SEO Daily News Recap for Friday, December 26, 2025
Organic SEO & Search News
Google SEO Advice: Pick A Reasonable Site Name To Rank For – Google’s John Mueller emphasizes the importance of choosing a site name that aligns with your SEO goals to enhance ranking potential. Avoid choosing names that may hinder your visibility in search results.
Google Continues Testing Centering Search Results – Google is experimenting with centering search results on the screen instead of aligning them to the left. This ongoing test could potentially impact user experience and engagement with search results.
OpenAI ChatGPT Ads May Prioritize Sponsored Content In AI Responses – OpenAI is exploring the possibility of incorporating sponsored content within AI responses generated by ChatGPT. This move could offer new advertising opportunities within AI platforms.
Paid Search & Platform Innovations
Microsoft Advertiser Exact Match Trumps Ad Rank – Microsoft Advertising’s Navah Hopkins confirms that exact match keywords are prioritized over Ad Rank in ad placements. Understanding this prioritization can help advertisers optimize their keyword strategies for better performance.
Google On The Biggest Google Ads Launches Of 2025 – Google highlights key Google Ads launches of 2025, including PMax channel performance reporting. Ginny Marvin shares insights on the significant features that have shaped Google Ads advertising strategies this year.
General Digital Marketing
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 26, 2025 – Stay updated on the latest discussions and insights from search forums, including highlights from the Search Engine Roundtable. Explore the key trends and topics shaping the search industry landscape.
Video: Google Core Update Status, News Publishers Traffic Distribution, Ads In AI Overviews Expand – Delve into the latest search trends, including updates on Google’s December 2025 core update and the evolving distribution of traffic to news publishers. Discover how ads in AI platforms are expanding and impacting digital marketing strategies.
Dive into our detailed sections for more insights and updates.
Organic SEO & Search News
SEO Daily News and Algorithm Updates
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 26, 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.
OpenAI is testing ChatGPT ads maybe in the form of sponsored content in the AI responses. Google spoke about the biggest Google Ads launches in 2025. Google continues to test centered search results. Google said make sure to pick a reasonable site name that you can compete with. Microsoft Advertising says exact match trumps ad rank. And John Mueller was doing Google SEO support on Christmas day…
Source:
Search Engine Roundtable
Google Continues Testing Centering Search Results
Google is testing placing the search results in the center of the screen, instead of aligning it more to the left of the screen. This is an ongoing test we have seen on and off over many many years and it is still going on.
Source:
Search Engine Roundtable
Video: Google Core Update Status, News Publishers Traffic Distribution, Ads In AI Overviews Expand, ChatGPT Ads & Christmas
This week in search, we covered an update on the Google December 2025 core update. Google Search traffic to news publishers continues to vanish, but there is Google Discover. A report shows Google has deleted a ton…
Source:
Search Engine Roundtable
Technical SEO
Google SEO Advice: Pick A Reasonable Site Name To Rank For
Google’s John Mueller said on Reddit that when picking a site name, make sure to pick something that you can reasonably expect to rank for. In short, don’t go online and complain that your site is named Best SEO blog and you don’t rank in the number one position in Google Search for [best SEO blog].
Source:
Search Engine Roundtable
Paid Search & Platform Innovations
Paid Search and Advertising
Microsoft Advertiser Exact Match Trumps Ad Rank
Navah Hopkins, the Ads Liaison for Microsoft Advertising, made it crystal clear that exact match is prioritized even over Ad Rank. Navah Hopkins wrote on X and LinkedIn, "Exact match will get the priority if it’s there, otherwise Ad Rank determines everything."
Source:
Search Engine Roundtable
Google On The Biggest Google Ads Launches Of 2025
Google has been publishing these videos from advertisers on the number one Google Ads launches of the year 2025. Bug Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, was asked and she picked PMax channel performance reporting as her number one feature release for Google Ads in 2025.
Source:
Search Engine Roundtable
OpenAI ChatGPT Ads May Prioritize Sponsored Content In AI Responses
A report from The Information outlined a number of avenues OpenAI is looking at for ad formats in ChatGPT. The main one that is reportedly being thrown around at the AI company is to show sponsored content within the AI responses given by ChatGPT.
Source:
Search Engine Roundtable
Job Postings
Job Postings
12/26/2025
Partnerships Specialist (SEO) ~ Inspira Education ~ $60,000 ~ Remote (USA/CAN)
About Inspira Education Inspira Education Group is one of the fastest-growing edtech startups in the US. We started with a simple mission to democratize access to high-quality coaching so that every student in the world has an equal opportunity to access the best opportunities. As the world’s leading network of top admissions coaches in medical, […]
Source:
Technical SEO Jobs – SEOjobs.com
