After many months of testing, Google has launched the highlights in the featured snippets within the Google search results. Google seems to have gone with the blue highlights, not the yellow, as we previously reported on both styles.

Google has made a couple of updates to the Google Maps User Contributed Content Policy around prohibited and restricted content. Specifically, Google updated the definition of personal information under the Civil discourse section and fake engagement under the Deceptive content section.

Google’s John Mueller was asked about a domain name purchased several months ago but still does not rank well in Google Search. John explained that the domain has a “long and complicated history.” “It’s going to be hard to convince search engines that it’s something very different & unrelated to what was done in the past decades,” John added.

Jack Krawczyk, the product lead for Bard at Google, told Googlers at an all-hands meeting, saying, “I just want to be very clear: Bard is not search.”

Since the Google February 2023 product reviews update on February 21st, we’ve been seeing some pretty big swings in the search results – a lot of volatility, more than the norm. And that continued through the past weekend.

So you’re ready to document your content strategy. You think you know what that entails – you need to write this down somewhere… right? OK, you’ve got a blank Google Doc waiting with a blinking cursor. Now what? What pieces should be recorded in your strategy document? What information is a must to include? Most importantly, why does it matter? Whether you have nothing more than a verbal understanding across your brand or team about your content strategy and you’re finally writing it down, or you’re creating a strategy from scratch and documenting as you go… We’ll cover it all […]

In part one, we spoke about who Sam Michelson is and his business development techniques. In part two, we dove into CRM software and how they use it, including looking at a new piece of software for partner management…

Brave SERPs now feature a rich result created by an AI Summarizer, sometimes summarizing two webpages in a single summary The post Brave Search Engine Summarizing Webpages in SERPs appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Technical SEO tools for agencies abound. What’s in your toolkit and how you use them can mean the difference between great success and great failure. The post 20 Essential Technical SEO Tools For Agencies appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Google Webmaster Tools adds user administration In 2012, Google Webmaster Tools added a much-wanted feature: user administration. Site owners could finally give people access to their Google Webmaster Tools account without having to share their own usernames and passwords or make them go through the verification process. Site owners could grant three types of access: Owner, Full or Restricted. Read all about it in Google Webmaster Tools Finally Adds User Administration. Also on this day Analysis of 250 million SERPs finds no-click story more complex than it appears 2020: Overall, the study found a blended desktop and mobile zero-click percentage […]

Matt Cutts confirms Vince, calls it a ‘minor change’ In 2009, Google’s Matt Cutts created a video to answer many questions about a recent “brand push” in the search results that SEOs and webmasters had noticed, starting in late February. Cutts confirmed the “minor change,” adding that Google’s ranking algorithm may be factoring trust, quality, PageRank, and other metrics for more generic queries. Cutts said it did not impact long-tail queries. A Googler named Vince created this change, which is how the Vince Update got its name. Read all about it in Google’s Vince Update Produces Big Brand Rankings; Google Calls It […]

Your content is what draws visitors to your website. Is yours pulling its weight? Perform a content audit to get the most from yours. The post How To Conduct A Content Audit Step-By-Step appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Sheryl Sandberg named Facebook Chief Operating Officer In 2008, Facebook announced Sheryl Sandberg as its new Chief Operating Officer. At the time, Sandberg was Google’s vice president of global online sales and operations, responsible for online sales of its advertising and publishing products. Sandberg joined Google in 2001. Sandberg would join Facebook on March 24, 2008 and be responsible for helping the company scale its operations and expand its presence globally. Why the change? “For me that is part of the excitement,” Sandberg said. “I’ve loved being part of the process of helping to build Google. The opportunity to help […]

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

LinkedIn has introduced Collaborative Articles, what it is calling an all-new way to share knowledge. I’d highly dispute that, as this really feels like an elevated take on classic roundup articles designed to feature the “wisdom of the crowd.” Why we care. LinkedIn is touting this as a way to grow your following, boost your reputation and help the community. All those are potentially true – but the big thing to also watch will be “collaboration spam.” I fully expect some people will try to boost their visibility by “collaborating” on as many of these articles as often as possible. […]

Pinterest is currently conducting alpha testing of a new ad offering that enables companies to reach customers from a more prominent location within the mobile app. The new format, tentatively named the “Premiere Spotlight” ad, gives advertisers access to a premium placement on the Pinterest app’s search page for a 24-hour period. As a result, they can reach Pinterest users while they utilize one of the app’s critical features: searching for pins, inspiration, and concepts. Early testing. The latest version of the Pinterest mobile app features the new ad style with a Kohl’s promotion. The ad includes a brief video […]

Brave Search has introduced Summarizer, a new AI-powered feature with similarities to Google’s featured snippets and Perspectives SERP features. It’s also like what BingGPT is doing, generating answers to questions in near real-time. Summarizer provides concise answers (generally two or three sentences), with one or multiple citations, to user search queries. Brave’s Summarizer answers are based on search results found on the web. This is a key point Brave called out in their announcement: “Unlike a purely generative AI model, which is prone to spout unsubstantiated assertions, we trained our large language models (LLMs) to process multiple sources of information […]