Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
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Daily Search Forum Recap: February 17, 2026
An analysis of approximately 16,000 U.S. queries shows text ads increasing their click share by 7-13 points year over year. The post Google Text Ad Click Share Rises Sharply In Some Verticals appeared first on Search Engine Journal .
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Google Text Ad Click Share Rises Sharply In Some Verticals via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Automattic’s James LePage describes emerging WooCommerce capabilities that will enable Sidekick-type AI extensions The post WooCommerce May Gain Sidekick-Type AI Through Extensions appeared first on Search Engine Journal .
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WooCommerce May Gain Sidekick-Type AI Through Extensions via @sejournal, @martinibuster
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…
More:
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.”
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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.
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Google & Bing: Markdown Files Messy & Causes More Crawl Load