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's Search Liaison commented on the Google search leaks, navboost, clicks, user interactions and the helpful content update. There as another unconfirmed Google ranking update this weekend. Google said you cannot completely disregard your desktop site for SEO. Google spoke about fixing a few pages out of many pages to recover from the helpful content update. Google Business Profiles is working through the locksmith reinstatement. Google needs to fix an issue with product variant structured data. Google is testing a local five pack again.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Google Responds To Specific Search Leak, Navboost, Clicks & User Interactions
The Google Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, gave a more specific comment to specific signals and elements mentioned in the search leak, well above and beyond what is mentioned in the original and very vague comment gave us a couple days after the search leak. Sullivan responded to questions on Navboost, clicks and user interactions as it related to the Helpful content update. -
June 8th Weekend Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility
Hope you are all having a nice relaxing weekend because it seems like the Google Search rankings were super volatile again this past Saturday. I am seeing a spike in SEO chatter and the third-party Google tracking ranking tools are showing significant ranking fluctuations on June 8th. -
Google: You Can't Completely Disregard What's Served On Desktop For SEO
Last week we reported that Googlebot will pretty much halt crawling and indexing websites using its desktop crawler and just crawl using its smartphone crawler (which caused a lot of confusion). But John Mueller of Google said on Reddit that he doesn't think it means you can "completely disregard what's served on desktop in terms of SEO." -
Google On Fixing A Few Pages To Recover From Helpful Content Update
John Mueller from Google responded to a question on Reddit about the likelihood of fixing just 10 pages out of 20,000 pages on a site, how that might help that site recover from the Helpful content update. The site owner said only 10 pages were hit by that September helpful content update, and asked if the 10 pages can hurt the other 20,000 pages on the site. -
Google Fixing Product Variant Structured Data Star Rating Bug
Google is currently working on fixing a bug that prevents the product variant structured data from showing rating stars in the search. This bug was spotted by Jarno van Driel and Ryan Levering from Google confirmed it and said they will work on a fix soon. -
Google Business Profiles Locksmiths Reinstatements Now Being Processed
Google paused Google Business Profiles restatements for the locksmith industry but has now resumed those requests and is working through the backlog now. Google paused them early last week and began processing them once again on Friday afternoon, June 7th. -
Google Tests Local Five Pack (Up From 3 Pack)
Google is once again testing showing five local results, a five-pack, instead of the typical 3 local results, a three-pack, in the search results local results section. Google tested this in 2021 and also had this for the SGE labs results and now it is being tested again. -
Google Elevator - going down...
Here is a photo from the Google office in Washington, D.C. of a Google super G logo on the elevator door. Guess which way it is going?
Other Great Search Threads:
- Serve assets without consuming crawl budget?, Reddit
- There's seems to be a bug (or perhaps its a test) in Search Results - images are not showing properly and there seems to be a rectangular background. Desktop ONLY (more screenshots in next tweet), Gagan Ghotra on X
- Big Ads Manager Update! I'm seeing audience segment breakdown data available for non-Advantage+ campaigns starting around Friday: For any data prior to ~5/31, this breakdown only worked for Advantage+ campaigns and would only, Barry Hott on X
- What is the better Google search experience?, Joe Youngblood on X
- Interesting notice that appeared today for definitions/translations as a tip for users. Have been able to use this feature for a while and Google is now trying to push it more. Have seen similar notices appear in the past for AI-related features., SERPAlerts on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
- The latest jobs in search marketing
- Google Ads API v17 released with new features, changes
- Google launches Accelerate with Google resource hub for advertisers
- AI-generated content: The dangers of overreliance
- How to protect deep work time and retain focus as an SEO
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Google SEO Tools Review: Analytics, Search Console, and Ads, TechRadar
- How to create and configure custom dimensions in GA4, MarTech
Industry & Business
- Google signs deal with organization to distribute $100M to Canadian news companies, CBC News
- Google’s New CFO to Receive $9.9 Million Signing Bonus, $1 Million in Annual Salary, Wall Street Journal
- Judge rather than jury will render verdict in upcoming antitrust trial, AP News
- Judge rules Google will not face jury trial in US digital ads case, Yahoo Finance
- AI Startup Perplexity Says News Summary Tool Has ‘Rough Edges’, Bloomberg
Links & Content Marketing
- The Importance Of Inspiration In A Creative Role: Top Tips To Find Inspiration & Overcome Creative Block, Digitaloft
- What Is Influencer Marketing: A Strategy Guide for 2024, Sprout Social
Local & Maps
- Little known feature quickly compares Apple Maps route with one created by Google Maps, PhoneArena
- Google Maps vs. Apple Maps: Their Strengths and Weaknesses, AutoEvolution
Mobile & Voice
- 'Apple Intelligence' may be the name for Apple's AI push, AppleInsider
- Apple Vision Pro's visionOS will not get an overhaul at WWDC, AppleInsider
- Siri and Google Assistant look to generative AI for a new lease on life, TechCrunch
- Apple WWDC: AI Announcements Will Enable Home Robot, AR Glasses, Camera AirPods, Bloomberg
- Google gives Hum to Search a spherical glow-up [Video], 9to5Google
- Hey, Siri! Let’s Talk About How Apple Is Giving You an A.I. Makeover., New York Times
SEO
- (Bonus!) What to know about Google Search Console, SEO For Journalism
- The Rise and Fall of BNN Breaking, an AI-Generated News Outlet, New York Times
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
- Meet the Google TV network, Google Blog
- AI Tools Are Secretly Training on Real Images of Children, Wired
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