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 December 2024 core update is done and it was quick and painful. Google Maps has a bug with some Business Profile listings flickering away. Google spoke about blocking policy pages. There is a new study on Google local reviews. Google Merchant Center lets you now select your payment methods.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google December 2024 Core Update Fast & Furiously Finished Rolling Out
The Google December 2024 core update quickly and brutally finished rolling out yesterday at around 2:00 PM ET. It took just over 6 days to roll out, starting on December 12, 2024 at 10:45 am and finishing on December 18, 2024 at 2:00 pm. This update finished fast, but it seems quick and mighty (or fast and furious). -
Broken Google Maps Business Profile Listings
There are a number of reports of Google Business Profile listings in Google Maps coming up broken. Google seems to be showing half of the listing, with flickering maps portions, missing business names, blue maps and more issues. -
Study On Removal Of Google Local Reviews
The folks over at GMBapi have put together a large study on the topic of how and why Google removes reviews from Google Business Profiles. It looked at nearly 5 million reviews across 78 countries and over 19,000 locations. -
Google Says It Makes No Sense To Block Disclaimer and Privacy Policy Pages
Google's John Mueller said, "It makes no sense to block" privacy, disclaimers, or other legal types of pages from your site. He added on Reddit, "They don't cause a 'duplicate content issue'." -
Google Merchant Center Now Lets You Select Your Payment Methods
Google Merchant Center now lets merchants specify which payment methods and options they offer customers. Google would normally handle this in an automated way but now Google is letting you override those payment options, in case Google is getting it wrong. -
Google Super G Logo Sushi Platter
Here is a sushi company that designed the super G Google logo into their sushi platter. They have a few photos of the platter being designed on Instagram.
Other Great Search Threads:
- I just noticed that Google is giving a little extra space between the first and second results. Is this new, or did I spot this late?, Sachin Patel on X
- Google is showing site-wide offers in SERP. Is this new, or did I just spot it late? I was previously seeing only code-specific offers, so this feels new to me., Sachin Patel on X
- Not having a robots.txt means: "Crawl as you like". The default for robots is an allow, unless specified otherwise., Martin Splitt on Bluesky
- SEO and keywords aren’t really a thing on YouTube the way they are on web engines Make human-centric, easy to parse browse titles that compel curiosity and search titles that promise satisfying results. Add a good descrip, YouTube Liaison on X
- The Google Ads Summary card (https://t.co/t1V7t0bi7j) may still show on a branded query if there are matching categories, job type and/or service area. But it doesn't necessarily reflect the impact of oth, AdsLiaison on X
- The vast majority of viewers don’t watch the vast majority of our videos (even our parents, though they say they do!) And session time probably isn’t something the vast majority of creators should worry about unless/unti, YouTube Liaison on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Google December 2024 core update rollout is now complete
- Bing Image Creator is now directly in Bing search and faster
- Google experiments with double ad placements for same advertiser
- YouTube SEO fundamentals: What you need to know
- Google AI Overviews: Everything you need to know
- The future of paid search: 3 predictions for Google Ads in 2025
- Top 5 takeaways from the 2024 Web Almanac SEO Chapter
Other Great Search Stories:
Industry & Business
- AI Startup Perplexity Closes Funding Round at $9 Billion Value, Bloomberg
- Exclusive: Google's Gemini is forcing contractors to rate AI responses outside their expertise, TechCrunch
- Google Contract Staff Reach Union Deal Banning Keystroke Monitoring, Bloomberg
- Microsoft’s Sarah Bird: Core pieces are still missing from artificial general intelligence, Financial Times (Sub)
- Top 20 PPC'ers to follow in 2025, PPC Live
- Alphabet Gets Stock Mojo Back Thanks To Quantum Tech Leap, Bloomberg
Links & Content Marketing
- 11 Top Content Marketing Trends to Know About, CMSWire
- Why Your Great Content Isn’t Driving Great Results — And How To Fix It, Content Marketing Institute
Local & Maps
- Google Maps car snaps vital clue in Spanish missing person case, The Guardian
- Apple Maps just got a big upgrade to rival Google Maps, Tom's Guide
- These 5 clever mapping upstarts do what Google Maps can’t, Fast Company
Mobile & Voice
- App downloads decline 2.3% in 2024, but consumer spending grows to $127B, TechCrunch
- Gemini app on iPhone update adds model picker for 2.0 Flash, 9to5Google
- OpenAI brings ChatGPT to your landline, TechCrunch
- Apple in talks with Tencent, ByteDance to roll out AI features in China, sources say, Reuters
SEO
- Fact or Fiction? 7 Popular SEO Myths Debunked, BruceClay
- Financial Data Provider Accelerates SEO Project Execution with seoClarity, seoClarity
- Mastering SEO in 2025: Winning in a Zero-Click Search World, Koozai
- November 2024 Core Update, Semrush
- The SEO Framework: SEO Evangelization, Oncrawl
- 2025 SEO Predictions: Are We Heading into an AI Winter?, Builtvisible
- Harnessing AI for SEO: riding the wave of innovation or risking obsolescence?, Omi Sido
- Improving INP and FID with production profiling, Sentry
PPC
- Google Updates Privacy Policy, Reflects Shifts In Ad Biz, MediaPost
- Unlocking the power of Microsoft Properties through your preferred buying path, Microsoft Advertising
- Upcoming changes to enable brand guidelines in Performance Max, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Recover / Restore Your Deleted Google Merchant Center Account, FeedArmy
Search Features
- Bringing more magic to Bing Image Creator, Bing Search Blog
- Google, the search engine that's forgotten how to search, SEM King
- Wirecutter and Google Partner to Help Last-Minute Shoppers, AdWeek
- YouTube says it will start cracking down on videos with clickbait titles in India, TechCrunch
Other Search
- ChatGPT Search creeps closer to Google – OpenAI's Ship-mas brings Maps for Local Search, improved results for navigational queries, and live mode with Search, GSQI
- How Gmail is fighting holiday spammers and scammers, Google Blog
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.
