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Google is rolling out its third version of the product reviews update, named the March 2022 Product Reviews Update. The previous two versions were the April 2021 Product Reviews Update and the December 2021 Product Reviews Update. The March version was updated to incorporate more signals and criteria in this niche ranking algorithm.

Google started to roll out the March 2022 product reviews update yesterday, March 23, 2023 at about 12:00pm ET. This impacts only English-language pages for now but Google hinted this can rollout to other languages soon, possibly before another official product reviews update. Google wrote “we plan to open up product review support for more languages.”

Google also said it will take about three weeks to complete and can impact “product reviews across many sites” – “many sites” Google said. So like previous product reviews updates, sites hit by this, can feel this in a big way.

As a reminder, the product reviews update aims at rewarding high-level product review content, above thinner product review content. Product review updates are not core updates, but they may be mistaken as such.

This latest version “builds on that work to enhance our ability to identify high quality product reviews,” Google wrote. Google added “this will make it easier for us to get sound purchasing advice in front of users, and to reward creators who are earnest in being helpful.”

Currently, at the time of publishing this – I am seeing very little movement in the Google search results. I suspect that will change any moment now but the SEO industry chatter is quiet on ranking changes right now and the tracking tools have yet to pick up on any volatility. Again, I expect this to change soon, very soon.

Google Product Reviews Update Quick Facts

Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:

• Name: Google March 2022 Product Reviews Update
• Launched: March 23, 2022 at around 12:00pm ET
• Rollout: It will take about three weeks to fully rollout
• Targets: It looks at product review content
• Penalty: It is not a penalty, it promotes or rewards “insightful analysis and original research.”
• Not a core update: Many are going to say this is a core update, it is not.
• English Language but will expand: This is only looking at English-language content right now but likely will expand soon to other languages, this is a global launch.
• Impact: Google would not tell me what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update.
• Discover: This update can impact your performance in Google Discover, Google previously said.
• Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google’s advice below
• Refreshes: Google will do periodic refreshes to this algorithm but may not communicate those updates in the future. This may be the first refresh that Google has done, it is the first refresh Google communicated about.

What’s New With The March 2022 Product Reviews Update

Google said “we’re launching another update that builds on that work to enhance our ability to identify high quality product reviews. This will make it easier for us to get sound purchasing advice in front of users, and to reward creators who are earnest in being helpful.”

Also the fact that this may work in non-English languages in the future is new.

Google released three new FAQs with this announcement:

(1) Are product review updates relevant to ranked lists and comparison reviews? Yes. Product review updates apply to all forms of review content. The best practices Google shared also apply. However, due to the shorter nature of ranked lists, you may want to demonstrate expertise and reinforce authenticity in a more concise way. Citing pertinent results and including original images from tests you performed with the product can be good ways to do this.

(2) Are there any recommendations for reviews recommending “best” products? If you recommend a product as the best overall or the best for a certain purpose, be sure to share with the reader why you consider that product the best. What sets the product apart from others in the market? Why is the product particularly suited for its recommended purpose? Be sure to include supporting first-hand evidence.

(3) If I create a review that covers multiple products, should I still create reviews for the products individually? It can be effective to write a high quality ranked list of related products in combination with in-depth single-product reviews for each recommended product. If you write both, make sure there is enough useful content in the ranked list for it to stand on its own.

Google also posted this graphic showing that product review lists can be impacted by this as well:

Google also listed these four points about the criteria Google uses for product reviews:

• Include helpful in-depth details, like the benefits or drawbacks of a certain item, specifics on how a product performs or how the product differs from previous versions
• Come from people who have actually used the products, and show what the product is physically like or how it’s used
• Include unique information beyond what the manufacturer provides — like visuals, audio or links to other content detailing the reviewer’s experience
• Cover comparable products, or explain what sets a product apart from its competitors

Spring 2022 Google Updated Related?

Over the weekend we reported on what I called the Spring 2022 Google update but was this product reviews update related to this Spring 2022 update? Well, according to Google – no. Danny Sullivan of Google updated us on that saying there was no update during that time. It does make me wonder if maybe Google was testing this but Google would probably say no.

There was a lot of buzz around that update impacting product review sites, even Lily Ray tweeted about that:

I was just in the midst of tweeting about how Google seems to have tweaked the product review update last week 😛 https://t.co/Btr172mkWl

— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) March 23, 2022

But again, the March 2022 Google Product Reviews Update didn’t start to roll out until days after the the unconfirmed Spring update. So again, no – they are not related.

Alan Kent from Google directly said so, these are unrelated:

It is unrelated. This new update is just starting to roll out now. It *usually* hits most data centers fairly quickly (days) then takes weeks to get everywhere.

— Alan Kent (@akent99) March 23, 2022

More From Google

Here are some more details from Google for clarification purposes:

Product reviews on a merchant website would be impacted as well. This update is relevant to content we believe is a product review, not to product pages. When we believe the user wants a review, and a page contains a review, we try to find the best review for that query.

— Alan Kent (@akent99) March 23, 2022

Google has never ranked “solely on domain strength”. But there is always room to improve and the latest update is another step on that journey. In case you have not seen them, we document recommended best practices for product reviews: https://t.co/VYIXLBfreC

— Alan Kent (@akent99) March 23, 2022

We don’t expect *all* images to be created by the reviewer. We look for evidence the reviewer did actually review the product. A mix is fine.

— Alan Kent (@akent99) March 23, 2022

Original PRU Google Advice

Here is the original advice but Google has posted this in a new help document with the new advice from December, this does not include the specific new points listed above:

• Express expert knowledge about products where appropriate?
• Show what the product is like physically, or how it is used, with unique content beyond what’s provided by the manufacturer?
• Provide quantitative measurements about how a product measures up in various categories of performance?
• Explain what sets a product apart from its competitors?
• Cover comparable products to consider, or explain which products might be best for certain uses or circumstances?
• Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of a particular product, based on research into it?
• Describe how a product has evolved from previous models or releases to provide improvements, address issues, or otherwise help users in making a purchase decision?
• Identify key decision-making factors for the product’s category and how the product performs in those areas? For example, a car review might determine that fuel economy, safety, and handling are key decision-making factors and rate performance in those areas.
• Describe key choices in how a product has been designed and their effect on the users beyond what the manufacturer says?
• Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with the product, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.
• Include links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.

I have written about every tiny detail of these product reviews update, just do a search on this site for more.

Multiple Sellers

What about the line on the importance of including links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice, Glenn Gabe asked. Alan Kent from Google said “The update is an improvement of current algorithms. There is no special support for multiple sellers in this update.”

Hi Glenn. The update is an improvement of current algorithms. There is no special support for multiple sellers in this update.

— Alan Kent (@akent99) March 23, 2022

Tracking Tools Showing Volatility?

It is early, less than 24 hours since it started to roll out but here is what the various tracking tools are showing right now. Keep in mind, the bulk of this update should be realized within the first few days. But there will be noticeable changes over the first couple weeks and even “tremors” later on.

As of this morning, at the time of publishing this, the tools are showing nothing right now. In fact, the chatter in the SEO community has nothing around ranking changes yet either. I do suspect we will see changes here, fluctuations, chatter, volatility and so forth in the upcoming days – it just didn’t happen yet but it will.

Semrush:

RankRanger:

Accuranker:

Cognitive SEO:

SERPmetrics:

Mozcast:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Algoroo:

Industry Reaction

Heads-up! The third Product Reviews Update is officially rolling out. Will roll out over the next few weeks. And you should expect the bulk of the ranking volatility to happen in the earlier stages of this rollout. https://t.co/7XyQpd2Z07

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 23, 2022

I would very much take Google at their word here w. the new guidelines.

I think they can profile the writing style that comes with in-depth knowledge & experience of a product.

I talked about this in my @semrush post from the Dec 21 PRU ➡️https://t.co/4CGeBFuh50 https://t.co/wrJYDsdbnR

— Mordy Oberstein 🇺🇦 (@MordyOberstein) March 23, 2022

G: “We know people appreciate reviews that share “in-depth research” 🔬 , rather than simply summarize a bunch of products with the latest update launching today.” https://t.co/ze1ySvEbPv

— Nicholas McDonough (@Callmenicholi) March 23, 2022

To all affiliates out there 📢

“reviews come from people who demonstrate expert knowledge and first-hand research about products” https://t.co/pHh1WP81Hd

— Paul P (@pavlos1944) March 23, 2022

Academically, I would like to know how Google measures relevancy. Because for me I’m finding the results even more and more irrelevant and I’ve seen major publishers right about the irrelevancy, so not just me.

Is anyone else having a problem with irrelevancy? https://t.co/cWq0vF5FF3

— Kristine Schachinger (@schachin) March 23, 2022

Of course I meant to write: “It has always been about…”

— Pedro Dias (@pedrodias) March 23, 2022

Also a reminder that the first two product review updates had large impact for many sites — similar to a big core update.

With the last two product review updates there was a lot of turbulence even amongst SERPS without product reviews.

— Dr. Marie Haynes🐧 (@Marie_Haynes) March 23, 2022

Main takeaway: make great content as always, but what’s jumping off the page for me is the emphasis on promoting content showing actual use of the products being reviewed.This is great news for niches and bad news for content farmers.

— Michael Micacchi (@michaelmicacchi) March 23, 2022

Game on folks! May the bots be ever in your favour. #GoogleAlgorithmUpdate https://t.co/rne6TCZopz pic.twitter.com/NcLmm4S976

— Crystal Carter (@CrystalontheWeb) March 24, 2022

Forum discussion at Twitter and WebmasterWorld.

We know that links pointing to pages that do not exist, that 404 or some soft 404, are links that are not counted by Google – that is not new. But John Mueller of Google spoke about how sometimes you can redirect old 404 pages and that link may pass to the new page, even if that link is 404ed for years?

To be clear, a link that points to a 404ed page does not count. If that page is 404ed for a year or so, and then you add a redirect, I highly doubt Google will begin to count that link again. But John Mueller said that in some cases, if the links to the two year old 404ed page are super strong, that maybe Google will count it again after you redirect it. Or maybe he was being nice to the person asking the question?

John said “I’d say for for a certain while you can still go back and add a redirect for those individual links that you see like that. I don’t know if after two years it would make a big difference unless there are really strong links that are going to your site and kind of being lost like that.”

This question and answer came up at the 19:43 mark in the video hangout from last Friday:

Here is the transcript:

SEO: Another question is about the broken links on our website where our website has around 40k in pages and doubled the links. So we have around 20k of broken links caused by a migration gone bad from a platform to another platform. Since then we started noticing decrease in organic traffic. We used to rank let’s say for 20k, 25k per day in organic traffic now we’re only getting like 2k to 3k or 4k at max. So do you think it’s a great metric to SEO ranking to remove this these broken links and 404 pages?

John Mueller: When when did you do that migration? Is that longer ago?

SEO: Yes, it happened in 2020, about two years ago now.

John Mueller: My guess is for the most part that doesn’t matter anymore. So it is something I would watch out for with any migration because. Essentially the main thing you want to catch is the situation where someone externally links to your website and that link to your website essentially goes into nowhere. So if you see someone externally linking to a page that is now a 404 page because you forgot to redirect it, that link is is kind of lost. And if you see that happening at a larger scale then those those links are things that you will lose and that can be reflected in the search results over time as well.

I’d say for for a certain while you can still go back and add a redirect for those individual links that you see like that. I don’t know if after two years it would make a big difference unless there are really strong links that are going to your site and kind of being lost like that.

Glenn Gabe summed it up nicely in this set of tweets:

More: You can also estimate this by checking server logs. If you see a lot of crawlers from search engine going to specific 404s, sometimes that’s a sign they think there will be something useful there, but they get lost. Determine what could be redirected https://t.co/fGr9HUoTCx pic.twitter.com/5MBZ0APikS

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 22, 2022

The video goes on to explain what you can look for to see if Google is still trying to access those 404s, hence your log files.

I just doubt a link to a 404 page that has been like that for two years is really recoverable but maybe I am wrong?

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Malte Ubl just left Google a couple of weeks ago after being with the search company for 11 years. He came back onto Twitter to ask some very specific SEO advice from his former Google colleague, John Mueller. The funny thing is, Malte was the lead Google Search for Desktop computers.

He asked about how GoogleBot handles meta-http-equiv-status, he specifically wanted to “mark a document that is delivered with a 200 status code as 4XX further down the streaming response.” He then threw out some ideas, in which John Mueller told him what he can do.

Here are those tweets:

To clarify why this is interesting: It would allow starting to stream the HTTP response before the backend replies whether a requested item associated with the URL exists, leading to improved UX (in particular TTFB and FCP)

— Malte Ubl (@cramforce) March 21, 2022

Cool. I’d be somewhat worried about inability to distinguish between 5xx (page exists but backend is down) and 4xx (this actually does not exist)

— Malte Ubl (@cramforce) March 21, 2022

To be fair, Malte was mostly involved in how Google Search was presented to searchers. He did not seem to work much on how Google crawls, indexes or ranks search results but rather how the search results were rendered to the user. His focus, I believe but I can be wrong, was around how Google Search was presented on browsers to searchers. He was also involved in the core web vitals project, AMP, web stories and probably other areas. But when it comes to SEO topics around indexing and ranking, he didn’t really focus much on those areas.

So it does not surprise me that he did not know the answer to this question.

But what I love most, he was not embarrassed to ask this question publicly. I love that. It shows that any of us can ask SEO questions and we should not be self conscious about what others think. Heck, I also do it all the time on Twitter.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

In part one of my interview with David Melamed, we spoke about his background and the beauty of the search marketing industry. David Melamed and I in part two then spoke about the long term viability and success of search spam.

David explains he is pretty creative when it comes to coming up with ideas for websites to do well in search. He brought up some old local spam strategies that simply did not work. He said just the other day he received a question about exact match domains. In short, the shortcuts don’t work anymore. You need to be legit and do it the right way and build a real business.

This pivoted our conversation towards the topic about anti-trust issues with Google and how other search engines are just one click away. There are about 20 start up search engines trying to compete with Google. I talk about the early days of Google and we get into politics a bit.

We briefly also spoke about branded search results and the Google Ads policies around there. He is not happy with how Google handles branded searches and how competitors use that to their advantage. But he does not like that this is allowed and even more so, how Google broad matches on those competitor names.

Then we spoke a bit about easy it was to spam Google and search engines but nowadays it is simply not as easy. We spoke about some examples and also about the concept of testing platforms for SEO.

You can learn more about David Melamed on his website at davidmelamed.com.

You can subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here so you don’t miss the next vlog where I interviews. I do have a nice lineup of interviews scheduled with SEOs and SEMS, many of which you don’t want to miss – and I promise to continue to make these vlogs better over time. If you want to be interviewed, please fill out this form with your details.

Forum discussion at YouTube.

Rajan Patel, the VP of Engineering at Google, confirmed with me that Google has rolled out full width movie reviews. So when you search for a movie name and add on “review” to your query, Google will show a full width review panel in web search.

This was spotted by Steph on Twitter who told me “if you type a film title + review in i.e. “fresh review”, the reviews panel takes up the main body with film stats in the sidebar, above the organic listings. Used to be all contained in the sidebar.”

I can replicate it, here is a screenshot you can click on to enlarge for the query [fresh review]:

As I said, Rajan Patel said it was new and he asked us what we all think:

Yes, this is new. Wdyt?

— Rajan Patel (@rajanpatel) March 15, 2022

Google has done a lot with movie reviews over the years.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

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 won’t be making Google Analytics 4 a search ranking boost. Google said migrating a domain to a new domain, when the original domain has quality issues, will result in the new domain having quality issues in Google Search. Google may bring back SMS messaging in Google Business Profiles. Google is testing “on these lists” in the local panels. Google launched full panel movie reviews. Plus, I posted the weekly search video recap on YouTube and your favorite podcast player.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Quality: Site With Quality Issues Switched Domains, Saw Temporary Google Ranking Boost & Dropped Again
  On last Friday’s hangout with Google’s John Mueller, Ankit Dalal, an SEO, asked about a site he is working on and what the issue it has with rankings. In short, the site was not ranking well, so they migrated the site to a new domain and the rankings climbed for a three-day period, then after that, the rankings went back down to where the original domain was ranking.
• Google: Google Analytics 4 Won’t Be A Search Ranking Boost
  Sometimes when Google wants to encourage site owners to take action, they might give us a ranking boost for implementing it. They did it for HTTPS, mobile friendly design, page experience and many more. But when it comes to encouraging folks to switching to Google Analytics 4, Google’s John Mueller said there won’t be any ranking boost in doing so.
• SMS Messaging Support Returns To Google Business Profiles?
  When Google first launched messaging within Google Business Profiles (formerly Google My Business), it was done through SMS, text messaging. Then Google removed the SMS portion and just added it to both the mobile app and the web interface. Now, Google might be bringing it back as SMS messaging.
• Google Tests On These Lists In Local Listing
  Google seems to be testing a feature in a local listing for a venue that says which lists, if any, these venues are on. Often you see websites that have lists of topics like, ten best places to take your kids in a specific location and things like that. Well, now those might show up in the local panel under a section named “on these lists.”
• Google Search Movie Reviews Panel Goes Full Width
  Rajan Patel, the VP of Engineering at Google, confirmed with me that Google has rolled out full width movie reviews. So when you search for a movie name and add on “review” to your query, Google will show a full width review panel in web search.
• Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Algorithm Weirdness, Google Analytics 3 Going Away, Google Local Review Bugs & More
  This week, I covered a possible Google update that ticked off a week ago, but it was weird, the tools didn’t pick up on it. Google announced it is sunsetting Google Analytics Universal Analytics in 2023 and you will need to start using Google Analytics 4…
• New Mysterious Google Product Found On Swag
  Satyajeet Salgar, Director, Product Management at YouTube and Google, shared a photo of a new piece of swag that was on his desk at Google. He said he is not sure what this logo is but it is a new pro

Other Great Search Threads:

• I don’t know. I suspect you can find anecdotes either way there, but it’s not by design. It’s not that we’d say “do X in title, Y in h1, and Z in h2” — we try to work with the pages as they come. Anecdotes can st, John Mueller on Twitter
• I’m not a fan of forced migrations (you know who else needs to migrate to GA4? Search Console)… sometimes the product team needs to make tough decisions. It’s annoying, but a part of the cost of, John Mueller on Twitter
• Just another reminder that if you publish how-to content, spend the extra 10 minutes & add how-to markup. You can’t beat the SERP treatment w/a carousel of images for each step that link directly to that step in your post. On, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
• Thoughts on this test? Favicons ranging in different sizing on mobile (note the change for @sengineland) + repeating the domain name, including a variation using bolding. Variation #2 was first spotted last month, but looks like, Brodie Clark on Twitter
• After 16 years, you’ve probably seen ups & downs, plus updates that you didn’t consider to be “up” dates. Things change, and sometimes they don’t change in the way you want them to change., John Mueller on Twitter
• Today’s ridiculous crawling issue. Yandex and Bing both spidering tons of URLs with random ved= parameters. Not sure where these are originating. Anyone else seeing this kind of behavior?, Joost de Valk on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

This week, I covered a possible Google update that ticked off a week ago, but it was weird, the tools didn’t pick up on it. Google announced it is sunsetting Google Analytics Universal Analytics in 2023 and you will need to start using Google Analytics 4. Google said it won’t encourage people to switch to GA4 by giving them a ranking boost – it won’t happen. Google had a bug with reviews not posting that Google should have fixed. The free Google hotel listings have expanded and added more features and reporting. Google refine this search and broaden this search are live now, but do not use MUM. Google is testing offer carousels for some search results. Google said site quality issues don’t go away when you move the site to a new domain name. Google said the page experience update can be assigned to sections of your site. Google again said it does not use user experience as a ranking factor. Google Search Console’s URL inspection tool is still not fully fixed. Google’s favicon crawler now uses Googlebot and Googlebot-Image tokens. 80% of SEOs expect to see some traffic loss after a site migration. Most SEOs say they use canonicals to manage faceted navigation. Google image search is testing Lens with search, text, and translate options. SMS messaging might return to Google Business Profile messaging. Google is testing “on these lists” in the local results. Google hotel listings have an attribute for free or discounted accommodations for those displaced from Ukraine. Google officially announced the Search Central Unconference. 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.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or your favorite podcast player to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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Search Topics of Discussion:

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The first two weeks of March have seen several important SEO developments, some of which may point to even bigger changes further down the road.

First and foremost, Google’s desktop page experience rollout is now complete. So it’s time to start thinking about desktop signals if you haven’t already optimized for them.

The continued growth of IndexNow is also notable, with several well-known software providers signing up to the protocol this month. Is it the future of indexing? It’s a definite maybe.

And there’s news closer to home. BrightEdge acquired Oncrawl as part of our commitment to data-driven optimization. We’re very excited about what it means for our customers.

Let’s take a look at these and other stories in more depth. Here’s your twice-monthly roundup of all the latest SEO news.

Desktop Page Experience Rollout Finishes

Google has now finished implementing its desktop page experience update. The update applies all mobile page experience factors to desktop, with the exception of mobile-friendliness. While not a major change to the algorithm, it’s still essential that SEOs take note.

Page experience signals are relatively easy to optimize from a technical standpoint. If you haven’t already accounted for them, or are unsure about whether your site meets current standards, then it’s time for an audit.

Google Search Advocate John Mueller provided extra context about how page experience works in an office-hours hangout earlier this month.

In summary, he said that page experience needs to be understood in terms of search intent—if a searcher wants to reach a specific website, page experience will likely be redundant—and that the update is unlikely to cause considerable swings in rankings, at least in the immediate term.

Software Providers Add Support for IndexNow

Several software developers have added native support for IndexNow to their products. SEOPress, RankMath and Duda are three examples. Whenever content changes are made to websites running one of these apps, participating search engines will automatically be notified. Millions of sites use the IndexNow protocol, and that number is growing every day.

While they have yet to sign up, Google has shown some interest. At the moment, Bing and Yandex are the only major search engines partnered with IndexNow. But continued uptake on the part of web admins could herald the next phase of website indexing. And it’s good news for SEOs, especially those that run smaller websites that aren’t crawled as much as larger ones.

BrightEdge Acquires Oncrawl

BrightEdge has been making headlines. We partnered with Oncrawl, one of the leading technical SEO data science platforms.

As Jim Yu, one of the founders of BrightEdge, said in his post on the topic: “Oncrawl pioneered big data infrastructure and semantic analysis of SEO data, allowing for much more control and visibility. Oncrawl has rapidly become a must-have for advanced SEOs and has won numerous awards.”

Expect big things to come and more details to follow.

Google Shopping Experience Scorecard Rewards Customer Experience

Google has launched a program for select merchants called the “Shopping experience scorecard.” US-based e-commerce sellers that participate in Buy on Google or free listings may receive a variety of benefits, including a ranking boost and a Google badge, if they meet several customer experience criteria. These include shipping speed, shipping cost, return window and return cost.

You can access an area dedicated to the Shopping experience scorecard in your Google Merchant Center account. The program is optional, so it’s up to you if you want to provide customer service data to Google. However, if you provide a superlative customer experience, there’s no reason not to take advantage of this opportunity. Your competitors certainly will be.

Queries Related to the Russian Invasion Display New Sections on SERPS

As the dreadful war in Ukraine continues to unfold, people are turning to Google for information and updates. Google has responded to this increased search activity by rolling out several new features on some results pages.

Three new sections appear in response to certain queries related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. These are “Estimated losses,” “Photos,” which displays relevant images, and a list of articles providing general background (as opposed to the latest stories) under the header “For context.”

While these new features seem limited to the on-going war, it’s possible that there will be a larger rollout. If this happens, there will likely be an opportunity for news outlets  to optimize their content for greater exposure.

Google Exploring Ways to Show Short-Form Videos in SERPs

In a recent Search Off the Record podcast, Danielle Marshak, who oversees video content in search results, said that Google is experimenting with indexing more short-form videos (under five minutes and filmed in a vertical aspect).

There are a few problems with serving certain types of recorded content. For example, Instagram and Snapchat videos need to be viewed in an app and therefore can’t be indexed. But this isn’t an issue for other platforms like TikTok.

Short-form video is potentially highly relevant when it comes to meeting the intent behind certain queries, making it likely that Google will pursue this avenue.

Danny Sullivan Weighs in on “Personalization” Debate

You might have encountered the narrative that Google intentionally serves personalized results that cater to searcher biases. This questionable activity, so the argument runs, contributes to an “echo chamber effect” and insulates people from alternative views. That’s a pretty hefty claim.

But it’s largely untrue, at least according to Search Liaison Danny Sullivan. The way Google ranks content is much more mundane and based primarily on location and recent queries, in a way that doesn’t create filter bubbles.

In a short exchange on Twitter with UCLA professor Ramesh Srinivasan, Danny Sullivan said, “Our search results at Google are not personalized in the way that’s described. Two people searching for the same thing in the same location will largely see the same results.”

Think With Google Publishes Search Insights

In February, Think With Google published a report looking at how user expectations have shifted over the last twelve months. It makes for fascinating reading.

Growth of 800% year over year of terms related to winter vacations points towards a large-scale shift in the way people are spending theri holidays. And searches for “24/7 customer service” have increased by 500% compared to the previous year. So you better start thinking about expanding your support department.

Tatiana Perebeinis of SE Ranking Killed in Ukraine

We would like to end this SEO roundup by remembering Tatiana Perebeinis, formerly the chief accountant for SE Ranking. According to a report by the New York Times, Tatiana and her two children were killed by Russian forces while attempting to flee Irpin in Ukraine. She was a well-known and valued member of the SEO community.

The first two weeks of March have seen several important SEO developments, some of which may point to even bigger changes further down the road.

First and foremost, Google’s desktop page experience rollout is now complete. So it’s time to start thinking about desktop signals if you haven’t already optimized for them.

The continued growth of IndexNow is also notable, with several well-known software providers signing up to the protocol this month. Is it the future of indexing? It’s a definite maybe.

And there’s news closer to home. BrightEdge acquired Oncrawl as part of our commitment to data-driven optimization. We’re very excited about what it means for our customers.

Let’s take a look at these and other stories in more depth. Here’s your twice-monthly roundup of all the latest SEO news.

Desktop Page Experience Rollout Finishes

Google has now finished implementing its desktop page experience update. The update applies all mobile page experience factors to desktop, with the exception of mobile-friendliness. While not a major change to the algorithm, it’s still essential that SEOs take note.

Page experience signals are relatively easy to optimize from a technical standpoint. If you haven’t already accounted for them, or are unsure about whether your site meets current standards, then it’s time for an audit.

Google Search Advocate John Mueller provided extra context about how page experience works in an office-hours hangout earlier this month.

In summary, he said that page experience needs to be understood in terms of search intent—if a searcher wants to reach a specific website, page experience will likely be redundant—and that the update is unlikely to cause considerable swings in rankings, at least in the immediate term.

Software Providers Add Support for IndexNow

Several software developers have added native support for IndexNow to their products. SEOPress, RankMath and Duda are three examples. Whenever content changes are made to websites running one of these apps, participating search engines will automatically be notified. Millions of sites use the IndexNow protocol, and that number is growing every day.

While they have yet to sign up, Google has shown some interest. At the moment, Bing and Yandex are the only major search engines partnered with IndexNow. But continued uptake on the part of web admins could herald the next phase of website indexing. And it’s good news for SEOs, especially those that run smaller websites that aren’t crawled as much as larger ones.

BrightEdge Acquires Oncrawl

BrightEdge has been making headlines. We partnered with Oncrawl, one of the leading technical SEO data science platforms.

As Jim Yu, one of the founders of BrightEdge, said in his post on the topic: “Oncrawl pioneered big data infrastructure and semantic analysis of SEO data, allowing for much more control and visibility. Oncrawl has rapidly become a must-have for advanced SEOs and has won numerous awards.”

Expect big things to come and more details to follow.

Google Shopping Experience Scorecard Rewards Customer Experience

Google has launched a program for select merchants called the “Shopping experience scorecard.” US-based e-commerce sellers that participate in Buy on Google or free listings may receive a variety of benefits, including a ranking boost and a Google badge, if they meet several customer experience criteria. These include shipping speed, shipping cost, return window and return cost.

You can access an area dedicated to the Shopping experience scorecard in your Google Merchant Center account. The program is optional, so it’s up to you if you want to provide customer service data to Google. However, if you provide a superlative customer experience, there’s no reason not to take advantage of this opportunity. Your competitors certainly will be.

Queries Related to the Russian Invasion Display New Sections on SERPS

As the dreadful war in Ukraine continues to unfold, people are turning to Google for information and updates. Google has responded to this increased search activity by rolling out several new features on some results pages.

Three new sections appear in response to certain queries related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. These are “Estimated losses,” “Photos,” which displays relevant images, and a list of articles providing general background (as opposed to the latest stories) under the header “For context.”

While these new features seem limited to the on-going war, it’s possible that there will be a larger rollout. If this happens, there will likely be an opportunity for news outlets  to optimize their content for greater exposure.

Google Exploring Ways to Show Short-Form Videos in SERPs

In a recent Search Off the Record podcast, Danielle Marshak, who oversees video content in search results, said that Google is experimenting with indexing more short-form videos (under five minutes and filmed in a vertical aspect).

There are a few problems with serving certain types of recorded content. For example, Instagram and Snapchat videos need to be viewed in an app and therefore can’t be indexed. But this isn’t an issue for other platforms like TikTok.

Short-form video is potentially highly relevant when it comes to meeting the intent behind certain queries, making it likely that Google will pursue this avenue.

Danny Sullivan Weighs in on “Personalization” Debate

You might have encountered the narrative that Google intentionally serves personalized results that cater to searcher biases. This questionable activity, so the argument runs, contributes to an “echo chamber effect” and insulates people from alternative views. That’s a pretty hefty claim.

But it’s largely untrue, at least according to Search Liaison Danny Sullivan. The way Google ranks content is much more mundane and based primarily on location and recent queries, in a way that doesn’t create filter bubbles.

In a short exchange on Twitter with UCLA professor Ramesh Srinivasan, Danny Sullivan said, “Our search results at Google are not personalized in the way that’s described. Two people searching for the same thing in the same location will largely see the same results.”

Think With Google Publishes Search Insights

In February, Think With Google published a report looking at how user expectations have shifted over the last twelve months. It makes for fascinating reading.

Growth of 800% year over year of terms related to winter vacations points towards a large-scale shift in the way people are spending theri holidays. And searches for “24/7 customer service” have increased by 500% compared to the previous year. So you better start thinking about expanding your support department.

Tatiana Perebeinis of SE Ranking Killed in Ukraine

We would like to end this SEO roundup by remembering Tatiana Perebeinis, formerly the chief accountant for SE Ranking. According to a report by the New York Times, Tatiana and her two children were killed by Russian forces while attempting to flee Irpin in Ukraine. She was a well-known and valued member of the SEO community.

I was a bit too eager in reporting the dates for the Google Search Central Virtual Unconference the other week. Google changed the tentative dates on the registration page to now show that the event takes place on April 27th from 11am to 2pm ET, with registration opening on March 30th at 6am.

Previously the site said that Google would open registration today, March 17th and the conference itself would be held on March 30th. I guess everything got pushed back for one reason or another.

You can register on the 30th over here.

Google explained “the event is a collection of group discussions. Each of these discussions will have one or two facilitators, who make sure there is a starting point for a conversation and that there’s momentum throughout the session, as well as a chance for everyone to join in. To keep these discussions manageable and open, each discussion has a limited number of participants and the session will not be recorded.”

There is no specific agenda announced yet, as far as I can see. There is just a template of the time slots of each category of content.

Anyway, you may want to set a reminder to register on the 30th, I am not sure what time exactly registration will open.

Alright, finally I can share the great news! We’ll have another Virtual Unconference! 🥳 https://t.co/1h5kJYMwic

— Martin Splitt (@g33konaut) March 17, 2022

Forum discussion at Twitter.