My normal camera broke this week, so I recorded it using my iPhone, hopefully it came out okay. This week we covered an unconfirmed Google search ranking update that seemed to make a splash. Google said there are no ongoing indexing issues this week. Google said not to use too much content on e-commerce category pages. Google talked a bit about brand queries and how search can be influenced by them. Google said BERT does not determine content quality, it just helps Google understand content. Google said disavowing links won’t help you rank algorithmically, if it does, that would be “very rare” John Mueller said. Google said the rich results on the home page are a bug. You can prevent Google from scrolling down from the featured snippet to your web site content. Google’s John Mueller said again that all guest post links should be nofollowed. Google released its web spam report for 2019, some nice data is found in that report. Google said old spam is still spam and should be removed from your site. Google Search Console added recipe filers to the search appearance section of the performance report. Google’s people also ask now shows two to three times more results. Google stop testing how to schema on desktop. Google is testing dividers between search snippets again. Google’s featured snippets is testing an outline format. Google is testing infinite scroll again with a dancing Google logo. Google Ads is printing housing, employment and credit advertisers from doing some targeting. Google is investigating garage door spam in Google Maps. Some businesses are unable to remove the temporarily closed status from their Google My Business listing. Facebook Search is testing knowledge panels sourced from Wikipedia for some queries. 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.
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Search Topics of Discussion:
- Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Brewing
- Google: No Indexing Issues Here At Google
- Are You Writing Too Much Content On Your E-Commerce Category Pages For Google?
- Google On Brand Based Queries & Search Result Influence
- Google BERT Does Not Determine Content Quality But Helps Understand Your Content
- Google: Disavowing Links Would Rarely Help You Algorithmically
- It's A Bug: Google Rich Results For Home Pages Is Going Away
- Preventing Google's Featured Snippet Scroll Won't Lead To Snippet Removal
- Google: All Guests Posts Links Should Be Nofollowed; Paid Or Not
- Google Web Spam Report: 99% Spam Free Search Experience
- Google: Old Spam Is Still Spam & Against Google's Guidelines
- Google Search Console Added Search Appearance Filters For Recipes
- Google People Also Ask Now Shows 2-3X More Results
- Google Stops How-To Schema Test On Desktop (5/20 - 6/5)
- Google Tests Dividers Between Search Results Again
- Interesting Google Featured Snippet Outlined
- Google Pagination Tests With Dancing Google Logo
- Google Tests Product Image Thumbnails On Desktop
- Google Ads To Prevent Housing, Employment & Credit Advertisers From More Targeting Options
- Google Investigating Garage Door Spam
- Some Businesses With Temporarily Closed Status On Google My Business Cannot Change It
- Facebook Search Adds Knowledge Panels From Wikipedia Data
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