SEO Daily News Recap for Monday, September 22, 2025
Organic SEO & Search News
Meta Expands Teen Protections, Tests Updated Age Detection Process – Meta’s AI systems are improving age detection for user protection.
Google launches seasonal bid adjustments for app campaigns – New beta feature allows app marketers to optimize performance during promotions.
UX and SEO: A Guide for Winning the Searcher, Not Just the SERP – Learn how to merge UX and SEO for better user engagement and search visibility.
Paid Search & Platform Innovations
Google Ads doubles negative keyword list limit: Glitch or quiet policy change? – Google may have quietly increased the limit for negative keyword lists.
Google’s ad tech monopoly remedies trial begins – DOJ trial could reshape ad transparency across the web.
Google AI Mode Product Listings Testing AI-Generated Product Summaries – Google tests AI summaries for product listings in AI Mode results.
General Digital Marketing
White House Says TikTok Deal Will be Signed This Week – US and Chinese officials on edge as TikTok deal nears.
Programming Note: Rosh Hashanah 5786 – Holiday schedule alert for upcoming days.
How Much Do Americans Spend On Christmas? (Latest Data) – Insights into US holiday spending habits.
Dive into our detailed sections for more insights and updates.
Organic SEO & Search News
SEO Daily News and Algorithm Updates
White House Says TikTok Deal Will be Signed This Week
The US government says a deal is imminent, but Chinese officials seem less assured.
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Social Media Today – Latest News
The Proposed US TikTok Deal Could See the White House Influence In-App Trends
Under the proposal, the US government will decide who’s on the board of TikTok US.
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Social Media Today – Latest News
Programming Note: Rosh Hashanah 5786
This is a programming note that Tuesday and Wednesday are Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 23rd and September 24th.
There will be stories posted each day, all of them were pre-written before the holiday and scheduled to be posted. I will be completely offline, so any social media posts or anything coming from this site, or my social channels are all scheduled beforehand.
I apologize for any spammy comments that slip through while should note while I am offline…
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Search Engine Roundtable
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 22, 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 completed the rollout of the August 2025 spam update today, September 22nd. Google is testing a new AI Search option named Darksteel. We have some data on the impact of Google blocking the num parameter and how it impacted Search Console. Google AI Mode product listings is testing AI-generated product summaries. Google is testing translate a conversation…
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Search Engine Roundtable
Impact Of Google Blocking Bots On Search Console Data
As you know, Google dropped the num parameter to see more search results on a page, then the third-party tools scraping became severely impacted and many saw impression declines in Search Console. Google confirmed the num parameter is not officially supported. So what was the real impact on Search Console data?
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Search Engine Roundtable
Google August 2025 Spam Update Done Rolling Out
Google has completed the rollout of the August 2025 spam update, following a 27-day rollout cycle. This update started on August 26, 2025 and 12 pm ET, and was completed on September 22, 2025. This was a broad spam update, not a link spam update and was a pretty big and widespread update, similar to the December 2024 spam update but took 20 days longer to rollout.
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Search Engine Roundtable
Google August 2025 spam update done rolling out
This spam update took just under 27 days to fully roll out and is now complete.
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Search Engine Land
Technical SEO
Hidden prompt injection: The black hat trick AI outgrew
Invisible prompts once tricked AI like old SEO hacks. Here’s how LLMs filter hidden commands and protect against manipulation.
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Search Engine Land
Recover ChatGPT 404 Traffic with GA4
ChatGPT sometimes hallucinates source URLs, sending users to 404 "not found" pages.
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SEO – Practical Ecommerce
The beginner’s guide to coding with Cursor | Lee Robinson (Head of AI education)
Watch now | 🎙️How to leverage Cursor’s AI-powered code editor to automate tasks, clean up your code, and make software development more accessible—whether you’re a seasoned engineer or a beginner
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Lenny’s Newsletter
Google Search Translate A Conversation
Google is testing a button that takes you from Google Search short translations answers, to the ability to translate a full conversation in another interface.
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Search Engine Roundtable
SEO Tools and Data Analysis
How Much Do Americans Spend On Christmas? (Latest Data)
An assortment of data and statistics related to US Christmas and holiday spending habits.
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Unknown Source
AI and Machine Learning in SEO
Meta Expands Teen Protections, Tests Updated Age Detection Process
Meta’s AI systems are getting better at determining user age.
Source:
Unknown Source
Meta Gains Approval to Supply AI Services to US Government Departments
Meta will now be able to provide AI services for government projects.
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Social Media Today – Latest News
Google AI Mode Product Listings Testing AI-Generated Product Summaries
Google is testing AI-generated product summaries in the AI Mode results, after you click on a specific product. I was able to generate this in one out of every four browser attempts, and here is how it works.
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Search Engine Roundtable
Google Testing New AI Search Option Named Darksteel
Google is testing a new AI Search based option codenamed Darksteel. This reminds me of when we caught Google testing 47 different AI Search options back in March but Darksteel was not one of them.
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Search Engine Roundtable
Career Development and Industry Trends
I Wouldn’t Hire a Content Engineer, and You Shouldn’t Either
I think the "content engineer" is the wrong skill set for the future of marketing. Here’s why.
User Experience and SEO Optimization
Meta Rolls Out Facebook Dating Assistant to Help Your Find Romance
More ways to find potential dates via Meta’s matchmaking element.
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Social Media Today – Latest News
UX and SEO: A Guide for Winning the Searcher, Not Just the SERP
Here’s everything you need to know about merging UX and SEO to win over searchers, and the algorithms and models that use their interactions as a data source.
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General SEO – SEO Blog by Ahrefs
Paid Search & Platform Innovations
Paid Search and Advertising
X’s Ad Revenue Shrunk in Q2 2025
New data shows that X is still struggling to rebuild its ad business.
Source:
Unknown Source
Google launches seasonal bid adjustments for app campaigns
Google’s new beta lets app marketers flag big conversion spikes so Smart Bidding can ramp up performance during short-term promos and sales.
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Search Engine Land
Google Ads doubles negative keyword list limit: Glitch or quiet policy change?
It’s unclear whether Google quietly raised negative keyword list limits after one account exceeded the documented 5,000-cap without issue.
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Search Engine Land
Google’s ad tech monopoly remedies trial begins
The DOJ’s ad tech remedies trial could crack open Google’s dominance of programmatic ads, reshaping transparency across the open web.
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Search Engine Land
Job Postings
Job Postings
9/22/2025
Senior SEO Manager (CA) ~ Black & White Zebra ~ $100,000 – $130,000 CAD ~ Remote (Canada)
At Black & White Zebra, our publications are the cornerstone of our business. We equip professionals with forward-thinking resources to leverage tools and software (with an emphasis on AI) to build better systems, stronger teams, and more human-centered ways of working that drive real business impact. Through engaging videos, award-winning podcasts, smart thought leadership, and […]