We hope you are in good health. Here are some of the major SEO news updates of the week that you need to know:
Search Related News and Updates from Major Search Engine
Google: Don’t Trust SEO Audit Scores Without Context
Google’s Martin Splitt cautions SEOs against treating automated audit “scores” as gospel, emphasizing that technical audits must be context-driven and focused on real crawl/indexing blockers. He notes that metrics like a spike in 404s can be perfectly normal after content removals, and urges practitioners to prioritize findings by impact and effort rather than blindly following tool checklists.
Google Deprecates “Practice Problem” Structured Data; Clarifies Dataset & Book Actions
Google will remove support for Practice Problem structured data in Search starting in January, with related elements leaving Search Console reports and the Rich Results Test (the API will linger temporarily). Google also clarified that Dataset structured data is only used in Dataset Search—not Google Search—while Book actions remain supported.
Google: Digital PR Mentions Can Help AI Pick Your Brand
Google Search VP Robby Stein says AI assistants “think like a person,” issuing Google searches and surfacing businesses that are mentioned on reputable lists and articles—making digital PR and brand mentions useful for AI recommendations (not a direct ranking factor). He adds that clear, helpful content remains the core lever for showing up in AI results, with AI-oriented queries tending to be more complex and conversational than traditional SEO.
Performance Max Adds Waze Ads & Channel-Level Reporting
Google rolled Waze placements into Performance Max for store goals in the U.S., using existing creatives to optimize toward Store Visits, Store Sales, or Local Actions—no extra setup needed. PMax is also getting channel performance reporting (with search partner breakdowns and MCC access coming soon), and Google plans to expand Waze inventory beyond the U.S. in 2026
Google Tests Tinted Background on Search Results
Google is experimenting with a brownish/yellowish tint across the entire SERP, shifting the usual white background and darkening gray boxes. The test was spotted by multiple users, with some noting regional differences (e.g., UK via VPN vs. AU showing white). It’s purely a visual UI test—no functional changes reported.
Google & Bing Are Indexing “Grokipedia,” an AI-Generated Encyclopedia
Grokipedia launched on October 27, 2025 with ~885k AI-generated pages, and within a week both Google and Bing had indexed hundreds—rapidly climbing, per industry spotters. The rollout is drawing attention given recent crackdowns on “scaled content abuse,” making this a notable case study to watch as indexation grows.
PPC Related News and Updates from Major Search Engine
Google Merchant Center: You Can Opt Out of “Smart Cropping”
Google Merchant Center may auto–“smart crop” product images for Shopping, but merchants can request an account-level opt-out via support. The opt-out must be authorized by the Merchant Center admin and applies across the entire account, per an email shared by Kirk Williams.
Google Merchant Center Adds Promotions for Top-Performing Products
Google introduced a new Promotions option in Merchant Center that lets advertisers target only their top-performing products, instead of applying a promo to all items or filtered sets. Spotted by Emmanuel Flossie, the feature appears in GMC’s promotions workflow and is positioned as a more strategic way to drive Shopping and Search performance.
Google Ads Editor 2.11 Rolls Out With 15+ Upgrades
Google released Ads Editor v2.11 with notable additions like campaign-level negative keyword lists and search term reporting for Performance Max, scheduled link checks, account-level placement/IP exclusions, smarter CSV workflows, editable lead forms, and a Smart Bidding Exploration feature. It also removes some legacy ad types and deprecates manual CPV in favor of Video View campaigns with Target CPV, plus several UI and asset-level enhancements.
