This week I spent a lot more time covering and updating the details around the Google product reviews update. I covered some of the early impact it had on some sites, and it was big. Google added more details about this update including that it can impact your Google Discover traffic, it will be updated but those updates won’t all be confirmed or announced, and user generated content reviews won’t rank well. Google also said that the page experience update won’t be real time, which is kind of obvious. Google seems to have a serious soft 404 bug where it is actually impacting your rankings. Google also may have had a bug with serving Web Stories in search last night. Google’s John Mueller said it may make sense, in some cases, to break out your non-YMYL content from your YMLY content into separate sites. Google’s Gary Illyes spoke in detail about serving, so much so he had to cut five minutes of it out; they also spoke about hreflang and more. Google may changes to the cumulative layout shift metrics on April 13th. What is better, to let Google soft 404 your empty pages or for you to noindex them? Google Ads now can automatically apply ad recommendations for your campaigns. Google Ads also launched the Insights page to all. Google also added new dynamic exclusion lists for Google Ads. Google Search is testing a new user interface for the knowledge panel design. Google is testing showing local map results under local inventory snippets. Some are reporting that new local reviews are not publishing on Google listings. Finally, Google announced that the Google Assistant can pick up and finish your take out orders through your Chrome or Google Pay data. Oh and if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
SPONSOR: This week's video recap is sponsored by Loud Interactive, a Chicago-based SEO firm led by Brent D. Payne.
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Search Topics of Discussion:
- Google Product Reviews Update Was Really Big For Affiliates & Review Sites
- Google Product Reviews Update May Impact Your Discover Traffic
- Google Products Reviews Update Refreshes Won't Likely All Be Announced/Confirmed
- Google: User Generate Content Products Reviews Will Have A Hard Time Ranking Well
- Google Page Experience Algorithm Update Won't Be Real Time
- Google Soft 404 Detection Bug May Be Causing Ranking Issues In Google Search
- Google Search Might Be Having Temporary Issues Serving Web Stories
- Google: Break YMYL & Non-YMYL Content Into Separate Sites
- Google Podcast On Search Serving, Debugging SEO, Hreflang Complexities & More
- Google Has Changed Cumulative Layout Shift Metric
- Soft 404s Or Noindex Empty Pages For Google
- Google Ads Will Apply Recommendations Automatically If Opted In
- Google Ads Insights Page Available To All
- Google Ads Dynamic Exclusion Lists Coming Soon
- Google Search Tweaks Knowledge Panel & Filter Design
- Google Local Inventory Snippets Tests Store Location
- Report: Google Local Reviews Not Publishing
- Google Assistant / Duplex Can Complete Your Restaurant Takeout Orders
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