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.

IndexNow is now co-sharing URLs with those who participate in the protocol, which means if you push a URL to IndexNow, both Microsoft Bing and Yandex get it immediately. Microsoft Bing is also testing showing the related searches on the left bar. There was a bug with a chat feature in Shopify that resulted in Google Search showing (1) in the titles of the search results – it should go away over time. Google Ads versatile text ads is another name for responsive search ads? And a poll shows 90% of SEOs are vaccinated. Finally, I posted my weekly SEO video recap, I have a bit more energy in this one, it might be worth listening to on YouTube or your favorite podcast player.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google 1/11 Search Algorithm Update, Manual Actions Delayed, Core Update Specifics & Microsoft Bing IndexNow News
  
  We had our first unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update of the 2022 year…
• IndexNow Now Sharing URLs Between Search Engines & IndexNow API
  
  When IndexNow was first announced by Microsoft Bing in October, it was not yet at a point where the participating search engines we co-sharing URLs – but that is no longer the case. Participating IndexNow search engines, which is still just Microsoft Bing and Yandex, are now co-sharing URLs.
• Microsoft Bing Tests Related Searches On Left
  
  Microsoft Bing is testing placing the related searches list on the left side of the search results page. Normally, Microsoft places these related searches on the right side of the Bing search results page.




• Google Search Showing (1) In Shopify Websites Titles
  
  Most SEOs often look at titles tags when browsing web sites, I mean, I do, while the average person does not. So you’ve probably seen numbers in the tab bar representing an unread direct message count or chat request. Well, Shopify sites using chat-bot script was adding a 1 to the titles of pages and that is what Google has been indexing.




• Poll: 90% Of SEOs Are Vaccinated
  
  A Twitter poll with over 1,320 votes shows that 90% of SEOs are vaccinated. Well, at least 90% of the SEOs who took the poll are vaccinated. Although, I’d think that 90% figure is probably accurate across the industry.




• Google Ads Versatile Text Ads = Responsive Search Ads?
  
  Steve Plimmer posted a screenshot from the Google Ads console’s change history log showing how Google has named the RSAs, response search ads, versatile text ads. It makes you wonder if Google will rename RSA responsive search ads to VTA versatile text ads or if this is just how Google originally named it internally and forgo to remove some references?




• Doogler Playing With Android Plush Toy At Google
  
  Here is a screenshot from a video of a Doogler, Google dog, playing with an Android plush toy at the Google office. This is from the GooglePlex, the Mountain View, Google headquarters. It looks like

Other Great Search Threads:

• Google trends data on shopping searches through the pandemic. https://t.co/bmRIhMLZpy, Alan Kent on Twitter
• Of course not, if you’re providing something of unique, compelling, and high-quality, which adds significant value to the web. You may have seen ot, John Mueller on Twitter
• Do documentation inconsistencies cause distrust in SEOs? Does context matter when it comes to automation, tools and rules? @g33konaut and @iPullRank sit down to discuss that and more on episode 3 of SEO &, Google Search Central on Twitter
• Google is again testing the removal of the URL and breadcrumbs for indented results. This test first appeared last month and is out in force today. As someone who uses the breadcrumbs as a prompt, this test is disorientating., Brodie Clark on Twitter
• Sure, you can make a new site, and it can become popular over time too., John Mueller on Twitter
• This is a pretty old-school hack — I’d ignore it. If you want to do more, you can try to contact the site owner or hoster to encourage them to fix it / take the site down., John Mueller on Twitter
• URLs are just identifiers to us – you can use whichever setup you like, as long as it’s a unique, crawlable URL., John Mueller 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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