SEARCHENGINES
Google Merchant Center Adds Auto-Tagging For All Free Listings Everywhere
Earlier this year, Google Merchant Center added auto-tagging for free listings in your Merchant Center account. But this only worked in the Google Shopping tab, now it works across all Google experiences.
Google announced now you can use auto-tagging to view conversions for all free listings and free local listings experiences on Google.
Previously, auto-tagging was only available for listings in the Shopping tab. When used with a web analytics tool, you can use the conversion data to see how effective your listings perform, Google said.
When auto-tagging is enabled, after someone clicks your free product listing and free local product listing, auto-tagging adds some additional information including a parameter called “result id” to the URL parameters that searchers click on.
The parameter can be parsed by your analytics tool, like Google Analytics, to track these result IDs and give you more insight into your Merchant Center listings. Google said “this will allow you to see how effectively your free listings and free local listings lead to valuable customer activity, such as purchases.”
If you’re already using auto-tagging, no action is needed: additional conversion data from free listings and free local listings will be included in your reporting automatically. To enable auto-tagging in your Merchant Center account, go to the “Conversion settings” in your Merchant Center account.
When used with a web analytics tool, auto-tagging allows you to view how effective your free listings and free local listings are at leading to significant customer activity (such as purchases). When you turn on auto-tagging in Merchant Center, you can:
- Track conversions from your free listings and free local product listings on your website on all browsers (separately from other conversion types).
- Split out performance in a third-party web analytics tool, such as Google Analytics, between your free listings and free local listings from overall Google organic traffic.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 26, 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 Search Console is testing an Android App. Google is testing places and places sites in the search bar menu. Google spoke about if a business should have a website and a blog. Google added 3D models to product structured data. Google Search does not support AVIF images, yet. Mikhail Parakhin stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google Search Console Tests Android App
Google seems to be testing an Android App for Google Search Console. This comes several weeks after I reported that Google has no plans for a mobile app for Google Search Console. -
Google Tests Places & Places Sites Search Bar Filter Tabs
Yesterday we reported Google is testing products and products sites in the search bar tab in the European regions. Today, Google is testing places and places sites in the search bar tab in the European regions. -
Google: Should Small Service Businesses Start A Website & A Blog?
Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, was asked about if a business should always have a website and if so, should they also have a blog. Sullivan replied that he believes all businesses should have at least a basic website, but when it comes to a blog, that depends on what they have to say on that blog. -
Google Adds 3D Models Markup To Product Structured Data For Linking
Google has added new 3D models markup support to the product structured data documentation so that you can connect, associate or link your products to the appropriate 3D model. -
Google Search Does Not Support AVIF Images Just Yet
Did you know that Google Search does not support the AVIF image format? At least not yet. Google Search doesn’t list it on its supported image formats and Google Image Search simply won’t index them. But John Mueller of Google said on X, “I’m sure this won’t be necessary long term.” -
Mikhail Parakhin Steps Down As Head Of Bing Search & Microsoft Advertising
Mikhail Parakhin, the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising, is stepping down from that role as Parakhin “decided to explore new roles.” We’ve quoted Mikhail Parakhin here countless times over the past couple of years, to hear that he is leaving the role makes me super sad. His transparency and willingness to listen to the community was amazing. -
St. Patrick’s Day Dancers At Google Ireland
Here is a video I found on Instagram from the Google Ireland office of dancers performing at the Google office in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. It looks like they call themselves the Golden Beats.
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
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 25, 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 is begging SEOs to stop trying to show Google things and work on showing their users things. Google is testing the Search Generative Experience in the wild to a subset of US users. Google says publishing more content doesn’t improve site quality. Google is testing products and product sites in the search bar. Google shares how to remove a subdomain of a subdomain in Google Search Console.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google Tests SGE AI Overviews In The Wild (Subset Of US Users)
On Friday, Google began to test SGE-based AI overviews in the real Google search results. That means you may see AI overview snapshot answers in Google search results without being opted into the Google search labs experiment. This is being tested on a small subset of searchers based in the U.S., Google told me. -
Google Begs SEOs To Stop Showing Google Things; Show Visitors Things Instead
Google’s Search Liaison responded to a series of posts on Twitter, leading him to beg SEOs to stop trying to “show Google” things, explaining that the process of doing things to your site to rank better in Google is the opposite of the advice Google is giving. Instead, show things to your users/visitors that those people will like. -
Google: Publishing More Content Doesn’t Improve Quality For Faster Indexing
A couple of weeks ago, Gary Illyes and Lizzi Sassman of Google had Dave Smart as a guest on the Search Off The Record podcast and they spoke about crawling. In one part, they said again that the quality of your site can impact how fast and how much Google will crawl your website. -
Google Tests Products & Product Sites Search Bar Filter Tabs
Google is now testing placing “product sites” as its own search bar filter tab in the search results. Also, Google is testing replacing “Shopping” with “Products” in that search bar. -
How To Remove A Subdomain Of A Subdomain Via Google Search Console
Let’s say you have a subdomain of a subdomain, such as sub.sub.domain.tld, how do you remove sub.sub.domain.tld from Google while keeping sub.domain.tld in the Google search results. The answer is to verify the sub.sub.domain.tld property directly in Search Console and remove just that property. -
Flock Of Geese At Google
Here is a flock of geese near the new Google Bay View campus in Mountain View, California. I guess the geese are making its way from the GooglePlex to the Bay View campus?
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
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
No Site Impacted By The September Helpful Content Update Recovered Yet
As you know, the September 2023 helpful content update was brutal to many small site owners, bloggers, SEOs and others. Some of these folks were desperately waiting for a recovery and were hopeful that this March 2024 core update (which is still rolling out) would result in a recovery. But it does not appear that any site has yet recovered from the ranking declines they saw in September 2023.
I have personally not heard of anyone say they recovered from that September 2023 helpful content update and I track a ton of chatter across many forums and social media platforms. Heck, most of the comments left on this site are from site owners and SEOs who have been dealing with the outcome of the September helpful content update and no one has commented they recovered. In fact, many of them said they are seeing even less visibility from Google Search since the March core update.
But the data that Glenn Gabe posted on X yesterday says that of the over 200 sites he tracked that got hit with the helpful content update, zero – I repeat – zero have recovered. Glenn wrote, “Now that we are two weeks into the March core update, I ran the visibility numbers for several hundred sites impacted the September HCU(X). I haven’t see one that recovered yet. Actually, most were down even more (see screenshots below of March impact and then overall impact since the September HCU).”
He shared some charts of random sites that were hit by the helpful content update in September 2023 and how their visibility was throughout yesterday:
Now, as Glenn said in his post, “Remember, the helpful content system has been baked into Google’s core ranking systems now. Google explained that instead of one classifier and system, there are now multiple systems assessing the helpfulness of content.” We covered this in our previous stories. And we know the core update still has a couple of weeks left to roll out. So maybe (but I am doubtful) the helpful content components of this core update will roll out at the tail end of this core update and we will see some recoveries?
I mean, Google said wait for the update to be over to see what needs to be done. But Google also said these updates are not perfect and they will collect feedback when it is over. The core update is still rolling out, the spam update is done and those manual actions were very painful.
Glenn added these important points:
Based on the first two weeks of the rollout, it seems the new approach is impacting those sites *more* than the original HCU classifier. But… there are probably more systems that need to be updated with the March core update (and Google said those systems would reinforce each other). So, there is a possibility that the multiple systems assessing helpfulness of content will get updated and things might change for some of those sites over the next two weeks. Time will tell, but for now, all are still down that I checked (and many are down more since the core update started rolling out). Stay tuned.
My gut feeling is that we won’t see many recoveries but I’ve been wrong a lot in my life. I mean, Google did say a reduction of 40% of unhelpful content. But Google never really mentioned that sites would recover. But we will see, the update is not done yet.
Yesterday, Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison responded to a site’s decline on X implying that he and Google is aware of some expert sites not ranking well and that he hopes to see changes in the future for those sites. He wrote, “I know your site. It’s on a list of sites I spent time exploring recently, where people have said they are experts, small sites that deserve better visibility. On our end, there are definitely things I hope we’ll improve on.”
Here is that post:
Arnaud, I know your site. It’s on a list of sites I spent time exploring recently, where people have said they are experts, small sites that deserve better visibility. On our end, there are definitely things I hope we’ll improve on. On your end, I would detail some of the things…
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 21, 2024
I am hopeful but not expecting to see recoveries with this March update. I do hope that we will see another update from Google very soon that may give some of these site owners some relief…
Here is Glenn’s post:
Quick update about sites impacted by the September HCU(X): Now that we are two weeks into the March core update, I ran the visibility numbers for several hundred sites impacted the September HCU(X). I haven’t see one that recovered yet. Actually, most were down even more (see… pic.twitter.com/Ph9RePr1LO
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 21, 2024
Note – I spoke to Glenn to get more clarity on the data before writing this story.
Forum discussion at X.
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