SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 27, 2022
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 probably won’t be launching the page experience update and core web vitals label in search result snippets. Google is testing a new search refinement named people search next. Google is showing “updates from customers” prominently in the Google Maps business listings. Google has a bug with dark mode for some users. It is not a bad thing to have multiple verified profiles in Google Search Console.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Page Experience & Core Web Vitals Label Probably Won’t Go Live
In November 2020, Google said we may see a label for the Google page experience update show up in the search result snippets. Then in December 2020 we saw actual examples in the raw of Google testing this icon and label in the search results. In January 2021, Google said it might not go live and we didn’t know if it would go live. - Google Maps “Updates From Customers” A Nightmare For Business Listings?
Google has added to Google business profiles listings in the Google Maps interface a section named “updates from customers.” This seems to show some recent reviews from Google Local Guides and this might be a concern for some businesses where Google may highlight a review that might not be what you want your customers to see. - Stuck In Google Search Dark Mode Bug
There seems to be a bug that Google is working on where some searchers are getting left in the dark. Well, stuck in Google’s dark mode or dark theme setting and unable to go back to light theme. Google’s community manager, Minhaj K., said it is investigating the reports of this issue. - Multiple Google Search Console Properties For Same Site Is Okay
It is okay to have multiple properties verified for the same site in Google Search Console. It is not a bad thing, it won’t hurt you, in fact, it might give you more granular data to use if you do. In fact, John Mueller of Google confirmed it is fine to have multiple properties verified for the same site in Google Search Console. - Google “People Search Next” Search Refinements
Google has a new search refinement titled “people search next.” This is in addition to the related searches, the people also ask, the people also search for and the others. Here is a screenshot of this in action, but I found this via Saad AK on Twitter. - Polestar At GooglePlex
Here is a newish Polestar all electric car at the GooglePlex, the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. It was posted on Instagram where they wrote Google’s Android Automotive OS was spec
Other Great Search Threads:
- This was a bug that affected some campaigns. It has been resolved and you should now see the Locations page in Google Ads., Ginny Marvin on Twitter
- Best solution to www. and non-www. duplication?, Reddit
- From our POV there’s nothing special about car dealerships – they’re websites, essentially. They can appear in various places in search., John Mueller on Twitter
- From our side, it’s just “not canonical” (or “known, but not canonical”) — the reasons can vary. The terminology is difficult, and I don’t blame anyone for not using the same words we use :). Tip for this: don’t t, John Mueller on Twitter
- I doubt the choice of font has a significant impact on the overall page experience metrics — but if you’re up for it, test it out and let us know!, John Mueller on Twitter
- In your example, you seemed concerned that one of the review sites linked doesn’t originate the reviews but instead has them from another place. The embedded stuf, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
- The index status report is for web-search, so it wouldn’t make sense to index images there. If we see normal img-tags & can tell from the URL that it’s an image, we usually don’t even try to index them in web-sea, John Mueller on Twitter
- Ugh. Folks are still abusing Domain Authority (DA), a metric I created many years ago at Moz. Even though I haven’t worked there for 4 years, I still feel some residual pride & guilt in the popularity (and imperfection) of t, Rand Fishkin on Twitter
- Yes. If the JS files are blocked by robots.txt, we don’t fetch them, and can’t use them for rendering / indexing. (Which also reduces the load on the JS/API, so sometiems they do i, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Won’t Change The 301 Signals For Ranking & SEO
Gary Illyes from Google said on stage at the SERP conference last week that there is no way that Google would change how the 301 redirect signal works for SEO or search rankings. Gary added that it’s a very reliable signal.
Nikola Minkov quoted Gary Illyes as saying, “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal,” when asked if a 301 redirect not working is a myth. Honestly, I am not sure the context of this question, as it is not clear from the post on X, but here it is:
More from @methode:
– 301 redirect not working is a myth. “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal”.#SERPConf2024#SERPConf2024International— Nikola Minkov (@n_minkov) April 19, 2024
We’ve covered 301 redirects here countless times – but I never saw a myth that Google does not use 301 redirects as a signal for canonicalization or for passing signals from an old URL to the redirected URL.
Forum discussion at X.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Again Says Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
I am not sure how many times Google has said that you do not need to disavow spammy links, that you can ignore link spam attacks and that links pointing to pages that 404/410 are links that do not count – but John Mueller from Google said it again.
In a thread on X, John Mueller from Google wrote, “if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped.” “They do nothing,” he added, “If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link.”
John then added, “I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.”
Asking if it would hurt to disavow, after responding with the messages above, John wrote:
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
Earlier this year we had tons of SEOs notice spammy links to 404 error pages, John said ignore them. In 2021, Google said links to 404 pages do not count, Google also said that in 2012 and many other times.
Plus, outside of links to 404 pages, Google has said to ignore spammy links, time and time again – even the toxic links – ignore them. The messaging around this changed in 2016 when Penguin 4.0 was released and Google began devaluing links over demoting them.
Here are those new posts in context:
I’d say add both. Lol
— Jeremy Rivera (@JeremyRiveraSEO) April 11, 2024
Sure. But also, save yourself the work completely :-).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
Re-reading your initial post – if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped. They do nothing. If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link. I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
… but still… is this a dumb idea?
— Rebekah Edwards (@rebekah_creates) April 11, 2024
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
And in general, Google says it ignores spammy links, so you should too (not new) but this post from John Mueller is:
I would just ignore them, Google ignores them too. Sometimes they’re just more visible in tools, but that doesn’t mean they’re a problem.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 18, 2024
And then also on Mastodon wrote about a similar situation, “Google has 2 decades of practice of ignoring spammy links. There’s no need to do anything for those links.”
Forum discussion at X.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Needs Very Few Links To Rank Pages; Links Are Less Important
Gary Illyes from Google spoke at the SERP Conf on Friday and he said what he said numerous times before, that Google values links a lot less today than it did in the past. He added that Google Search “needs very few links to rank pages.”
Gary reportedly said, “We need very few links to rank pages… Over the years we’ve made links less important.”
I am quoting Patrick Stox who is quoting what he heard Gary say on stage at the event. Here is Patrick’s post where Gary did a rare reply:
I shouldn’t have said that… I definitely shouldn’t have said that
— Gary 鯨理/경리 Illyes (so official, trust me) (@methode) April 19, 2024
Gary said this a year ago, also in 2022 and other times as well. We previously covered that Google said links would likely become even less important in the future. And even Matt Cutts, the former Googler, said something similar about eight years ago and the truth is, links are weighted a lot less than it was eight years ago and that trend continues. A couple of years ago, Google said links are not the most important Google search ranking factor.
Of course, many SEOs think Google lies about this.
Judith Lewis interviewed Gary Illyes at the SERP Conf this past Friday.
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