Daily Search Forum Recap: March 19, 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 will post a feedback form after the March core update is done to hear how things went with this update. Google said publishing content in bulk does not make the content spam. Google says canonicalizing from www to non-www shouldn't impact rankings. Microsoft Advertising can now import from Google Ads PMax to Microsoft PMax, fully. Google has a new head of Search, new lead of search quality and ranking as other Googlers change roles.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Will Collect Feedback After The March Core & Spam Updates Are Done
  If you've been glancing at the comments on this site or reading the feedback thus far on social media, you can tell that so far, SEOs and site owners are not that happy with the Google Search results. Google has told us to be patient and wait to see the results when the updates are both completed but Google is also saying that it will open up a feedback form for you all to submit feedback about the update.
• Google Changes: Liz Reid New Head Of Search, Pandu Nayak Steps Down As Search Quality & Rankings Lead
  Google announced some executive changes last night with Liz Reid being named the new head of Google Search. Pandu Nayak stepped down as the lead of search quality and ranking. Cathy Edwards stepped down as the lead Google Apps, Google News, Google Discover and other ecosystem efforts. Finally, Cheenu Venkatachary has stepped up to lead our quality and ranking teams, in place of Pandu Nayak.
• Google: Publishing Content In Bulk Is Not Spam
  Google's John Mueller said publishing content in bulk does not make the content spammy in the eyes of Google Search. He said if you publish awesome content in bulk, Google loves awesome content. But if you publish low-quality content in bulk or not, then Google does not like that content.
• Google: Canonicalizing From WWW to Non-WWW Won't Impact Your Search Rankings
  Google's John Mueller said that if your website is www.domain.com and then you decide to canonicalize it to the non-www, so it goes to domain.com from www.domain.com - that change would not have a big impact on your rankings. He wrote on Reddit, "This won't cause problems with search visibility / rankings / indexing: when the canonical URL switches, it just switches."
• Now Important Google Ads PMax To Microsoft Advertising PMax - Fully
  While Microsoft has offered tools to import your Google Ads campaigns into Microsoft Advertising, including PMax import tools - now you can supposedly import from PMax to PMax, with Microsoft fully supporting PMax campaigns these days.
• Google & Yahoo Got Lucky T-Shirt From 24 Years Ago
  Back also 24 years ago, on June 26, 2000, Google and Yahoo had a partnership party and printed t-shirts that read, "Google and Yahoo Got Lucky." It was the date Yahoo selected Google to power its search results - a very important date for Google.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Look what Google added to its Search developer docs - Chat using generative AI, what's on this page, etc, Barry Schwartz on X
• Sending feedback after claiming is the right path. You can't say "this is what the description should be" but you can indicate that the description isn't current or representative, which might help it get blocked -- then the automated systems will try to , Google SearchLiaison on X
• We began testing a new retail media solution in SA360 recently. Currently a managed service in closed beta, over the coming months, we’ll be testing self-service campaign management for brands to drive sales on retail partner, AdsLiaison on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google promotes Liz Reid to head of Search
• Google Ads Report Editor exporting zeros; Google is investigating
• Google Search Ads 360 gains retail media capabilities
• Why the exact match keyword type in PPC is still relevant today
• SEO planning: Your one-page SEO plan

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• How To Use Big Query And GSC Data For Content Performance Analysis, Search Engine Journal

Industry & Business

• Microsoft to hold a special Windows and Surface AI event in May, The Verge
• Shocking Survey Reveals: Nearly Half of Toronto's Business Leaders in the Dark About SEO, Bill Hartzer
• Sam Altman: the World Doesn't Need Another Copy of Google, Business Insider

Links & Content Marketing

• Time To Replace the Content Marketing Funnel (3 Alternatives), Ahrefs
• AI Can Kill Content Marketing, Practical Ecommerce
• Manage Your Content Budgets With ‘Bottle’ Episodes, Content Marketing Institute
• With Its ‘Events for Content’ Model, GMG Is Reimagining Experiential, AdWeek

Local & Maps

• Apple cars will visit Barcelona, Madrid, and the rest of Spain starting tomorrow: the continuous evolution of Apple Maps, Softonic
• Google Maps wants to tell you the ideal speed to drive to prevent 'ghost' traffic, Top Gear

Mobile & Voice

• NCAA March Madness Live app adds Vision Pro compatibility, new CarPlay features, more, 9to5Mac
• At a Glance widget drops Google Assistant branding, 9to5Google
• Google Gemini: Everything you need to know about the new generative AI platform, TechCrunch
• I used Google Gemini's new prompt refining feature and here's how it worked, XDA Developers

SEO

• Future-Proof Your Brand with Brand Familiarity, Moz
• How to Avoid Ruining SEO During a Website Redesign, Ahrefs
• How to Write a Strong Hypothesis for SEO Split Testing, seoClarity
• Is Your Site Reliable? Meet Wikipedia’s Reliable Sources List: Another Proxy For Google’s Quality Raters, GSQI
• Schema Markup Guide: Help Search Engines Help You, Backlinko
• SEO Guy Mocks Google for Deindexing His "Gibberish" AI Sites, Futurism
• There’s No Such Thing as “Accurate” Search Volume, Ahrefs
• Traffic Doesn't Change During Core Updates? Congrats!, Adam Riemer
• Why You Need a Keyword Strategy and How to Create One, Online Marketing Blog

PPC

• Adding new project-level quota to Display & Video 360 API, Google Ads Developer Blog
• Celebrating our partner: Ideo Force, Microsoft Advertising
• Empowering the Retail Media Ecosystem with Search Ads 360, Google Blog
• How to Generate Performance Report of Products Overlapping Across Standard Shopping and PMax Campaigns, Optmyzr
• How to Use Search Audiences in Google Ads to Lower Costs, WordStream
• Start Strong, Sell More: A Beginner’s Guide to Google Shopping Ads, Optmyzr
• Ad execs enter crucial phase of Google’s Privacy Sandbox experimentation, Digiday

Search Features

• Hey YouTube creators, it’s time to start labeling AI-generated content in your videos, CNN Business
• MELON: Reconstructing 3D objects from images with unknown poses, Google Research Blog
• Google engineer uses AI to identify previously anonymous faces in Holocaust-era photos, The Times of Israel

Other Search

• Google researchers unveil 'VLOGGER', an AI that can bring still photos to life, VentureBeat
• OpenAI’s Chatbot App Store Is Off to a Slow Start, The Information
• Scientific Journals Are Publishing Papers With AI-Generated Text, 404 Media
• Transcript for Sam Altman: OpenAI, GPT-5, Sora, Board Saga, Elon Musk, Ilya, Power & AGI | Lex Fridman Podcast #419, Lex Fridman

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