SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: October 19, 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 Ads is not getting rid of match types despite the beta test for the broad match-only setting. Google Ads also added three new reporting columns around conversions. Google Search is testing trending products. Google local is testing a large image carousel. Google said its rankings are not controlled by evil outsiders 😈. Oh, and the Jewish holidays are over, so back to normal broadcasting until April.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Ads Setting For Broad Match Only For Entire Campaigns Is A Limited Test
Michael Kerr spotted a new Google Ads test that lets you click a button to turn on broad match keywords across your whole domain. That set fear into the ads community where they thought Google might do away with match types completely. Google clarified this is a limited test and match types are not going away. - Google Ads Has Three New Reporting Columns
Google Ads announced three new reporting columns including results, results value and conversion goals columns. Google said these columns are available on the Campaigns page for tables and charts, as well as in custom reporting pages like the Report Editor or Custom dashboards and at the manager account level. - Google Trending Now For Shopping Results
Google is now showing a “trending now” box in the search results for shopping and product-related queries. This was announced back at Search On and now seems to be slowly rolling out. - Google Local “Preview This Place” Large Image Carousel
Google seems to be testing a new local feature that has a section named “preview this place.” This shows an image carousel from the local business profile of that business in search. - Google: Search Rankings Not Controlled By Evil Outsiders
I spotted this interesting statement from Google’s John Mueller on Twitter the other day. He said “In my 15 years at Google, I haven’t run across a site whose ranking is secretly being controlled by outsiders. I couldn’t imagine that being the case.” - Recording Video Outside The GooglePlex
Here is some video production company sharing a photo of them doing some video work for Google outside of the Google office, the headquarters, the GooglePlex. Looks like fall is coming…
Other Great Search Threads:
- I’m happy to take a look if you want to send me details, but often it’s just the way it is. Just because something is an exact match doesn’t mean it’ll rank for that query – and often it feels lik, John Mueller on Twitter
- There are lots of domains and TLDs, just pick something else. The domain name wouldn’t be blocking you from making something awesome., John Mueller on Twitter
- Maybe you can relate to this. Have you ever tried to find the cause of why an #Ecommerce website couldn’t process orders? Join @g33konaut & @basgr as they discuss various tools to address this scenario. Watch, Google Search Central on Twitter
- Our apologies here. We do care very much about directing people to helpful information. It looks like advice from a conservation trust group is showing, but that doesn’t reflect enough of the issue this cou, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
- Page titles – they’re still important. (And these kinds of issues can be hard to spot before pushing something live, checklists & presubmit checks can help, even/especially if you’re feeling advanced.), John Mueller on Twitter
- Words in URLs generally don’t make or break the ranking of a page in search, so I’d really see this as being primarily for users., 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 Says Keyword Stuffing Alone Does Not Make A Page Unhelpful

Google’s John Mueller said that keyword stuffing alone would not make a page be deemed unhelpful. John added that Google is good at ignoring tactics like keyword stuffing, so that alone likely won’t be the reason for ranking issues in Google Search.
This conversation came up on Mastodon when someone pointed to a specific page that as ranking well even though they think the page has keyword stuffing on it. John replied saying, “we tend not to evaluate the quality of other people’s pages — it’s not really that useful, if you can’t change something there.”
But the SEO responded, “they are not other people. That’s my client. We are trying to figure out if there is any chance Google bot identified unhelpful content on our website. Because we were hit by helpful content update. My theory is since we are adding too much content on one page, it may appear as unhelpful content. Any inputs from your end will be appreciated.”
So John replied again saying, “I don’t think keyword stuffing alone would necessarily make a page unhelpful. Usually keyword stuffing is easy for search engines to ignore, it was one of the first things that people did to manipulate the results back in the 90’s.”
“I’d recommend going through the questions in our blog post, and ideally with someone who’s not associated with your site,” John added.
In 2018, John Mueller said something similar, saying that keyword stuffing alone wouldn’t result in a penalty and then last year saying keyword stuffed URLs doesn’t lead to a penalty either.
Forum discussion at Mastodon.
SEARCHENGINES
Bing Chat Answers Now In Bing Search

If you do some queries in Bing Search, you may get the Bing Chat box and a brief answer from Bing Chat at the top. We knew this was coming, Mikhail Parakhin, the CEO of Microsoft Bing said it would a week or so ago and now it seems to be here.
This shows up in all browsers, but when you try to navigate to the Bing Chat interface, it tells you that you need to be in the beta and use Microsoft Edge. If you are in the beta and using Edge, then it lets you continue your voyage.
I spotted this via David Iwanow on Twitter, he shared some screenshots there but here is a screenshot of what I see for the query [standing desk vs sitting desk]:
Here is a video of it in action:
Previously we saw Bing testing summarized from sources and thought maybe that was a hint of Bing Chat in Bing Search but no, this is different.
Glenn Gabe noted there is a setting for this as well:
Here is the difference between Bing AI chat featured snippets (just released) versus the traditional answers (w/out Bing Chat). Again, clicking any of the prompts or entering a follow-up question takes you to Bing Chat proper.
Oh, and Go Princeton (it’s where I’m located!) 🙂 pic.twitter.com/v1olmgrlsc
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 20, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Can Bing Chat Access Content Behind Paywalls?

There is some concern and speculation on the internet that Microsoft Bing is feeding in content behind paywall and using such content to provide answers in Bing Chat. I asked Bing Chat if it can give answers based on content behind paywalls and it said no, it cannot.
But I am not sure if this answer is 100% true:
Here is one thread about Bing Chat referencing and citing content behind a paywall to provide an answer for Bing Chat:
It’s a tricky minefield. If proven that these generative AIs are trained on proprietary and/or paywalled content, it opens the door to, shall we say, interesting litigation.
— Barry Adams 📰 (@badams) March 19, 2023
Now, is this possible? Well, there can be answers on why Bing was able to access this content:
(1) Maybe the content was open for a period of time where it was not behind a paywall and Bing indexed it?
(2) Maybe the content provider is giving this paywalled content to Bingbot without a paywall. There are approved ways to give paywalled content to search engines, like the old first click free and flexible sampling solutions.
So technically, the content might now be behind a paywall for users but not for search engines.
So technically, Bingbot doesn’t see the paywall but users might.
That is a possible technical explanation.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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