Daily Search Forum Recap: September 23, 2022
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 has a confirmed Google Ads issue that may cause serving and budget issues, and yes…
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google’s Overlapping Algorithm Updates, Product Reviews Update, Confusing HTTPS Report & Google Ads Serving Bug
In this week’s video, we cover how Google said they try not to overlap search algorithm updates but then announced the rollout of the fifth product reviews update before the core update was done. We also dug into the product reviews…
Google De-Duplicates Search Results Based On Almost Duplicates
Google’s John Mueller said Google Search will de-duplicate its search results based on almost duplicates. John said this on Twitter the other day when asked about canonicalizing international URLs.
Bing Tests Colored Sitelink Boxes
Microsoft Bing is testing background colors for the sitelinks section of the search result snippet. I am not sure I like this look but it does indeed make the sitelinks stand out a lot – what do you think?
Google Search & Google Ads Do Not Guarantee Conversions
Google’s John Mueller and Ginny Marvin said that both on the organic search side and paid search ad side, Google does not guarantee clicks will lead to conversions.
Google Asks German Reviewers If They Object To Reported Reviews Being Removed
Did you know that in some countries, like Germany, if you report a review as being fake or spam, Google will email the reviewer about the objection and see if they respond? Mike Blumenthal spotted that in a Google Business Profile help thread.
Google Ads Bug May Prevent Some Ads From Serving
Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, posted last night that Google Ads has an issue where some ads may not be served. “Google is aware of an internal issue impacting ads serving,” she wrote. She said, “the impact of this issue may prevent ads from ser…
What We’re Seeing From The Google Product Reviews Update #5
As you know, Google began to roll out the fifth Google product reviews update on September 20th during the roll-out of the September 2022 core update. I promised to return and share some of what we’re seeing with this update, as it rolls out.
Google Results About You Search Beta
Google is testing a new my account section named “results about you.” This is part of the feature where Google Search allows you to remove information about yourself from Search and other places in Google.
Google Search Console International Targeting Tool Is No Longer Available
As we reported last month, Google has now officially deprecated the International Targeting report in Google Search Console. If you try to access the report, Google will show you a message that says “This report is no longer available here.”
Survey Says Again: Links The Most Challenging Area Of SEO
About a year ago, Brodie Clark posted a poll asking SEOs which area of SEO do you find the most challenging. The response a year ago was by far link acquisition and the response this time around is the same, link acquisition. Surprise, surprise.
Google’s John Mueller On When, Where & How To Use Hreflang
Google’s John Mueller often posts detailed and thoughtful responses on Reddit related to SEO and also general gadget tinkering. In one of his latest SEO posts, he posted a very detailed and throughout post on when, where and how to go about using href…
Here Is What Google Considers Quality Issues: Things Users Consider Problematic
Google’s John Mueller explained what he would consider being a search quality issue, causing ranking issues specific to Google considering the site not “quality.” John said “to me, quality issues are things that users would consider to be problematic.”
Is The Percentage Of Pages Not Indexed A Bad Google SEO Sign?
A lot of SEOs focus on the pages Google has indexed versus the pages Google has not indexed on your website. So if there is a larger percentage of not indexed pages, they get concerned.
Google Tests Top Stories Thumbnail Placement Locations
Google is testing placing the thumbnail image on the top stories carousel in Google Search at the top and also at the bottom. I believe normally you would see the image in the top spot, but Google is testing it also at the bottom.
Google: Don’t Make Cookie Consent Banners Annoying
Google said when it comes to your cookie consent banners, make sure not to make those banners annoying. John Mueller of Google was asked, “does cookie consent banner disturb user experience?” John implied it only does when the banner is annoying.
Google Tests Highlighting Text In People Also Ask As Well…
Last week we saw Google testing highlighting text in the featured snippets. Now I am seeing reports of Google testing highlighting text in the people also ask.
Google Unleashes Fifth Product Reviews Update Before Core Update Is Done
Google, at about 4 am ET today, September 20, 2022, has unleashed the fifth product reviews update. This was released prior to the September 2022 core update being completed, which was not excepted and Google’s Danny Sullivan said likely would not happ…
Google Search Can Filter Out Obvious Hack Spam But…
What if your site gets hacked and there is a ton of spammy content placed on it? Do you have to worry about negative consequences on your Google rankings and overall SEO efforts? John Mueller of Google said Google can filter out the most obvious hacks …
New Google Site Verifier User Agent
Google has added a new Google crawler, a new user agent, to the Google spider list. Its name is Google Site Verifier User Agent. This user agent ignores robots.txt rules, by the way, and I assume it is used for verifying sites with Search Console and o…