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 is experimenting with YouTube Shorts for SEO help content. Google is testing inserting keywords from queries in shopping ads. Google says keywords in domains are overrated and to ignore black hat traffic. Google said it is fine to link to WhatsApp numbers on your site. Plus my weekly SEO video recap is live.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Ranking Updates, Google News Updated, SEO, Ads, Local & More
  
  This week, we had some interesting tremors and ranking shifts from an unconfirmed Juneteenth Google search ranking update that really spiked a day or so ago. Google News revamped its design…
• Google: Ignore Black Hat Traffic, We Do.
  
  Google’s John Mueller said it is safe to ignore black hat traffic, he said it is just spam and there is no need to worry about it from an SEO perspective. He said on Twitter that black hat traffic is just spam and you should ignore it.




• Google Tries YouTube Shorts For SEO Help Content
  
  Back in March, Gary Illyes and friends hinted that they may try creating short form video content for the Google help documents. Well, Google’s Alan Kent produced one of the first ones on the topic of why it is important to specify image dimensions.




• Google Shopping Ads Tests Inserting Material In Ad Title From Query
  
  Google is testing a dynamic keyword insertion feature for Google Shopping Ads where it may insert the material in the product if used in the searcher’s query. I do not know if this is 100% new or not but it might be.




• Google: Keywords In Domain Names Are Overrated
  
  Google’s John Mueller said once again that “keywords in domain names are overrated.” He and Googlers over time have said this numerous times over the years and he said it again. Instead he said “pick something for your business, pick something for the long term.”




• Google: WhatsApp Phone Numbers On Your Site Is Not A Bad SEO Practice
  
  Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that it is not a bad SEO practice to link to your WhatsApp number on your site. This is despite what some SEO toolsets say, linking to a WhatsApp number, phone number or fax number is fine and Google does not judge your site differently based on the type of number you link to.




• Aurora Morales Recording In A Google Studio
  
  Aurora Morales of Google has done a nice number of videos for Google, specifically on the publisher monetization front. She did a nice number of those while at home since COVID. She now said she is b

Other Great Search Threads:

• It sounds like you have one thing to fix at least. Usually technically duplicated content doesn’t cause quality issues though, so you definitely want to look beyond j, John Mueller on Twitter
• Oh, just saw the rest — those are essentially fake URL parameters (rewritten dynamic URLs), and I’ve often seen them cause problems. We can index them, but in general, I’d use URL parameter, John Mueller on Twitter
• Alright, I screwed up. The first attempt at the Technical SEO office hours, uh, didn’t quite work. I am currently looking for a better way to get them going and will let you know when I found one. Currently experimenting wi, Martin Splitt on Twitter
• Yeah, these are (unless otherwise labeled) all organic results. SEO is about more than the old-school text-link-to-a-webpage :-)., John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

• Alphabet and Meta Have an Ad Revenue Problem. What It Means for Their Stocks., Barron’s
• Google and Meta Get Caught Up in Europe’s Energy Politics, Bloomberg
• Google Cloud customers and partners grade CEO Thomas Kurian, Protocol
• Google’s Plan for 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Ran Into Headwinds in 2021, Wall Street Journal
• It’s time for more transparency around government data demands, Google Blog
• Russia’s Yandex opens public access to AI large language model, Reuters
• SEO on the Beach 2022 Recap & Highlights, Oncrawl
• Yandex Completes Purchase of 93% of Its Convertible Notes, Yandex
• Yelp CEO shutters some offices, says hybrid work is “hell”, Washington Post
• Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care, The Economist

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Other Search

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