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 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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