One other little tidbit or nugget from the Search Central Live event was that Gary answered how many times Google changed its search algorithm due to SEOs gaming the system. Gary said in the past ten years, he thinks it was about four or five times, that he can remember.
Google: The Page Experience Update Won’t Be A Massive Change To Start
Google’s Danny Sullivan said to start, when the Page Experience Update rolls out, it won’t be a massive change. It might grow in terms of importance over the years. But to start, Danny said “it shouldn’t be the case that overnight, we flip some type of switch and there’s a massive change.”
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 24, 2021
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Google Won’t Talk About Spam Prevention For Page Experience Update
Malte Ubl, a Technically a Software Engineer at Google, said he won’t be talking about any efforts around abuse and spam prevention for the upcoming Google Page Experience update. Specifically how some may try to fake the Chrome User Experience Report (CRUX) data for better or worse to manipulate rankings.
Google: There Is No SEO Reason To Make Bloated Sites
Some folks were complaining that SEO is to blame for the bloat on the web. Specifically when some sites that are so bloated with trackers and other add-ons that the sites are not only slow but slow down your computer. John Mueller from Google said “there is no SEO reason for making such terrible & bloated sites.”
Google: Mixed Content Warnings Won’t Remove Your Site From Search
Google’s John Mueller said that having mixed content on your site and getting mixed content warnings won’t result in your site being removed from Google Search. We said previously that the Chrome mixed content notifications do not impact Google Search and that remains true at the time I published this.
Google: Title Tags Longer Than What Is Displayed Has SEO Benefit
Gary Illyes from Google said in last night’s Google Central Live event that there is a benefit, I assume an SEO benefit, to having title tags longer than what is displayed in the search. He later added that you should keep the title tag “precise” to the topic of the page and do not worry how long it is or if it is too long.
Google Lets Agencies Dismiss Some Partner Program Recommendations
Google has re-announced the new partner program requirements after postponing the new requirements due to COVID and the huge backlash at the new rules. Now, Google said partners “have the flexibility to apply or dismiss performance recommendations based on your own assessment in order to meet a minimum optimization score of 70%.”
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 23, 2021
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…
Google Ads Console Is Down & We’re Back
Google Ads is currently not loading for advertisers now. If you try to login to ads.google.com you will be presented with a 502 server error. Google Ads went down at about 3:10pm ET today.
Google Talks About Its Serving Index & Index Shards
In the latests episode of the Search Off The Record podcast with Googlers John Mueller, Gary Illyes, Martin Splitt and this week’s special guest Mariya Moeva – they spoke about Google’s SiteKit and then also about the serving index. Gary gave a summary of how Google’s serving index works.
Some Google Search Ranking Algorithm Chatter Past Few Days
I’ve been on the edge about if I should report or not report some of the chatter and signals I am seeing around a possible Google search ranking algorithm update. I was seeing some somewhat small signs since the weekend of an update but those signals are picking up a little bit more a few days in.
Google Search Console Association Controls Updated
Google has enhanced the associations controls within Google Search Console. Google now makes it super clear where your Search Console account is associated with, in terms of other Google accounts. The list of associations includes Analytics, YouTube, Google Ads, Android Apps and more.
Google Mobile-First Indexing Deadline Is Around March 2021
Google’s revised mobile-first indexing deadline is coming up in the next several weeks. Google said it is going 100% into mobile-first indexing. Google moved the deadline from September 2020 to March 2021. John Mueller of Google said today the March 2021 is an approximate deadline.
Google: Total Number Of Links Is Completely Irrelevant For SEO
Google’s John Mueller said that “the total number [of backlinks] essentially is completely irrelevant” to rankings in Google in a video hangout last week. I heard the statement and didn’t cover because it is SEO 101 but then I saw some of the responses on the internet about this line and decided it is worth repeating.