SEO and Digital Marketing News: July 2026.

For the first time you can see the Google queries that send people to a brand’s Reels, Shorts and posts. The data covers how the content performs on Google, not inside the app, and each account is a separate property with no combined view.

Do this: Add your client’s YouTube and Instagram accounts as platform properties and export a 28-day baseline of top queries and countries. Compare those queries with the ones the website ranks for.

This is a name change, not a new product or a shutdown. It does mean old tutorials that talk about “classic” and “Next” screens are now out of date, and help articles will use one name.

Do this: Update the Merchant Center names in your client SOPs and training notes. Also check that no feed tool still uses the Content API for Shopping, which Google switched off on 18 August 2026.

If you use Google’s asset generation or image editing in Google Ads, your ads will carry this disclosure whether you ask for it or not. Where local law requires it, the label can move from the panel onto the ad.

Do this: List which live assets were made or edited with AI, inside Google Ads or outside it. Tell clients before they see the disclosure themselves, and use the new control for assets made in outside tools.

Atlas lasted under a year. AI browsing still exists, but inside ChatGPT’s desktop app rather than a separate browser, so any test built around Atlas needs a new setup.

Do this: Move any AI agent or AI visibility tests you ran in Atlas to the new ChatGPT desktop app, and record the app and date with each test result.

For searches that ask for a picture, Google can now make one instead of sending people to yours. Image-led pages that win clicks on generic idea searches, such as card designs or room layouts, have the most to lose.

Do this: In Search Console, check the image search type for pages that rank on generic idea searches. Give those pages original photos with details a generated image cannot copy, such as real products, sizes and prices.

A user can now go from an AI Mode answer to a finished task in another company’s app without visiting the site that gave the idea. Recipe, design and music sites in the US lose the visit that used to sit between the question and the action.

Do this: If you run a recipe or how-to site with US traffic, mark 16 July in your analytics and watch clicks on recipe and idea pages. For stores, note which retailers Google picks as partners, because those get the cart.

The claim is about clicks, not visits, and covers all websites together. Search Console’s Generative AI report does not show clicks, so no site can check its own share against Google’s number.

Do this: Build your own record. Export AI Overview and AI Mode impressions from Search Console each month and put them next to GA4 sessions for the same landing pages.

The model in Google Search is chosen for speed and cost, and it changed again in July. Answers and citations you tested earlier may differ simply because the model behind them is new.

Do this: If you use the Gemini API for content or data work, run 3.5 Flash-Lite and 3.6 Flash on the same 20 tasks and compare quality against cost before you switch.

Star ratings in search results can now be lost over how reviews were collected, not just how they were marked up. Incentivized reviews are still allowed if the reward is clearly disclosed.

Do this: Check how your review app collects reviews. If customers get a coupon or cashback for reviewing, show that next to each review, and remove reviews you cannot trace to a real order.