SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 24, 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’s site reputation abuse policy is still not algorithmically enforced. Google Search can now index EPUB formats. There is a neat place to follow all the embarrassing Google AI Overview examples. Google Analytics 4 adds real-time metrics in the past 5 minutes. Google Search has new profiles for looking at reviews and notes. And I posted thew weekly SEO video recap.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google: The Site Reputation Abuse Policy Enforcement Not Yet Algorithmic
Google has once again said that its enforcement of the site reputation abuse policy is still only being done through manual actions and not algorithmically. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liasion, said this on X yesterday, “We have not gone live with algorithmic actions on site reputation abuse.” -
Directory Of Embarrassing Google AI Overviews
Every day now, I see several screenshots on X of embarrassing and sometimes harmful AI Overviews within the Google Search results interface. I mean, we covered the one that recommends you drink urine, but I can’t cover each and every one I see – there are just too many. -
Google Analytics Real-Time Reports Adds Users In Last 5 Minutes
Google has updated the Google Analytics real-time reports to show real-time data in the last five minutes. Previously, Google only showed users in the last 30 minutes but now Google is showing both, 30 minutes and 5 minutes. -
Google Search Can Now Index Electronic Publication (EPUB)
Google Search can now index Electronic Publication, the .epub, file type. Google added EPUB as a supported filetype to the file types indexable by Google help documentation. -
New Google Search Profiles With Reviews & Notes
Google is rolling out new profile pages that shows you the reviews and notes you left across Google Search. And starting on June 24 your reviews and notes may be public to other Google users. -
Google Partner Bike – Full Size Edition
We have seen Google partner bikes, they look like bikes made for smaller children. But Anthony Higman recently posted a photo of a new Google Partner bike he received that looks full-sized. -
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Ranking Volatility, Ads In Google AI Overviews, Sundar Pichai Interview, Heartfelt Helpful Content & More Ad News
We had more Google search ranking volatility in the middle of the week after some calming for a few days. Google Ads will soon show within the Google AI Overview, plus we covered a lot more ad news. Sundar Pichai was interviewed…
Other Great Search Threads:
- is these cool graphs new shows up for winter/summer (city name) temperature queries, Gagan Ghotra on X
- Google AI overview suggests adding glue to get cheese to stick to pizza, and it turns out the source is an 11 year old Reddit comment from user F*cksmith, Peter Yang on X
- Google Podcasts Manager is going away – of course, Barry Schwartz on X
- I encourage you to apply the #googenough tag your suboptimal Google search results. If you do, it’ll be easy for the @Goog_Enough account to collect and amplify these SERPs and AI Overviews. I do not run that account. I don’t have the t, AJ Kohn on X
- To clarify a bit, I don’t work in Support or in a support role. I do try to help where I can but am not in a position to provide it at scale. My role is to share insights on how ads products and, AdsLiaison on X
- Today’s #GoogleDoodle is nacho average treat. It’s all about chilaquiles: the crispy, cheesy tortilla snack that’s a fiesta in every bite! Learn more, Google Doodles on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
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.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 26, 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 Search ranking volatility remains heated but it spiked more again in the past 24-hours. Google updated its web search spam policies. Google AI Overviews don’t really show up for branded queries, but they may in some rare cases. Google Search has this recently viewed movies activity card. Google Search tests “states in the news” and “backstory” top stories sections in Google Search.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google Search Ranking Movement Heated, Volatility Continues 9/25
Google Search still has not calmed its ranking shifts, volatility and movement. The search results remain incredibly volatile with rankings and traffic changing again in a big way over the past day or so. I know I sound like a broken record but even some of the tools are adjusting their volatility thresholds to counter the new higher volatility in the search results. -
Google Updates Web Search Spam Policies
Google has refreshed and updated its web search policies documentation. The big change is Google added more language around the site reputation abuse policy, while expanding, simplifying and clarifying other sections of its search policies. -
Google AI Overviews For Branded & Navigational Queries???
Google AI Overviews generally do not show up for branded or navigational queries. So if you are searching for a brand or company, generally, Google has not shown an AI Overview. -
Google Recently Viewed Movies Activity Card
Google now can show movies you recently viewed as an “activity card.” I am not sure if this is based on a movie you actually went to see in the theatres, watched online or just based on you clicking on movie listings within Google Search. -
Google Search: States In The News
Google Search has this newish news or top stories carousel format that Google titled “States in the news.” It shows you news or top stories from news publishers related to the query by U.S. state. -
Google Search Backstory Top Stories Section
Google Search has this news or top stories section titled “Backstory.” It comes up from political queries, maybe other news queries. -
Sundar Pichai’s Google Soccer Jersey
Here is a photo from that event where Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, was kicking a soccer ball. This photo shows him holding a custom made Google soccer jersey.
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
- Early sign-ups to EU’s AI Pact include Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI — but Apple and Meta are missing, TechCrunch
- Exclusive: OpenAI to remove non-profit control and give Sam Altman equity, sources say, Reuters
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai Says Antitrust Trials Could Drag On for Many Years, Bloomberg
- Google files Brussels complaint against Microsoft cloud business, Financial Times (Sub)
- OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announces she’s leaving the company, CNBC
- OpenAI’s chief research officer has left, TechCrunch
- The AI platform shift and the opportunity ahead, Google Blog
- Why Mark Zuckerberg thinks AR glasses will replace your phone, The Verge
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.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Noindex Bug With JavaScript Pages
Google is reportedly working on fixing a bug with not being able to properly respond to a noindex directive on some JavaScript generated pages. This is happening for some React apps using Single Page Applications (SPAs) that have the noindex directive on them but Google is not picking it up and thus indexing pages that should not be indexed.
This issue was spotted by Mark Williams-Cook, the Director at Candour and Founder of AlsoAsked, a popular SEO tool. He posted about the issue on LinkedIn and said, “Here’s a screenshot of over 9,000 “noindex” pages being indexed. Adding ‘noindex’ via JS can be a solution, but it’s absolutely not reliable.”
Here is that screenshot from Google Search Console’s indexing report:
He later shared that Google is now aware of the issue and is working on fixing it. “I spoke to Googlers about this and it is a bug they are working on fixing,” he wrote.
Mark went on to explain that this is an example of a React app that has a meta “noindex” added via JavaScript, but the pages are nevertheless getting indexed.
Martin Splitt from Google did speak in the past about noindex meta and JavaScript pages and sometimes, Google does have a hard to processing them. But these days, Google shouldn’t be challenged by them. I guess in this case, Google was?
Again, I suspect in this case, Google fetched and rendered the page prior to the JavaScript executing the noindex meta data. So Googlebot didn’t see the noindex directive yet. This can happen, it is rare, but this can happen and obviously did happen. Google has warned about this before, including using JavaScript to generate structured data in some cases.
Mark’s solution was to use CloudFlare to serve the noindex directive prior to the JavaScript executing its own meta data (which is served in the HTTP header), but that was only after he found out Google was not picking up on the first solution he had. Mark wrote, “With some Single Page Applications (SPAs), it can be difficult to have control over what is shown before the JS is executed. In this instance, I managed to get the pages to set a “noindex” before JS was rendered by using Cloudflare Transform rules.”
So if you noticed this issue as well, hopefully Google will patch it up and if not, look for an alternative solution – like Mark did.
Forum discussion at LinkedIn.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Site Command For Image Search Not Fully Working?
It seems that Google made a change, intentionally or unintentionally, to the site command within Google Image Search. When you do a basic site command, without appending keywords to the query, then Google will return no image results.
Here is a screenshot:
I spotted this via Kunjal Chawhan on X over the weekend and pined Google about it but I did not hear back as of yet.
I did notice that when you append a query to the end of the site command, it does return results:
I suspect this is a bug but what do I know…
Forum discussion at X.
-
SEO7 days ago
Google Revamps Entire Crawler Documentation
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 20, 2024
-
SEARCHENGINES7 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 19, 2024
-
WORDPRESS6 days ago
7 Best Small Business Website Builders (Tested & Compared)
-
WORDPRESS6 days ago
Bluehost Review 2024: Honest Look at Web Hosting Giant
-
SEARCHENGINES5 days ago
Google Ranking Volatility Spikes, Search Console Bug, Search App Stalled, Google Ads News & Business Profile Suspensions
-
SEO6 days ago
Boost Your Local SEO with the Google Local Guide Program
-
WORDPRESS5 days ago
How to Redesign a WordPress Website (Beginner’s Guide)