SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 18, 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 dropping the follow and welcome offers for local business profiles. Google Maps is showing the questions and answers feature in the maps interface. Google said adding individual pages does not impact crawl budget. Google posted a new video on how BERT helps Google with search. Bing is testing emojis favicons in the title of the search results. I also posted my weekly video recap – this one was a good one, don’t miss it.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Business Profiles Follow & Welcome Offer Going Away
Kara a Google Community Manager announced that Google is doing away with the Google Business profile feature to follow a local listing in Google Maps or Google Search and also dropping the welcome offer feature. There is no date on when this is happening, so it might be happening now or already happened depending on the roll out timing. - Bing Tests Various Favicons In Title Tags
Here is an interesting test from Microsoft Bing. The search company is testing placing a newspaper emoji and a magnifying glass emoji as the favicon in the title of the search results pages. It is unusual and I am not sure why Bing is testing it, but they are. - Questions and Answers In The Google Maps Interface
The questions and answers section is often found for local listings local knowledge panel listing on both desktop and mobile but now it is also showing up in the Google Maps interface. - Google: Adding Individual Pages Does Not Impact How We Crawl Your Site
Google’s John Mueller said that simply adding individual pages won’t impact how Google crawls your site. Crawl budget generally is only impacted by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pages – not individual pages here or there. - Video On How BERT Helps With Google Search – It’s The Little Words
Google has posted a new video on how BERT helps Google Search understand language. Google has been using BERT in search since 2018, we only knew about it in 2019. That being said, the short video basically says it is about Google understanding the little words better. - Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Algorithm Update Brewing, Google Ads Disapprovals, Google Reporting Glitches & More
This week, we reported about a possible Google search ranking algorithm update brewing, after weeks of calmness. Google Ads may be mass disapproving ads… - Life Size Outdoor Chess Set At Google Zurich
Here is a photo from outside by the Google Zurich office of a life size chess board with life size pieces. This was shared on Instagram recently but this is not new, it has been around for a while.
Other Great Search Threads:
- I think it’s new. When trying to verify a GBP listing I get a new interface and it takes me to the Google Merchant Center if you select that customers can purchase products through website @TheSocialDude @JoyanneHawkins @Aden, francastrokw on Twitter
- I think they’re super cool – but also challenging from an SEO POV. Including enough relevant textual content is hard with such a visual format. But finding the right words is probably second-nature to you as an, John Mueller on Twitter
- Google pays Mozilla ~$400M per year to be the default search engine -> Firefox’s market share decline is pushing Mozilla to diversify its revenue, such as through browser personalization, as it seeks independence from Google d, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
- Have you ever Googled yourself and found info that you think is outdated? Watch our new video to learn all about requesting content removals under the right to be forgotten → https://t.co/Vy1foC3iV1 https://t, Google Search Central on Twitter
- If you use Inspect URL or check the cached page, you can see that we pick the new URL as canonical. However, the query looks very much like you’re “asking for” the old URL, so we show it. If you use [my grea, John Mueller on Twitter
- Microsoft @Bing is committed to making #Search more visually immersive. A favorite redesigned feature is our knowledge cards, which surface key information in a fun and beautiful way. I’m proud to share that this experience i, Jordi Ribas on Twitter
- What’s the roadmap to becoming a professional SEO? @JohnMu and @methode chat with @aleyda about her path to becoming an SEO, and the lessons she’s learned along the way. → https://t.co/7BkxxMtGc5, Google Search Central on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
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.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Blasts Agencies That Sell Links Building & Disavow Link Services

John Mueller of Google blasted SEO or marketing agencies that sell both link-building services and disavow link services. He said on Twitter, “These agencies (both those creating, and those disavowing) are just making stuff up, and cashing in from those who don’t know better.”
John added that its “all made up and irrelevant.”
Also, when asked if they should disavow links, John replied yesterday on Twitter, “Don’t waste your time on it; do things that build up your site instead.”
Here is the chain of tweets, so you see the context that John is replying to.
Ryan Jones does his rant:
I’m still shocked at how many seos regularly disavow links. Why? Unless you spammed them or have a manual action you’re probably doing more harm than good.
— Ryan Jones (@RyanJones) January 31, 2023
Here is the chain that follows:
There are no clear instructions from google’s side that what kind of links we should disavow even Google created confusion on this by saying no need to disavow blogspot, shaddy links, adult site links.
— Saurabh Rawat (Tech SEO) (@SEOGuruJaipur) January 31, 2023
I’ve personally never seen that type of negative seo actually work without some sort of hacking or the site itself having some sort of issue the links exploit.
— Ryan Jones (@RyanJones) January 31, 2023
That’s all made up & irrelevant. These agencies (both those creating, and those disavowing) are just making stuff up, and cashing in from those who don’t know better.
— John Mueller is watching out for Google+ 🐀 (@JohnMu) January 31, 2023
Pretty strong words from John, don’t you think?
Here is the second part:
Not unless it was placed with ‘intent to manipulate’ by someone. Its important to know you have those though as they could be impacting relevancy or the site owners opinion on how many valid links you actually have etc
— Paul Madden (@PaulDavidMadden) January 31, 2023
Don’t waste your time on it; do things that build up your site instead.
— John Mueller is watching out for Google+ 🐀 (@JohnMu) January 31, 2023
One note:
Thanks for posting on this issue. I think you should add my conclusion tweet as well that all this is claimed by an agency, not by me.
I am not a native English speaker, not sure how people are taking this. I just tried to put some serious points here to help our SEO community.— Saurabh Rawat (Tech SEO) (@SEOGuruJaipur) February 1, 2023
Just yesterday we covered the topic of disavowing spammy porn links and also added how Google has downplays disavowing links for a while. John said in that in that SEO office hours help video yesterday, “That said, this will not position your site as it was before, but it can help our algorithms to recognize that they can trust your site again, giving you a chance to work up from there.” I don’t think he meant that fully based on what he said yesterday and previously?
But this is pretty strong language for not bothering with the disavow file.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Console Verification Does Not Impact Your Ranking In Google Search

Gary Illyes of Google said in the Google SEO office-hours from yesterday that verifying your website in Google Search Console won’t impact your Google Search indexing or ranking whatsoever.
Gary said, “Having your site verified in Search Console or changing the verification code and method has no effect on indexing or ranking whatsoever.”
John Mueller of Google previously said that Search Console verification doesn’t help with crawling either.
Gary added later that Search Console gives you data and analytics that can help you make improvements to your site to help you rank better in Google Search potentially. “You can use the data that Search Console gives you to improve your site and thus potentially do better in Search with your site, but otherwise has no effect on search whatsoever,” he added.
Here is the video embed at the 15:27 mark:
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Say Most Common Reason For Blocking Googlebot Are Firewalls or CDNs Issues

Gary Illyes from Google posted a new PSA on LinkedIn saying that the most common reason a site unexpectedly blocks Googlebot from crawling is due to a misconfiguration of a firewall or CDN.
Gary wrote, “check what traffic your firewalls and CDN are blocking.” “By far the most common issue in my inbox is related to firewalls or CDNs blocking googlebot traffic. If I reach out to the blocking site, in the vast majority of the cases the blockage is unintended.”
So what can you do? Gary said, “I’ve said this before, but want to emphasize it again: make a habit of checking your block rules. We publish our IP ranges so it should be very easy to run an automation that checks the block rules against the googlebot subnets.”
Gary linked to this help document for more details.
In short, do what you can to test to see if your site is accessible to Googlebot. You can use the URL inspection tool in Google Search Console, as one method. Also, confirm with your CDN or firewall company that they are allowing Googlebot and ask them to prove it.
Forum discussion at on LinkedIn.
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