SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: July 29, 2024
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 the next core update isn’t extremely far away, and encourages some publishes to hold out. Google’s ongoing search ranking volatility is pretty intense. Google Discover is pushing clicks to AI Overviews in Search. New data shows how often Google mixes ads into the organic search results. Google Business Profiles now lets you upload photos of your menu to convert that into a digital menu. Google Search may be showing fewer posts from X/Twitter in the search results.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Google: Core Update Isn’t Extremely Far Away As Publishers Grow Concerned
Google’s John Mueller responded to complaints about image thumbnails still not showing up for some publishers in the search results. He encouraged a bit more patience, saying “the next one [core update] isn’t extremely far away now, so I’d recommend waiting for that.” -
Ongoing Google Search Ranking Volatility For 2 Weeks
Over the past almost two weeks, we have seen consistent and ongoing ranking volatility on a daily basis. The last Google search ranking update I covered was around July 23rd, then before that was July 18th and then July 9th. But every says since around July 17th there has been high volatility with the Google Search rankings. -
Google Discover Promoting AI Overviews In Search
Google Discover is now pushing users to see AI Overviews directly in the Google Search results. As you scroll through the Discover feed on Google.com, you may see a promotion of sorts to learn more about a topic through the lens of AI Overviews. -
Report: How Often Google Mixes Ads Into Organic Search Results
Google has been mixing search ads into the free organic search results for several months now; Google even changed its definition of what it considers top ads in order to account for this change. New data from Semrush shows just how often Google mixes search ads into the organic results. -
Google Showing X Carousel Less Often For News Topics?
Google may be displaying the X (formerly Twitter) carousel in the search results less often for news related topics. A report from Newzdash shows the X carousel is showing up for about 12% of queries, when earlier this year it was showing for closer to 27% of queries in Google Search. -
Google Business Profiles New Generate Menu From Photo
Google Business Profiles has a new AI feature to let you upload a photo of your menu and Google will create your menu items for your restaurant based on that photo. This is a generative AI feature and is currently considered “experimental.” -
I Love Bing Hat At Google Office – Googleween
Here is a photo from about a decade ago of a Googler wearing an I Love Bing hat, in a mask, holding a Google umbrella at the Google Ann Arbor offices. This was for a Halloween party, or as Google calls it – Googleween.
Other Great Search Threads:
- An “edge” in this context means the identical keyword would be selected over the other keywords in your account – but it doesn’t necessarily mean it will have an edge over other keywords it goes up, AdsLiaison on X
- The first two prioritization rules have been in place because we know advertisers expect specific matching behavior when the keyword is identical to the query. But, we also know building out, AdsLiaison on X
- NSFW Google results pulled directly from Quora: My friend searched “what are things associated with the 70s” for writing ideas. This is what Google shows. See for yourself. EVERY SINGLE insane result is from Quora. @lilyraynyc not, Abby Gleason on X
- Thread of how @MSFTAdvertising is beating @GoogleAds ads interface. 1) Allows advertisers to customize the static list of tools on the left side, Greg on X
- Vehicle listings are available to merchants who’ve been invited to the new experience in the US, CA and AU. For automotive merchants in the UK, DE and FR, access will start becoming available early August. (For those without existing vehicle listings, y, AdsLiaison on X
- News! Microsoft launched impression-based remarketing. The new era of First-Party Cookies. All you need to know., Thomas Eccel on X
- That’s right — we have protections in place for topics like political violence, which typically work well. But we’re working on improvements to make our predictions more up to date. Regardless of what Autocomp, Google Communications on X
- This allows them to generate relevant and coherent responses. But not necessarily factually correct ones. YOU, the user of these LLMs, still need to validate the answers based on what you know about the topic you asked the LLM about or based on additional, Gary Illyes on LinkedIn
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Other Search
Feedback:
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SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Volatility Still Heated After August Core Update Rollout
It is like the Google August 2024 core update didn’t finish rolling out, or maybe something else is going on, because I am still seeing a lot of signals of intense search ranking volatility in the Google Search results. The tools are all still heated and the chatter within the SEO community is still pretty lively.
I mean, Google may have announced the August core update is done rolling out, but maybe this is the remnants of the end of the rollout? It can also be a totally different update that Google did not confirm? It is hard to say but what we do know is that many site owners and SEOs are still seeing a lot of volatility and movement in the Google Search results.
It seemed to have started or continued the day Google announced the rollout was complete. The movement continued from September 3rd through today, September 6th.
Google Tracking Tools
Just look at these tools, you’d expect them to calm down a bit after September 3rd, but most have not:
SEO Chatter
The chatter across WebmasterWorld, social and here did not die down at all. Here are some quotes:
G analytics is broken or this update killed my main site. Has anyone else noticed this huge drop today?
GA4 has practically been unusable for us. Even with just the basics. Traffic way down for us as well today.
Big drop yesterday and today looks terrible as well.
Someone could think that the end of the update was the update, cause just in time traffic got worse again, sales are non existent from google traffic. google user engagement is near to ZERO.
Traffic is ridiculously high since the return from Labor Day holiday for me. Search traffic is up 60% today at 1pm. Yesterday search was up 30% overall. Will be nice if that keeps up, but…
There’s been a lot of volatility here all day since yesterday. Moments of high traffic, followed by huge drops. Old pages receiving a lot of traffic, then disappearing… The update is definitely still active…
Something is going on for sure. The SEMrush Sensors still on a high range.
Like I commented earlier… Something happened on the 3rd of September.
Just when some of us thought we had a boost or was safe from the core update, Googlers hit the “Nuke!” button and now more sites got obliterated.
There is still something running. The traffic and serps are all over the show again. Many of our keywords are out of the top 100 again. Started 2 days ago.
Same here. 2 days ago I had many sales, which was very unusual. Now again nothing
I wrote earlier that there is still something moving around. We can look at 3rd September as the start point of this movement. The movement in and out of serps again.
100% agree. Something is going on for sure.
This type of chatter just goes on and on.
Again, I am not sure if this is the tail end of the completed core update or of this is something new. But something is still brewing.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
SEARCHENGINES
Google August Core Update Done, Google Interview, Google Ads & Merchant Center News & The YouTube Algorithm SEO
This week, the Google August 2024 core update finished rolling out, a bit earlier than expected. There is still search volatility, a lot of it, days after the core update completed. I also posted a huge interview with Google’s Danny Sullivan on the core update. I posted the big Google Webmaster Report for September 2024. Google updated its canonical doc to say do not specify fragments in your canonicals. Google Search finally supports AVIF images. Google is testing a new forum display for its search results. Google is testing a new shopping search design. Bing Knowledge panels has this table of contents that is interactive. Google Business Profile may be dropping the Q&A feature in some regions. Google is testing new map pin shapes. Google Trends email subscriptions are going away. Google will automatically link Google Ads and Google Merchant Center accounts. Google Ads now has a merchant products tab for images. Google Ads will opt out new accounts from serving ads on parked domains. Google Ads product category level insights is live. Microsoft Advertising announced a bunch of new features. Google Analytics 4 has new benchmarking data. I posted a bunch of videos from YouTube algorithm and SEO questions and answers. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
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SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 6, 2024
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.
I know the Google August core update is done, but we are still seeing significant volatility days later. I posted a large interview with Google’s Danny Sullivan on the core update and more – it is worth a read. Google also had an interview on Google Shopping and Merchant Center. Google Ads has a bug with audience insights. Google clarified its indexing API quota details. Google has these new try on icons in search ads. And I posted my weekly SEO video recap.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Google Search Volatility Still Heated After August Core Update Rollout Completed
It is like the Google August 2024 core update didn’t finish rolling out, or maybe something else is going on, because I am still seeing a lot of signals of intense search ranking volatility in the Google Search results. The tools are all still heated and the chatter within the SEO community is still pretty lively. -
My Interview Of Google’s Search Liaison On The August 2024 Core Update
This week I interviewed Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, with the goal of better understanding where Google Search quality is at right now, where it is going in the future and what we as content creators and search marketers need to know. -
Google Ads Audience Insights Missing For Some
There is another Google Ads bug, this time with the Audience insights going missing for some advertisers. Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Liaison, said on X, “Audience Insights is not being removed” but rather there is a bug. -
Google Shopping & Merchant Center Interview With Irina Tuduce
Google published an internal interview on its Search Off the Record podcast with John Mueller and Lizzi Sassman (who you know) and Irina Tuduce from the Google Shopping team. Irina Tuduce has been with Google for 18 or so years and she provided a super technical overview of Google Shopping and Merchant Center. -
Google Clarifies Indexing API Quota & Pricing Information
Google has made several changes to its indexing API quota and pricing information document for clarification purposes. Google said this was to clarify “the default quota is for setting up the Indexing API, and how to request approval and quota. Also corrected a documentation error for DefaultRequestsPerMinutePerProject quota (it’s always been a 380 quota).” -
Google Ads Try On Icon
Google launched its try on feature a year or so ago and now Google may have just added a new icon to visualize the try on feature. Below is a screenshot of it on Google Ads for lipstick. When you click on the the face/emoji/icon at the top left of the ad, below you will see a way to visualize it on real models generated by Google AI. -
Liquor at Google Event
I found these fancy photos of fancy liquor and alcohol on Instagram from a Google event. The post says there were delicious cocktails, and good fun, concerts, and great food. -
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google August Core Update Done, Google Interview, Google Ads & Merchant Center News & The YouTube Algorithm SEO
This week, the Google August 2024 core update finished rolling out, a bit earlier than expected. There is still search volatility, a lot of it…
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
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, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
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