Google Algorithm Fluctuations, FLoC FLoPs, New Google Robots Tag & More

This week, we had another unconfirmed Google search ranking update on January 22nd. Google has admitted defeat with its FLoC cookieless proposal and is now going with Topics API. Google launched a new robots tag named indexifembedded that controls indexing of embedded content. Google Search Console had an image search reporting bug it is working to fix, it is just a reporting issue. Google Ads has new tools to help you transfer from smart shopping and local campaigns to performance max. Google probably won’t go live with a label in the search results that meet the page experience update criteria. Newzdash data shows that 67% of Google search results have duplicated top stories and web search results. An SEO poll shows that most SEOs agree that if Google gave 100% transparency in the search results it would lead to poorer quality results. A dental office is named Dentist Near Me but is that a good local SEO strategy? We also have an SEO poll on near me queries. Google’s John Mueller said there is no schema for product images in search. Google launched a new search refinement named People Search Next. Google Maps now shows “updates from customers” which might be a concern for review management. Google is deprecating the Google My Business API on April 20th, it will be replaced. Google is once against testing search results without snippet descriptions. Google confirms it is testing showing favicons in the search ads. Google image search related colored theme design. Google is discontinuing Cameos on Google. Google AdSense is separating out YouTube earnings with other earnings. Google Assistant now lets us say “stop” without saying “hey Google” first.And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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