SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 12, 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 now says its guaranteed ads, the local service ads, the reviews are no longer guaranteed. Google Lens is now being used on Google Image search – finally. Google says clicking on your own search results won’t help or hurt your site. Google said the 50,000 URL limit is based on the location URL, not alternative URLs. Google is testing more sitelinks designs. I also posted the weekly SEO video recap where I dive deep into the big news this week.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google: Clicking On Your Site In Google Search Won’t Hurt Or Help Your Rankings
One of the oldest myths in the Google SEO-verse is that clicking on your search results in Google Search will help you rank better. Google does not and has never used click data for ranking purposes (with the exception of a short period of Google+ data being used in Google Search). - Google Guaranteed Local Ads Adds Reviews Not Guaranteed Disclaimer
Google has added a label on the Google Guaranteed Local Service Ads reviews to say the reviews are not guaranteed. This I guess comes as no surprise with all the Google Local Service Ads spam and junk we have been noticing recently. - Google: Sitemap 50,000 Limit Based On Location URLs, Not Alternative URLs
We know that each XML sitemap file can contain a maximum of 50,000 URLs but what is counted as the 50,000 URLs? John Mueller was asked if Google counts both the location URL and the alternative URL in the 50,000 limits. John said it is just the location URL. - Google Image Search Now Uses Google Lens
Google Images at images.google.com now uses Google Lens when you click on the upload a photo icon. This has been coming for a long long time and is finally fully here. - Google Tests More New Sitelink Designs
Google loves to test new designs and interfaces for the Sitelinks it shows in the snippets of its search results. This one shows larger rectangular curved buttons under the snippet to the sitelink. - Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google MUM Gives Featured Snippets Consensus, Google Breaks Bad, Ranking Tremors, Lens, Spam & More
Google launched new features in search, one where Google is using MUM to give featured snippets a consensus – it is pretty cool. Google also released new about this result features and expanded content advisories in search… - Yellow Hallway At Google NYC
Here is a photo of one of the typical hallways you’d find in the Google New York City office. This one is very yellow, with a G super logo in black on the door. It makes me think of the yellow submar
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
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
New Google Trusted Store Badge Test

Google is testing a new design for the trusted store badge in the paid shopping results. The Google Trusted Stores program to all U.S. merchants back in 2012, along with that came a badge in the search results to make those listings stand out.
FYI – here is how to qualify for this trusted store badge.
Brian Freiesleben spotted this new badge the other day and posted a screenshot on Twitter – here is that screenshot:
Curently, the badge looks more like this version from last year:
And the original one looked like this:
Brian said on Twitter, “Would love to see Google add this to organic products from trusted merchants as well, but not sure if that’s likely.”
Looks like Google is testing out a new badge for advertisers that are trusted merchants.
Would love to see Google add this to organic products from trusted merchants as well, but not sure if that’s likely 😉
Second screenshot is what appears after clicking the badge. pic.twitter.com/3lXIU9m04d
— Brian Freiesleben (@type_SEO) January 25, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Console Content Ideas Going Away March 28th

Last December, we caught Google testing an experimental feature named content ideas in Google Search Console. Well, yesterday, Google sent more invites to this feature but noted the feature is only available until March 28, 2023 and then it goes away.
Both Robin Dirksen on Twitter and Deepak Ness on Twitter shared screenshots of this feature but the new part is the March 28th date.
The email they received about this feature reads, “Note: This feature be available only until March 28, 2023, and only to select properties.” Then when you access the feature, there is a notice in the interface that says, “New! Get inspiration for new content (available until March 28).”
Here are those screenshots (click to enlarge):
We know this seems like the Question Hub feature and that Google Question Hub shut down this month. So maybe this content ideas feature is also shutting down but not until the end of March?
Here are more tweets with this:
Just received an email from Google Search Console about “Content ideas”
For me, it will be available till March 28 (2023) – what will happen after that is unknown (for now) pic.twitter.com/hjVtrStJXP
— Robin Dirksen (@robindirksen1) January 25, 2023
Here’s it: pic.twitter.com/thAvEgI95t
— DeepakNess (@DeepakNesss) January 25, 2023
Hmmm… This is interesting Introducing “Content ideas”: Get inspiration for new content from Google – has this been reported on yet @rustybrick ? pic.twitter.com/aUOt3sYoTJ
— @[email protected] (@ChuckPrice518) January 25, 2023
“content ideas” GSC feature (US based) company/website.@rustybrick reported it in December but looked to be exclusive to India/Pakistan.https://t.co/Pg0sQIEXAT pic.twitter.com/iGoQhfAzYe
— Nick LeRoy (@NickLeRoy) January 25, 2023
I do wonder if Google is only testing it until then and maybe will bring it to more users later or if Google is completely killing it off on March 28th?
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.
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