NEWS
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 10, 2021

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 Ads added 6.5X more search query data to the search term report but some data is going away. Microsoft Advertising launched its own optimization score and is launching a bunch of new ad features including disclaimers on ads. Google’s John Mueller said JavaScript verification is still the way to go to notify users of content eligibility. Google My Business removed the Site manager level of access. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap today. Have a great and safe weekend!
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Ads Search Terms Report Gains 6.5X More Query Data
Google announced that the Google Ads search term report now has, on average, 6.5 times more query data than since the company hide search term data back in September 2020. Google said “we’re able to show you more queries that meet our privacy standards in the search terms report for Search and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns.” - Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Update 9/4, Bing Content Submission API, Recipe Rich Results & Google Ads Search Terms
This past Saturday, September 4th, there may have been another Google search ranking update. Microsoft Bing launched the content submission API out of beta. Google may automatically remove recipe rich results… - Google: JavaScript Verification Still The Way To Go For Sensitive Pages
Back in 2008 Google’s Susan Moskwa said that when it comes to showing content to search engines but not all users because of either age verification detection or other requirements, often JavaScript verification is the way to go. The same is true today, according to John Mueller of Google. - Microsoft Advertising Search Ads Get Disclaimers, Tests Video Ads & More
Microsoft Advertising, in addition to the optimization score feature, announced or pre-announced a number of advertising updates. These include disclaimers can now show in your ads, also there are new inline appeals for product ads and vertical-based product ads, plus the company is piloting video ads on the Microsoft Audience Network. - Microsoft Advertising Optimization Score
Microsoft announced Optimization Score for the Microsoft Advertising platform. Optimization Score available on the Recommendations tab in the platform. - Google My Business Removes Site Manager User Role
Google has now removed the site manager role or user rights level for Google My Business users. Now I see three levels; (1) primary owner, (2) owner and (3) manager. Google sent out emails notifying about the removal of the “site manager” role going away. - BrightonSEO Photos
I got to say, looking at the photos coming out of the first really big SEO conference, BrightonSEO, is amazing to see. It is a mixture of wow, people are back together with smiles and wow, people are
Other Great Search Threads:
- 🎭Oh, The Drama! #SearchOffTheRecord EP 23- 🎧→ https://t.co/H6fnwBaSGz 📖→ https://t.co/EJGJaHzkke ⏯→ https://t.co/22ii5KiXgH Hosts @JohnMu, @methode, @okaylizzi, and guest @Wysz 📜 give a dramatic, Google Search Central on Twitter
- For most sites where we do regular crawling, it’s up to 24 hours. On sites we we crawl a ton, we might fetch it more often. On sites where we rarely crawl, maybe we’ll cache it longer (eg, if we crawl 1 URL, John Mueller on Twitter
- I wouldn’t worry about Pagerank – think about what structure you want for the long term. Any merging or splitting of sites is going to cause short & mid-term fluctuations, so you need to think about what y, John Mueller on Twitter
- Things like this have come & gone over the years, it’s hard to say. Making it easier for users to discover other websites seems like a good thing for the broader ecosystem, though I can see how the more establis, John Mueller on Twitter
- Facebook Ray-Ban “Stories” Smart Glasses Go On Sale, WebmasterWorld
- One way to look at it might be “do you need a local business presence where potential customers will want to go?” If so, you probably want geotargeting. If you can do everything online, maybe not., John Mueller on Twitter
- Twitter Tests Communities, WebmasterWorld
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel or just contact us the old fashion way.
NEWS
Google December Product Reviews Update Affects More Than English Language Sites? via @sejournal, @martinibuster
Google’s Product Reviews update was announced to be rolling out to the English language. No mention was made as to if or when it would roll out to other languages. Mueller answered a question as to whether it is rolling out to other languages.
Google December 2021 Product Reviews Update
On December 1, 2021, Google announced on Twitter that a Product Review update would be rolling out that would focus on English language web pages.
Our December 2021 product reviews update is now rolling out for English-language pages. It will take about three weeks to complete. We have also extended our advice for product review creators: https://t.co/N4rjJWoaqE
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 1, 2021
The focus of the update was for improving the quality of reviews shown in Google search, specifically targeting review sites.
A Googler tweeted a description of the kinds of sites that would be targeted for demotion in the search rankings:
“Mainly relevant to sites that post articles reviewing products.
Think of sites like “best TVs under $200″.com.
Goal is to improve the quality and usefulness of reviews we show users.”
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Google also published a blog post with more guidance on the product review update that introduced two new best practices that Google’s algorithm would be looking for.
The first best practice was a requirement of evidence that a product was actually handled and reviewed.
The second best practice was to provide links to more than one place that a user could purchase the product.
The Twitter announcement stated that it was rolling out to English language websites. The blog post did not mention what languages it was rolling out to nor did the blog post specify that the product review update was limited to the English language.
Google’s Mueller Thinking About Product Reviews Update
Product Review Update Targets More Languages?
The person asking the question was rightly under the impression that the product review update only affected English language search results.
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But he asserted that he was seeing search volatility in the German language that appears to be related to Google’s December 2021 Product Review Update.
This is his question:
“I was seeing some movements in German search as well.
So I was wondering if there could also be an effect on websites in other languages by this product reviews update… because we had lots of movement and volatility in the last weeks.
…My question is, is it possible that the product reviews update affects other sites as well?”
John Mueller answered:
“I don’t know… like other languages?
My assumption was this was global and and across all languages.
But I don’t know what we announced in the blog post specifically.
But usually we try to push the engineering team to make a decision on that so that we can document it properly in the blog post.
I don’t know if that happened with the product reviews update. I don’t recall the complete blog post.
But it’s… from my point of view it seems like something that we could be doing in multiple languages and wouldn’t be tied to English.
And even if it were English initially, it feels like something that is relevant across the board, and we should try to find ways to roll that out to other languages over time as well.
So I’m not particularly surprised that you see changes in Germany.
But I also don’t know what we actually announced with regards to the locations and languages that are involved.”
Does Product Reviews Update Affect More Languages?
While the tweeted announcement specified that the product reviews update was limited to the English language the official blog post did not mention any such limitations.
Google’s John Mueller offered his opinion that the product reviews update is something that Google could do in multiple languages.
One must wonder if the tweet was meant to communicate that the update was rolling out first in English and subsequently to other languages.
It’s unclear if the product reviews update was rolled out globally to more languages. Hopefully Google will clarify this soon.
Citations
Google Blog Post About Product Reviews Update
Product reviews update and your site
Google’s New Product Reviews Guidelines
Write high quality product reviews
John Mueller Discusses If Product Reviews Update Is Global
Watch Mueller answer the question at the 14:00 Minute Mark
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