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.

There may be a Google search algorithm update running now and over the weekend, it is unconfirmed of course. Google’s John Mueller spoke more about the product reviews update, we summarized those points. Google asked hosting companies not to serve 500 status codes for robot detection interstitials. Google has these location packs that show things to do, airports and transit stops. Google Ads said target CPA is not going away in 2022 and more.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Search Ranking Update January 14th & 15th (Unconfirmed)
  
  Friday and Saturday, January 14th and 15th there may have been another unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update. This comes a few days after the unconfirmed January 11th update. There is some chatter but this time, the Google tracking tools are showing much higher volatility.
• Google Product Reviews Update Will Expand, May Use Machine Learning & Can Be Incorporated In Core Updates
  
  Google’s John Mueller was asked a series of questions around the product reviews update on last Friday’s video hangout. In short, it will expand to other languages and countries, it probably does use machine learning and eventually it might be incorporated into the larger core updates.
• Google: Hosting Companies Should Serve 500 Status Code On Robot Detection Interstitial
  
  Google’s John Mueller posted one of those PSA tweets this morning asking hosting companies that trigger robot detection interstitials to not use a 200 status code. John also said not to place a noindex on that page. If you do these things the pages served with these can be dropped out of the Google index and search results.
• Google: Target CPA In Google Ads Not Going Away In 2022
  
  Google’s Ginny Marvin via the AdsLiaison account on Twitter confirmed that target CPA, tCPA, is not being cancelled in 2022. She wrote “we have no plans to sunset tCPA in 2022” after there were some speculation that it might be turned off in 2022.
• Google Location Search Pack With Things To Do, Airports & Transit Stops
  
  Google is testing a new layout for location packs that show things to do, airports and transit stops based on the location you are looking at. This is Google mobile search feature that Brian Freiesleben spotted and posted on Twitter.
• Vlog #155: Riley Hope On Women In SEO & Automotive Search
  
  
  
  In part one Riley Hope and I spoke about her SEO career, how she did her thesis on ethics in SEO and we spoke about the automotive SEO space. In part two we talk about women in SEO and more on the automotive space and search results…




• Surprise Birthday Party At The Google New York City Office
  
  Back before COVID had most Google employees working at home, we would see tons photos of birthday parties and cakes for the employees. But now it is more rare with few Googlers working at the office.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Do you look at the “last updated” date at the bottom of a Google Search documentation page? What do you think it means?, Lizzi on Twitter
• I think you’re overthinking it. There’s no magical voodoo-bonus from an old domain. If you want to use an older domain name, use it. But the important part is the website that *you* build, not the domain name.”, John Mueller on Twitter
• Thanks to you, we’ve hit 100 billion all time private searches! https://t.co/qlSaz4j9ZH That’s 100B times: • Your search history wasn’t a data point • What you searched (like cat memes) was your business & only yours • Y, DuckDuckGo on Twitter
• How important are content updates for SEO? Is it possible to keep your Google ranking without refreshing the content? Could content updates give you a boost in Google? I did the research and the short answers are: NO and YES., Alex Buraks on Twitter
• If you want to. SEO is not like a cult that you can never leave :-). I think. ¯_(ツ)_/¯”, John Mueller on Twitter
• There are many parts that make a website awesome – it’s not just the colors, the font, the text, the images, the links, the users, the writers, the world state of mind, etc. You can’t just pick, 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:

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.