Daily Search Forum Recap: July 9, 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.

Last night, Google had another indexing outage where it was not indexing new content for about an hour. Google is testing country labels in the search result snippets. Google has a new IPTC digital source type that it understands named compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia. Bing is testing nutrion labels in the image results. Google changed its mind on ads for opioid painkillers. Google Merchant Center and Google Ads is switching to the new feed label.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Search Bug: Not Indexing or Serving New Content Again
  Google Search is currently having yet another indexing bug, similar to what Google Search experienced just about two weeks ago on June 20th. Google is not indexing new content that was recently published in the past hour or so.
• Google Tests Country Label In Search Result Snippets
  Google may be testing showing which country the site operates in with a country label attached to the search result snippet. In the example below, Google is showing a "South African" label with the country flag and the country written out at the top of the snippet next to the site name.
• Google Ads Changes Its Mind - Will Not Allow Opioid Painkillers Ads
  Last month we reported that Google Ads began to allow some ads for opioid painkillers, like to discuss awareness and abuse. Well, Google decided to "indefinitely pausing this policy update" and not allow search ads for opioid painkillers.
• Google Search Extracts Composite Images With Trained Algorithmic Media Types
  Google Search now supports a new IPTC digital source type for images which seems to be about reading if an image was made in help with AI. Google added compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia to the IPTC photo metadata documentation this morning.
• Google Ads & Google Merchant Center Country of Sale Migrating To New Feed Label
  A couple of years ago, I reported that Google has changed how your feeds work in Merchant Center for countries by removing the need to list a primary country and additional countries and replacing them with target countries. Now Google is emailing advertisers letting them know that if you are currently using Country of Sale it will migrate to the feed label functionality.
• Bing Search Tests Labeling Images With Nutrition Details
  Bing is testing adding nutritional details to images in its search results. It includes labeling food products with "high calcium," "lean protein," "anti-inflammatory," and other labels.
• Doogler With Google Laptop & NY Coffee
  Here is a photo the Life at Google channel shared of a cute dog where a Google bandana, at a laptop, drinking from a New York mug at the Google office. Dogs at Google are Dooglers, by the way.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Both are websites, but also, they're quite different, right? Finding the right tools for your needs, the right platforms for your audience and for your messages - it's worth looking at more than just a simplification like that. Google aims to provide sear, John Mueller on LinkedIn
• After tROAS Insight Box for Pmax and Standard Shopping now also Demand Gen got its tCPA insights addition, Thomas Eccel on LinkedIn
• Now in @ahrefs, if you look at an individual page, you can enable "Content changes" to see when the page content was changed and how the changes impacted traffic., Patrick Stox on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• TikTok tightens teen ad targeting and boosts AI transparency
• Google Ads unveils tCPA Insight Box for Demand Gen campaigns
• Google Ads shifts to Feed Labels for Shopping campaigns
• Amazon’s ad practices and algorithms facing scrutiny in EU
• The SEO’s guide to Google Search Console
• How to boost SEO decision-making with correlation analysis

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• Meta Pushes GA4 Integration, Boasts 22% Conversion Boost, Search Engine Journal

Industry & Business

• Google's search market dominance grows as ChatGPT falters, QZ
• Google’s Repair Policy Is Broken, Wired

Links & Content Marketing

• Conversational Writing: What Is It & Why Should You Use It?, Cypress North
• How I Develop Successful Link Building Strategies for My Clients, Moz
• SEO Content: What It Is & How to Create It, Semrush

Local & Maps

• Google’s Popular Times Graph: An Unexpected Boost in Search Rankings, ReputationArm
• Do Navigation Apps Think We’re Stupid?, The Atlantic
• Google Maps vs. Waze: The Honest Comparison, AutoEvolution
• Top Local SEO Takeaways From MozCon 2024, Moz

Mobile & Voice

• Apple Intelligence debuts soon, but Siri's best tricks won't arrive until next year, Android Authority
• Google Home for Wear OS rolling out Favorites Tile, complication, 9to5Google
• Google might let you talk to Gemini Live in the background, 9to5Google

SEO

• 5 top editing tips for content marketers from the Wix SEO Hub, Wix SEO Hub
• Make Sure to Include These 8 Elements in an SEO Content Brief, TopRank
• SEO Tools for Keyword Intent, Audience, Practical Ecommerce

PPC

• False alarm: Google Maps is not testing intrusive mid-drive pop-up ads, Android Police
• Inside Google’s post-cookie ad tech troubles with advertisers, Ad Age

Search Features

• Announcing New Dataset Search Features, Hugging Face
• Your Google Discover Feed Is More Useful Than You Might Think, Lifehacker

Other Search

• Google Experts Warn That AI May Distort Reality, While AI Overviews Repel Mobile Users, CNET
• Google’s Nonconsensual Explicit Images Problem Is Getting Worse, Wired
• Mouse brain research is helping us better understand human minds, Google Blog

Feedback:

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