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What changed, and what it means for your marketing budget. Algorithm updates, ad platform changes and business stories, filtered for UK small businesses. No hype.

Updated · 74 stories

Bar comparison: 22% of owners say most customers come from Google, while 61% of local searches start on Google Latest

That small business visibility report did not survey a single UK business

A widely syndicated report says small businesses are backing social and AI over Google. It surveyed 1,002 American owners and no UK ones. The useful finding underneath it is about...

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Diagram: from 30 October OpenAI creative enhancements can change ad headlines, images, destination URL and language; advertisers keep budget, source material, the setting and whether the campaign runs

From 30 October, OpenAI Rewrites Your Ads. The ASA Still Holds You Responsible.
Whito diagram: seven identical ENDS TONIGHT countdown blocks above a flat, unchanged price line across seven days

A Fake Countdown Cost Wayfair £4.8m. A Four-Gym Chain Was Fined on the Same Day.

Latest stories

AI Google Made Its AI Answers More Clickable. It Still Will Not Count the Clicks. News Britain’s Biggest Brands Cannot Say If Their Discounts Make Money. Can You? Ads Google Ads Starts Lifting Offers Off Your Website on Monday. Check What It Will Find. SEO Google built a fast lane into Search this week. Your website cannot use it. SEO The stars disappeared from healthcare search results, and nobody told anyone News WhatsApp Now Charges Businesses to Reply. Check Whether That Bill Is Yours. News Ofgem Asked What Makes a Customer Satisfied. Billing and Being Easy to Reach Came Top. News HSBC Rewrites Its Business Cash Charges on 14 December. Check Which Side of £300 You Sit News Your Paperwork Now Has to Survive Six Months, Not Three

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Earlier stories

September 2026

News 146 Investigations Since April. The Whole of Last Year Was 148. News You Do Not Employ Anyone. On Thursday That Stops Being the Test. Ads Nobody Bought an Ad. The ASA Ruled on Their Sale Prices Anyway. News Less Than 40% of Vets Published Prices. Now They Have To. Ads The Ad Fraud Figure Everyone Shared Was Not Measured. It Was Multiplied. Law HMRC Has Started Signing People Up. It Is Using Your Old Tax Return To Do It. News November Is Not Your Deadline. Your Confirmation Statement Date Is. News A rival reported their website to the ASA. Twelve months of call logs is what saved them. News The Late Payment Bill Promises 11.75% Interest. You Can Charge It Today. Reviews The CMA Reports Back on Fake Reviews This Month. Your Testimonials Page Is Already In Scope. Ads Ofcom Is Not Regulating Your Ads. It Is Regulating Whether Platforms Believe You Exist. Ads Google Will Not Reject Your Ads. It Will Just Stop Showing Them. SEO Google Just Switched Off a Spam Penalty in Europe. Your UK Customers Still See It. Ads Google Rewrites Your Ad Campaigns This Month. The Setting Is Not the Problem. Ads The ASA Scanned 60 Million Ads Last Year. No Complaint Required.

August 2026

SEO Google Will Now Show You How Often AI Mentions Your Business. It Will Not Show You If Anyone Clicked. AI Google’s AI Answer Now Opens in Full. The Blue Links Moved Down the Page. Ads Google Auto-Upgrades Ad Accounts on 1 September. Check Two Boxes First SEO Your Google numbers fell in August. Google says that never happened. News Pizza Hut Changed Its Name. It Did Not Change Its Numbers. News “Subject to Availability” Is Not a Shield. The ASA Just Proved It. Ads Your Contact Details Are an Advertising Claim. The ASA Just Ruled on It. News The CMA Fined the AA £4.2m Over a £3 Booking Fee. Now Check Your Own Pricing. Ads Google Just Changed the Rules on Local Services Ads. Here Is the Real Lesson for Your Business. SEO Google Just Stopped Letting You Answer Your Own Customers SEO Meta Just Overtook Google. Do Not Move Your Budget Yet. Ads Google Ads Is About to Take You at Your Word. That Should Worry You. Ads The world’s biggest ad agency just jumped 29%. It wasn’t because it spent more. News Next Beat Its Forecast by £70m. The Word That Made the Difference Was “Profitable”

July 2026

Reviews The iPad on your counter is now breaking Google’s review rules SEO Google just made your free listing measurable. Most businesses still won’t look. Your Instagram Posts Have Been Ranking On Google All Along. You Just Could Not See It. SEO Ranking Number One Is No Longer the Prize News Your Customers Want to Be Known. They Just Won’t Be Tracked. News The Chancellor Just Made It Easier to Borrow. Most Businesses Should Not. Reviews Google just plugged your Business Profile into Analytics. Most businesses cannot use it. News An AI Will Now Answer Your Customers in Seconds. That Is the Easy Part. News Three everyday marketing habits that can now get your business fined Ads Google’s new ads write themselves from your website. That is a problem if your website is thin. SEO The Google traffic you lost is not coming back. Stop waiting for it. SEO Google’s spam update just landed. Panicking is the wrong move.

June 2026

Law No, You Cannot Bin Your Cookie Banner Yet Ads Your Social Ads Are Getting Pricier. Spreading Out Beats Doubling Down. Ads LinkedIn Just Passed 37 Million UK Users. The Cheapest Way In Is a Real Person, Not a Brand Ad. Everyone Says TikTok Is the New Google. The Data Says Something More Useful. AI Google Now Lets You Opt Out of AI Search. Most Businesses Shouldn’t. Ads Google’s New Ads Now Chat With Your Customers. They Learn From Your Website, Not Your Budget SEO The UK Just Let Publishers Hide From Google’s AI. Most Businesses Should Do the Opposite.

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Got a marketing story UK small businesses should know about? Send it over

146 Investigations Since April. The Whole of Last Year Was 148.

Most small business owners have met one. The builder who took the deposit and disappeared. The supplier who went quiet in March and was trading again by June under a name one word different. You wrote off the money and assumed nobody was counting. Somebody has started...

You Do Not Employ Anyone. On Thursday That Stops Being the Test.

Most owners have a settled answer to right to work checks: “that is an employer thing, and I do not employ anyone.” On Thursday 1 October that answer stops working. Not because the law covers everyone now, but because the question changes. It is no longer...

Nobody Bought an Ad. The ASA Ruled on Their Sale Prices Anyway.

Eleven ASA rulings were published on Wednesday. Two of them were about ordinary business websites. No media buy. No agency. No campaign. Just pages a company had put up on its own domain. If you have been working on the assumption that the advertising rules only bite...

Less Than 40% of Vets Published Prices. Now They Have To.

Most business owners treat published prices as a marketing preference. Something to argue about. Something the competition might use against you. For one UK sector that argument ended this week. What actually happened The Competition and Markets Authority concluded...