

Photo: Gemini

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Google has replaced its “Shopping” section with two new filters or tabs: the Product Filter and the Product Sites Filter. Both updates are located, just as their predecessor was, in the quick access bar beneath the search engine and will appear whenever you perform a search with purchase intent.

As shown in the image, in the main view of Google Search, the “Sponsored” section will continue to be displayed with a selection of product advertisements promoted by advertisers through Google Ads.

Additionally, if you wish to continue using Google Shopping, you can still do so by accessing its website directly.

How the Product Filter and Product Sites Filter Work

The Product Filter displays modules or listings of products. When you click on one of these products, a new view opens that links both to the merchant’s product page and to the CSS or price comparison service, where you will be able to see offers from other merchants for that same product. This is a “sub-SERP” (Search Entity Viewer).

For its part, the Product Sites Filter will display results from websites that sell the product you have searched for, and in some cases will include carousels showing up to 12 products. Google aims to provide greater visibility and improve comparison experiences for each business, although at present this tab appears less useful than the other.

Likewise, in the main search tab (“All”), modules displaying product listings or product site listings may also appear, along with the option to click on these to be redirected to those pages or filters. Additionally, modules may be displayed featuring product sites whose results have been sourced from online sellers or comparison engines.

Google made changes to its CSS to comply with the DMA

This update was announced by Google during its CSS Summit 2024 event, along with a series of changes affecting its CSS (comparison shopping services) and its SERPs, all with the objective of complying with the DMA (Digital Markets Act), which went into effect on March 6, 2024.

As Sarah Chan, Product Manager at Google, stated during the presentation: “We have made changes in order to offer a more visual and engaging experience for users while complying with digital market laws.” Google representatives assured that their intent is to ensure regulatory compliance while maintaining the highest service standards in relation to comparison services for shopping and merchants.

Specifically, the initiatives announced by Google at its CSS Summit 2024 are divided into three main categories:

• CSS to drive traffic to PDS (Product Detail Pages) through organic placements and product listing ads. This is a more flexible version of the previous policy, which required the ability to complete transactions with the first click outside of Google for shopping apps.
• Creation of new shopping-specific filters that will appear as tabs: on one hand, the Product Filter, which will open a commercial offers and price comparison view, and on the other, the Product Sites Filter, which opens a dedicated view for price comparison offers.
• Visual changes to the search experience.

What are Google’s CSS?

Google’s CSS are comparison shopping services that can either manage product data and campaigns on behalf of merchants or provide tools so that merchants can manage them independently.

To date, merchants have been able to publish ads on Shopping through one or more CSS. However, with these updates and to comply with the DMA, they will also be able to access free product listings and SERP filters.

Furthermore, it should be noted that merchants may also appear organically with their products provided they meet certain requirements: having product pages, and in the case of the product sites filter, being a comparison site.

The post Say goodbye to Shopping tab, the Products tab and the Product Sites tab are coming to Google appeared first on Marketing4eCommerce English.

Google has caused disruption once again. When it seemed that the summer was concluding with a certain degree of calm in the SEO world, the company surprised everyone with the launch of a new spam update. It has only been two months since its last core update in June, and now search engine operators, webmasters, and digital marketing professionals will need to be vigilant regarding the effects that this update will bring, as it began rolling out globally on August 26, 2025 and will take a few weeks to complete.

This is the first spam update of the year and also the first in eight months, since the one released in December 2024. Furthermore, it represents the first algorithmic change that Google has announced since the June 2025 core update, which increases anticipation among webmasters and SEO professionals.

What a spam update involves

Although in many instances these types of updates are associated with the detection of toxic links, Google reminds us that the fight against spam in search encompasses a much broader range of practices that undermine the quality of the results. Among these are:

• Cloaking and deceptive redirects.
• Abuse of doorway pages and expired domains.
• Pirated content, malware, and malicious practices.
• Keyword stuffing, hidden text, and irrelevant links.
• Link spam and worthless affiliations.
• Automatically generated traffic or traffic created through unauthorized tools.
• Abuse of the reputation of trusted sites.
• Data scraping and large-scale content produced for search engines.
• User-generated spam in forums and comment sections.

The objective is clear: to reduce the visibility of pages created to manipulate rankings, and to give priority to useful, original, and relevant content.

Today we released the August 2025 spam update.

It may take a few weeks to complete, and we’ll post on the Google Search Status Dashboard when the rollout is done:https://t.co/VyY24LVujq

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) August 26, 2025

An update in context

The last spam update was rolled out between December 19 and 26, 2024 and was especially volatile, with a significant impact on the ranking of many websites. Prior to that, Google had released the June 2024 update, which was shorter in duration.

For this reason, the current rollout will be closely monitored: as it is a global update and will last several weeks, it is likely that many websites will experience noticeable changes in visibility and organic traffic.

Google recommends that site owners review their spam policies and avoid practices that may violate its guidelines, as sites that are not compliant may observe drastic declines in their rankings or even be removed entirely from the results.

The company has reiterated the role of SpamBrain, its artificial intelligence-based prevention system, which is periodically updated to detect new forms of spam. This system operates continuously, but from time to time it receives significant improvements that Google announces under the name of spam updates.

In practice, this means that although the changes may be felt immediately, recovery only comes with time and after demonstrating that a site complies with the guidelines. In the case of link spam updates, the benefits gained through manipulated links are permanently removed and cannot be regained.

What to expect in the coming weeks

Google has not specified which types of spam are the focus of this update. However, if a site experiences changes in its ranking or traffic in the next few weeks, it is very likely that these are related to the rollout of the August 2025 spam update.

In summary, Google continues to refine its fight against low-quality practices to strengthen the integrity of its search results, in an environment where automated content and link manipulation remain significant challenges.

The post Google launches the August 2025 spam update: global reach and new measures against low-quality content appeared first on Marketing4eCommerce English.