Feb 26
16
CleanTalk WordPress plugin, installed in 200,000+ websites, exposes sites to a critical vulnerability rated 9.8/10 The post CleanTalk WordPress Plugin Vulnerability Threatens Up To 200K Sites appeared first on Search Engine Journal .
Link:
CleanTalk WordPress Plugin Vulnerability Threatens Up To 200K Sites via @sejournal, @martinibuster
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
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Daily Search Forum Recap: February 16, 2026
Gen Z’s discovery habits are rewriting Google Ads playbooks, forcing advertisers to rethink creative, targeting, and attribution across AI-driven surfaces. The post Are Your Google Ads Gen Z Proof? Strategies To Win The 18-24 Segment appeared first on Search Engine Journal
The rest is here:
Are Your Google Ads Gen Z Proof? Strategies To Win The 18-24 Segment
There is some new data out that shows that yes, Google’s AI Overviews are causing a huge decline in clicks to websites organically but it is also showing that for e-commerce queries, there is a massive increase in clicks on search ads and product/shopping ads.
Original post:
Data: Google AI Overview Clicks Shifting To Shopping Search Ads
Google’s John Mueller warned one site owner not to load “not available” in the JavaScript before the actual content that loads is available. It can lead Google to believe the page does not exist, preventing indexing and ranking in Google Search.
Read more from the original source:
Google Warns Not To Serve "Not Available" With JavaScript
Google Ads has this new feature that lets advertisers calculate your conversion value for new customers. It says, “Select a lower target ROAS to adjust the incremental conversion value used to bid for new customers.”
Read this article:
New Google Ads Calculate Your Conversion Value For New Customers
We covered the topic of markdown files before but now we have more commentary from official representatives from Google and Bing on the topic. In short, they call markdown files messy, it can cause issues with finding errors, cause more crawl load and either way, the search engines use what people/humans can see over what bots can see.
Read more here:
Google & Bing: Markdown Files Messy & Causes More Crawl Load
Keep international PPC campaigns aligned with practical frameworks for consistency, localization, and multi-agency coordination. The post International PPC: Why Consistency Is So Hard To Maintain appeared first on Search Engine Journal .
See more here:
International PPC: Why Consistency Is So Hard To Maintain via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson
Antitrust filing argues Google cannibalizes audience visits to sites it uses to power AI results.
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Antitrust Filing Says Google Cannibalizes Publisher Traffic via @sejournal, @martinibuster
On February 10th, we reported the beginning of yet another unconfirmed Google Search ranking update. The volatility has not cooled yet and it seems it may have even heated up through the weekend.
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Google Search Ranking Volatility Remains Heated Through The Weekend