SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 20, 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 has a dedicated local pack with just ads – an ad local pack (this is apparently not new). Google says don’t get hung up on “toxic links” – there is no such thing. Did you know that Google shows back ordered products as out of stock? Google’s popular products carousel also can show a filter carousel above it. Sad news, we lost the mentor to all SEOs, Bill Slawski has passed away – the community is heart broken. I hope you all have a safe weekend with those you love.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- A Dedicated Google Search Local Ad Pack
Google seems to be testing adding a local pack for ads along with a normal organic local pack, I believe. Here is a screenshot showing a local pack labeled as “Ads” that show a list of stores that have shoes near you. You can click “more places” that will load more local ads. - Google Shows Item As Out Of Stock For Items Using Back Order Value Schema
Did you know that Google shows “out of stock” for items you label with the value of back ordered in your structured data for products? Some feel it should say back ordered and not out of stock, but I am not too sure if there is much of a difference? - Google: Don’t Get Hung Up About “Toxic Links”
Google’s John Mueller responded to some concerns on Reddit about “toxic links.” He was asked where do these toxic links come from, in which he replied “Toxic links is all about selling tools.” He told the individual “don’t get hung up about it.” - Google Popular Products Carousel With Filter Selectors
Google launched the popular products carousel in 2019 but now it seems Google is showing a carousel above the products to filter based on price, brand and other attributes. So we have an embedded filter carousel within the products carousel. - The Industry Mourns The Loss Of Bill Slawski: The SEO Mentor To The Community
It pains me to write this – Bill Slawski, a man who has literally helped transform the SEO industry into what it is today, has passed away on Tuesday, May 17th. I’ve personally known Bill for two decades, starting when I first got into SEO and learning from Bill in the old Cre8asite Forums. - Video: Google Algorithm Update, Spammers Kill Bing Sitemap Submission, FID to INP, New Google Ad Label & RIP Bill Slawski
There was another unconfirmed update on May 16th, about 6 months since the last confirmed Google core update. Spammers killed off the Bing anonymous sitemap submission method. Google will likely replace FID with INP… - Flash Dressed Crocodile On John Mueller’s Desk
John Mueller posted this photo on Twitter saying he found this Flash dressed crocodile toy by his desk when he was in the office the other day. I am not sure if there is an inside joke here, hence the
Other Great Search Threads:
- DeepMind’s GATO: a step closer to AGI “The same network w/the same weights can play Atari, caption images, chat, stack blocks w/a real robot arm & more, deciding based on its context whether to output text, joint torques, butt, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
- I’d just ignore then if you don’t care about them. The removal tool doesn’t remove it from indexing, it’s just not to show them in search (which they wouldn’t if they’re not canonical), John Mueller on Twitter
- I’ve updated my Core SERP Vitals Chrome Extension to display the new experimental INP and TTFB metrics in the Google search results., Chris Johnson on Twitter
- If Google is now making it easier for its users to reject all cookies, does that mean we won’t get as much data in tools like GA? https://t.co/8cWUZOthOl https://t.co/8KuYMluKsZ, Roxana Stingu on Twitter
- In Universal Analytics, you’re very used to going to the source/medium, campaign, or channel grouping report to find answers to questions like “where did my traffic come from” or “what site referred to me”. You ca, Krista Seiden on Twitter
- Today I received my Microsoft 25 Years of Service award! I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with so many passionate, driven, customer focused employees working to empower every person and every organi, Fabrice Canel 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.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Console Was Down Today

Google Search Console seems to be down right now. If you try to access it, you will get a 500 server error. I suspect Search Console will be back up shortly but right now, if it is down for you, you are not alone.
Update: At 8:52 am ET Google Search Console is back, the tool was offline for about 50 minutes.
Google’s Daniel Waisberg is 100% aware of the issue. He responded to some posts about the issue, saying, “we’re working on it.” John Mueller from Google is also reposting Daniel’s posts on X.
Here is what it looked like when you tried to access it while it was down:
Search Console went down at about 8 am ET and returned at 8:52 am ET.
Here are the posts on X from Daniel Waisberg of Google on this issue:
I was looking for a plug to charge my phone, so I had to unplug the server 🤷♂️
— Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) November 27, 2023
Joking aside, we’re working on it! 👨💻
— Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) November 27, 2023
Who knows, maybe we will have a new Search Console feature when it returns?
Here are some of the complaints:
Search Console its down atm.
— Juanan Carapapa (@Carapapeando) November 27, 2023
@rustybrick search console is down pic.twitter.com/Nm6P84WJld
— Daramel (@Daramel29) November 27, 2023
Is Google Search Console currently experiencing issues? It’s not functioning on my device.
Cc:- @JohnMu @searchliaison @googlesearchc @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/YHjXfSVn30
— Vijay Chauhan 📈 – SEO for Enterprise Businesses (@VijayChauhanSEO) November 27, 2023
In Spain too pic.twitter.com/d1Yiwef72k
— Rafa Martin 👽🖖 (@rafainatica) November 27, 2023
Someone kick the server in the corner @googlesearchc @JohnMu @danielwaisberg https://t.co/79IFVVFdTM
— Pedro Dias (@pedrodias) November 27, 2023
Anyone facing google search console 500 error 🤨🤨#DigitalMarketing #google #searchconsoleerror #500error #trend #news # pic.twitter.com/jWDscWcz1f
— Pankaj besarwal (@Iampankaj10) November 27, 2023
GSC this morning… talk about a case of the Mondays pic.twitter.com/6H3KUG2sd4
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) November 27, 2023
Update: At 8:52 am ET Google Search Console is back, the tool was offline for about 50 minutes.
Should be all good now.
— Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) November 27, 2023
SEARCHENGINES
Google Testing New Flight Prices Rich Result?

Google may be testing a new type of rich result for flight prices. This test shows a section under the flight search snippet that contains the dates, trip details and price.
This was spotted by Antoine Eripret who was able to trigger this numerous times, over numerous days, while in Spain. Here is his screenshot he posted on X:
He also posted this video of this in action for me:
Recently Google told us not to put flight prices in titles because those prices change too quickly. Maybe Google is testing updating those prices in more real time through the use of structured data and is thus more confident to show them as rich results and not title elements?
I don’t think Google officially supports flight schema but maybe they will soon?
Forum discussion at X.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Merchant Center Automatically Creating Promotions

Google Merchant Center has been automatically creating and applying promotions to some of your products over the Black Friday holiday season. The truth is, Google has been doing this for some time, but more are noticing this now because there are a lot of discounts going around this season.
In fact, the new Merchant Center does a lot of things for you, automatically.
Rachel Lowell posted about this on X and shared this screenshot that shows “Your promotions are live on Google.” “Google found promotions on your website. You can remove this connection at any time,” Google added.
Greg Finn suggested, “If you’ve got BFCM sales setup – double, triple check those promos.”
Forum discussion at X.
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