Daily Search Forum Recap: March 7, 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 handed out tons of penalties and manual actions after releasing those new spam policies. Most SEOs don't think this Google update will make a big difference in search quality. Google spoke about how it deals with reliable information. Google updated its recipe rich results report in Search Console. Google Maps is hiding view counts on reviews. Google AdSense for Search for sites now requires new verification.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Unleashes Manual Actions Galore After Search Spam Policy Updates
  Google has unleashed tons of manual actions, search ranking penalties you can see within Google Search Console, after it released its search spam policy updates on Tuesday. The manual actions seemed to mostly have been distributed yesterday, Wednesday, March 6th, a day after Google announced the new spam policy changes.
• ~80% Feel Google's March Core & Spam Updates Won't Reduce Low-Quality Search Results
  I ran a poll asking my X/Twitter followers if they think the new Google March core and spam updates will reduce unhelpful content from showing up in the search results by 40%? About 80% of the 1,XXX votes said no, they don't think it will reduce the low-quality, unhelpful content from showing up in the Google search results.
• Does Google Search Know What Is Reliable Information
  Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, was asked does Google currently validate/verify if information or data within content, is accurate, correct, true or even "commonly accepted". In which Sullivan replied it isn't a simple yes/no response, Google Search wants to rank content people like, and people like content that has reliable information.
• Google Search Console Recipe Rich Results Report Updated
  Google has updated the recipe rich results report within Google Search Console. Google also cleaned up some of its recipe structured data documentation. You may see an increase in warnings for your Recipe items related to the reporting update.
• Google Maps Hides Views Counts On New Reviews
  Google is no longer showing the number of views a review gets on Google Maps. You will be able to see the older reviews view-counts for now but the new reviews are not showing those counts.
• New Site Level Approvals For AdSense for Search (AFS) Sites
  Google is getting serious with where their ads show since all the bad PR and now Google AdSense is requiring new site-level approval process for AdSense for Search (AFS) sites. This started on March 4, 2024, but Google didn't announce it until yesterday afternoon.
• Massive Stackable Blocks At The Google Office
  Here is a photo from the Google office in Mountain View, California. You can see they have this lobby area that has this massive stackable blocks. I assume they used some sort of small crane to get these all stacked up like this?

Other Great Search Threads:

• Clicks in Copilot are lower than clicks from regular search, but lead to longer dwell times on the pages Copilot links to. (Better engagement) Every site has a chance to be featured in Copilot., Lily Ray on X
• Our Deucalion model sometimes fails to output markups correctly. We are preparing version 1.1 of it, in the meantime you should not see it happening in Creative or Precise mode., Mikhail Parakhin on X
• Quotes should work. We did a blog post on this to help clear up some confusion that they don't. If you're comfortable sharing an example, happy to pass that on. We definitely intend for them to work. Here's, Google SearchLiaison on X
• You will see this notification if you try to add more than approximately 120 country level location exclusions. The aim is to simplify location targeting workflows, and we recommend using positive geographic targeting instead., AdsLiaison on X
• Enhancing performance reports and the capability to export data at large scale has been on our backlog for quite some time. I will continue advocating for that and maybe we will be able to get to that this year., Fabrice Canel on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• LinkedIn restores service after global outage
• TikTok faces fresh calls for potential ban by U.S. Senators
• TikTok expands monetization opportunities and rewards for creators
• Google Search turned off some event rich results
• Craft winning paid search ads in 2024: 4 best practices
• 13 ways SEO and social media teams can work together

Other Great Search Stories:

Industry & Business

• Ex-Google software engineer charged with stealing AI technology while working with Chinese companies, AP News
• Microsoft AI engineer says Copilot Designer creates disturbing images, CNBC
• Top AI photo generators produce misleading election-related images, study finds, CNN Business
• Big American Tech Profits From Chinese Ad Spending Spree, New York Times
• Microsoft’s Bing Helps Maintain China’s Great Firewall, Bloomberg

Links & Content Marketing

• 6 SEO Content Mistakes, Myths, and Misunderstandings, Content Marketing Institute
• Content Marketing: Do’s & Don’ts – Building Your Personal, Affiliate & Business Brand, Affiverse
• How Marketing Strategists Can Become In-House Content Creators, Social Media Examiner

Local & Maps

• Airlines, hotels warn Google changes may benefit large intermediaries, Reuters
• Google Maps Blocked Reviews in Israel & Gaza, Near Media

Mobile & Voice

• Apple Car’s Crash: Design Details, Tim Cook’s Indecision, Failed Tesla Deal, Bloomberg
• How Apple Stands to Lose From Europe’s New Tech Law, Wall Street Journal

SEO

• Crafting the perfect SEO content brief: Essential components, Wix SEO Hub
• How to Rank Higher on Google in 9 Steps, BruceClay
• What is Google really targeting with the March Core Update, and will it achieve its goals?, econsultancy
• Data Science for SEO: What It Is & How to Apply It, Semrush

PPC

• Microsoft reaches new highs of desperation; running Bing search result ads on Google, MSPoweruser
• Performance Max and other key updates for March, Microsoft Advertising

Search Features

• Here's how Google is responding to Europe's new Digital Markets Act, Android Authority
• SGE is building its response based on HTML content, Onely

Other Search

• Google opens cyberdefense hub in Tokyo, Nikkei Asia
• The Miseducation of Google’s A.I., New York Times

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.