Google Visual Stories Showing On Page One For Competitive Keywords
Brodie Clark reported that Google is now showing web stories / visual stories on the first page of the mobile results even for competitive keyword phrases. I can confirm that do see these coming up for me in New York as well.
Google Local Search Update On March 23rd ‘Corrects’ Vicinity Update
On March 22nd and 23rd I noticed the BrightLocal tracking tool spike up a bit, so I kept tabs on that we may have had a Google local search update. Well, Joy Hawkins posted in the Local Search Forums that this update seems to have been a “correct” of t…
Google Tests News Search Results Snippets Without Borders
Google is always testing, always, and here is another test where Google is testing snippets in the Google News search results without borders.
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 25, 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 Maps released a bunch of data on its efforts to combat spam, fraud and abuse on its platform…
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Google Search Bar Bug Makes Autocomplete Query Hard To See
Many searchers are seeing a bug or a test gone bad within the Google Search bar or box while in dark mode. The text displayed in the autocomplete search suggested are grayed out on a light background, where it is super hard to read.
Google Search Tests Healthcare Provider Appointments & Booking
Google announced that in addition to helping searchers find healthcare providers that take their insurance, they are now helping searchers book appointments at these healthcare providers. This is a limited pilot test with MinuteClinic at CVS and some o…
Google Ads Tests New Ad Extension Icons
Google may be testing new Google Ads extension icons in the search results. Khushal Bherwani spotted these and notified me of these on Twitter, and I think they are new. New contact us and buy now icons are being placed in the Google search ad snippe…
Google Testing Lower Price Icon In Search Shopping Results
Google is testing displaying a badge or icon or label that demonstrates if a product you are looking at is a low price or not. So if your product sells well below other products in that product category, Google might tell you with this new label.
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Google Maps 2021 Blocked 100 Million Fraudulent & Abusive Edits & More
Google announced its 2021 Google Maps and Google Business Profile spam fighting efforts, like it did for the 2020 year. Google said it blocked more than 100 million Business Profile edits and protected over 100 thousand businesses from suspicious acti…
Google Talks About de-SEOing The Search Central Web Pages
Google’s Martin Splitt, Gary Illyes, and Lizzi Sassman sat together on the latest Search Off the Record to talk about de-SEOing – what we would probably call over-optimization strategies. It is an interesting listen to, stuff you probably heard before …
Search News Buzz Video Recap: 3rd Google Product Reviews Update, Spring Update, Google Data That Might Surprise You, Google Ads Updates, UI Tests & More
This week was pretty busy, we had the third Google product reviews update and I go deep into this algorithm update. We saw what I called a Spring 2022 Google search update…
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 24, 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 released the third product reviews update…
Google Search Recommends Which Stocks To Buy Now
If you do a search in Google Search for [inflation stocks], Google will show you a related searches feature with the title “stocks to buy now.” To savvy SEOs and searches, we know this is not Google recommending these stocks to buy but rather this is a…
New Google Partners Directory Now Live
Google has launched the new Google Partners directory with new ways to search for partners and also the new and updated partner program. Google said “now it’s easier than ever to find the right partner to help you grow your business.”
Google: We Reduced Irrelevant Search Results By 50% & Made 5,000 Changes In 2021
Google said in a spotlight piece of Danny Sullivan’s 25 year career in search (which is a nice thing) that Google reduced irrelevant search results by more than half in the past seven years. Google measured that number by looking at its own internal q…
Google Pauses Ads That Exploits, Dismisses Or Condones The Russia-Ukraine War
Google last night posted a new policy in the sensitive events category that will pause ads that exploits, dismisses or condones the Russia and Ukraine war. Google wrote “due to the war in Ukraine, we will pause ads containing content that exploits, di…
Google Search Tests Light Gray Search Box
Google seems to be testing another variation of the Google Search box. This one is a light gray background color for the search box. We recently saw Google testing the dark borders for the search box and also an edgeless search box.
March 2022 Google Product Reviews Update Rolling Out – Everything We See So Far
Google has rolled out its third version of the product reviews update, named the March 2022 Product Reviews Update. The previous two versions were the April 2021 Product Reviews Update and the December 2021 Product Reviews Update. The March version w…
Google Easter Egg For National Cherry Blossom Festival
If you go to Google and search for [National Cherry Blossom Festival] or [cherry blossom] or [hanami season] and so on, Google will give you a Cherry Blossom flower to click on that will trigger Google to have flower pedals to fall from the top of the …
Microsoft Advertising Updates Reporting Capabilities & Usability
Microsoft Advertising announced its “biggest reporting update in our history” by making the search ads reports “faster, easier, and more intuitive,” the company said. The company said reporting is now 60% faster to find and use.