SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 29, 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.
We are seeing renewed volatility in the Google Search results today – is this the end of the helpful content and link spam update? Google said using “here” for your anchor text links is bad. Google said don’t links to your own social media profiles. Google is testing a more detailed things to do carousel. And SEOs and PPCers are worried about budget cuts in 2023 with the recession looming.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- New Google Search Algorithm Ranking Fluctuations On December 26th
While it has been calm for the past several days, today is a new day and I am seeing some signs of more volatility and ranking fluctuations as of the past 24 hours or less. Some of the automated tracking tools are picking it up, and I am seeing some renewed chatter in the SEO industry. - Many Marketers Worried About SEO & PPC Budgets Being Cut In 2023 Due To Recession
I conducted a very unscientific poll on Twitter asking marketers who do SEO and PPC if they are worried about their budgets being cut in 2023 due to the recession (or looming recession). 23% of marketers said they are very worried, 37% said they are somewhat worried and 40% said they are not worried. - Google: Do Not Nofollow Links To Your Own Social Media Profiles
Google’s John Mueller said on Reddit that when it comes to linking from your site to your social medial profiles you should not nofollow those links. He added that you should add the rel=me attribute to them because it is an open standard to help others validate that this profile is yours. - Google: “Here” Is Bad Link Text
Lizzi Sassman from Google said in this morning’s Google SEO office hours that using the anchor text “here,” the text for your hyperlink, is simply “bad link text.” Instead, you should use more descriptive text for the page you are linking to. - Google Search Things To Do Carousel Gains More Details In Scroll Window
For the past couple of weeks, Google has expanded the Things To Do overlay carousel to allow searchers to scroll through the carousel vertically instead of clicking to a new page to gain more details. - NBA and Google Water Bottle
Check out this awesome NBA and Google branded water bottle. This was posted by Max Weinbach, a contributor editor at 9to5Google. He said, “Google really does give the best swag and merch.”
Other Great Search Threads:
- noindex is fine, robots.txt is fine. Pick one. It will still be shown in the reports, but it’s not shown to users., John Mueller on Twitter
- Found a glitch. If we check the distance in #Google SERP. When we switch from Train to Car in #GoogleMap, it shows 1 min distance. @milan_0015 & I spotted this. Did you notice this?, Anuj thaker on Twitter
- I don’t know if AI is the right approach to making titles & descriptions, but if you’re running out of ideas, and especially if you see pages showing up in search for the wrong terms, it seems like a good way to get inspiration, or to try new things out., John Mueller on Mastodon
- Maybe there’s nothing to do. If there was a simple answer that works for everyone, the tools would tell you that :-). Analyze the data, and make decisions on what’s specific about your site., John Mueller on Mastodon
- The link rel canonical is a fantastic tool, it forces you to consider which URL format should be the canonical, and can be the first step in cleaning up a messy, John Mueller on Mastodon
- Your homepage (assuming it’s the domain there) doesn’t have a lot of content though, what would it rank for?, John Mueller on Mastodon
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
Most SEOs Believe Google’s November Core & Reviews Updates Will Complete In December

The Google November 2023 core update and Google November 2023 reviews update are still both rolling out, and we have no estimated time of when they will finish rolling out. Both are well past their estimated two-week rollout period. I ran a poll yesterday asking SEOs when they think it will be done, and most said in December and not in the next few days left of November.
The poll had just under 600 votes in 24-hours and 79% said the update will be completed in December and 21% said in the last days remaining in November. I posted the poll on X – here it is:
Will the Google core and reviews update finish in November or December?
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) November 27, 2023
Personally, I thought it would be done by now and I still think it will be done in the next day or so – but I am wrong a lot. 🙂
I do hope it is done today so they can roll out the Christmas holiday update (kidding…).
Forum discussion at X.
Update: I’ll have a story tomorrow but at least one of the updates is done in November:
The roll-out of the November core update is now complete.https://t.co/geIJA2Bg8g
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) November 28, 2023
SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Console Was Down Today

Google Search Console seems to be down right now. If you try to access it, you will get a 500 server error. I suspect Search Console will be back up shortly but right now, if it is down for you, you are not alone.
Update: At 8:52 am ET Google Search Console is back, the tool was offline for about 50 minutes.
Google’s Daniel Waisberg is 100% aware of the issue. He responded to some posts about the issue, saying, “we’re working on it.” John Mueller from Google is also reposting Daniel’s posts on X.
Here is what it looked like when you tried to access it while it was down:
Search Console went down at about 8 am ET and returned at 8:52 am ET.
Here are the posts on X from Daniel Waisberg of Google on this issue:
I was looking for a plug to charge my phone, so I had to unplug the server 🤷♂️
— Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) November 27, 2023
Joking aside, we’re working on it! 👨💻
— Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) November 27, 2023
Who knows, maybe we will have a new Search Console feature when it returns?
Here are some of the complaints:
Search Console its down atm.
— Juanan Carapapa (@Carapapeando) November 27, 2023
@rustybrick search console is down pic.twitter.com/Nm6P84WJld
— Daramel (@Daramel29) November 27, 2023
Is Google Search Console currently experiencing issues? It’s not functioning on my device.
Cc:- @JohnMu @searchliaison @googlesearchc @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/YHjXfSVn30
— Vijay Chauhan 📈 – SEO for Enterprise Businesses (@VijayChauhanSEO) November 27, 2023
In Spain too pic.twitter.com/d1Yiwef72k
— Rafa Martin 👽🖖 (@rafainatica) November 27, 2023
Someone kick the server in the corner @googlesearchc @JohnMu @danielwaisberg https://t.co/79IFVVFdTM
— Pedro Dias (@pedrodias) November 27, 2023
Anyone facing google search console 500 error 🤨🤨#DigitalMarketing #google #searchconsoleerror #500error #trend #news # pic.twitter.com/jWDscWcz1f
— Pankaj besarwal (@Iampankaj10) November 27, 2023
GSC this morning… talk about a case of the Mondays pic.twitter.com/6H3KUG2sd4
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) November 27, 2023
Update: At 8:52 am ET Google Search Console is back, the tool was offline for about 50 minutes.
Should be all good now.
— Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) November 27, 2023
SEARCHENGINES
Google Testing New Flight Prices Rich Result?

Google may be testing a new type of rich result for flight prices. This test shows a section under the flight search snippet that contains the dates, trip details and price.
This was spotted by Antoine Eripret who was able to trigger this numerous times, over numerous days, while in Spain. Here is his screenshot he posted on X:
He also posted this video of this in action for me:
Recently Google told us not to put flight prices in titles because those prices change too quickly. Maybe Google is testing updating those prices in more real time through the use of structured data and is thus more confident to show them as rich results and not title elements?
I don’t think Google officially supports flight schema but maybe they will soon?
Forum discussion at X.
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