This week, I posted the monthly Google Webmaster report and we had more search ranking volatility over the weekend. Google Search Console had huge delays, which started to be fixed on July 3rd and seems to have caught up late last night. Google also said these delays have nothing to do with core updates and they are not documented on its Search Status Dashboard. Rand Fishkin posted an updated zero-click data study on Google. Reddit is not blocking Google Search, despite what you see in its robots.txt file. Gary Illyes from Google explained why soft 404s are bad. Microsoft added prompt injection to its Bing Webmaster Guidelines. Google is testing “current styles” search carousel. Google Merchant Center may use your conversion data. Google Local Service Ads now show in the mobile local business finder. Google Ads’s new brand controls won’t prevent your ads from showing random firms. Google Ads gained a new checkbox to specify if it has altered or synthetic content. Google Ads will allow fantasy sports and lottery courier ads in many states. Microsoft Advertising has a new Property Center and expanded lodging campaigns. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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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 reports seem to be back to normal again. Reddit did not block Google from crawling or indexing. Google says request indexing does not change canonicalization. Google says if you are using a CDN and want to maintain one robots.txt file, you can redirect one to the other. Google updated its image SEO best practices. Google is testing a longer search bar for longer queries. And I posted the SEO video recap – subscribe!

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Google Search Console Performance Reports All Caught Up
  
  
  Google seems to have fixed the Google Search Console Performance Reports last night at about 7:45pm ET. I posted a short update in my story yesterday, but waited until this morning to post a new story that it is fixed because sometimes I’ve seen it recover and then slip back. But it still seems to be showing recent and fresh data even the next morning.
• 
  Google Search Console Performance Reports Catching Up But It’s Not Done Yet
  
  
  As you know, Google Search Console’s performance reports were significantly delayed this week. But as of this morning, the reports are beginning to catch up. Google said last night it would take them “at least 2-3 days to fully catch up” and reprocess the data. So if you are seeing weird data, look away and come back on Monday.





• 
  No – Reddit Is Not Blocking Google Search
  
  
  Today being July 4th, I normally would avoid writing stories here but there are a lot of rumors out there that Reddit is blocking Google Search from crawling and indexing its content. It is not true – Reddit is not blocking Google Search.




• 
  Google: Request Indexing Does Not Change Canonicalization
  
  
  Google’s John Mueller said on that using the request indexing feature in Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool does not change canonicalization. The question that was asked is if it can help speed up URL removal for a 301 redirected URL.





• 
  Google: Using A CDN & Want One Robots.txt File, Redirect Yours To The CDN
  
  
  Do you use a CDN for some or all of your website and you want to manage just one robots.txt file, instead of both the CDN’s robots.txt file and your main site’s robots.txt file? Gary Illyes from Google said that all you need to do is redirect your main robots.txt to the CDN and control it on the CDN.





• 
  Google Updated Image SEO Best Practices For Embedded Images
  
  
  Google has made a small update to its image SEO best practices documentation, specific to the “Use HTML image elements to embed images” section. The update seems relatively minor but the changes to the wording was done for a reason.





• 
  Google Search Tests Long Search Bar Variations
  
  
  Google is testing a longer search bar, so I guess you can enter in a longer query into the search box. Google is also testing it in a gray color and other variations.





• 
  Italian Google Product Expert Code T-Shirts
  
  
  Here are some fun t-shirts a few Google Product Experts wore at the Google Product Expert Summit the other day. It says if product expert and Italian then do it better.





• 
  Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Console Difficulties, Google Ranking Volatility, Zero Click Study, Google Ads & More
  
  
  
  
  This week, I posted the monthly Google Webmaster report and we had more search ranking volatility over the weekend. Google Search Console had huge delays…

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As you know, Google Search Console’s performance reports were significantly delayed this week. But as of this morning, the reports are beginning to catch up. Google said last night it would take them “at least 2-3 days to fully catch up” and reprocess the data. So if you are seeing weird data, look away and come back on Monday.

Google posted last night on X, “The fresh data for this report is currently being reprocessed, and is likely to take at least 2-3 days to catch up fully. We’ll let you know here when it’s fully resolved. Thanks for your patience.”

Google specifically mentioned the “fresh data for this report” is “being reprocessed” and that will take time. So if you see the fresh data or even older data from this week, being wonky – it is related to this.

Update at 7:45pm ET: We may be back, I see last updated 3 hours ago now:

Here are those posts:

The fresh data for this report is currently being reprocessed, and is likely to take at least 2-3 days to fully catch up. We’ll let you know here when it’s fully resolved. Thanks for your patience.

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) July 3, 2024

As of this morning, it looks like the reporting began to catch up a lot – but it is far from done. I am seeing about 28 hours, the worst it got was 96 or 97 hours delayed but now we are at about 28-29 hours, so it is catching up but it is not done yet.

I think we got to about 96 hours and now it is starting to get lower and catch up https://t.co/8F5p9IenvL pic.twitter.com/li1XzG9cku

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) July 4, 2024

Many are noticing that the “Fresh data” part is showing a huge decline in data, which is worrying some. Here are some examples:

Google Search Console > Performance Report updated but seems like a data issue – that decline shouldn’t be there. pic.twitter.com/hWpzUOYHEu

— Gagan Ghotra (@gaganghotra_) July 4, 2024

Now the Google Search Console shows that it was updated 28 hours ago BUT *ALL* the properties, across all industries I have access to, show a big drop in the “Fresh Data” from Monday 👀 this can’t reflect the accurate evolution of their clicks (!) @googlesearchc can you please… pic.twitter.com/Kbhhv2WpAC

— Aleyda Solis 🕊️ (@aleyda) July 4, 2024

This seems to be directly related to Google Search Console reprocessing the data.

John Mueller of Google said on LinkedIn about the fresh data, “I’d check the posts at Google Search Central :-)” That is the post I embedded above about it going to take 2-3 days to fully catch up.

I know many of you are eager to see your data for the week, but looking at it now, when it might change in a day or two, will cause even more work for you.

So I guess wait until Monday to do any reporting…

Update: Google posted this a few hours later, “The data for this report is still catching up and being reprocessed. In the meantime, you might see a fresh data point with partial data. This is expected with data recoveries, and the partial data will be replaced with final data. Thanks for your patience.”

The data for this report is still catching up and being reprocessed. In the meantime, you might see a fresh data point with partial data. This is expected with data recoveries, and the partial data will be replaced with final data. Thanks for your patience.

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) July 4, 2024

Forum discussion at X.

Update at 7:45pm ET: We may be back, I see last updated 3 hours ago now: