Google Ads said that by November 2024, advertisers with the gambling and games certification must recertify or stop relying on the certification to advertise products in scope of the Gambling and games policy.

Google wrote, “In November 2024, the Google Ads Circumventing Systems policy will be updated.”

“Advertisers with the Gambling and games certification must recertify or stop relying on the certification to advertise products in scope of the Gambling and games policy if a material change has occurred since the certification application was submitted,” Google added.

If you do not comply, Google said, they “will suspend your Google Ads accounts upon detection and without prior warning.” Google added “and you will not be allowed to advertise with us again.”

Google advertisers with the Gambling and games certification must recertify or stop relying on the certification to advertise products in scope of the Gambling and games policy if a material change has occurred since the certification application was submitted.

Failure to do so will be considered a violation of the Google Ads Circumventing Systems policy, Google said.

Material changes include, but are not limited to:

• Changes to advertiser’s product offerings which are inconsistent with any license or approvals provided to Google
• Changes to advertiser’s compliance with applicable regulations
• Changes to advertiser’s licensure or other compliance with Google’s Gambling and games certification requirements

Google said that changes to an advertiser’s address or payment methods are not considered material for purposes of this Gambling and games recertification requirement.

Forum discussion at X.

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.

Google Analytics now has benchmarking data in GA4. Google Search finally supports AVIF files. Google is testing new shopping search design. Google Ads has product category-level insights. Google Search is testing “you often visit” accordion UX.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Google Tests New Shopping Search Design
  
  
  Google is testing a new design for its mobile shopping search interface. The new design has a new Google logo, a gradient background theme, new headers, various sections and labels. It looks pretty cool but a bit less clean than the normal Google Search interface.
• 
  Google Search Finally Supports AVIF Images
  
  
  Google announced on Friday that they finally natively support AVIF image file types for Google Search, Google Images and anywhere Google Search uses images, such as Google News, Google Discover and more.
• 
  New Google Analytics 4 Benchmarking Data
  
  
  Google Analytics, GA4, seems to be rolling out benchmarking data, similar to Universal Analytics before it. This feature lets you compare your analytics data to others in your same industry – so you can benchmark how well or poorly you are doing.
• 
  New Google Ads Product Category-Level Insights
  
  
  Google Ads has improved its ads reporting specifically, with the product reports now showing category-level insights. You can see the performance, demand trends, and actionable recommendations for your e-commerce campaigns.
• 
  Google Search You Visit Often Tests Accordion Design
  
  
  Google is testing a new design and user experience for the “you visit often” labels. This time Google is giving you a way to see multiple sites you visit often in an accordion box user interface.





• 
  Google Mobile Haircuts
  
  
  Did you know Google offers “mobile haircuts.” This is a service provided by Max Salons at the GooglePlex, the main Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Earlier this week, I posted polls across numerous sites, asking SEOs how they were impacted by the last Google August 2024 core update – knowing the update is not done rolling out yet. Overall, most said their rankings and traffic from Google Search are down but honestly, it is a pretty even distribution of responses.

I understand that this does not get nuanced, asking if they were hit by the September update, or the last core update, how they were impacted by this one relative to that one. I understand it doesn’t dig deeper into what percentage increase/decrease they saw. It doesn’t ask for proof. I kept it simple on purpose.

The breakdown when I combine all three polls that I posted, asking how you were impacted by the Google August 2024 core update were:

• 44% said My Rankings/Traffic Are Down (total votes 1,583)
• 27% said My Rankings/Traffic Are Up (total votes 993)
• 29% said No Change (total votes 1,038)

Note: The numbers might not be 1000% accurate because X does not show raw counts, so I estimated a bit but it is super close.

By platform:

Here are the votes per platform – in case you were wondering:

On this site:

On X:

POLL: Impact Of The Google August 2024 Core Update

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) August 28, 2024

On LinkedIn:

Forum discussion at X and LinkedIn.