SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 23, 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 is testing a more wide-screen desktop interface for search. Google is also testing sponsored labels on desktop. Google is testing an about carousel feature. Google is also testing displaying local business profiles in Google Discover. Google said redirected spammy penalized sites do no need to be disavowed. I also posted my weekly SEO video recap with the week in summary. Finally, wishing everyone very happy, peaceful, and happy holidays – thanks for being part of this community!
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Search News Buzz Video Recap: No More Google Core Updates In 2022, Helpful Content Update Taking Longer, The Impact Of These Updates & More
Google told us that we should not expect another Core update in 2022, so you can relax about that. Google said the helpful content update would take longer to roll out… - Google Search Testing New Desktop Search User Interface Design
We’ve been covering a lot of Google user interface tests but here is a look at a revamped Google Search desktop interface including some of the tests we covered before. You see the new site links tests, the new people also ask tests, four rows of the Twitter carousel, related searches in three rows and more. - Google Tests Sponsored Label On Desktop Search Ads
Google is testing displaying the new “sponsored” ad label on the desktop search results. Google launched the new sponsored ad label on mobile search two months ago and tested it also on Discover recently, and is now also testing it on the desktop interface. - Google Tests About Carousel For Websites
Google is testing a new search feature to tell you more about a website. This is an “about” carousel that shows more information about a site, including information from the site itself and third-party sites. - Google Testing Displaying Local Business Profiles In Google Discover
Google is testing including the local business profile listings in Google Discover. There is this new section named “mentioned in this article” where Google can show the local business listing of companies that were noted in the article. - Google: Ignore Spammy Links Even When A Whole Penalized Site Is Redirected To You
Google’s advice since Penguin 4.0 was that you don’t need to disavow links since the links are neutralized and don’t end up helping or hurting you. In short, Google ignores those links. This even applies to when someone redirects a site that was penalized for spammy links to your site, said John Mueller of Google. - Rusty Google Room
Here is a photo from one of the rooms at the Google Singapore office. It is a rusty room, well, at least it looks pretty retro and hip and there is a sign that says “Rusty Nuts” – so I think it is f
Other Great Search Threads:
- As I head out for the holidays, I want to thank you for all the questions, comments and feedback this year. Very grateful to this community of passionate & talented marketers. Wishing everyone a restful seas, AdsLiaison on Twitter
- Calling all K-12 US-based artists: Get ready – the #DoodleForGoogle Student Contest returns for its 15th year on January 11th, when we’ll announce this year’s theme. Until then, save the date!, Google Doodles on Twitter
- Excited that @NFL Sunday Ticket is coming to @YouTube Primetime Channels and @YouTubeTV starting with the 2023 season!, Sundar Pichai on Twitter
- By mistake, some SEOs add ‘noindex’ tag on a page while blocking its crawling via robots.txt to remove that page from search results, Praveen Sharma on Mastodon
- I went for an interview today, and the interviewer questioned me how many sitemaps exist and I said html and xml obviously and he said there are 3. guess there is a KML sitemap as well and I searched a lot but couldnt find a lot or if it works or not., Reddit
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
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
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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