SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 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.
Google says that writing content with a lot of fluff makes it hard for search engines to understand – but it does seem like Google ranks fluffy content higher. Google said the search quality raters guidelines are not designed for SEOs. Google Business Profiles has a new security feature to prevent new owners and managers for making edits to their businesses for a seven-day period. Google local search results has grouping carousels and count labels. A poll says SEOs are going to allocate more resources to content over other areas of SEO.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Reminder: Google Search Quality Rating Guidelines Not Designed For SEOs
Google’s John Mueller posted a short post on Twitter that needs to be highlighted. He said “the quality raters guidelines are not guidelines for SEOs though.” We often forget that, these search quality raters guidelines are for the search quality evaluators, they were not specifically designed as guidelines for SEOs. - Google: Fluff Content Hard For Search Engines To Understand & Maybe Rank
Google’s John Mueller the other day said on Twitter the example given to him was “less about duplicate content, and more about fluff.” He said when it comes to fluff content, it makes “it hard for search engines to figure out what you’re trying to say.” - Google Business Profile Makes New Mangers & Owners Wait 7 Days To Manage Profiles
Google is putting new Google Business Profile owners and managers into a sandbox, penalty box or a waiting room for seven-days before they can manage all of the features in the Google Business Profile account. This is a new, I guess, security feature, Google added the other day. - Google Local Search Results Grouping, Carousels & Count Labels
Google has been pushing the limits of its user interfaces in the local search results in web search and some of the other filters. I don’t know or even think any of this has been rolled out recently but I do think this did roll out in 2021. In short, Google local search results are grouping things more, using more carousels and even offering filters with count labels. - Survey Says SEOs To Allocate More Resources To Content Over Other Areas
Aleyda Solis posted a Twitter poll asking “in what area do you expect to allocate more resources/efforts in SEO this year?” She said you should base it on what you have planned so far. Most responded it is going towards content, then technical SEO, then link building and other. - Amazon Rivian Van
I spotted a video on Twitter of an Amazon delivery van but not just any Amazon van, a Rivian electric van. It was charging at a rusty 🙂 charging station. I spotted this on Twitter, here is the vide
Other Great Search Threads:
- If you remember the Decor My Eyes situation, Google published a post explaining more about the algorithmic approach used to demote that site & others like it. They mention sentiment analysis & its limitations at the ti, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
- In case if you are wondering why your e-commerce merchant center promotions are getting rejected, below mail from google may give you some clarity #ppcchat #googleads https://t.co/VN0b4nDD7l, Dheeraj Gangwani on Twitter
- Well this is some fresh BS @GoogleAds So you can’t really tell if my RSAs are poor, average or good until they get 5,000 Top impressions? Cause you’re showing a status w/out anywhere near that level of impressions in las, Julie F Bacchini on Twitter
- 11 years ago, I rebuilt @Google’s error page. A short story. https://t.co/BjoJaQn9zn, Jens Oliver Meiert on Twitter
- Are fresh links better because they’re fresh, or worse because they’re not old?, John Mueller on Twitter
- I know people just want all data for data’s sake, but would they remove these terrible interstitials because of it? They must already know users hate the interstitials (& their site because of them)., John Mueller on Twitter
- I’m excited to join @semrush as the Head of Enterprise Solutions. My past 21 year’s experience in SEO and building software make it the perfect foundation and time to work together on smart and innovative Enterprise SEO, Marcus Tober on Twitter
- Interesting, looks like this feature (first test in Sep 2021) has rolled out in the US. Is a snippet for pages that looks very similar to Product Schema, but isn’t. Instead based on HTML from the page to give an accurate p, Brodie Clark on Twitter
- The new size-adjust CSS font-face property is incredibly powerful. With minimal effort it can help eliminate custom font layout shift/CLS. Supported browsers today are the Chromiums and Firefox. I made this tool to figure out t, Malte Ubl on Twitter
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:
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SEARCHENGINES
Most SEOs Won’t Recommend Using AI To Write Content

A new Twitter poll shows that most SEOs do not yet feel comfortable recommending using AI to write client content. The poll asked, “Would you recommend using an AI writer to your clients?” Most SEOs said no.
Mordy Oberstein posted this poll on Twitter and there were over 600 votes. About 66% said no, they would not recommend an AI writer to their clients, the rest said yes, they would recommend an AI writer.
Here is the poll:
Would you recommend using an AI writer to your clients?
— Mordy Oberstein 🇺🇦 (@MordyOberstein) January 18, 2023
Do you think this poll is representative of the SEO industry?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Layoffs, DOJ Sues Google, Search Console Content Ideas & Google Optimize Going Away, Yahoo Search Comeback

As I mentioned briefly last week, Google announced mass layoffs last week, and I discuss what I know so far about it. There are also reports that Google is pushing advertisers to use third-party resellers and not their internal staff. The DOJ sued Google again to break up its ad business. Microsoft announced its earnings, showing how Bing’s search ad growth continues to slow. Bing also may have had a search ranking algorithm update. Google Search Console content ideas beta feature may go away in March. Google Search Console Insights has an achievements section. Google confirmed a bug with some preferred languages in Google Search, and they blame mobile-first indexing. Google Ads had an outage on Monday morning that caused huge headaches. Google has no preferences between connected structured data and not connected structured data. Google will parse the image elements even when those elements are enclosed within other elements. Google published a new case study after 18 months, this one from Vimeo on video SEO. Google said generating tons of fake URLs on a site won’t cause SEO issues. Google Business Profiles now supports cars for sale inventory for US dealerships. Bing is testing infinite scroll. Google is testing two justifications in the local results. Google is also testing a new trusted store badge. Bing has a new menu for image search that uses a drop-down and adds explore and collect. Account-level negative keywords are now available on Google Ads. Google will sunset Google Optimize on September 30th. And it seems like Yahoo Search may be making a comeback to Search – that would be exciting. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
SPONSOR: This week’s video recap is sponsored by Duda, the Professional Website Builder You Can Call Your Own.
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SEARCHENGINES
New Google Trusted Store Badge Test

Google is testing a new design for the trusted store badge in the paid shopping results. The Google Trusted Stores program to all U.S. merchants back in 2012, along with that came a badge in the search results to make those listings stand out.
FYI – here is how to qualify for this trusted store badge.
Brian Freiesleben spotted this new badge the other day and posted a screenshot on Twitter – here is that screenshot:
Curently, the badge looks more like this version from last year:
And the original one looked like this:
Brian said on Twitter, “Would love to see Google add this to organic products from trusted merchants as well, but not sure if that’s likely.”
Looks like Google is testing out a new badge for advertisers that are trusted merchants.
Would love to see Google add this to organic products from trusted merchants as well, but not sure if that’s likely 😉
Second screenshot is what appears after clicking the badge. pic.twitter.com/3lXIU9m04d
— Brian Freiesleben (@type_SEO) January 25, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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