I noticed that Google updated its canonicalization troubleshooting guide to clarify how long it may take for fixes to appear in Google Search results. According to the revised guidance, Google might keep pages in a duplicate cluster for up to two weeks after content issues have been fixed.
What changed. I found a new section at the top of the guide that explains the expected timeline for canonicalization fixes. Google now makes it clear that the process can take up to two weeks.
I also saw additional technical details about clustering. Google explains that pages need to be sufficiently similar before its systems can group them into a duplicate cluster and select one version as the canonical page.
Google’s updated canonicalization guidance sets expectations for SEOs: fixed pages may remain in a duplicate cluster for up to two weeks, while clearer content differences can speed reevaluation.
Here is the section Google added:
Why I care. This clarification gives me a more realistic timeline when monitoring canonicalization fixes. Once Google has processed an update, I know I may need to wait the full two weeks before deciding whether the change worked.
As AI reshapes search, every glowing path to discovery carries commercial value—turning SEO investment into a conversation about pipeline, risk, and customer acquisition costs.
That waiting period can help me avoid making unnecessary page changes while Google is still consolidating duplicate URLs and evaluating the appropriate canonical version.
I’m seeing OpenAI continue to build out ChatGPT Ads with a new round of updates for advertisers. In an email, ChatGPT Ads announced changes across ChatGPT Ads Manager and the broader ad experience, including custom audiences, a new overview tab, suggested ad drafts, a refreshed static ad card format, and expanded availability in Japan and South Korea.
Here is what stands out to me from the latest update.
Custom audiences: I can now upload audience lists with 25,000 or more users to include or suppress audiences from campaigns. OpenAI is also allowing bid multipliers for audiences at the ad group level, which gives advertisers more control over how aggressively they want to reach specific segments.
Overview tab: The new overview tab gives me a more centralized place to monitor account health, review recommended tasks that may improve campaign performance, and analyze key performance metrics in a larger, more flexible trend chart.
A before-and-after look at ChatGPT's refreshed static ad card, turning a small sponsored grocery prompt into a cleaner, more readable format with larger visuals and a clear Ad badge.
Suggested ad drafts: If a campaign needs broader content coverage to improve delivery, I may see an option to select “Add new ad” from the campaign view. This feature uses existing website metadata to prefill an ad draft with an image, title, and description, which I can then review, edit, and assign to a campaign and ad group. Importantly, OpenAI says this does not generate new copy or imagery with AI.
Japan and South Korea expansion: ChatGPT Ads are now live in Japan and South Korea. That means campaigns can target users in both markets, giving advertisers more reach if they do business there.
Refreshed static ad card format: OpenAI is also rolling out a refreshed static ad card across web and mobile. I see this as a cleaner, more compact format designed to be easier to read while giving visuals more prominence. This format had already started appearing in late June.
A bold Google logo sits atop layered, colorful digital documents, evoking the fast-moving world of search marketing, ad formats, campaign assets, and platform updates.
Why I care: ChatGPT Ads are still new, and OpenAI is clearly moving quickly. New targeting tools, reporting views, draft workflows, market expansion, and format tests all point to a platform that is still taking shape.
My takeaway is simple: I need to keep watching these changes closely, test them as they become available, and continue refining ad creative, audience strategy, and campaign structure as ChatGPT Ads matures.
I’m adjusting how I refer to Google’s shopping platform now that Google has dropped “Next” from Merchant Center Next. Going forward, the product is simply called Google Merchant Center.
Google made the change official in a Merchant Center announcement, saying, “The platform you use today will simply be referred to as Google Merchant Center.” For anyone managing product feeds, shopping campaigns, or merchant accounts, this is mainly a naming update rather than a product change.
I remember when Google Merchant Center Next was introduced in 2023 as the newer version of the old Google Merchant Center. Over the past few years, more merchants, site owners, and advertisers moved into that updated experience.
At this point, it appears that Merchant Center Next has effectively become the standard experience. So Google is removing the “Next” branding and returning to the simpler name: Google Merchant Center.
Rows of illuminated data cabinets and paper files stretch into the distance, capturing the pressure on marketers to turn fragmented customer data into a smarter performance engine.
Google said users will start seeing the “Next” branding removed from Help Center articles, email communications, and the Merchant Center interface.
Google also clarified that no action is required and that the name change does not affect existing accounts. In other words, I do not need to update settings, migrate anything, or make account-level changes because of this rebrand.
Why does this matter? When I talk about Google’s merchant tools now, I can leave off “Next” and just call the platform Google Merchant Center. Honestly, that is what many of us were already calling it anyway.
I am seeing OpenAI roll out the ability to upload audience lists inside ChatGPT Ads. The new option appears under the “Tools” section and is labeled “Audiences.”
My read is that this gives advertisers a way to target campaigns based on the audience lists they upload to the platform, which should make ChatGPT Ads more useful for more precise ad targeting.
A new Audiences area appears in ChatGPT Ads Manager, inviting advertisers to upload customer lists for campaign targeting and audience filtering.
More details. I can upload raw or hashed emails and phone numbers and use them as audience filters for campaigns running on ChatGPT Ads.
A ChatGPT Ads audience upload form shows how advertisers can add customer lists, choose identifier type, and submit CSV or TXT files for campaign targeting.
What it looks like. I spotted screenshots of the feature from Craig Graham and Joss Froggatt on LinkedIn. Here is what the Audiences option looks like in the platform:
A glowing Google search bar cuts through streams of digital data, capturing the fast-moving world of search, shopping visibility, and SEO innovation.
Why I care. I see this as another sign that OpenAI is continuing to build more customization and targeting controls into its new ChatGPT Ads platform.
For advertisers and marketers, audience uploads could make the platform more practical and more performance-focused. If the targeting works well, it may help improve conversions, strengthen ROI, and make ChatGPT Ads a more serious option in paid media plans.
I’m seeing Google Search Console get a useful new reporting layer for social and video content through what Google calls platform properties. This gives me a way to understand how my content on Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube is performing in Google Search.
The big change is that I can now connect supported social or video accounts to Search Console and see how people find that content through Google. Instead of only analyzing websites I own or manage directly, I can begin looking at search visibility for content hosted on third-party platforms.
Google said this update makes it possible to track which search terms lead people to Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube content in Search, along with how audiences interact with those posts. I’ll be able to review this data inside the performance report, insights report, and achievements sections of Google Search Console.
A Google Search Console dropdown highlights the new platform property flow, with the rustybrick X profile appearing as a selectable property for reporting.
In the performance report, I can review total clicks, impressions, and other key metrics. I can also filter and sort the data to see which posts and queries are driving the most traffic, and if I want to analyze it somewhere else, I can export the data.
In the insights report, I can get a higher-level view of recent traffic trends, top-performing posts, and the ways people are discovering my account through Google Search.
A Google Search Console platform property view shows how an X profile appears in Search, pairing 28-day click and impression trends with the queries driving visibility.
The achievements section adds another useful angle by helping me track growth milestones, such as reaching a new threshold for total clicks from Google Search over the last 28 days.
This feels similar to the social channel details that previously appeared in Search Console insights, but platform properties look like a more direct way to verify and analyze these accounts.
A Google Search Console Insights view highlights how YouTube posts are gaining visibility in Search, with 17.8K clicks and traffic broken down by web, video, Discover, and image search.
To set this up, I need to verify a platform property inside my Google Search Console account. I can start by opening Search Console, going to the Search Console verification page, or using the property selector dropdown anywhere in Search Console and choosing “Add property.”
From there, I select one of the currently supported platforms: Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube. Then I follow the onscreen verification steps to securely authorize the connection.
A glowing Google search bar cuts through streams of digital data, capturing the fast-moving world of search, shopping visibility, and SEO innovation.
Google said platform properties will roll out gradually over the coming weeks, so I may not see the option in my account right away. For setup details, Google points users to its help center documentation. The help document had briefly appeared a few weeks earlier before being removed, so this release makes the feature official.
What stands out to me is the access this gives marketers, creators, and SEOs. Google has not traditionally given us a clear way to see how our content performs on domains or properties we do not own. With platform properties, I can finally start seeing how my social and video content performs in Google Search, even when I do not have developer access to those platforms. That opens up a much better view of search-driven visibility beyond my own website.
I’m seeing Google expand merchant listing structured data with support for sale duration and the Product.category property. The update brings Google Search’s merchant listing structured data closer to the capabilities already available in Google Merchant Center feeds.
Sale duration. Google added a new Sale duration section to its Merchant listing structured data documentation. In that update, Google said the guidance explains how to use the validFrom, validThrough, and priceValidUntil schema.org properties to define the effective date range for sale prices.
I find this useful because Google’s guidance also covers best practices and examples for placing those properties on either Offer or PriceSpecification nodes. Google said the change aligns schema.org usage with the Merchant Center feed attribute sale_price_effective_date, giving merchants clearer instructions for handling sale price timing in structured data.
Google's sale duration guidance shows merchants how to define when a sale price starts and ends in structured data, including Offer and UnitPriceSpecification JSON-LD examples.
Here is the new sale duration section Google added:
Product category. Google also updated the same Merchant listing structured data documentation to include support for the Product.category property.
Google’s merchant listing guidance now shows how product categories can mix custom text labels with Google Product Category codes in structured data.
Google wrote that the documentation now explains how Product.category can be used with both Text and CategoryCode types. According to Google, this aligns with Google Merchant Center feed specifications for the product_type and google_product_category attributes.
From my perspective, this makes the structured data more practical for merchants because it lets them provide both merchant-defined and Google-defined category details directly in schema.org markup. Google said this can enhance product information for Google Search and Shopping.
A glowing Google search bar cuts through streams of digital data, capturing the fast-moving world of search, shopping visibility, and SEO innovation.
Here is what Google added for product category support:
Why I care. If I maintain merchant listing structured data for Google, these additions are worth reviewing. Product category support can help Google better understand the products being provided, which may improve how those products match relevant queries.
I also see sale duration support as a practical improvement for planning promotions. When I update merchant listing structured data, I can now define sale price timing more clearly and align that markup more closely with Google Merchant Center feed behavior.
I am seeing OpenAI roll out a new feature that lets ChatGPT Ads generate ads for advertisers, and I suspect AI is doing the heavy lifting behind it. The option appears under “Add new ad” and includes a prompt to “generate ads for you.”
From there, I can choose to let ChatGPT create the ad, then review it, edit it, and approve it before it goes live on the ChatGPT Ads platform.
ChatGPT Ads Manager preview highlights OpenAI's generated ad workflow, where marketers can review an AI-created variation before activating it for a campaign.
What it looks like. Anthony Higman posted a screenshot of the feature on X, showing how the ad creation flow appears inside the platform.
A ChatGPT Ads dropdown highlights the quick Duplicate Ad option, pointing marketers to a faster way to copy an existing ad for review, edits, and reuse.
In the screenshot, the interface says, “We generated an ad variation based on your website and campaign settings. Review, edit as needed, and activate when you’re ready.” I can then move forward by selecting “Review and create.”
Old search marketing tools give way to a faster, connected future, with data streams, AI icons, and a glowing search hub symbolizing SEO innovation and community growth.
I also noticed that Higman spotted a quick duplicate ad option, which could make it easier to create variations faster.
Why I care. It makes sense to me that OpenAI would use AI to help advertisers create ads more quickly. If the tool reduces friction, it could lead to more ads being created, submitted, and activated on ChatGPT Ads, which would also help OpenAI generate more revenue from ChatGPT.
As a marketer, I would still be careful with AI-generated ads. I would review every version closely to make sure the messaging fits the brand, supports the campaign strategy, and aligns with performance goals, including ROI.
I can finally say the page indexing report inside Google Search Console has been updated after a frustrating three-week delay. Instead of showing data stuck on June 11, 2026, the report is now displaying data through June 29, 2026.
The delay. I previously noted that the page indexing report had been frozen at June 11, which made it much harder to understand what Google was seeing across a site.
Now, as of Friday, July 3, the report is showing much fresher data, with updates running through June 29.
Page indexing report. I use this report to see which pages Google can find and index on a website. It also helps surface indexing issues Google may have run into while crawling the site.
I can access the report directly in Search Console over here, or by opening the Indexing section and selecting Pages.
The report shows indexed pages in green and not indexed pages in gray. I can also overlay impressions on the chart, then review the listed reasons explaining why certain pages on a website are not being indexed.
For more details on how the page indexing report works, I would refer to Google’s help document.
Why I care. If I was trying to diagnose why Google had not indexed specific pages over the past couple of weeks, the delayed report left me with limited visibility.
Now that the data has finally been refreshed through June 29, I can dig back into the indexing report, review the latest issues, and decide what needs attention next.
I’m tracking a growing Google Business Profile issue after several days of complaints from businesses that say reviews have disappeared from their local listings. Google has now confirmed that it is investigating the reports, and in some cases, review submissions on affected profiles appear to be paused.
What Google said. Google told us that when its systems detect suspicious review activity, it may take several actions, including removing reviews and temporarily pausing reviews on a profile to prevent further abuse. Google also said it is investigating the issue and will restore any reviews that were incorrectly removed.
What I’m seeing. As I documented on the Search Engine Roundtable, there are dozens of complaints in the Google Business Profile Forums from business owners and local SEOs who say their reviews have mysteriously vanished. In some cases, businesses are also unable to receive new reviews on their local listings.
From what I can tell, Google’s review spam detection systems may be identifying certain patterns and aggressively removing or blocking reviews on suspected Google Business Profiles. What remains unclear is whether this is tied to spammers abusing some profiles, a recent algorithmic adjustment, or Google’s systems becoming overly sensitive.
More details. Amy Toman, a volunteer Google Product Expert for Google Business Profiles, shared on LinkedIn that businesses or clients affected by this issue can post in the forum if they want to, but Google is already aware of the problem and working on it. She also noted that no timeline for a resolution has been provided yet.
She said she is seeing a new pattern where, after fake or spam reviews are reported, some Google listings receive a review block and all reviews are hidden. In at least one case, she said the rating was reduced to 0.
Why I care. If I noticed a sudden drop in reviews or stopped receiving new reviews this week, I would consider this issue a likely explanation. For local businesses, reviews can directly affect trust, visibility, and customer decisions, so even a temporary review disruption can be frustrating.
Google is investigating, and I’m watching to see whether missing reviews are restored and whether affected Google Business Profiles can begin receiving new reviews again.
I’m tracking an important AMP update from Google Search: users who tap AMP results will now be sent directly to publisher-hosted AMP pages instead of cached AMP pages shown inside Google’s AMP viewer.
A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land, “Starting today, we are updating how we connect users to AMP pages from Search, taking them directly to the AMP host pages.”
Google also made it clear that this is not a ranking change. AMP content will continue to rank like any other webpage, and Google said the serving and ranking of AMP content in Google Search and Google Discover will remain the same.
From my perspective, the practical value here is mostly on the publisher side. By sending searchers straight to the AMP host page, Google says publishers should have simpler analytics management and tracking, along with less maintenance work when creating and supporting AMP content.
Google told us it will continue to support the open-source AMPhtml format, and it also posted the update in its Search documentation.
I also think it’s worth noting how much AMP’s role has changed over time. AMP has not received preferential treatment in Google’s Top Stories for a while, and AMP pages are much less common to encounter than they once were. Search Engine Land even turned off AMP in 2021.
It has been a long time since I’ve had much reason to cover AMP closely, but this change matters because it shifts the user journey back to publisher-hosted pages while keeping AMP’s ranking treatment unchanged.
