SEARCHENGINES
Google Local Service Ads Sends Out Mass Policy Violation Notices
Google sent out mass policy violation notices to some Local Service Ads advertisers. The notice is being sent via email and the subject line reads, “Your account has policy violations that need to be resolved.” Google is giving these advertisers until June 12th to resolve the issue.
It is unclear if this notice was a bug or some sort of new enforcement Google took action on now.
Jason Brown posted a screenshot of the violation notice in the Local Search Forum:
I am told that most, if not all, of these notices went out yesterday afternoon and were sent to garage door companies.
When you click through, you are presented with this notice in the Local Service Ads console:
That image was provided by Crystal Horton who posted it on Twitter. Crystal said, “LSA is now spelling it out for you when an LSA account gets suspended! There’s also a tab in the LSA dashboard for policy violations.” Crystal added, “An email notification was sent to multiple Garage Door companies across the US within the last 90 minutes stating “Your account has policy violations that need to be resolved”. But when we click the blue button, it goes to a page with no violations. Could this be a possible glitch?”
Not yet, just AdWords, It may be a bug, we are asking the team.
— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) May 31, 2023
This is great, now if only we can find out if the mass suspension of Garage Door companies was intentional. This is a big deal @rustybrick
— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) May 31, 2023
I wonder if this was just a bug?
Google is looking into it:
Hi Crystal, I’m looking into this.
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) May 31, 2023
I don’t have an update but the team is looking into it.
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) May 31, 2023
Forum discussion at Local Search Forum and Twitter.
Update: Jason Brown posted this update in the forums, suggesting this was new enforcement and not really a bug:
This is what I heard from my client.
1. This was a planned rollout to target spam and abuse in LSA.
2. Google was supposed to link to the policy violation, and they didn’t.
3. This only impacts Garage Door Repair and no other categories.
4. This is location specific, as not all LSA profiles received it.
5. This is not an Adwords policy violation; the notice will appear in your PPC account.
Update 2: Google has officially responded, basically saying the emails are legit but they had a bit of a technical snag. Ginny Marvin from Google wrote, “If you’re managing Local Services accounts via an MCC, the link in the email isn’t redirecting properly. We’re working on a fix, but in the meantime, to see the policy manager you’ll need to select the right account & go to the policy manager page.” Here is her response:
Separately, we’ve found that some Local Services accounts that have gone through Advanced Verification may see a policy flag which has no impact on your ads & you can disregard the notice. We’re looking into a solution here too. 2/2
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) June 1, 2023
SEARCHENGINES
Mikhail Parakhin Confirms He Is No Longer Working On Copilot At Microsoft
Mikhail Parakhin, the former head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising at Microsoft, confirmed he is no longer working on the Copilot project. He stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising weeks ago after Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of AI at Microsoft.
We knew Mikhail Parakhin was planning to work on something new but now Mikhail Parakhin confirmed that he is no longer working on Copilot.
He said on X, “Not working on Copilot anymore, onto new things.”
I did follow up and asked if “onto new things” means new things within Microsoft or new things at a new company but I did not hear back on that. His LinkedIn profile still shows he is at Microsoft.
Here are those posts:
I know, those were the best 🙂
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) May 9, 2024
Not working on Copilot anymore, onto new things.
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) May 9, 2024
I am super interested in what Mikhail is working on now and I suspect he will tell us soon.
I deeply miss his transparent and frequent posts about what Microsoft is working on with Copilot and Bing Search…
Forum discussion at X.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 10, 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 says site reputation abuse is not about links, it is about content. Google Local Service Ads ranking removed proximity as a ranking signal. Google Shopping may soon tell searchers how many shoppers purchased at your e-commerce site. Google Local panels now can show the owner of the business. Mikhail Parakhin from Microsoft confirmed he is no longer working on Copilot. Plus, I posted the weekly SEO video recap.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Google: Site Reputation Abuse Isn’t About Linking
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, made it crystal clear that the site reputation abuse policy has zero to do with linking. This means that who you link to and/or who links to you has no impact on this new policy that Google began enforcing with manual actions earlier this week. -
Google May Show How Many Shoppers Purchased On Your E-Commerce Site
Google has sent some Google Merchant Center e-commerce site managers notifications that a new annotation may begin to show up in the search results next to their site’s listing that shows how many searchers purchased on your site. It may read, “1K shopped here recently.” -
Google: Proximity Not A Relevancy Factor For Local Service Ads
Google has updated its Local Services Ads help document on ad rankings to remove the line around “proximity to potential customers’ locations” is a ranking factor for those ads. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, said the document was updated but there was no recent or “sudden change to ranking considerations” to LSA rankings or positions. -
Google Local Panel With Owner Attribute
Google can show the owner of the business in the local panels in the Google search results. I suspect this is not new but I don’t believe I’ve seen this before, where Google will add an “owner” attribute to the local panel. -
Mikhail Parakhin No Longer Working On Copilot At Microsoft
Mikhail Parakhin, the former head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising at Microsoft, confirmed he is no longer working on the Copilot project. He stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising weeks ago after Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of AI at Microsoft. -
Google Ads Cyclone Money Machine
I found this photo funny. It is one of those cyclone money machines that money flies around in, and a person inside is supposed to try to grab as much money as possible. Well, there is a Google Ads logo on this one. Oh, the irony of this photo… -
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Ranking Volatility, Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement, Pichai On Search Quality, HCU Recovery & More
Google may have had two search ranking algorithm updates, one around May 9th and one around May 3rd. Google began its site reputation abuse policy enforcement this week with manual actions, and it is not about linking. Google said sites may recover from the helpful content update. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, responded…
Other Great Search Threads:
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, 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 Search Ranking Volatility, Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement, Pichai On Search Quality, HCU Recovery & More
For the original iTunes version, click here.
Google may have had two search ranking algorithm updates, one around May 9th and one around May 3rd. Google began its site reputation abuse policy enforcement this week with manual actions, and it is not about linking. Google said sites may recover from the helpful content update. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, responded to search quality issues in an interview. Google is now hiding the number of search results under the tools menu. Google will remove the disavow link tool at some point. Gemini stopped linking to sources. Google renamed AI Answers back to AI Overview. Google is testing a new Notes button in Search. Google SGE said you should drink urine to pass a kidney stone. Google has product review summary labels. Google may show searchers how many people purchased on your e-commerce site. Google Ads new Performance Max for marketplaces. Rumors of 25% of Google Ads accounts being audited are false. Bing is testing clearer distinctions between free and paid search results. Google LSAs ranking help document removed that proximity is used for ranking. Google Local Business Profiles is testing a new review listing. Google Search is testing showing only local results for near me queries. Google Analytics gained Google Ads conversion performance beta reporting. Statcounter said Google didn’t lose market share, it was a bug in the reporting. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
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