SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 19, 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 Ads is testing swapping out the “ads” label with a “sponsored” label. Google is testing slightly larger favicons in the search results. Google is testing the scroll to highlight feature where it lets you share the highlighted text. Did we find a new knowledge panel spam hack or is it just a Google bug? Finally, Google can show video thumbnails in search even without a playable video on the page.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Ads Tests Replacing Ad Label With Sponsored Label
Google Ads is testing replacing the “ads” label with a “sponsored” label again. And just so you know, Google in 2010 replaced the “sponsored” label with an “ad” label until this day. Yea, sometimes we do see “sponsored” labels in Google Search but not for the normal search ads – those have been labeled “ads” for the UK and US regions for a long time now. - New Form Of Google Knowledge Panel Spam Or Is This A Simple Google Bug?
If you do a search on [seo services india] you will see a knowledge panel show up for a “musical artist” named “SEO Services in India.” The question is, is this a bug with Google misinterpreting entities or is this specific manipulation by an SEO as a form of new Google knowledge panel spam? - Google Tests Slightly Larger Favicons In Mobile Search Results
Breaking news — Google is testing a slightly larger favicon near the title of the search result in the mobile search interface. I do not know how Vlad Rappoport noticed this but he did and notified me of it on Twitter. - Google Search Scroll To Highlight Now Can Share Highlighted Text Via Social, Email, etc
The Google Search and Chrome feature where you click on a snippet and you are taken to a position on that publisher’s page and it highlights the appropriate text now also lets you share that text. Well, at least Google is testing that feature for some searchers, on some browsers and platforms. - Google Shows Video Thumbnail In SERPs Without Embedding Video On Page?
Crystal Carter posted an example on Twitter of Google showing a video thumbnail for a snippet of her page but that page did not actually embed a video on the page. So if you visit the specific page, there is no video for a user to click on to play. - Google Wallet Silly Putty Egg Toy
Google gave away these silly putty egg toys branded with the Google Wallet logo on it. Who doesn’t love silly putty eggs toys? Seriously, do you not enjoy silly putty?
Other Great Search Threads:
- I’m sure this won’t lead to keyword stuffing. 🙂 Etsy re: its search algo changes -> Etsy Search now considers keywords & phrases w/in your listing descriptions when ranking your listings. Aim to incorporate relevant keywords, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
- It follows redirects like how Googlebot would, that’s by design., John Mueller on Twitter
- Searches for “mental health therapist” and “mental health help” reached record highs this year in the U.S. Learn more about tools and resources that can help when you need it most → https://t.co/kzSS5AHzO0 #MHAM, Google on Twitter
- In our docs, we only talk about long redirect chains — the usual per-page redirects are not really a problem. (Also, don’t blindly trust what you can check with your own data :-, John Mueller on Twitter
- Today’s #APAHM #GoogleDoodle honors the birthday of disability justice activist, Stacey Park Milbern. Stacey co-created disability justice to fight for those marginalized within the disabled community—people of color,, Google Doodles 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.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
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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