Daily Search Forum Recap: November 13, 2025

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 Search ranking heats up again on November 12nd. Google is now rolling out Ads Advisor AI and Anaytics Advisor. Google updated its reviews structured data documentation. Google documented the Google Pilot user agent. Google Ads is testing importing campaigns and assets from X and other social platforms. Advertisers are concerned with the new unacceptable phone number policy.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up November 12th
  We are seeing some big movement and volatility in the Google Search results again, this one kicking up more yesterday, November 12th. This may be a continuation of the ongoing Movember update, which I covered over the weekend. But there has been a lot of chatter over the past day or so, and some of the tools spiked over the past 24 hours.
• Google Rolling Out Ads Advisor & Analytics Advisor
  Google has been testing its AI advisor in Google Ads and Analytics since 2023, there were some bugs throughout that testing, promoted the test to the top menu and then Google renamed it Ads Advisor in August. Now, Google announced Ads Advisor and Analytics Advisor is rolling out English-language accounts globally in early December.
• Google Ads Tests Importing X Ads & Other Social Campaigns
  Google has confirmed it is testing a feature to import campaigns and assets from X and other social networks into your Google Ads campaign. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, confirmed this on LinkedIn yesterday.
• Google Ads Unacceptable Phone Number Policy Update Worries Advertisers
  Google will be updating its Unacceptable phone number policy on December 10, 2025 and that update is causing some anxiety for some advertisers. The policy update says that "phone numbers found to be associated with fraudulent activity or with a history of policy violations are unacceptable."
• Google Clarifies Reviews Schema On Nesting In Reviews & Aggregate Ratings
  Google has updated the review snippet documentation to explain that site owners should avoid using multiple ways of indicating what's being reviewed, the search company announced. This is to make it clear about how nesting in reviews and aggregate ratings are interpreted and handled by Google Search.
• New Google User Agent: Google-Pinpoint
  Google has documented a new user agent, a user-triggered fetcher, named Google-Pinpoint. "The Google-Pinpoint fetcher requests individual URLs that Pinpoint users specified as sources for their personal collections of documents," Google posted in its updated documentation.
• YouTube Creator Collective Guitar & Star At Google
  Google had an event celebrating the 20th year anniversary of YouTube and a bunch of YouTubers came out and posed with this Creator Collective YouTube guitar and star.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Email Sends, Search Engine Roundtable
• PPC News Feed, us10.proxysite.com
• Planning Document for Coffee Talk: What's new in local search - SMX Next, November 18-19 - Google Docs, Google
• Search Engine Roundtable's 21st Anniversary, Search Engine Roundtable

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Report: EU to probe Google over site reputation abuse policy
• Google launches AI-powered advisors
• Google Discover fixing fake AI spam problem
• Google quietly adds brand inclusions to standard Shopping campaigns
• Google makes incrementality testing easier, cheaper, and faster
• The best way to use custom segments in Google Ads
• How to consolidate legacy SKAGs – and why it’s time to move on
• How to measure your AI search brand visibility and prove business impact
• Google shipping and returns policies in Search Console or using new markup

Other Great Search Stories:

AI & LLMs

• Are you listening to bots? Survey shows AI music is virtually undetectable, Reuters
• Gemini in Google Drive can now make Audio Overviews of PDFs, 9to5Google
• GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT, OpenAI
• How people use ChatGPT, according to 47,000 of its conversations, Washington Post
• Inside Microsoft’s New AI ‘Super Factory’, Wall Street Journal

Analytics

• Try out Ads Advisor and Analytics Advisor, Google Blog

Industry & Business

• Antitrust Plaintiffs Want Chat On Apple, Google CEO Depos, Law360
• Court rules that OpenAI violated German copyright law; ordered it to pay damages, TechCrunch
• Google and Turkcell team up for cloud region and data center in Türkiye, Data Center Dynamics
• Google details plans for Project Peanut data center development outside Richmond, Virginia, Data Center Dynamics
• Google Faces EU Competition Probe on News Rankings, FT Reports, Bloomberg
• Google sued over its Gemini AI allegedly spying on users, QZ
• Is the EU making developers lower app costs for users?, AppleInsider
• Microsoft to Use OpenAI’s Chip Work to Aid In-House Effort, Bloomberg
• Google Sundar Pichai Is AI Wartime CEO After All, Bloomberg
• Microsoft's AI Strategy Deconstructed - from Energy to Tokens, SemiAnalysis
• Satya Nadella — How Microsoft is preparing for AGI, Dwarkesh Patel

Links & Content Marketing

• Content Marketing in the Era of AI Fatigue, Street Fight
• Do Backlinks Work for AI Assistants and AI Overviews?, Collaborator
• Technology Content and Marketing Trends: 2026 Insights, Content Marketing Institute
• SEO Basics: What is link building?, Yoast

Local & Maps

• Google Maps now shows live Tesla Supercharger availability, 9to5Google
• How to Claim Your Google Brand Profile within Google Merchant Center, Igniting Business

SEO

• 43 B2B SEO Statistics for 2025, Ahrefs
• Blogging Is Not Dead, But Blogging *JUST* for Traffic / SEO Is, Ann Smarty
• Can Structured Data Really Improve SEO Rankings?, Ilana Davis
• 2026 SEO Trends: Top Predictions from 20 Industry Experts, Moz
• How to Make Search Console Work Harder For You, Leadership SEO
• JavaScript SEO Report 2025: Survey & Audit Data, Sitebulb

PPC

• Google Expands Brand Controls to Standard Shopping, PPC News Feed
• Offline Conversions Data Delay in Microsoft Advertising (Resolved), PPC News Feed
• Google Is Pushing WhatsApp Ads, PPC News Feed
• Stop Hacking, Start Thinking: Why You Need More than Technical PPC Skills to Scale Growth & What Do About It, ZATO PPC Marketing

Search Features

• Browse, search and explore images directly in the Google app, Google Blog
• Gemini Live audio updates help conversations feel more natural, Google Blog

Feedback:

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