Unmasking Truths Unraveling Stories
Unmasking Truths Unraveling Stories
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. There is this influx of 404 errors in Google Search Console because of some /1000 URL spam that is impacting everyone, Google says don’t worry about it. […]
Did you know that you can search both Bing and Google (or other search engines) at the same time using the Microsoft Edge browser? Well, you can. Mikhail Parakhin from Microsoft pointed this out on X and wrote, “In Edge, you can search in two engines simultaneously: if Bing is your default and you click […]
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 said this update will apply in February 2024, likely on February 9, 2024. So what is the Google Ads Inappropriate […]
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.” Google explained they have switched “all structured data code examples that use in-page @id references […]
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 ads and Property Promotion ads,” Microsoft wrote. Starting on February 6, 2024, […]
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 in the coming years. This all also comes with the hundreds of […]
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 anyway, not that it matters. The concerned site owner wrote: Hi u/johnmu We […]
For the original iTunes version, click here. 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 the search […]
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”. Thomas Eccel spotted this and posted about it on X, he said, “Auction Insights box for PMAX has been upgraded!” […]
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 says there is no perfect formula to ranking a web page in Google Search. Google Sitemaps pinging no longer works – it was deprecated. Google how-to […]
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 update starting off Tuesday, January 9th and today, Wednesday, January 10th. Again, it […]
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 says author bylines do not help you rank better. Google spoke about the Japanese keyword hack and what you need to know. Google’s perspective filter is […]
Right before the New Year, the Google search results volatility spiked big time. I posted the Google webmaster report for January 2024 this week. I published a big list of feature requests for Google Search Console. Google Groups will stop posting Usenet content to combat spam, which may clear up some spam in Google Search. […]
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 Search now shows units available to rent in local panels. Google Search has a new explore stocks carousel. Google is testing colored search headers. Google Discover […]
Prototyping in UX Design When you’re designing a user interface for your website or app, there are lots of things to consider. You’ll need to consider how users will navigate the design and whether you want to include any animations or transitions. In addition, you may need to create a prototype to show to your […]
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. I posted a big list of the Google Search Console feature requests. Google Groups spam may be fixed by dropping out Usenet content. Google Search get style […]
It’s time for the big Google Webmaster Report, the January 2024 edition. This month we saw the November 2023 Google reviews update completed after 29 days. But that wasn’t the end of the volatility, it was a very volatile month. Google also confirmed it tweaked its local ranking algorithm to strengthen openness for non-navigational queries.
After a few years of testing, it seems Google has launched the new more graphical and animated weather results in the mobile search results. Google now shows an animated graphic behind the weather details when you search for weather reports in Google Search on mobile. Lily Ray posted about it on X moments ago and […]
Ethan Mollick, an Associate Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, posted on X about his disappointment with overall internet search. He wrote, “There is no greater way to feel the overall decay of internet search then to try to figure out when & if a new season of a show is […]
Microsoft Bing is testing showing a “trending” label in the visually explore box within its search results. This may show up on some visually explore search boxes if Bing thinks the topic is trending. This feature was spotted by Khushal Bherwani on X and then Shameem Adhikarath on X a day later. Here are some […]
There has been a ton of chatter within the SEO community over the past couple of days related to extreme ranking volatility within the Google Search results. The Google tracking tools have also picked up the volatility over the past day or so. There is no way Google pushed out a confirmed update this week […]
This is the last SEO video recap of the year, and I covered a summary of all the confirmed Google algorithm updates in 2023. I also discussed the Christmas Google search ranking volatility we saw earlier this week. Bing Chat added favicons to links. Google’s John Mueller said SEO won’t die in the first half […]
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 says sometimes bot protection services serve noindex directives. Bing Search has expandable page insights. Google is testing sitelinks in pills formats. Google is testing longer snippets […]
Did you know that sometimes those bot protection services will serve Google and other search engines noindex directives? Google’s John Mueller said this on X, saying, “Sometimes there’s bot-protection (or a login, interstitial, etc) triggering that has a noindex on it.” He also added that it would be better for them to serve 503 server […]
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. Bing Chat added favicons to the links, giving them more visibility. Google checks 4 billion host names per day. Google is sending emails about search note performance. […]
Microsoft has added favicons to the links within Bing Chat / Copilot. Favicons should make the links beneath the AI-generated answer more clickable and noticeable to users. I personally now see the favicons on all my tests within Bing Chat, now known as Copilot. I am not sure if this is a limited test or […]
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. On Sunday I posted about some pre-Christmas Google search ranking volatility. I posted a chart showing when Google pushed out official Google Search algorithm updates in 2023. […]
In part one with Dave DiGregorio we spoke about his journey from working in sports memorabilia to getting into SEO. Then, in part two we talked about some local pack reductions, diversifying your local SEO efforts, the services feature, and the amazing SEO community. In part three, we talk about ChatGPT, process-focused, conferences, and more. […]
Gary Illyes from Google explained how Google Search may or may not handle special characters within Google Search. He explained this in the latest Google SEO office hours at the 16:10 mark. Gary was asked, “How does Google handle special characters like the superscript e in search results.” For example, a Latin letter E with […]
Every year, John Mueller, Senior Search Analyst / Search Relations team lead at Google makes a significant effort to help respond to SEO-related questions on Christmas. He has done this since at least 2007, so sixteen-years and counting, and has done it again this Christmas. Here are the previous years of John offering support on […]
Kwanzaa is coming up next week and Google has launched its Kwanzaa decorations for its search results. Just like Google did with Christmas decorations and Chanukah decorations. Search for Kwanzaa to see the decorations in Google Search. Here is a screenshot: Happy holidays all! Forum discussion at X.
No one should be surprised to hear that I am reporting on some intense Google search ranking volatility starting this Friday, December 22nd, through the weekend, with things seeming to calm down today, Sunday, December 24th. Did Google push an algorithm update or tweak before the holiday break? Who knows, but there are signals of […]
Gary Illyes said some search engines can be confused by seeing double slashes in a URL. Previously, Google suggested not to use double slashes in your URLs but here Gary is saying that technically pages load with double slashes but with some search engines may have issues crawling URLs with double slashes. Gary explained this […]
As we approach the end of the year, it just seems Google is getting more and more volatile with its search results. Google also confirmed that “openness” as a local ranking signal was strengthened. On Thursday morning, Google had delayed indexing issues for some sites, but Google confirmed it hours later. Google’s Danny Sullivan collects […]
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 SGE dropped the December 2023 end date. Google says double slashes in URLs can confuse some crawlers. Google said use character encoding when Google gets your […]
When Google first launched its Search Generative Experience, it labeled the “end” date of the program as December 2023 for US users and February 2024 for India and other countries. Well, now that end date was removed from the Google Search Labs interface. Here is what it looked like before: Here is what it looks […]
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 Search had some weird indexing/serving issues starting earlier today, Google is working on the root cause. Do you want Google to use your images in search […]
Google may be testing a new search result snippet interface that overlays more details about that search snippet. It is like a preview feature when you hover over the search result. Bing has been doing this with their search result previews for some time now. And Google has had this for image search result previews. […]
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 showed us how it collected and submits feedback on low quality search results. Google updates its search policies for non-consensual explicit images. Google explained when to […]
Google has documented how it Google handles sites with a high proportion of non-consensual explicit imagery. Google updated its spam policies and the Google ranking systems guide with links to this help document explaining the topic. This is what changed: Before it wrote: If we process a high volume of personal information removals involving a […]
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 says there is no such thing as perfect SEO. Google explains why spam reports don’t lead to immediate penalization. Google Ads is testing a new advertiser […]
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 confirmed that “openness” for local ranking is now a stronger signal. Google continues to have strong search ranking volatility into the holidays. Google Merchant Center […]
Earlier this month we covered a report from Sterling Sky that said the Google Local search ranking algorithm now uses if a location is open as part of its local ranking system. Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, confirmed the change late on Friday saying, “we’ve long used “openness” as part of our local ranking systems, […]
There is a bug with the Google Business Profile agency dashboard where owners and managers cannot accept new invites. The issue started a few days ago, Google is aware of the bug and working on fixing the issue. There are several threads about the issue in the Google Business Profiles Forum with the complaints starting […]
Google has added to some listings in the local panel in its search results a “Share” button within the three dots in that listing. Previously, the three dots had the ability to suggest an edit, learn more about the data and maybe claim the listing. Now Google brought back the share feature from 2017 within […]
For the original iTunes version, click here. The Google search results have been very volatile the whole past week, and most SEOs think Google will confirm another algorithm update before 2023 comes to a close. Google Groups is no longer ranking as well in Google Search. Google said it has taken steps to combat […]
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 Business Agency dashboard has a bug where invites are not working. Google local panel has a new share button location. Google is testing expandable image boxes. […]
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 Search Console’s API is delayed. Google Ads new consumer finance policy is a bit overreaching says advertisers. Google Business Profiles suspension emails now let you appeal. […]
Most SEOs believe Google will push out another confirmed algorithm update before the end of the 2023 year – so within the next few weeks. I ran a poll on X asking SEOs “Do you think Google will push out another confirmed update before the 2023 year ends?” Most said yes, specifically to a “confirmed” […]
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. Most SEOs feel Google will have another confirmed update by years end. Google Groups search ranking is declining after it saw a huge visibility boost. Google said […]
There has been a bit of controversy over the name “parasite SEO” in the industry and Google itself doesn’t like the term either. So they said they will be renaming parasite SEO to some new term in the near future. Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, wrote on X, “We don’t use that term internally. […]
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 will likely rename parasite SEO to some other term. Google said having an about this source feature doesn’t mean you’ll rank better. There is a huge […]
In part one with Dave DiGregorio we spoke about his journey from working in sports memorabilia to getting into SEO. Then, in part two we talked about some local pack reductions, diversifying your local SEO efforts, the services feature, and the amazing SEO community. In part three, we talk about ChatGPT, process-focused, conferences, and more. […]
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. We saw more extreme Google search ranking volatility this weekend. Google said it has taken steps to deal with the parasite SEO issue. OpenAI responded to claims […]
The last likely Google confirmed update of the year, the November 2023 reviews update, completed last Thursday afternoon on the 7th. But days after it completed the Google search results are still super volatile and the fluctuations and chatter are heated. Maybe I am wrong and Google is about to announce another helpful content update […]
Most site owners are familiar with Discover and Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), but Google keeps adding more ways for content to surface across its ecosystem. And with the addition of alternative feeds and secondary SERPs, it’s becoming incredibly hard to track where your content is surfacing and how much traffic is coming from those […]
The Google November 2023 reviews update, the last one Google will confirm, finished rolling out yesterday afternoon on December 7, 2023. It took 29 days to roll out, which initially kicked off on November 8, 2023. Again, this was the last time Google confirmed a reviews update because it is now more of a regular […]
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’s November 2023 reviews update is done rolling out after a whopping 29 days. Glenn Gabe did a piece of the alternative feeds, secondary SERPs and the […]
For the original iTunes version, click here. Google confirmed the last reviews update finished rolling out yesterday after 29 days. Google Search ranking volatility continues throughout the whole week, I called it the Google Winter Blast update but it might be the reviews update that is ongoing. Google Groups has seen a massive ranking […]
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. Bing launched Deep Search, also known as Search Harder, for some users, plus announced a bunch of Copilot features. Google Search Console is dropping the product results […]
Microsoft has announced a new search feature to Bing Search named Deep Search. Deep Search is an “enhancement” to Bing Search that provides “deeper and richer exploration of the web,” but it is slow. Also, Microsoft announced several improvements to Copilot, formerly known as Bing chat. This is all part of Microsoft’s one year celebration […]
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 expanded its video guidelines to the video mode interface, where the video needs to be the main content. Google has this weird invalid sitemap error. Google […]
Here is the December 2023 Google webmaster report for all of you. Here I recap what happened and changed with Google Search on the organic space over the past month or so. The big items, the November 2023 core and reviews updates rolled out. Google also told us the hidden gems algorithm was live. Google […]
Last week we reported on the early signs of big Google Search ranking volatility, fluctuations, chatter within the search results. We just don’t know if that was related to the ongoing November 2023 reviews update, tremors from the recently completed November 2023 core update or something new and unrelated to those two updates. Over the […]
In part one with Dave DiGregorio we spoke about his journey from working in sports memorabilia to getting into SEO. Then, in part two we talked about some local pack reductions, diversifying your local SEO efforts, the services feature, and the amazing SEO community. In part three, we talk about ChatGPT, process-focused, conferences, and more. […]
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. Looks like there was a big rumbling this weekend with major volatility in the Google search results. Google now supports new vacation rental structured data. Google LSA […]
