SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: October 13, 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 may have released another Google search ranking algorithm update, but it is currently unconfirmed. Bing said 50% of its crawls are now over the new Bingbot user agent. Seems like a lot of old Google local reviews were pushed out recently, surprising a lot of local SEOs. Google image metadata now supports image credits. Google Business Profiles now lets you edit your ticket prices/
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Around October 13th
It has been a while since I reported on an unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update but it seems over the past 24 hours or so, we are seeing one. It probably started yesterday and is now continuing throughout today. There is some SEO chatter and the tools are now starting to light up. - Google Releasing Older Local Reviews For Some Businesses?
There are reports from some local SEOs that Google is pushing out previously held reviews in Google Maps. Some are seeing dozens, if not over a hundred reviews being posted to local business profiles in Google Maps, some dating back a year or more. - Google Business Profiles Edit Ticket Prices Feature Added
Google has added some new features around attractions and tour operators including the ability to edit your ticket prices directly in Google Business Profiles. - Microsoft: Half Of Bing Crawls Are New BingBot User Agent
Fabrice Canel updated us the other day that now half of all crawling Microsoft Bing does is over the new BingBot user agent. About a month ago, it was 20%, then two months prior to that it was 5%. - Google Image Metadata Now Supports Image Credits
Google has added support for image credits for image metadata. Previously, image credit information was only supported with IPTC photo metadata. - Google Zurich Egg Room
Sometimes you are in that Humpty Dumpty mood and you need to go sit in an egg room. Google gets that and has Googlers back when they are ready for the egg room. Here is a photo of an egg space in the
Other Great Search Threads:
- I don’t think there is a simple answer because things like “impact” and “value” are so broad & vary across sites. It also makes online life so interesting; people sometimes do similar things for v, John Mueller on Twitter
- I’m not sure, but I suspect if you verify an alternate version (domain vs URL-prefix) of the site (assuming it was never verified) it could work. If it was previously verified as both, John Mueller on Twitter
- Significant speed improvements would already be taken into account with the Core Web Vitals. How often do you see access issues (IPv6 / IPv4 only)? It see, John Mueller on Twitter
- Do you think your readers would question your advice without knowing your background? (My suspicion is probably not, but you know your audience best.) If you’re curious about how we look at things, John Mueller on Twitter
- I’m excited to announce Image Creator from Microsoft Bing, based on a #DALLE model from our partner @OpenAI. With Image Creator, Bing is the first search engine where you can turn your own words into the images you want to see, Jordi Ribas on Twitter
- In this episode of #AskGoogleBot, @JohnMu helps you get a better grasp on implementing geo IP redirects and shares important details to remember when you have a location-specific website. Watch here → https://t.co, Google Search Central on Twitter
- That does sound like a friend, yes. As to Search Console & Search, these kinds of changes in how we look at larger changes are fairly common, we just don’t index everything, and so, 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.
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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