SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Essentials Replaces The Google Webmaster Guidelines
Google has replaced the Google Webmaster Guidelines with the Google Search Essentials. The name change is Google’s ongoing efforts to remove the term “webmaster” so that these tools and documentation do not narrow the focus to just “webmasters,” but expands it to publishers, site owners, developers, creators, and so on.
Before I even started blogging (which was in 2003), Google launched the Google Webmaster Guidelines back in 2002 – yes, two decades ago. The name stuck for 20 years but now Google decided it was time to change the name and refresh the guidelines in a very big way.
What Changed
Google changed more than just the name, Google also changed the overall format, added clearer terms and examples and also tried to simplify them for easier consumption. Google explained they updated the:
- Technical requirements: It is a new section to help people understand how to publish content in a format that Google can index and access.
- Spam policies: Google updated its guidance for its policies against spam, to help site owners avoid creating content that isn’t helpful for people using Google Search. Google explained that most of the content in these spam policies has already existed on Google Search Central in the “Quality Guidelines”, Google did make a few additions to provide clearer guidance and concrete examples for issues like deceptive behavior, link spam, online harassment, and scam and fraud.
- Key best practices: Google published new guidance with key best practices that people can consider when creating sites, to create content that serves people and will help a site be more easily found through Google Search.
The new spam section has content on:
- New deceptive behavior related-topics such as misleading functionality
- New section on other behaviors that can lead to demotion and or removal, such as
online harassment, and scam and fraud - Consolidated topics related to link spam and thin content
Drilling in, here is the list of changes from Google:
SEO Community Diving In
Here are some of the observations made from the SEO community on the changes here, mostly from Marie Haynes and Glenn Gabe:
Under technical requirements:
“There are actually very few technical things you need to do to a web page; most sites pass the technical requirements without even realizing it.” pic.twitter.com/toF3W6cBxm— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) October 13, 2022
Nice that Google added “Spammy” to autogenerated content. It used to just say “autogenerated content intended to manipulate search rankings. Again, this is a tough area for Google with AI writing software on the move. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/YppvHrEg0i
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 13, 2022
Spam policies can lead to an entire site being ranked lower or completely omitted from Google search. pic.twitter.com/ud80KOAfRh
— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) October 13, 2022
Google also included “Thin” in the guideline for affiliate pages. They did have “thin” in the description in the past, but I think it’s a good idea they added “thin” in the specific guideline title. Avoids confusion with affiliate content vs. thin affiliate content. pic.twitter.com/aWGdMCQH2Y
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 13, 2022
Also, “Misleading functionality” is new. “Site owners intend to manipulate search ranking by intentionally creating sites w/misleading functionality & services that trick users into thinking they would be able to access some content or services but in reality can not.” pic.twitter.com/h6yPyUxosM
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 13, 2022
The first key best practice is to create helpful, reliable people first content.https://t.co/F8Xnaclkzs
Looks like this document is the former core update questions questions plus more😍 pic.twitter.com/kJc9pLrZDO
— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) October 13, 2022
They added new questions
-do you have an existing audience?🤔
-does your content clearly demonstrate expertise? pic.twitter.com/k14KiKxNZF— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) October 13, 2022
Does your site have a primary focus?
Does content fulfill searcher’s goal?
Will the reader leave feeling satisfied? pic.twitter.com/9ceRXni5Dp
— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) October 13, 2022
And more questions to ensure we’re not creating content just for search engines.
These look like they are the helpful content update questions. pic.twitter.com/yYRKw5Cmcv
— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) October 13, 2022
Don’t worry. Google doesn’t hate SEO. pic.twitter.com/EYn2NTmsJh
— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) October 13, 2022
“our systems give even more weight to content that aligns with strong E-A-T for topics that could significantly impact the health, financial stability, or safety of people, or the welfare or well-being of society.”
— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) October 13, 2022
There are more key best practices
Use words ppl would use.
Place them in prominent places.Make links crawlable.
Tell people about your site, like in forums related to your topic. pic.twitter.com/pdwKGxI8h3
— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) October 13, 2022
And lastly
Follow best practices for images, videos, structured data and JavaScript
There’s a lot more under “how your site appears” as well. pic.twitter.com/YqS4U2rraJ— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) October 13, 2022
That nothing’s changed. pic.twitter.com/cqBl7IYvM6
— Rohan Ayyar (@searchrook) October 13, 2022
Relevant new section about what G considers spam:
“A site that claims to provide certain functionality (for example, PDF merge, countdown timer, online dictionary service), but intentionally leads users to deceptive ads rather than providing the claimed services”
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) October 13, 2022
it’s essential you look at this 👀 https://t.co/l1r31o38Ix
— Lizzi (@okaylizzi) October 13, 2022
An update on Google’s Webmaster Guidelines …
… they’re now called Search Essentials, and split into technical requirements, spam policies, and key best practices. The content is largely the same as before. Check them out, & update your links :-). https://t.co/gOTnj7QvC0
— ⛰ johnmu is not a cat ⛰ (@JohnMu) October 13, 2022
It wouldn’t be a bad thing, but regardless, pretty much nobody in the corporate world calls themselves a “webmaster” anymore. It’s outdated terminology. https://t.co/6hSMsNSm7v
— ⛰ johnmu is not a cat ⛰ (@JohnMu) October 13, 2022
Yeah, some of those have a lot of historical significance, I think “webmaster” never really got there, people moved on fairly quickly. (That said, even things of historical significance can be improved – just because something’s old doesn’t mean it’s still appropriate today)
— ⛰ johnmu is not a cat ⛰ (@JohnMu) October 13, 2022
How does that contradict that?
— ⛰ johnmu is not a cat ⛰ (@JohnMu) October 14, 2022
(and first good morning, and the statement that you are not a cat must be true, as you are an early bird 😀)
— Rüdiger Dalchow (@RuedigerDalchow) October 14, 2022
thanks that clarfies it for me. 🙂 Never really understood why to waste time on chasing low-quality links anyway.
— Rüdiger Dalchow (@RuedigerDalchow) October 14, 2022
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
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:
-
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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