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 Related Searches With Text Icon Near Graphic Icon
A few years ago, Google began displaying for some related searches (also people also ask flavors) image icons near the query refinement option. Now, it seems Google is showing a text icon for when text is found inside the refinement option, and not just images.
Google and SEO: The Adversarial and Evolutionary Tale
The other day I saw Paul Haahr, a Google Search engineer vet, retweet something shared by Daphne Keller, former Google Search lawyer, who shared Facebook VP’s Nick Clegg Medium piece. With me so far? Anyway, the tweet from Daphne Keller “we will reward this behavior until you adapt your business and get too good at it, and then we will punish it” caught my attention.
Google Image Search Does Not Using Cloud Vision AI
Sean Brattin asked Google’s John Mueller a couple of months ago if Google uses Cloud Vision AI within Google Image Search. The answer was no, but John did say that Google did talk about “about doing that in the past” but ended up not to do it.
Google Search Cameos For Product Searches
Google first launched what it called cameos, selfie style videos from well-known people, back in 2017. Generally those shows up for people’s own knowledge panels, like you would see for a search on my name. But now, it seems Google is showing them for product searches and more generic searches.
Google My Business Bug Dropping Some Businesses In The Middle Of The US
There has been this ongoing bug with Google Maps / Google My Business where for some service area businesses they end up being placed in the middle of the United State of America, in Independence, Kansas. I am not sure why and I don’t fully understand it, it must be one of those mysterious phenomenons.
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 5, 2021
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Third-Party Bot Traffic Does Not Directly Impact Your Google Rankings
A webmaster asked on Twitter if having “a lot of bot traffic coming in” and if that bot traffic is “tagged under organic traffic, will this have an adverse any effect or does google ignore this.” The answer is no, John Mueller of Google said “That has no effect on Google Search.”
April 2021 Google Webmaster Report
It was yet another busy month in terms of Google algorithm updates, all of which are unconfirmed. But we had six, maybe seven, unconfirmed updates in March. This is all while we wait for the next Google core update. The good news, featured snippets returned to normal levels in the Google search results.
Vlog #114: Fay Friedman On E-Commerce SEO vs Other SEO & Common SEO Audit Issues
I met up with the Director of SEO and Marketing of AJH Co, Fay Friedman, in a nice park in New Jersey named Branch Brook Park. Fay has been doing SEO now for over 10 years for a multitude of companies but did a ton of e-commerce SEO in the first part…
Fake COVID Vaccine Ads Hit Google
Despite all of Google’s efforts to remove and prevent vaccine misinformation, some do slip through the cracks. Here is one example that was spotted by a former Googler who is now the California Chief Technology Innovation Officer at the California Department of Technology, Rick Klau.
Google Begins Testing FLoC In Chrome
Google announced it has begun testing FLoC, Federated Learning of Cohorts, in Chrome. Specifically the FLoC origin trial in Chrome 89 will work on websites that don’t opt out of it.
Google Search Has Themes For Easter and Passover
If you go to Google on desktop or mobile and search for [easter] and/or [passover] you will get a special theme in the search results. This is similar to the themes Google has for the holidays when you search for [christmas], [hanukkah] or [kwanzaa].
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 2, 2021
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…
Rand Updates Metrics On Zero Click Study; Google, It’s Now Your Turn
Rand Fishkin posted on Twitter several updated stats and information around his most recent zero-click search study. There are some interesting tidbits in this update but more importantly, I think if Rand can take the industry feedback and work to update the study, Google can take the industry feedback and share some of its data.