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 announced a new core update yesterday and so far and early on, this one seems very big. Google also may be showing fewer featured snippets as of a week ago. Google updated its review guidelines to prohibit incentivizing people to remove negative reviews. Google consolidated its A/B testing help content. Google said it will never penalize you for not having H1 tags.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google September 2022 Broad Core Update Is Live – What We Are Seeing Now
  
  Google Search has started to roll out the second broad core update of the year, the September 2022 broad core update. It started on September 12, 2022 at about 11:25 am ET and can take about two weeks to roll out.
• Google Review Guidelines Now Prohibit Incentivizing Removal Of Negative Reviews
  
  Google has updated its Google Maps contributor guidelines, specifically disallowing a business to incentivize those who leave negative reviews to remove those reviews. Previously, the guidelines only prohibited incentivizing leaving positive reviews.
• Report: Google Showing Fewer Featured Snippets, But I Am Not Sure…
  
  According to both RankRanger and Semrush, Google is showing fewer featured snippets in the search results since Thursday, September 8th. Personally, I am not seeing this when I search but this is what these two tracking tools are showing.
• Google: We Will Never Penalize You For Not Having H1 Attributes
  
  Google’s John Mueller said something he normally does not say, the word “never.” He said Google will never penalize a site for not having an H1. John said this on Reddit, adding that it is good practice and low effort to have H1s but you won’t be penalized for not having them on your site.
• Google Consolidates A/B Testing SEO Impact In Search Help Documentation
  
  Just like with Google’s consolidation of preventing spam on your site, Google did the same with its blog post on how to minimize A/B testing impact in Google Search. Google has repurposed that old blog post into an official help document in the Google Search developer docs.




• Bonsai Plant At Google Office
  
  Every tech firm needs to have Bonsai trees and plants, it is the joke about tech firms. So here is one at the Google office in New York City. At least one sitting on someone’s desk there.

Other Great Search Threads:

• One of the interesting things about SEO is that a lot of folks started doing SEO in the hope of quick & easy wins (“unhelpful” content, in some cases), and many, John Mueller on Twitter
• Google has 20 years practice ignoring those., John Mueller on Twitter
• If you want something to be seen as a normal link, I’d just use a normal link., John Mueller on Twitter
• Major companies remove Facebook login option over privacy concerns, WebmasterWorld
• Did a few local searches, and this is what it looks like. Searching directly from the home screen is faster than opening a browser or an app. So I predict a decent amount of search volume will start flowing through, Greg Sterling on Twitter
• Hi folks, I’d love to have your throughts on the new office hours format. How did you find it overall? Was it a good use of your time? What could we change to make it better? Thank you!, John Mueller on Twitter
• Low number of Valid items in Breadcrumbs, WebmasterWorld
• Out of the box, the left hand navigation in GA4 looks pretty bare, there are only 18 reports vs the 90+ (not including integration reports) in Universal Analytics. But contrary to popular belief, GA4 actually has a lot o, Krista Seiden on Twitter
• Yelp bidding on this keyword and outranking Google is pretty great. How do you like them apples, Google?, Darren Shaw on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Feedback:

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