Google Again On When To Use Noindex Or Canonical (Or Both)
Google’s John Mueller was asked about if it is still okay to use noindex and canonicals at the same time and when to use one or the other. This is a topic we covered several times here over the years but I spotted a new Reddit thread with John’s commen…
Google: Don’t Use Generic Server / CMS Holding Pages For New Sites
John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, said on Reddit, that he does not recommend you use generic server or CMS holding pages for new sites. Instead, either “keep DNS disabled or put up a custom holding page.”
Another Interview With Google’s Search Liaison: Big Brands, UGC Content, AI Overviews & Future
Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, has been interviewed again – this time by Alyeda Solis. It is pretty similar to my interview with Google’s Search Liason, but this one is recorded and available for everyone to watch.
Did Google Hit Forbes Advisor With A Search Penalty Over Site Reputation Abuse?
Google may have hit Forbes Advisor with a manual action, downgrading its rankings over maybe the site reputation abuse policy. Lars Lofgren wrote about this marketplace, as he put it, on September 18th and then a week or so later, it looks like it wa…
Google Search Console Recommendations Not Fully Rolled Out
About 8 weeks ago, Google announced Google Search Console Recommendations and rolled it out to a limited number of properties within the platform. Google said the roll out will be slow and yea, it is slow. Daniel Waisberg from Google confirmed on Fri…
Google Updates Web Search Spam Policies
Google has refreshed and updated its web search policies documentation. The big change is Google added more language around the site reputation abuse policy, while expanding, simplifying and clarifying other sections of its search policies.
Report: Google Fixing Noindex Bug With Some JavaScript Pages
Google is reportedly working on fixing a bug with not being able to properly respond to a noindex directive on some JavaScript generated pages. This is happening for some React apps using Single Page Applications (SPAs) that have the noindex directive…
Google Fixed Google Search Console Product Snippets Report
A couple of weeks ago, we reported a bug with the Google Search Console search performance report and rich results report when you filtered by the “product snippets” search appearance option. Google finally posted an update that the report has been fi…
Google Merchant Listings Adds priceType Property & Sale Pricing Examples
Google has updated its Google Merchant Listings help documentation to add priceType property and then also give new sale pricing examples. Google said they did this to “make it easier for merchants to specify sale pricing through structured data and b…
Google Describes Importance Of Page Image Is Embedded On For SEO
Google’s John Mueller responded to questions around image SEO, specifically explaining that while the image itself and the alt text is useful, so is the page that image is embedded on. This is all useful for Google to know the relevance of an image ba…
Google: Core Web Vitals Aren’t As Important As Some People Might Think
Google again has downplayed the importance of Core Web Vitals as a Google Search ranking signal. Google’s Martin Splitt said in a video yesterday, “also core web vitals aren’t as important as some people might think.” He added, “they are they are not …
Google Search To Label Images As AI Generated, Edited Or Taken With Camera
Google Search will soon label images as AI-generated, edited with photo editing software or if it was taken with a camera in the image search results. This label will be added to the about this image feature, according to The Verge who spoke to Laurie …
Google Search Console Product Snippets Report Surge Again, Likely A Bug
It looks like we are seeing another surge in the Google Search Console Search Performance report when you filter by the product snippets search appearance filter. We had this happen in May of this year, it was a bug that Google fixed, and now we are s…
The Google Indexing API Not Working For Some Or Indexing Issues…
There are complaints in the Black Hat SEO World forums that the Google Indexing API is not working. Some are saying Google is returning a call saying all is good but when it comes to indexing the content, it is not happening.
Google Updates Google Crawlers & Fetchers Docs With Affects & Snippets
Google has completely reorganized its crawlers and user-triggered fetchers documentation. It used to be all on one page and now it is in several pages. Most of the changes were just moving content around but Google did add sections for what product ea…
Google’s Martin Splitt: We Do Not Use Exif Data For Ranking
Over the years Google has been wishy-washy on if they use or do not use Exif (Exchangeable image file format) data for rankings. In 2014, Google’s Matt Cutts said Google can parse the data and reserves the right to use it. But in 2019, Gary Illyes fr…
Google Indexing API: Submissions Go Undergo Rigorous Spam Detection
Google has updated its Indexing API documentation to add a few things but the largest update talks about how “all submissions through the Indexing API undergo rigorous spam detection.” Plus, it says that attempts to abuse the Indexing API “may result i…
Google Search Supports Ineligible Regions Property For Videos
Google Search now supports specifying where (which regions) a video is not allowed to be viewed in its video structured data and video SEO documentation. A new ineligibleRegion property was added to the Google video structured data documentation.
My Interview Of Google’s Search Liaison On The August 2024 Core Update
This week I interviewed Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, with the goal of better understanding where Google Search quality is at right now, where it is going in the future and what we as content creators and search marketers need to know.
Google Clarifies Indexing API Quota & Pricing Information
Google has made several changes to its indexing API quota and pricing information document for clarification purposes. Google said this was to clarify “the default quota is for setting up the Indexing API, and how to request approval and quota. Also co…