Search Engine Roundtable Podcast

Google is rolling out a feature to show in the about this result overlay why the company ranked that page for that query, it is pretty cool. John Mueller of Google confirmed that core updates can influence the people also ask (PAA) results in Google Search. Gary Illyes of Google said that if a redirect is in place for a year, the signals passed will remain forever, even after the redirect is removed. Google has finally dropped the AMP labels in the mobile search results. And a report shows that now 23% of the top stories carousel URLS are not AMP URLs, this is up from 12% a few weeks ago. The review snippets/stars are missing from the Google Search results for some reason. Daniel Waisberg from Google shared sketches of what different traffic drops look like in Google Search. Google tried hard to clarify the Google News inclusion process, but I think it failed. Google Shopping has new promotion and deal features and also new reporting. Alan Kent of Google also shared SEO best practices for deal and promotion pages. Google launched the SeekToAction markup for key moment videos in search. Google posted an updated search operators document that reveals the limitations these operators have. Google now supports math solver rich results in the performance report in Search Console. Google said that pages that say no results found can easily lead to soft 404s. Google AdSense launched new faster and better performing AdSense code. Google Ads has a new three strikes and you’re out policy. Google Maps launched a new more detailed restaurant review page. Google is testing a map on the right side of the local pack. Google redesigned the question hub. And so sad to report that we lost another SEO soul this past week, Bob Gladstein. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Search Topics of Discussion:

Google has confirmed the July 2021 core update is “effectively complete” rolling out but what does that really mean. We saw spikes for the July core update on July 2nd and July 9th and maybe even on the 12th. Google confirmed that local results are not impacted by core updates. Posts for Google Knowledge panels, not the local panels, are going away this Tuesday. Google said you would see a positive affect from the page experience update when the pages leave the poor status on core web vitals. Google said it ignores PDFs when it comes to page experience signals. Google Search Console now debugs some AMP issues outside of Search Console. Google updated its editorial guidelines for job listing structured data. Google also added a new direct apply property for job listings schema. Google is testing a big carousel for more specific searches. Microsoft Bing has a sharable direct answer. Google local packs showing without a map box? Google My Business is listing Google phone numbers. Google MyBusiness messages can show you if the message came from a Google Post. Microsoft Advertising launched video extensions in Bing Ads. Google Ads now is easier to create sub-manager accounts. And the industry lost another young soul, Dan Bell. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Search Topics of Discussion:

We had a bit of a breather this week with the July 4th weekend and a bit of a slower news week. I did post a recap of the past month of Google SEO and webmaster topics, it was a big month. Google reminded us to include customer support methods on our own websites, is this a sign Google may crack down on these types of scams? Google’s Gary Illyes described how Google does ranking, it was interesting to listen to. Google said for the most obvious search spam, it uses machine learning to tackle it. Google said the HTTPS ranking boost is somewhat independent of the page experience update. Google said if your content goes viral, it is normal for it to gain spammy links, don’t worry about it. Google said try not to link all your pages to all your pages. Google said sometimes there is simply no SEO solution for your ranking issues. There has been a spike of complaints about soft 404 errors in Google Search again, Google has changed how it handles this detection. Google Shopping will soon require only one form of contact information, which is down from two forms. Microsoft Advertising launched multimedia ads in Bing Search. Google AdSense now supports anchor ads on wider screen formats. Google Search is testing sticky footers on mobile. Google is also testing again removing the breadcrumbs from the snippets. And Bing has this weird thing where it grays out the search results when you hover over the page selectors. Be safe and thanks for watching! And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Search Topics of Discussion:

Google kicked off the July 2021 core update yesterday, right after the spam update. Google ran part two of the spam update on June 28th, the first part ran in June 23rd. While those spam updates ran on only those days, we did see that two days after the spam update there was ranking fluctuations in Google Search on June 30th. Google said they have now used MUM for the first time in search, it was used for identifying the 800 different ways people search for vaccine names. Google’s John Mueller said that the page experience update does not have any exception lists. A possible sign that you have quality issues with your site is if you see a lot of “crawled - currently not indexed” notices in Search Console. Google suggests that you use both accented and non accented variations of your terms in your content. Google released a beefy document on HTTP status codes, network errors and DNS errors and how those all impact Google Search. Google greatly expanded its help document on redirects, including the fun crypto redirect. Newzdash is reporting that the Google top stories carousel is showing over 12% of non AMP URLs. 77% of SEOs said they learn SEO hands on. Bing’s search tools show both colored and monochrome overlays on hover. Also, Bing is showing a language tab in the search bar. Google Ads id deprecating broad match modifier keywords in late July. Google Ads tightened its financial ads policy in the UK. Google AdSense link units are now fully retired. Google Merchant Center no longer requires you to show payment options outside of the cart page. And such sad news, Russ Jones passed away last week at the age of 39, leaving behind a wife and three daughters - he was an industry gem. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Search Topics of Discussion:

Google released yet another confirmed Google Search update it called a “Spam Update” on June 23rd. This past weekend we saw more of the same ranking fluctuations in Google Search. Do you think Google doesn’t confirm some updates because they worry about webmaster, site owner anxiety? Google said again that it can take several months for Google to reprocess and reevaluate sites after a quality update. Google is now showing non-AMP pages in its top stories carousel. Google has one place for all its Google Search content policies now. Google again said it does not use sentiment for search ranking purposes. Google does not have a notion of page authority, according to John Mueller. Google updated its robots.txt and structured data docs with tons of changes. Google Merchant Center has a new policy that says you can’t say a product is available on the product page and then not available in the cart. Google has a new feature to warn searchers when the results may be unreliable because the topic is new and changing fast. Google News is testing a country filter. Google is also testing brand refinement filters refinements. Google is testing in the local page local pack section refinement buttons that toggle the query. Google My Business is testing new reports for rush hours and more about your business. Google My Business posted a message that the reports may be delayed. Google Ads might not know your quality score metrics in some cases. Google has delayed blocking third party cookies and paused FLoC testing. And a poll n where SEOs go for help when they don’t know the answer. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Search Topics of Discussion:

It was an insanely busy week this week, and we also ran SMX Advanced during all the chaos. We had Google tell that the June 2021 core update finished rolling out on June 12th, Google didn’t tell us this until two days after it finished rolling out. But that makes sense since we saw a ton of tremors in Google Search on June 11 and June 12. Google then said that the Page Experience Update has begun to rollout on June 15th and will rollout through the end of August. Google posted a video on how this impacts top stories and said you shouldn’t see any sudden changes to your rankings from this update. Google added partial field data to the PageSpeed Insights tool. Google is testing show an articles carousel for journalist knowledge panels. Google launched the Google Search Console Insights reports to all. Google said quality is an example of a site level signal. Google said it can take longer to remove people also ask results, compared to normal search results. Gary Illyes from Google spoke about how information retrieval works at Google. Gary Illyes also said there isn’t all that much trick in search. And finally, John Mueller feels that Search is underrepresented at Google I/O and I think it goes beyond that. I then shared how I think slow algorithmic rollouts work. Google told me that site commands with queries can be impacted by core updates. Google Search has a new browse more ideas search feature and Google is testing refinement bubbles in people also ask. Google also seems to have reduced the FAQ rich results to a maximum of two per snippet. Google My Business added driving directions and website visits to the performance report. Google also now lets you manage your Google Posts, delivery options, and service attributes of your business directly in Google Search. Google is testing a new delivery icon in the local pack. Google Maps is showing average rating pins in the map views for some search. And we re-launched the SEO periodic table of success factors for 2021 at Search Engine Land And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Search Topics of Discussion:

It was a pretty busy week, but to start off, I posted my big monthly Google webmaster report - catch up there on the month. Google released the June 2021 core update on June 2nd, but most SEOs didn’t really feel it until Saturday June 5th or Sunday June 6th and they did indeed feel it. This core update may have impacted product review sites, but there was no specific product reviews update that was released. Google may have pushed out a local search ranking update on Tuesday, June 8th. Google said it has algorithms that target predatory and exploitative websites, that produce slanderous content - let’s call it the Google Predator algorithm. Google talked about how it treats multiple anchor text variations on the same page to the same URL. Google also said it will try to treat rel link attributes of nofollow, ugc and sponsored differently. Google also said it can understand and rank inclusive language properly. Google does not want you to rank its ranking factors, so stop it with RankBrain. Just another remind, stop spamming Googlers with link buying and selling requests, it will be used against you. Google said for unnatural link manual actions, disavowing is not enough. Google added back order availability to the product structured data markup. Google said you do need some unique content if you have templated content above the fold. Google posted more details on adult video content in its video best practices help document. Google Ads released version 8 of the Ads API. Google partners can keep their current partner badges through February 2022. Google is testing a magnifying glass at the right footer of the mobile results. Google is at it again with testing customized query based background header graphics in Google Search. Google's unconference event is scheduled within two weeks. 20% of you still call Google Search Console, Google Webmaster Tools but half of you call Google Ads, Google AdWords. And the big industry news is that Moz was acquired by iContact, was it a good thing? And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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