Google had made a few changes to its SEO developer help documentation. First it documented how Google Search handles and processes robots meta tags outside the HTML head. Second, it added more supported properties for Discussion Forum and QA Page markup.

Google has released the March 2026 spam update on March 24, 2026 at around 3:20 pm ET. This update applies globally and to all languages and will take a few days (not weeks) to complete.

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. Google released the March 2026 spam update yesterday…

On March 17, 2026, Google retired some of its Google Ads policies on Ad format requirements. These are specific to “old ad formats that are no longer in use are also being retired,” Ginny Marvin of Google.

Google added a new section to the “Understand available performance metrics” within the Google Business Profiles help documentation. The new section added a section on offer data and it shows the number of times customers viewed and clicked on offers on your Business Profile.

Google is testing showing a call to action in the search results that says, “Skip digging, start guided research” which drives users to a Web Guide-like results page.

There is new data out from Newzdash that shows just how often AI Overviews appear within Google across new sections. And while AI Overviews shows 60%+ of the time for health queries, when it comes to breaking news and major headlines, it shows less than 6% of the time.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

Google confirms it is using AI to create title links on the SERP instead of headlines from news publishers, sometimes.

Google seems to have added a new section to the Google Business Profiles section named Place page attributes. Place page attributes allows you to let customers know more about your business by showing attributes on your Business Profile. These may appear publicly on Search, Maps, and other Google services.

The Information wrote “OpenAI’s First Advertisers Can’t Prove ChatGPT Ads Work.” In short, the ChatGPT ad platform from OpenAI shares almost no data with advertisers. It is low tech, there is no ad performance data, and it also has very limited ad targeting features.

Microsoft seems to be testing a new AI-powered image search interface and result set for Bing Image Search. If you do a search on Bing Images, on the right side you may see a button for “New Version.” That new version says you can “try a new version of Image Search.”

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

Apple is reportedly launching local ads within Apple Maps, as soon as this month. “Apple Inc. is preparing to introduce advertising in its Maps app, part of a broader push to generate more money from services,” Bloomberg wrote.