SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 26, 2022
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 URL parameter tool is officially no longer working. Google AdWords API is sunsetting tomorrow, April 27th. Google is asking those who leave reviews months and months ago to update those reviews. Google has local business listings with a new deals tab. Google Business Profile performance metrics now can show product performance.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- It’s Gone: The Google Search Console URL Parameter Tool Is Now Offline
As expected, the Google Search Console URL Parameter Tool is no longer available. If you try to access it for a specific property, you get a message that reads “this report is no longer available here.” It links you to the announcement that the tool was being decommissioned today. - Google AdWords API Shutting Down Tomorrow, April 27th
The time has come for the Google AdWords API to officially shutdown tomorrow, April 27th. Google warned us this would happen over a year ago and now the day has come where the legacy Google AdWords API will sunset and be fully replaced by the Google Ads API. - Google Business Profile Adds Products Performance Metrics
Google has added a section to the Google Business Profile Performance Metrics (formerly Google My Business Insights) for products. This section shows you how your products performed in Google Maps and local search. It shows you how many people viewed your products and what your top products are. - Google Local Business Listing Deals Tab
Google is showing a “deals” tab on some local business listings. I am not sure if this is new or not, I know I covered deal labels in the local business listings but I am not sure if I saw a tab devoted to just deals? - Google Maps Asking Local Guides To Update Old Reviews
It seems that the Google Maps team is asking some Google Local Guides to update older reviews they have left in the past. Tricia Clements posted a screenshot on Twitter of the Google Maps request. - Bug Hunter Google Hoodie
Here is a hoodie from Google for the Google’s bug hunter bounty program. You can see the bug hunter Google logo on it. Google I guess sends these hoodies to some of those who are part of the bug hunt
Other Great Search Threads:
- Everything is relative to the other search results., John Mueller on Twitter
- Google’s “inclusive language assistant”, now AI driven., WebmasterWorld
- I have noticed another change in the Google SERP result today. A slew of images have arrived, Kunjan Shah on Twitter
- Not all patents are in use, not all things in use are patented, not all things in use for one thing are useful for other things., John Mueller on Twitter
- Relevance is irrelevant when it comes to unnatural links., John Mueller on Twitter
- We do have the open access link you mentioned in your tweet & other references to the Wiley location. Agreed we should do better to include the Wiley location. It looks like it’s not in our index for some reas, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
- When implementing Google Analytics 4, you’ll want to avoid cardinality at all costs. What is cardinality and why should you care?, Charles Farina on Twitter
- Google > Mobile In the shopping listing, I saw “Explore outfits” section with a tag line “ways to wear this product”. Maybe it’s old., Saad AK on Twitter
- If the content is the same, why would it matter which version is shown?, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
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, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Microsoft Bing Search Menu Drop Down With Explore & Collect

Microsoft Bing is testing a new search bar interface on image search (I believe) where the search vertical options, such as web, videos, news, etc, are now presented in a drop-down bar and Bing added an “explore” and “collect” option across the bar instead.
This was spotted first by Frank Sandtmann and posted on Mastodon but I am also able to replicate this in Bing Image search. Here is a screenshot that you can click on and enlarge:
This was also spotted by Khushal Bherwani:
🆕 Bing with Explore and Image filters in Image search. pic.twitter.com/ttjenRpfLW
— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) January 23, 2023
Frank wrote, “Today I spotted #Bing displaying a new navigation menu on their image #SERP. Now the usual elements can be accessed after clicking on a dropdown. In addition, two more elements are displayed: “Explore” and “Collect”.”
Do you prefer this interface? I get what Microsoft is trying to do here but to me, I might want to jump back to web results or maybe video results sooner than use explore or collect?
Forum discussion at Mastodon.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Publishes A New SEO Case Study

A couple of weeks after I said I thought Google would stop publishing SEO case studies, Google just published a new one. This one is on How Vimeo improved video SEO for their customers, specifically by using the indexifembedded rule combined with noindex and adding structured data.
As a reminder, recently, Mariachiara Marsella asked John Mueller if Google could add new case studies. John Mueller responded on Mastodon, “I find it quite challenging for us to do these since search is so dynamic.”
So I thought that was it, stick a fork in it, no more SEO case studies from Google. But I suspect as soon as I wrote that piece, Gary went, I’ll show Barry and got a new one written up. Okay, I doubt that happened…
In any event, the new case study says, “Vimeo adopted Google’s new guidance for video players that use iframe embeds. The new indexifembedded rule paired with noindex allows markup to be attributed through embeds. Since applying this and VideoObject markup, Vimeo videos that are embedded on customer pages are eligible for indexing, without customers having to add markup themselves.”
They also used key moments; the case study reads, “To make all Vimeo Chapters eligible to appear as Key Moments on Google Search, Vimeo added Clip markup to all of their video host pages. Vimeo also implemented Seek markup, so if a video doesn’t have Vimeo Chapters, Google can automatically identify Key Moments.”
Anyway, check out the case study if you do any video SEO, it is an interesting one.
Just super interesting that there have been almost no new case studies in about 18 months and now we got a new one…
Forum discussion at Mastodon.
SEARCHENGINES
Generating Fake URLs On Competitors Site Shouldn’t Hurt The Site, Google Says

John Mueller from Google said that bulk-generating fake URLs of your competitor’s site should not lead to negative SEO and ranking issues for that site. “This is not something I’d worry about,” he added.
Mike Blazer asked John, “Bulk generate non-existing URLs on a competitor’s site that lead to 5XX server errors when opened. Googlebot sees that a substantial number of pages on that domain return 5XX, the server is unable to handle requests. Google reduces the page #crawl frequency for that domain.”
John replied on Mastodon saying, “I can’t imagine that having any effect. This is not something I’d worry about.”
Here is a screenshot of this conversation:
Do you agree?
Forum discussion at Mastodon.
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