SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 5, 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 has shockingly said the Google product reviews update finished rolling out on August 2nd, despite us all thinking it would be done two weeks later. Google has a new way of handling searches with quotes in them. Google’s Things To Know feature has returned to the desktop results. Google is testing business listing photos as an overlay. Google Discover Ads gain features, insights, and Ads Editor and API support. Plus my weekly SEO video recap is live for you all to consume, like, subscribe and comment on. Have a great weekend everyone!
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- July 2022 Google Product Reviews Update Finished On August 2nd & No One Said Anything
So Google has finished the rollout of the July 2022 Google Product Reviews Update in a record-breaking fashion, in a six-day period. It even shocked Google because Google originally estimated 14-21 days for the rollout and Google didn’t even mention anything on its social channels about the update being done rolling out. - Google Updates Searches With Quotes To Show Location Of Page That Contains Quoted Words
Google announced it has changed how it displays search results for queries that use queries. The search snippet will now display the portion of the page where the quotes match, so the searcher knows where to look on the page when clicking through to the URL. - RankRanger: Google Things To Know Back In Desktop Search Results
About two weeks ago, Google stopped showing the Things To Know box in the desktop search results but don’t fret, it seems to be back now. RankRanger’s tracker tool spotted that the Things To Know box has returned to normal levels within Google Search. - Google Business Listings Test Photo Overlay Interface In Web Search
Google seems to be testing overlaying the photos of some Google Business Profile listings in the web search results. Typically when you click on a photo in a Google Business Profile listing you are taken into the Google Maps interface to view the photos but this test simply overlays the photos on top of the web search results. - Google Ads Editor & API Now Support Discovery Ads, Plus New Audience Insights
Google announced a bunch of new things for Google Discover Ads yesterday. They include that the Google Ads Editor and Google Ads API now support Discovery ads, there are new audience insights at the Discovery campaign level, and new support for images with text overlays. - Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Product Reviews Update Done, Blogger SEO Best Practices, Mobile-First Indexing Alive, SEO Rants & Much More
Shockingly, Google finished rolling out the Google product reviews update on August 2nd and didn’t even tell us on social. We are seeing some volatility and fluctuations in Google Search may be due to the Google Product Reviews… - Outside Of The Google Chicago Subway Cars
We have posted numerous photos of the subway cars on the rooftop of the Google Chicago office before, just search this site. But this one shows a wider view and shows how really long this is. I always
Other Great Search Threads:
- Based on analyzing the July Product Reviews Update (which is still rolling out), I wanted to share some interesting SERP features I’ve seen that can help users while researching. E.g. From the web w/carousels, Buying Guides br, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
- Did you know: LSA Reviews Can totally be bought and are a huge ranking factor. “$4,000 for 1,500 reviews was a recent quote., Ben Fisher on Twitter
- It links to a specific part of a page ( https://t.co/zjDJaSF1tm ). In the case of your site, it loads so slowly that it doesn’t seem to work., John Mueller on Twitter
- Perhaps, instead of assuming there’s some secret SEO juice attracted / detracted from these pages, consider what it is you want to achieve with them, and wha, John Mueller on Twitter
- Yes, this is more about using JavaScript to change visibility of content in the DOM (which doesn’t really need JavaScript for indexing, it’s just how it’s commonly done in cod, John Mueller on Twitter
- I’m guessing it’s ranking either for different queries, or in a different way. Average ranking is tricky since it includes highs and lows. One way to find out more is to try to dril, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
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
Google Won’t Change The 301 Signals For Ranking & SEO
Gary Illyes from Google said on stage at the SERP conference last week that there is no way that Google would change how the 301 redirect signal works for SEO or search rankings. Gary added that it’s a very reliable signal.
Nikola Minkov quoted Gary Illyes as saying, “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal,” when asked if a 301 redirect not working is a myth. Honestly, I am not sure the context of this question, as it is not clear from the post on X, but here it is:
More from @methode:
– 301 redirect not working is a myth. “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal”.#SERPConf2024#SERPConf2024International— Nikola Minkov (@n_minkov) April 19, 2024
We’ve covered 301 redirects here countless times – but I never saw a myth that Google does not use 301 redirects as a signal for canonicalization or for passing signals from an old URL to the redirected URL.
Forum discussion at X.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Again Says Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
I am not sure how many times Google has said that you do not need to disavow spammy links, that you can ignore link spam attacks and that links pointing to pages that 404/410 are links that do not count – but John Mueller from Google said it again.
In a thread on X, John Mueller from Google wrote, “if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped.” “They do nothing,” he added, “If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link.”
John then added, “I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.”
Asking if it would hurt to disavow, after responding with the messages above, John wrote:
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
Earlier this year we had tons of SEOs notice spammy links to 404 error pages, John said ignore them. In 2021, Google said links to 404 pages do not count, Google also said that in 2012 and many other times.
Plus, outside of links to 404 pages, Google has said to ignore spammy links, time and time again – even the toxic links – ignore them. The messaging around this changed in 2016 when Penguin 4.0 was released and Google began devaluing links over demoting them.
Here are those new posts in context:
I’d say add both. Lol
— Jeremy Rivera (@JeremyRiveraSEO) April 11, 2024
Sure. But also, save yourself the work completely :-).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
Re-reading your initial post – if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped. They do nothing. If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link. I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
… but still… is this a dumb idea?
— Rebekah Edwards (@rebekah_creates) April 11, 2024
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
And in general, Google says it ignores spammy links, so you should too (not new) but this post from John Mueller is:
I would just ignore them, Google ignores them too. Sometimes they’re just more visible in tools, but that doesn’t mean they’re a problem.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 18, 2024
And then also on Mastodon wrote about a similar situation, “Google has 2 decades of practice of ignoring spammy links. There’s no need to do anything for those links.”
Forum discussion at X.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Needs Very Few Links To Rank Pages; Links Are Less Important
Gary Illyes from Google spoke at the SERP Conf on Friday and he said what he said numerous times before, that Google values links a lot less today than it did in the past. He added that Google Search “needs very few links to rank pages.”
Gary reportedly said, “We need very few links to rank pages… Over the years we’ve made links less important.”
I am quoting Patrick Stox who is quoting what he heard Gary say on stage at the event. Here is Patrick’s post where Gary did a rare reply:
I shouldn’t have said that… I definitely shouldn’t have said that
— Gary 鯨理/경리 Illyes (so official, trust me) (@methode) April 19, 2024
Gary said this a year ago, also in 2022 and other times as well. We previously covered that Google said links would likely become even less important in the future. And even Matt Cutts, the former Googler, said something similar about eight years ago and the truth is, links are weighted a lot less than it was eight years ago and that trend continues. A couple of years ago, Google said links are not the most important Google search ranking factor.
Of course, many SEOs think Google lies about this.
Judith Lewis interviewed Gary Illyes at the SERP Conf this past Friday.
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