Daily Search Forum Recap: August 26, 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.

I posted some examples of some of the surges some are seeing after the Google August core update, specifically those hit by the September helpful content update. Google may now use your OG title for your title tag in Google Search. Google overhauled its SEO video documentation after a lot of confusion. The appeal process for Google Business Profiles is very delayed. Google said sending bad actor traffic to your site won't hurt your search rankings. Google is testing new default favicons in Google Search.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google August Core Update Helpful Content Surge Charts
  This Google August 2024 core update has been shaking things up since it began to rollout. We saw some early signs of some sites hit by the September 2023 helpful content see some signs of life. Then some saw reversals of sorts, but maybe that was the search ranking bug that got fixed a few days later. Here are some charts a week or so after the August core update was released.
• Google Now May Use Your OG Title For Title Links Search Snippets
  Google has updated its title links search developer documentation to add that Google Search may use your og:title meta tag title for your title link in the Google Search results. The OG title is normally used by social sharing sites for the title of your posts, but Google may also use it for the title of your search result snippets in Google.
• Google Overhauls Video SEO Docs With More Details
  Google has overhauled its video SEO documentation to vastly clarify the video indexing criteria and technical requirements. Plus, Google added a new watch page section to the document and expanded the examples in the document.
• Google Business Profile Appeals Delayed Over 7 Days
  Google is a bit delayed with its appeal process for Google Business Profiles. Appeals are now taking seven days or longer, some are saying about 15 days, which is much longer than normal.
• Google: Sending Bad Actor Traffic To A Site Doesn't Hurt Its Search Rankings
  A negative SEO question came up in the last Google SEO office hours on the topic of sending "bad actor" fake traffic to a site, to make the destination site look more questionable in Google's eyes. Martin Splitt from Google said that sending such traffic to a site would not negatively impact the destination site.
• Google Tests New Default Favicon Designs
  Google Search is testing new designs for the default favicons it shows in the search results. This is when Google is not showing the site's favicon or the site does not have a favicon, Google will show this default favicon.
• Going Down The Google Core Slide
  Here is a video I found on Instagram of a Product Marketing Manager at Google going down a Google slide at the Google office. I suspect many of you SEOs can relate to this feeling.

Other Great Search Threads:

• I wonder what else this could be used for? :) -> Google wants to know where you might click [Patent] "The company is seeking to patent predictive retrieval of content based on cursor trajectory." "The method further includes, while, Glenn Gabe on X
• The app category exclusions won't apply to websites. The options under excluded content themes might be helpful, in addition to excluding individual placements you no longer want to show on., AdsLiaison on X
• This makes me want to rip my hair out (what little is left)! Without conversion data for PMAX assets, I would have paused this "Low" performing asset, in favor of the "Best" performing asset. I don't want to think about the number of, Darcy Burk on X
• I'm still checking on this further, but it might be that one of our search experiments (we always have lots happening) might be inadvertently making site: not work in some cases. It is NOT some testing of site: itself. We'll keep, Google's Search Liaison
• Some of the biggest search visibility winners and losers so far since the start of the Google August 2024 Core Update release, Aleyda Solis on LinkedIn

Search Engine Land Stories:

• The latest jobs in search marketing
• Reports: Perplexity ads to launch in Q4
• How to prioritize technical SEO tasks
• Amazon Ads: How to boost efficiency and reduce wasted spend

Other Great Search Stories:

Industry & Business

• Google Challenges DOJ's Adtech Witness List, Citing 'Lack of Knowledge, AdWeek
• How Google makes custom cloud chips that power Apple AI and Gemini, CNBC

Links & Content Marketing

• 4 Content Marketing Campaigns that Went Viral, AOL
• Solo Stove Brand Reignites Snoop Dogg With Blunt Marketing, Content Marketing Institute
• The Content Marketer’s Edge: 10 Skills For Success In The Modern Era, Forbes

Local & Maps

• Testing the Impact of "Event" Google Posts on Promo-Specific Coupon Traffic, DAC
• Google Maps Loses Two Tabs Out of Five in Bottom Bar Redesign, MacRumors
• How to use Apple Maps on the web, Popular Science

Mobile & Voice

• Apple Loses Its Podcasting Lead to YouTube and Spotify, Bloomberg
• Apple Intelligence is coming. Here’s what it means for your iPhone, The Guardian
• Apple Plans Tabletop Robot, While Exploring Mobile Bots and Humanoid Machines, Bloomberg
• Are phones getting boring? How Apple, Google and Samsung are trying to make us fall back in love with our devices, The Independent
• Latest Apple Ring patent application describes Siri support, 9to5Mac

SEO

• Google AI Overview: What does it mean for SEO?, Browser Media
• How I Turn SEO Projects into a Video Game: Gamifying Your SEO Strategy for Exhilarating Results, SEO Webster
• What Are 301 Redirects and When Do You Use Them?, SEOTesting
• 6 Underrated Keyword Research Methods — Whiteboard Friday, Moz
• How to Enhance Your Product Listings with ProductVariant Schema, Women in Tech SEO

PPC

• 8 Best PPC Monitoring Tools to Keep Your Campaigns in Check, Optmyzr
• Google Ads Return On Ad Spend Slips Into TikTok, MediaPost
• Perplexity AI plans to start running search ads in fourth quarter, CNBC
• Secrets to Winning: Tips from Microsoft Advertising’s Top Global Agency, Microsoft Advertising

Search Features

• 21 Google Search Tips to Find Exactly What You Want, Semrush
• Google’s AI tool helped us add disasters and corpses to our photos, The Verge

Feedback:

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