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 said the December 2022 helpful content update would take longer to roll out. Google drops a hint around an upper limit in word count. Google Business Profile's web search interface now has an add website feature. Google says sitemaps are hints and not orders. Google Ads has a new upcoming policy about promoting content or behavior that may harm users, Googlers, and the ad platform.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- December 2022 Google Helpful Content Update Taking Longer, Said Google
Google's Search Liason, Danny Sullivan, said that the December 2022 helpful content update would take longer to roll out than originally expected. The update started to roll out on December 5th and was expected to finish earlier this week. - New Google Ads Policy Disallows Promoting Content That Risks Harming Users, Googlers Or Google Ads
Google will update its Google Advertising policies to disallow the promotion of content or engaging in behavior that risks harm to Google users, Google employees, or the Google Ads ecosystem. If you do this, Google can restrict or block your ads or suspend your Google Ads account. - Google PSA: Sitemaps Are Hints, Not Orders
Gary Illyes from Google said on LinkedIn the other day that sitemaps are hints, not orders. Meaning just because you submit an XML sitemap file to Google, it does not mean Google will index and rank that content. - Google Business Profile Web Search Interface Gains Add Map To Your Website
Google's new Business Profile interface, aka NMX (I hate the name), in the web search results, for some business profile listings, is showing an option to "add a map to your website." It says that adding a map to your website will "help customers find your nearest store." - Google Looking At Upper Limit Of Word Count? Probably Not But Get To The Point.
Google's John Mueller again said word count is not a thing with SEO or Google Search. He said on Mastodon, "In general, when Google thinks of "thin content" in terms of #SEO, it's not about the number of words, it's more about the value that it adds to the internet." He added that internally at Google they think about the upper limit on words, they want to get to the point without the fluff. - Google Cassette Tapes Wall
Google has a wall made up of old compact cassette tapes with the G logo made up of red colored tapes. It looks cool. I assume this is some sort of recording studio location for Google? This was shar
Other Great Search Threads:
- Hey @rustybrick looks like Google killed the secondary podcast carousel for specific episodes, Mordy Oberstein on Twitter
- I'd work to make sure that the content you want to be known for online is content that you can stand behind. And then, structured data is much easier to deal with., John Mueller on Mastodon
- Some observations on recent rank volatility: 1. I think some of the upticks in volatility are shifts/reversals that started around the time of the most recent HCU, Mordy Oberstein on Twitter
- We generally return in the language used for searching and in settings, but sometimes in situations where two languages are widely spoken and understood, that can happen if our systems find i, Google SearchLiaison on Twitter
- The cached page is not indicative of what's used for indexing., John Mueller on Mastodon
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Ranking data during the December 2022 Google helpful content update and link spam update
- Google updates Ads Policy Requirements
- Google Search testing search in video
- How to set up a Google Ads account
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Looker Studio (New Google Data Studio): The In-Depth Guide, Search Engine Journal
Industry & Business
- Google Moves Forward on Downtown West in San Jose, The Real Deal
- Google Plans for New Sustainable High-Rise Campus in Kirkland, The Urbanist
- Google’s YouTube in Talks for Rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, Wall Street Journal
- A New Chat Bot Is a ‘Code Red’ for Google’s Search Business, New York Times
- Google Hires Former BlockFi Crypto Executive for Web3, Yahoo Finance
Links & Content Marketing
- 10 Content Marketing Articles Readers (Like You) Loved This Year, Content Marketing Institute
- 6 Ways to Be More Inclusive with Your Content, Rank Ranger
- How to Measure Content Marketing ROI (The Right Way), WordStream
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
- SEO competitor analysis: What can we learn?, Oncrawl
- SEO Recap: PageRank, Moz
- Shopify SEO: The Complete Guide (2023 Edition), SEOSherpa
- Split Testing: What It Is & How To Do It, Semrush
- What Is Search Intent? A Complete Guide, Semrush
- What is semantic SEO?, Wix SEO Hub
- Yoast SEO 19.13: Fixing a breaking issue in Gutenberg, Yoast
- Is eCommerce SEO different than regular SEO?, SERP's Up SEO Podcast
PPC
- 5 Top Tips To Drive SEO & PPC Fusion, Online Marketing Blog
- How to Optimize Google Performance Max Campaigns, Go Fish Digital
- Slow fade for Google and Meta's ad dominance, Axios
Search Features
- Google search is improving bilingual search results, The Verge
- Google Search weather card gets redesign on mobile web, 9to5Google
Feedback:
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