SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 13, 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.
No, there is no helpful content score from Google Search. Google is testing the featured snippets that are not in position zero (one). A study says that reviews from Google Local Guides stay up longer than other reviews. Google says your content does not need to be niche to rank well. Microsoft Advertising will require UK advertisers in the financial sector to be verified.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google: There Is No Helpful Content Score Or Threshold
Google’s John Mueller said there is no score or threshold for the Google helpful content update. He said on Mastodon “There is no “HCS score” or threshold at which HCS [helpful content score] would switch from unhelpful to helpful for SEO. - Google Tests Featured Snippets Not In Position Zero, Again
Google is once again testing showing the featured snippet, aka position zero, not in the first or position zero slot but rather under position one or even further down the page. - Google: Your Content Does Not Need To Be Niche, It Can Be Diverse – Just Write For Your People
Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, said on Masoton that your content does not need to be on one topic, one niche topic, for it to rank well. You can write about diverse topics on your site. The main thing, Danny said, was that you should write content however you want for your people and not for search engines. - Study: Google Local Guides Reviews Stay At The Top Longer
Joy Hawkins has published another local SEO case study, this one on whether reviews left by Local Guides do better than any ordinary reviewer on Google. The answer is yes; reviews left by Local Guides seem to do better and last longer than other reviews. - UK Financial Services Advertisers Now Needs Verification For Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft announced that if you do financial service ads in its network, like on Bing Search, in the UK, you will need to be verified in early 2023. “Starting early 2023, we’ll allow only advertisers duly authorized by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to present regulated financial promotions in the UK,” wrote. - R2-D2 At Google Event
Here is a photo from the Google Dublin office from an event named “Google Unwrapped, Let Your Thursday Roar.” You can see, R2-D2 from Star Wars was in attendance.
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
Apple Maps Street View Camera Backpack

Here is a photo of some guy walking around Israel with an Apple Maps street view backpack. It was captured by Hillel Fuld the other day and posted on Twitter.
Google has its own street view backpack, which is more impressive to look at.
This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.
SEARCHENGINES
Google’s Internal Menu System Tracks Googlers Food Preferences

A Googler shared screenshots of the output from the Google internal menu system where it told her that one day she avoids salades and then she must have had some salads to correct that and the next day it say she enjoys salad. I am just amazed Google tracks the food Googlers eat and offers suggestions.
Here are those tweets embedded:
Important update.
As much as I would like to be a conspiracy theorist and assume that my tweets are being monitored, seems the initial warning was just a bug. pic.twitter.com/FRbkw6QE0g
— Lara Levin (@TheLaraxSF) March 23, 2022
So… I think I have two preferences set on the menu… that I like soups and salads. I think the system inverted that to things I avoid. It is now fixed. Inadvertent shaming is over.
— Lara Levin (@TheLaraxSF) March 24, 2022
Haha, I think it’s just “here are the menus for the day”, and it’ll show you things you might like most at the top. It’s not that fancy 🙂
— Lara Levin (@TheLaraxSF) March 24, 2022
To be clear, it doesn’t track you! You can set favorites. And there was a bug 🙂
— Lara Levin (@TheLaraxSF) February 2, 2023
This is really not a photo of the day but close enough…
This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.
SEARCHENGINES
Daniel Waisberg Hosts Lizzi Sassman & Martin Splitt At Google Tel Aviv

A couple of months before John Mueller visited Daniel Waisberg at the Google Tel Aviv office, Lizzi Sassman and Martin Splitt of Google did as well. Here are the three smiling on the streets of Tel Aviv.
This was shared a while back on Twitter.
This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.
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