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We had a new Google spam update, the June 2024 spam update and what would be an SEO video recap within Google Search ranking volatility, at least this time it was on Father’s Day weekend. Google Search seemed to have an indexing bug last night. If your image snippets disappeared from Google months ago, it is likely a quality issue and not a technical issue. Glenn Gabe posted his adventure on trying to track AI Overviews in Google Search Console. Google posted FAQs on AI Overviews, asking why you can’t disable it but not giving a real answer. Google may be showing fewer links to Reddit and Quora, maybe. Google’s Gary Illyes gave two reasons why a spike in crawling may be a bad thing. Google warned on using JavaScript for structured data in Google Merchant Center. Pound signs in the Search Console reports are about sitelinks, not canonicalization. Google updated its hreflang documentation last week. Bing Webmaster Tools can show a clickthrough rate of over 100%. Google is testing people also ask with 6 results by default. Google’s people also ask mostly show Wikipedia content. Google has this scary Google Maps exploit where you can ruin a business’s local ranking. Google added menu buttons to the Google local panels. Google Maps updated its fake engagement policy. Local Service Ads are coming to Google Maps. Google Ads is forcing some advertisers off credit card payments. Google AdSense has new privacy and messaging for users in some US states. Apple updated its Applebot documentation. 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 unleashed a new spam update – the June 2024 spam update – here is what we know. Google had a big indexing issue last night, that lasted several hours. Google spoke more about the images not showing up in search and that it is more likely a quality issue with your site. Google Local Service Ads will soon show on Google Maps. Google Discover is testing a floating search bar. Google Safe Search has a new set of FAQs. Plus I posted the SEO video recap – it was a busy week!

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Google June 2024 Spam Update Takes Target
  
  
  Google has released a new algorithm update the search company is naming the Google June 2024 Spam Update. This update does not have anything new specific changes that we are aware of, like some previous updates. Google just wrote, “Today we released the June 2024 spam update. It may take up to 1 week to complete, and we’ll post on the Google Search Status Dashboard when the rollout is done.”
• 
  Google Search Bug: Not Indexing or Serving New Content
  
  
  Google Search may be having a new indexing or serving (or both) bug where it is now showing new content from sites that are creating new content. Sites like the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, CNN, Forbes, and others are showing very few new pages being indexed in the past hour by Google Search.
• 
  Local Service Ads Coming To Google Maps On iOS
  
  
  Google is notifying some advertisers that use Google’s Local Service Ads program that soon their ads will be shown on Google Maps. It will start with the iOS version of the Google Maps app and then expand to other platforms and surfaces from there.
• 
  Google Search Images Go Missing? Might Be A Quality Issue.
  
  
  For the past several months, generally around the helpful content update in September and the various core updates we had over the past several months, there have been complaints with image thumbnails for some sites not appearing in the Google Search result listings. Google responded again to the issue, saying it is not a technical thing for most sites but rather a quality issue.
• 
  Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Spam Update, Volatility & Indexing Bug, AI Overviews Tracking & FAQs, Google Maps Exploit, Google Ads, AppleBot & More
  
  
  We had a new Google spam update, the June 2024 spam update and what would be an SEO video recap within Google Search ranking volatility, at least this time it was on Father’s Day weekend. Google Search seemed to have an indexing bug last night. If your image snippets disappeared from Google months ago, it is likely a quality…
• 
  Google Posts Safe Search FAQs
  
  
  Ashwarya, the Community Manager for Google Search, posted a bunch of resources around Google Safe Search. He wrote, “We are going to help you out in every way possible. Here are a few articles to get you started on Safe Search.”





• 
  Google Tests Floating Search Bar In Google Discover
  
  
  Google is testing a floating search bar in the Google Discover results. So when you load up the Google home page on your mobile device and scroll through some Discover stories, the search bar sticks to the stop and floats over the stories.




• 
  Google Dublin Whiteboard Signage
  
  
  Here is a Google sign that is at the Google Dublin office which also is a whiteboard. You can write messages on the Google logo. I think this is old but I found it on Instagram recently.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

• 12 Important Image SEO Tips You Need To Know, Search Engine Journal
• AI Overviews Are Breaking Search (Here’s How They Could Fix It), WordStream
• Branded vs. Non-Branded Keywords: What’s the Difference?, Semrush
• Competitive Intel: Here’s What an SEO Competitor Analysis Tells You, TopRank
• How Sites With Less SEO Win Google + 4 More SEO Tips, Zyppy SEO Consulting
• How To Submit a Reconsideration Request To Google, BruceClay
• Initial Impact of Google’s AI Overviews: SEO Research Study, seoClarity
• SEO Insights from Google Engineer Ni Lao’s Work on ML, IR & NLP, Ethan Lazuk
• The Scary Surge and Drop in Indexing in Google Search Console (GSC) And Why That Might Be Totally Fine, GSQI
• What Is YMYL & How Does It Affect SEO?, Semrush

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

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Google Search may be having a new indexing or serving (or both) bug where it is now showing new content from sites that are creating new content. Sites like the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, CNN, Forbes, and others are showing very few new pages being indexed in the past hour by Google Search.

While all of these sites have produced dozens of stories in the past hour, most are showing 0 to 10 new content (URLs) in the Google Search index in the past hour.

Google has not posted any issue yet in its Search Status Dashboard and I do not see massive complaints yet but I received a notice on X about this (that post was deleted) but I still see the issue.

Here are some examples:

– site:cnn.com – within hour – 2 results:

– site:wsj.com – within hour 2 results:

WSJ down to nothing:

– site:nytimes.com – within hour 10 results:

– site:hollywoodreporter.com – within hour – 2 results:

– site:forbes.com – within hour 0 results:

Here are more examples of massive news sites not seeing much content in the Google index in the past hour:

I often see indexing complaints about Google Search but I rarely see it on sites this big that produce a lot of content.

We last had a larger issue like this in January 2024, then in December 2023, October 2023 and then many more over the years.

Are any of you seeing this?

Update at 7:30pm ET: I waited over 30 minutes for this story to be indexed by Google and it was not. Normally this site is indexed within minutes of a story going live.

So I checked Google Search Console and it said the page was crawled on Jun 20, 2024, 7:14:49 PM but the page was not in the Google index:

Meanwhile, the live URL inspection tool says there is nothing preventing it from being indexed:

I did request indexing manually to be sure – but still, not indexed.

Forum discussion at X.