SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: June 24, 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 experimenting with YouTube Shorts for SEO help content. Google is testing inserting keywords from queries in shopping ads. Google says keywords in domains are overrated and to ignore black hat traffic. Google said it is fine to link to WhatsApp numbers on your site. Plus my weekly SEO video recap is live.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Ranking Updates, Google News Updated, SEO, Ads, Local & More
This week, we had some interesting tremors and ranking shifts from an unconfirmed Juneteenth Google search ranking update that really spiked a day or so ago. Google News revamped its design… - Google: Ignore Black Hat Traffic, We Do.
Google’s John Mueller said it is safe to ignore black hat traffic, he said it is just spam and there is no need to worry about it from an SEO perspective. He said on Twitter that black hat traffic is just spam and you should ignore it. - Google Tries YouTube Shorts For SEO Help Content
Back in March, Gary Illyes and friends hinted that they may try creating short form video content for the Google help documents. Well, Google’s Alan Kent produced one of the first ones on the topic of why it is important to specify image dimensions. - Google Shopping Ads Tests Inserting Material In Ad Title From Query
Google is testing a dynamic keyword insertion feature for Google Shopping Ads where it may insert the material in the product if used in the searcher’s query. I do not know if this is 100% new or not but it might be. - Google: Keywords In Domain Names Are Overrated
Google’s John Mueller said once again that “keywords in domain names are overrated.” He and Googlers over time have said this numerous times over the years and he said it again. Instead he said “pick something for your business, pick something for the long term.” - Google: WhatsApp Phone Numbers On Your Site Is Not A Bad SEO Practice
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that it is not a bad SEO practice to link to your WhatsApp number on your site. This is despite what some SEO toolsets say, linking to a WhatsApp number, phone number or fax number is fine and Google does not judge your site differently based on the type of number you link to. - Aurora Morales Recording In A Google Studio
Aurora Morales of Google has done a nice number of videos for Google, specifically on the publisher monetization front. She did a nice number of those while at home since COVID. She now said she is b
Other Great Search Threads:
- It sounds like you have one thing to fix at least. Usually technically duplicated content doesn’t cause quality issues though, so you definitely want to look beyond j, John Mueller on Twitter
- Oh, just saw the rest — those are essentially fake URL parameters (rewritten dynamic URLs), and I’ve often seen them cause problems. We can index them, but in general, I’d use URL parameter, John Mueller on Twitter
- Alright, I screwed up. The first attempt at the Technical SEO office hours, uh, didn’t quite work. I am currently looking for a better way to get them going and will let you know when I found one. Currently experimenting wi, Martin Splitt on Twitter
- Yeah, these are (unless otherwise labeled) all organic results. SEO is about more than the old-school text-link-to-a-webpage :-)., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
- Alphabet and Meta Have an Ad Revenue Problem. What It Means for Their Stocks., Barron’s
- Google and Meta Get Caught Up in Europe’s Energy Politics, Bloomberg
- Google Cloud customers and partners grade CEO Thomas Kurian, Protocol
- Google’s Plan for 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Ran Into Headwinds in 2021, Wall Street Journal
- It’s time for more transparency around government data demands, Google Blog
- Russia’s Yandex opens public access to AI large language model, Reuters
- SEO on the Beach 2022 Recap & Highlights, Oncrawl
- Yandex Completes Purchase of 93% of Its Convertible Notes, Yandex
- Yelp CEO shutters some offices, says hybrid work is “hell”, Washington Post
- Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care, The Economist
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.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
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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