Google reported its earnings today, its Q4 2025 earnings report showed ad revenues up by 14% at $82.3 billion and overall revenue was up 17% at $113.8 billion. I specifically like to dig in as best as I can on the ad revenue side to see how Google Ads have performed.

Google's ad revenue was up again year-over-year, with an increase of 13.6%, and overall revenue is also up 17%. Microsoft reported earnings last week, its ad revenue grew 10% but that seemed to slow from previous quarters.

If you want to compare Q3 2025 to Q4 2025, you will see ad revenue was up 10.9%, overall revenue was up 11.2% and profit was 16%.

Alphabet finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said, "advertising results were negatively affected from the lapping of the strong spend on U.S. election in the fourth quarter of 2024."

Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, said:

It was a tremendous quarter for Alphabet and annual revenues exceeded $400 billion for the first time. The launch of Gemini 3 was a major milestone and we have great momentum. Our first party models, like Gemini, now process over 10 billion tokens per minute via direct API use by our customers, and the Gemini App has grown to over 750 million monthly active users. Search saw more usage than ever before, with AI continuing to drive an expansionary moment.

We continue to drive strong growth across the business. YouTube's annual revenues surpassed $60 billion across ads and subscriptions; we now have over 325 million paid subscriptions across consumer services, led by strong adoption for Google One and YouTube Premium. And Google Cloud ended 2025 at an annual run rate of over $70 billion, representing a wide breadth of customers, driven by demand for AI products.

We're seeing our AI investments and infrastructure drive revenue and growth across the board. To meet customer demand and capitalize on the growing opportunities we have ahead of us, our 2026 CapEx investments are anticipated to be in the range of $175 to $185 billion.

Here is a chart plotting Google's overall revenue, then ad revenue and then profit over the past several quarters:

Here is the snippet from the earnings report:

Highlights from Google earnings:

• Consolidated Alphabet revenues increased 18%, or 17% in constant currency, to $113.8 billion, reflecting strong momentum across the business and acceleration in growth in both Google Services and Google Cloud.
• Google Services revenues increased 14% to $95.9 billion, led by 17% growth in Google Search & other, 17% in Google subscriptions, platforms, and devices, and 9% in YouTube ads.
• YouTube revenue across ads and subscriptions exceeded $60 billion for the full year 2025.
• Google Cloud saw a continued increase in customer demand as revenues increased 48% to $17.7 billion, led by an increase in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) across enterprise AI Infrastructure and enterprise AI Solutions, as well as core GCP products.
• Consolidated Alphabet operating income increased 16% and operating margin was 31.6%. Operating income included a $2.1 billion employee compensation charge for Waymo.
• Net income increased 30% and EPS increased 31% to $2.82.

Our Q4/FY'25 results are in. Thanks to our partners & employees, it was a tremendous quarter, exceeding $400B in annual revenue for the first time. Our full AI stack is fueling our progress, and Gemini 3 adoption has been faster than any other model in our history.

We're really'... pic.twitter.com/UbcQPFRGkr

'" Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 4, 2026

Sundar Pichai posted his remarks on this past quarter, specific to search he said:

Search saw more usage in Q4 than ever before, as AI continues to drive an expansionary moment. We've executed with incredible speed. We shipped over 250 product launches within AI Mode and AI Overviews just last quarter.

We've integrated Gemini 3 directly into AI Mode in Search. Now, Search can better understand your query, dive deeper on the web, and generate interactive UI experiences. And last week, we upgraded AI Overviews to Gemini 3, giving users a best-in-class AI response at the top of the search results page.

We've also made the Search experience more cohesive, ensuring the transition from an AI Overview to a conversation in AI Mode is completely seamless. These new experiences are proving to be more helpful and are driving greater usage. A few highlights:

- First, once people start using these new experiences, they use them more. In the US, we saw daily AI Mode queries per user double since launch and AI Overviews continue to perform very well.
- Second, people are engaging in longer, more complex sessions. Queries in AI Mode are three-times longer than traditional searches. We are also seeing sessions become more conversational, with a significant portion of queries in AI Mode now leading to a follow-up question.
- Third, people are searching in new ways beyond text. Nearly one in six AI Mode queries are now non-text, using voice or images. And Circle to Search is now available on over 580 million Android devices.

Forum discussion at X.

Google is appealing the ruling that it is an illegal search monopoly - which surprises no one. Plus, Google asked the court to pause the remedies during the appeal phase.

Just a reminder, even with the monopoly ruling, Google was let down super easy with the remedies.

Google wrote, "Today we filed our notice to appeal the DOJ Search decision, and asked the Court to pause some of the remedies while that appeal is heard."

Google also added:

As we have long said, the Court's August 2024 ruling ignored the reality that people use Google because they want to, not because they're forced to. The decision failed to account for the rapid pace of innovation and intense competition we face from established players and well-funded start-ups. And it discounted compelling testimony from browser makers like Apple and Mozilla who said they choose to feature Google because it provides the highest quality search experience for their consumers.

While we appeal this decision, we're asking to pause the implementation of specific remedies that would force us to share search data and provide syndication services to rivals. These mandates would risk Americans' privacy and discourage competitors from building their own products '" ultimately stifling the innovation that keeps the U.S. at the forefront of global technology. We look forward to making our case in court later this year.

It would be cool if appealing this could lead to harsher remedies, but I doubt it works that way?

Forum discussion at X.

For the past several years now, John Mueller of Google would come out with what he calls the "Mueller Report of SEO memes." Well, here is his 2025 edition of the Mueller Report of SEO memes.

It is fun to scan through, so I'll just embed them all and of course, you can go to Bluesky and scan through them:

It's that time of the year again: here's the Mueller Report of SEO memes for 2025. #SEO

'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

If you're curious, here's last year's starting point: https://bsky.app/profile/johnmu.com/post/3lerf5qumuh2s #SEO

— John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@aleyda.bsky.social starts us off, and you could reuse this for the end of 2025 too, I imagine. Or all of 2025? This is fine. https://x.com/aleyda/status/1869800045895397465 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

The Verge really loves SEO. Another theme for the year, I think? From @tory.thegray.co - https://bsky.app/profile/tory.thegray.co/post/3ldot3sgap22y #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

I don't remember the Christmas update from 2024, but then again, I don't also remember breakfast. From @hlawrance.bsky.social at https://bsky.app/profile/hlawrance.bsky.social/post/3ldpzgykns22a #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Sometimes Search Console is just too on the knows. This, and some others, are from the fabulous and lovely https://theseocommunity.com community. #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@m00nshyne.bsky.social reminds us that even having embarked into the world of AI, "business near me" will never leave. https://bsky.app/profile/m00nshyne.bsky.social/post/3lfv6a6te622g #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

We'll miss you, Andy. https://x.com/iqseo/status/1880312141531722081 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@musingpraveen.bsky.social on being hired as an SEO for a smaller company, responsible for everything. https://bsky.app/profile/musingpraveen.bsky.social/post/3lgphil4dvs2t #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

An SEO-power-trifecta: subdirectories, subdomains, and "it depends". https://x.com/CaerelsJan/status/1882016147241132090 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@ilovechoclates.bsky.social jokes that robots.txt doesn't get the respect that it deserves anymore. (IMO machine-readable files like this continue to matter for a healthy web.) https://bsky.app/profile/ilovechoclates.bsky.social/post/3lkbkuuplds2p #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@markwilliamscook.com says it's time to move on from meta descriptions (and for most pages, that's fine). https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7303010547275325440/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@dias.social on another theme for 2025. This could be reposted monthly from now on. https://x.com/pedrodias/status/1893965674461966672 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Look, @markwilliamscook.com , leave some space for others to make memes please. And yes, real-world businesses & websites are hard to wrangle with. https://bsky.app/profile/markwilliamscook.com/post/3liyogcmez224 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

You can't do SEO memes without Izzi. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7308083039278882816/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@markwilliamscook.com For some, everything on the web is about links. https://bsky.app/profile/markwilliamscook.com/post/3ljpq43tzf22d #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@brodieclark.bsky.social with (borrowed) memes not just near you, but "nearest". https://x.com/brodieseo/status/1896738382463770631 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

In a post about being fake on the web, Patrick Stox drops this one https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7316052412719403009/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@brodieclark.bsky.social on speculations on the effects of new search features https://x.com/brodieseo/status/1922771276185166008 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Suganthan on AI Overviews when they linked back to Google Searches - https://x.com/Suganthanmn/status/1925242581371560366 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@gaelbreton.bsky.social on what surely will resonate even more in 2026. Vibe coding? No, vibe SEO. https://x.com/GaelBreton/status/1926544966345486410 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Et tu, Analytics? https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7332669339692675074/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@alexdeb23.bsky.social To audits! The cause of, and solution to, all of a website's problems. https://bsky.app/profile/alexdeb23.bsky.social/post/3lpzaxawzf22j #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Joshua on the continued search for a new name - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7321124837769269249/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Is @rustybrick.com 's Search Console a meme? https://bsky.app/profile/rustybrick.com/post/3lp7absyyts2z #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@carlhendy.com on the weirdness of metrics https://x.com/carlhendy/status/1930169336263782769 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Andrew on the SEO theme of the year. It's easy to get distracted. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7333470153155723264/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@markwilliamscook.com is forever the optimist. https://bsky.app/profile/markwilliamscook.com/post/3lq5ldbnagc2t #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@thimok.bsky.social on (temporarily) not getting what you tried to search for. https://bsky.app/profile/thimok.bsky.social/post/3lqh2zlfj2k2b #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Can you blame folks for wanting to be a B2B thought leader in 2025? (It is a bit funny how un-searchable "geo" is though.) https://x.com/harpreetchatha_/status/1928483680475124060 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Come on, get on the bus, @carlhendy.com . https://x.com/carlhendy/status/1932692862501793884 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

To round out the first half of the year, @ilovechoclates.bsky.social has looked under the hood of SEO and discovered '... https://bsky.app/profile/ilovechoclates.bsky.social/post/3lrmtdsbkpk2m #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@markwilliamscook.com , is really not a fan of description meta tags. "I don't recommend clients write meta descriptions anymore." https://bsky.app/profile/markwilliamscook.com/post/3lt2vdafaoc2k #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@carlhendy.com is obsessed '... with SEO memes, apparently. Maybe we should rebrand it to ClickEO? https://x.com/carlhendy/status/1935622393214738702 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@chrisjj.bsky.social on SEO in 2025, or probably anything in 2025. https://bsky.app/profile/chrisjj.bsky.social/post/3lrxt5y3nds2i #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Ajdin on the drive to try to optimize for the new magic. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7337862580402634753/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@zyppy.com on the magical number "10" (side-note: all known number systems are "base 10" - maybe there's a reason) https://bsky.app/profile/zyppy.com/post/3lsm6r3l25s2m #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Andy on the frustration that not all of a site's pages get indexed (I get it, but not everything is quantifiable). https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7345380129860120577/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Bernard on what SEO sometimes feels like. https://x.com/bernardjhuang/status/1940868350370013559 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Martin's harsh take on some sites. https://x.com/searchmartin/status/1945130217577570363 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@dejanseo.bsky.social on '... SEO in 2025 '... I mean AEO '... GEO '... AIAIO? This rebranding project is not going well. https://bsky.app/profile/dejanseo.bsky.social/post/3lwnpcccshc2h #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

Search Console got a new logo in August! Matthew wants other things instead. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7353148902558126080/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:39 PM

@markwilliamscook.com asks if SEO is dead because of AI? or is it back because of AI? https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7353353042068422656/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Mark, again, this time on the sales team not getting the support they need from the SEO folks. Approximately :). https://bsky.app/profile/markwilliamscook.com/post/3luur36cjdc2c #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Douglas looking to understand what AIO / GEO really is'... https://x.com/douglaskarr/status/1956325736983167280 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Mark is the 2025 memelord. LLMS.txt, a discussion probably not going away, and not as cute as cats.txt - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/markseo_seo-activity-7363148946392682496-qrxw/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Well, well, well. Look who's opinionated on the topic of AEO & SEO'... #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Mark. https://bsky.app/profile/markwilliamscook.com/post/3lyxp3agjk22d #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

@zyppy.com suggests SEO/GEO is the new subdomains/subdirectories? https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7362619466876145664/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Another one from TheSeoCommunity's Slack. #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

@zyppy.com just wants traffic. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7364413886067863554/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Nick Leroy's newsletter (recommended) suggests SEO used to be different. https://nickleroy.com/newsletter/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Orit with a Matrix meme. It's been 84 years since I saw that movie, I should dig up the VHS again. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/oritsimu_seo-google-thematrix-ugcPost-7373424495514107905-9q9B/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Another from the SEO Community slack. Shiny things apparently sell well. #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

@rustybrick.com on the combination of two glitches. https://bsky.app/profile/rustybrick.com/post/3m5vqrap7zf2u #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Despite @heysannidhi.bsky.social 's meme, we don't actually check what people put into their annotations :-). https://bsky.app/profile/heysannidhi.bsky.social/post/3m5vbkpcor22q #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Mark (again). Insert "it sounds like the CMO is just feeding extra work to SEOs, and then his daughter started crying" meme. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7384521684625694721/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

For when you just need to add some SEO in the end. #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

@rustybrick.com on Cloudflare blocking everyone again. https://bsky.app/profile/rustybrick.com/post/3m5vt4jfzaj2k #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Core updates always bring out the meme-makers. https://x.com/joey7yang/status/2000469280606040231 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

@carlhendy.com is still looking for his site's traffic. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7404089774887571456/ #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

More Core Update memes https://x.com/01seneca/status/1999244765142090051 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

. . . including one from @mariehaynes.bsky.social - https://x.com/Marie_Haynes/status/1999173188656169273 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

"Don't worry about the future" said Mary Schmich - Afik thinks differently; this is SEO. https://x.com/kifakrec/status/1999191628221653310 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Meanwhile, some are just excited. https://x.com/itsmaharshi/status/1999223467586257290 #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Kuldeep on Slack, peacefully watching the branding wars play out. #SEO

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'" John Mueller (@johnmu.com) January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM

Forum discussion at Bluesky.

The post Manual Actions and Site Reputation Abuse appeared first on Nikki Halliwell.