Daily Search Forum Recap: January 12, 2024
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 Assistant dropped 17 features…
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Web & Local Ranking Updates, Quality Changes Coming, FAQ/How-To Rich Results, Perfect SEO, Author Bylines & More
We reported on three different Google algorithm updates this week, a bug one on January 9th and 10th, another one on January 5th and 6th, and also a local search ranking update on January 4th. Google reiterates that more changes are coming to deal with…
Google Says Ignore Spammy Links From AI-Generated Blogs
A site owner posted on Reddit his concerns after noticing “hundreds of thousands” of backlinks from “AI-generated blog posts” directed to his or her site. John Mueller from Google said those links can be ignored and the posts might not be AI-generated…
Did Search Win With The Google Assistant Feature Loss
Google announced major changes to Google Assistant, removing close to 20 features and switching how the Google App works with the Google Assistant. This may be a win for Google Search, a loss for Google Assistant, or maybe AI will take over everything…
Microsoft Advertising Dropping Hotel Center Accounts For Lodging Campaigns On Feb 6
Microsoft announced it is going to do away with Hotel Center subaccounts on February 6, 2024 and you should migrate to Lodging campaigns instead. “As we strive to improve and innovate our products, we’re changing how you set up and manage Hotel Price a…
Google Updates Structured Data Examples To Use Hashtags For @id References
Google has updated its structured data documentation to now use hashtags for @id references. If you don’t use hashtags, it is fine, but Google said it is “schema best practice to use hashtags as resolvable in-page node identifiers in RDF.”
What’s Google Ads Sensitive Event Policy
Google has posted a clarification of what it calls its sensitive event policy under the Inappropriate content policy within Google Ads. This applies to Google Ads, Google Merchant Center, Google AdSense, Admob and more.
Google Ads PMax Auction Insights Box Adds Competitive Data
Google has updated the auction insights box within the Google Ads console for Performance Max campaigns. The update now shows top advertiser data with comparison data and a new section labeled “competitors entering and exiting”.
Google Local Services Ads Direct Business Search Shows Your Ad On Branded Queries
Google Local Services Ads added a new setting named direct business search. This setting gives advertisers the option to show their ads when someone searches for your brand or business directly.
Google SGE Some Products To Consider Shopping Carousel
Google SGE, the Search Generative Experience, seems to have rolled out a search carousel named “Here are some products to consider.” This carousel shows you products from different vendors that you can click on to engage with the Google Shopping graph.
Google Still Working On Site Name Issues Within Google Search
Google has been battling with site name issues since it launched the site name feature in October 2022 for mobile and then site names for desktop results in March 2023. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, responded to my complaints about site name…
Google Search Refine This Search Overlay Filter Now Live
Google seems to have rolled out the refine this search filter button that overlays a number of search filters. This seems to be the mobile version of what we saw on desktop and honestly may have been out for some time but I never covered what it looked…
Mid-Week Google Search Algorithm Ranking Volatility January 9th & 10th
For the past several unconfirmed Google Search ranking algorithm updates that we covered, those were almost all reported over the weekend. Now I am seeing search ranking volatility in the middle of a work week. I am seeing signs of an unconfirmed updat…
Google: No Such Thing As Perfect Formula For Ranking
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, said that there is no such thing as a perfect formula for ranking a web page. Sullivan said this on X, saying, “There’s no perfect formula to follow that must be used to rank highly in Google Search.”
Google Search Highlights Climate-Friendly Train Alternatives Under Flight Results
Google Search is now showing climate-friendly train alternatives under the flight search results box. So if you are looking for flights where you can take a train instead, Google will show you the train alternatives.
Microsoft May Extend Bing Chat’s History Beyond 90 Days
When Microsoft first launched its Bing Chat Personalized Answers, Microsoft said the history/memory would be based on 90 days of chat history. However, some chat users noticed it was going beyond the 90 days. In fact, Mikhail Parakhin, the CEO of Adve…
Google How-To Rich Results Dropping Out Of Search Results Again
A couple of days ago, we reported that the FAQ rich results dropped out of the search results again, and now we are seeing the how-to rich results drop out of the search results again. This happened around the same time as the FAQ rich results dropping.
Bing Search Menu Tests Chat Button That Says Chat w/GPT-4 & Copilot
Bing Search has placed the “Chat” button in its top search menu since Bing Chat launched. But now Bing is testing expanding it to read “Chat w/GPT-4” and “Copilot.” We know Microsoft is ultimately rebranding Bing Chat to Copilot, so that is expected b…
Google Sitemaps Ping Endpoints Officially No Longer Work
Google has officially deprecated the Sitemaps ping endpoints. Now, when you try to access it, Google responds, “Sitemaps ping is deprecated,” with a link to the post about it going away.
Google On The Japanese Keyword Hack
Google’s John Mueller posted a comment on Reddit describing what is often referred to as the “Japanese keyword hack,” he said. It is an automated process that looks for vulnerabilities in your CMS to inject content on your website.