When IndexNow was first announced by Microsoft Bing in October, it was not yet at a point where the participating search engines we co-sharing URLs – but that is no longer the case. Participating IndexNow search engines, which is still just Microsoft Bing and Yandex, are now co-sharing URLs.
That means when you submit a URL through IndexNow that is submitted through Microsoft Bing, it will be instantly shared with Yandex as well. The same works the other way, submit a URL to Yandex and Microsoft Bing will get it instantly.
Plus, Microsoft said that you no longer have to use https://www.bing.com/IndexNow?url=url-changed&key=your-key or https://yandex.com/indexnow?url=url-changed&key=your-key to submit the URLs, you can use https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow?url=url-changed&key=your-key and the URLs will be shared with Bing and Yandex.
If Google does plan to adopt it, I suspect webmaster/site owner adoption will explode. Right now, Microsoft said 80,000 websites have “started publishing and reaping the benefits of faster submission to indexation” through IndexNow – but in November that number was 60,000 and all through Cloudflare’s integration (which we use here by the way). So it seems adoption has been slow?
But Microsoft released a IndexNow WordPress plugin so hopefully that will help a little?
In any event, the key new pieces here are these three points:
(1) IndexNow’s protocol is now co-sharing URLs with participating search engines.
(2) api.indexnow.org can now be used to submit URLs to.
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.
IndexNow is now co-sharing URLs with those who participate in the protocol, which means if you push a URL to IndexNow, both Microsoft Bing and Yandex get it immediately. Microsoft Bing is also testing showing the related searches on the left bar. There was a bug with a chat feature in Shopify that resulted in Google Search showing (1) in the titles of the search results – it should go away over time. Google Ads versatile text ads is another name for responsive search ads? And a poll shows 90% of SEOs are vaccinated. Finally, I posted my weekly SEO video recap, I have a bit more energy in this one, it might be worth listening to on YouTube or your favorite podcast player.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google 1/11 Search Algorithm Update, Manual Actions Delayed, Core Update Specifics & Microsoft Bing IndexNow News We had our first unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update of the 2022 year…
IndexNow Now Sharing URLs Between Search Engines & IndexNow API When IndexNow was first announced by Microsoft Bing in October, it was not yet at a point where the participating search engines we co-sharing URLs – but that is no longer the case. Participating IndexNow search engines, which is still just Microsoft Bing and Yandex, are now co-sharing URLs.
Microsoft Bing Tests Related Searches On Left Microsoft Bing is testing placing the related searches list on the left side of the search results page. Normally, Microsoft places these related searches on the right side of the Bing search results page.
Google Search Showing (1) In Shopify Websites Titles Most SEOs often look at titles tags when browsing web sites, I mean, I do, while the average person does not. So you’ve probably seen numbers in the tab bar representing an unread direct message count or chat request. Well, Shopify sites using chat-bot script was adding a 1 to the titles of pages and that is what Google has been indexing.
Poll: 90% Of SEOs Are Vaccinated A Twitter poll with over 1,320 votes shows that 90% of SEOs are vaccinated. Well, at least 90% of the SEOs who took the poll are vaccinated. Although, I’d think that 90% figure is probably accurate across the industry.
Google Ads Versatile Text Ads = Responsive Search Ads? Steve Plimmer posted a screenshot from the Google Ads console’s change history log showing how Google has named the RSAs, response search ads, versatile text ads. It makes you wonder if Google will rename RSA responsive search ads to VTA versatile text ads or if this is just how Google originally named it internally and forgo to remove some references?
Doogler Playing With Android Plush Toy At Google Here is a screenshot from a video of a Doogler, Google dog, playing with an Android plush toy at the Google office. This is from the GooglePlex, the Mountain View, Google headquarters. It looks like
Other Great Search Threads:
Google trends data on shopping searches through the pandemic. https://t.co/bmRIhMLZpy, Alan Kent on Twitter
Of course not, if you’re providing something of unique, compelling, and high-quality, which adds significant value to the web. You may have seen ot, John Mueller on Twitter
Do documentation inconsistencies cause distrust in SEOs? Does context matter when it comes to automation, tools and rules? @g33konaut and @iPullRank sit down to discuss that and more on episode 3 of SEO &, Google Search Central on Twitter
Google is again testing the removal of the URL and breadcrumbs for indented results. This test first appeared last month and is out in force today. As someone who uses the breadcrumbs as a prompt, this test is disorientating., Brodie Clark on Twitter
Sure, you can make a new site, and it can become popular over time too., John Mueller on Twitter
This is a pretty old-school hack — I’d ignore it. If you want to do more, you can try to contact the site owner or hoster to encourage them to fix it / take the site down., John Mueller on Twitter
URLs are just identifiers to us – you can use whichever setup you like, as long as it’s a unique, crawlable URL., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
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.
We had our first unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update of the 2022 year, it was on January 11th. Google admitted that there is a backlog of responding to manual actions. Google said they want to share more specifics on core updates but are not allowed to. IndexNow co-sharing URLs is now fully live between Microsoft Bing and Yandex. Google said fluff content is hard for it to understand but yet it seems Google ranks the content well. Many SEOs said they will still buy links in 2022 despite it being against Google’s webmaster guidelines. Google said for links to be counted, they need to be on indexed pages and even then Google might not count them. Google is still recommending you disavow whole domain names. Google reminded us that the search quality raters guidelines are not designed for SEOs. Most SEOs are not confident in strategy around Google Discover. SEOs said they will focus more resources on content this year. Do not, I repeat, do not block users from slower regions to speed up your core web vitals. Google Business Profiles now makes new owners and managers wait seven days to make changes. Google is testing trending videos in the mobile search results. Google is testing web stories for NFL games. Google Ads launched a disapproved ads auditor tool code. And a poll shows that 90% of SEOs are vaccinated – go figure. 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 Semrush.
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Judging by efforts both official and experimental, Google seems to be placing increased emphasis on local search. We have seen indications of this emphasis in different ways in our own research. When we looked at the e-commerce sector recently, we found steady incremental growth in local 3-pack results, for example, from 23% of e-commerce results in 2019 to 26% of results in 2021:
Local 3-pack results are one of the indicators BrightEdge uses to define what Google calls “I-Want-To-Go” moments. Altogether, BrightEdge classifies search intent broadly under one of four similar mindsets (note, searches can span multiple mindsets):
I-Want-To-Know – Research-oriented searches
I-Want-To-Go – Local sourcing, travel and hospitality searches
I-Want-To-Do – Instructional resource searches
I-Want-To-Buy – Commerce-minded searches
From the same research study and worth noting is the growing share of voice among publishers in search. Publishers support all mindsets with varying content and search results are beginning to better reflect that. Even in our study of e-commerce where the main focus is on I-Want-To-Buy moments, publishers (represented by grey bars in the chart below) gained measurable share of voice in most commerce categories:
With this growth in share of voice for both local and publisher search results, it’s not surprising that Google cites a threefold increase in searches for “news near me” over the last 5 years. To better support the growing interest in local news, at the end of 2021 Google launched new tools and features to support local news.
Better, More Integrated Local News Search Results
As more users search for local news, Google is responding with four key improvements to how it surfaces and presents local news in the search engine results pages:
Local news carousel – Early in the pandemic, Google launched a carousel to surface useful information related to COVID searches. The carousel has now been expanded to return local news results when relevant.
Integration with national sources – Users will now more often see authoritative local news sources alongside content from national publications.
Local news in finer detail – When visitors search for broad topics, Google will pair the search with location signals, which tell Google your location, to also return results on narrower or locally relevant subtopics. The example Google offers is a search for “sports.” When a user searches “sports” Google will now be able to show results for football games, on the national, collegiate and local high school levels when relevant content and location indicators allow.
Newsworthy local tweets – Finally, Google now surfaces relevant tweets from authoritative local sources and individuals.
Taken together, these improvements provide an opportunity for local news publishers to increase their visibility among potential readers.
Tools and Resources for Journalists
To better enable local news storytelling, Google also announced two new resources for journalists and publishers:
Census Mapper – Part of what makes news local is the people and communities affected or involved in a story. The better a journalist can describe the audience, the more easily a reader can understand, relate or empathize. Google’s Census Mapper makes it easier for reporters to sift through complex census data and present visualizations of the data.
Common Knowledge Project – Google announced improvements to its Common Knowledge Project, which it describes as a data explorer and visualization project that enables journalists to explore local data. Improvements include geographic comparisons and new charts and visuals.
Key Takeaways for Publishers
While it will take some time to understand completely what local news content benefits most from the changes, Google’s efforts are a boon for local news publishers. The best advice at this point is to follow basic principles of content optimization. For example, Google’s announcement makes repeated usage of the word “authoritative” to describe the content and sources it will favor, which points to the basic SEO principle of building E-A-T: expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Journalists and publishers should also take advantage of the resources Google announced, something Google may look favorably on when evaluating E-A-T.
We’ll be monitoring the effectiveness and impact of these updates and where trends emerge, we will offer relevant advice on how to optimize content to appear in local news search results.
Learn how the BrightEdge platform helps tailor your SEO strategy to distinct local markets.
Google has been pushing the limits of its user interfaces in the local search results in web search and some of the other filters. I don’t know or even think any of this has been rolled out recently but I do think this did roll out in 2021. In short, Google local search results are grouping things more, using more carousels and even offering filters with count labels.
Here are some examples of the count labels – this might be the only really recently new thing on this list:
Not claiming this is new, but I don’t think I’ve noticed these Local Guide tags before — “27 barbecue restaurant reviews” with custom icon. Great way to build authority of reviewers! pic.twitter.com/5lX70YyQlQ
— Damian Rollison (@damianrollison) January 10, 2022
Here are some examples of Google grouping local results with carousels:
1/2 @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/5mqX1JIaOK
— khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) January 11, 2022
Example 2: Sending to: @rustybrick SIR. pic.twitter.com/84gBtVvBPx
— Saad AK (@SaadAlikhan1994) January 11, 2022
Google gets pretty wild with those local intent results in the mobile web search results.
There may have been a Google search ranking algorithm update on January 11, 2022. This would be the first real unconfirmed update for the 2022 year. I am seeing both chatter spike up starting on January 10th and continue through today. Plus, many of the tracking tools are showing big movements in the Google search results.
SEO Chatter
The ongoing WebmasterWorld has many folks saying big changes in their rankings over the past couple of days. Here is what some of the SEOs said:
I think Google released an update yesterday, even if no sensor has signaled it. Every competitor’s keywords position has suddenly changed and my own as well. Curious that everything is so quiet.
I think you might be right. It’s been eerily quiet(er). That would make sense.
My USA traffic dropped considerably again yesterday, but International remained very strong. Today USA is also down, while international traffic is very strong. Sunday just looks like a reversion back to the previous throttling of USA traffic.
Heavy bot traffic this morning, Google crawling and few real humans in-between. Constant shuffling in the SERPS, but Amazon crowded listings remain a permanent fixture at the top which is a huge help to our Chinese competitors I’m sure.
For me Europe woke up from its Xmas / New Year yesterday along with a torrent of USA single page visitors. The single page visitors all went to individual widget pages which, for me, is most un-botlike.
Traffic was at 308.3%.
My traffic was also up yesterday and looks quite perky today too, so far. Mine much more in line with what I would expect this time of year.
Huge drop today. Semrush again on fire now… Another coincidence? 🙂
Something was definitely rolled out. All competitors in my niche are up (semrush). Some +10, +5. +3, +7 etc. Me? +0.05.
Clobbered again, zero-day.
Tracking Tools
Like I said, the tracking tools are showing big movements as well. Here are some of those tools showing a Google update.
Danny Sullivan of Google confirmed on Twitter that there is or was a backlog of manual actions issued by Google. Google has been slow and delayed in responding to those manual actions but is working through the backlog.
Danny said “we apologize for the delay in processing the reconsideration. We’ve had a backlog & now cleared the action.”
Here is that tweet:
The manual action was not a punishment for what you write about. It was solely for unnatural linking & again, had no impact on your ranking. We apologize for the delay in processing the reconsideration. We’ve had a backlog & now cleared the action. Your links pass trust again…
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 11, 2022
There are others with similar issues, hence the backlog:
“Delayed” is being quite kind. See date. pic.twitter.com/UKYqLvkGy2
— Rob P (@MrRobzilla) January 11, 2022
Now, this case is interesting in that this publisher was so upset about its Google rankings, it made a huge amount of noise. That noise got Google to respond saying that the manual action was not hurting the site’s rankings but it devalued the links it had on its outbound links. It obviously was caught for allegedly linking out for pay or other link schemes. Specifically the Unnatural links from your site manual action:
Google has detected a pattern of unnatural artificial, deceptive, or manipulative outbound links on your site. Buying links or participating in link schemes in order to manipulate PageRank is a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Google stopped this site from passing link value externally.
That being said, here is the full response from Danny about this case:
The manual action was not due to your journalism. It was solely for unnatural links. It was issued in mid-Dec. 2020 (not in November) and, as explained to you through Search Console, had no impact on your ranking…
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 11, 2022
The manual action was not a punishment for what you write about. It was solely for unnatural linking & again, had no impact on your ranking. We apologize for the delay in processing the reconsideration. We’ve had a backlog & now cleared the action. Your links pass trust again…
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 11, 2022
We had a core update in Dec. 2020, and sometimes that can cause traffic changes, including for Discover. Our advice about core updates is here: https://t.co/nF7Ashb3Zk
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 11, 2022
Click through to the original tweet to see the full complaint.
So the only thing new in this story is that Google is delayed for processing manual actions. The specific manual action is not new, Google can prevent sites from passing link value (since before 2012) and before that, even before Google had manual actions. And yes, loud people sometimes can catch Google’s attention but will it matter?
Local search is powerful for small businesses: 46% of all Google searches are searching for local details, which suggests if your organization isn’t enhanced for local search, you could be missing out on prospective consumers who are ready to go shopping in your location. Simply put, local SEO is vital if you want your organization to remain appropriate.
Create a Google My Business Account
Optimizing your Google listing (aka your Business Profile) is possibly the most effective way to rank greater on Google Maps, in addition, to gaining visibility in Google Search local results. In order to get access to your Business Profile to make these optimizations, however, you need a Google My Business account related to that profile. Once you offer all of the requested information in your Google My Business account dashboard, all of that info will be contributed to your Business Profile, which appears in Google Search local results, the Google Search Knowledge Panel, and Google Maps.
Optimize Your Website for Mobile
A 2018 Stone Temple study that looked at 2017’s mobile vs. desktop patterns found that the shift to mobile is occurring much faster than expected. Mobile visits to sites grew from 57% in 2016 to 63% in 2017, and the general check-outs to websites from desktops avoided 43% in 2016 to simply 37% in 2017.
Another 2017 research study from Acquisio determined that traffic from local searches can be specifically lucrative, with a remarkable 75% of all mobile searches that exhibit local intent really producing in-store, offline visits within 24 hours.
This confirms that you have to optimize your site for mobile to be a player in local SEO (and, truly, for an excellent SEO period).
Ensure your name, address, and phone number are regularly online. You’ve got to make it simple for people and search engines to find you. To do this, set up your NAP, which means name, address, and contact number (with area code). This ought to be included as crawlable HTML text on your website.
Avoid the typical error of just including the NAP within an image– images can’t be crawled from an online search engine like HTML text. The most typical location for the NAP is in the footer or header of the website.
Enhance Local SEO With Local Content
It prevails for SEO marketing to revolve around non-local content. While it’s not a bad concept to engage with a broader audience and get more traffic to your site from non-local people, this isn’t always where your focus needs to be. Developing local content can assist maximize your material marketing efforts to produce more top-quality leads.
You can create content that revolves around occasions in your industry or local news. You can also include local keywords into more basic subjects associated with your services or product.
Encourage Customers to Write Online Reviews
You offer a valuable product or service to your neighborhood, and for that reason, you have a long list of happy, regular customers. These customers are valuable when it pertains to promoting your brand name to others in the region, and the very best way to use their loyalty to your company is to encourage them to compose reviews online.
There are several methods to motivate clients to compose and leave reviews for your brand name. You can have your personnel ask customers for their feedback, engage with the reviews that currently exist for your service online, provide a reward to leave a review (note: if you go this path, you are incentivizing evaluations in general, not just great reviews), and utilize studies.
Riley Hope came to visit me at my office in October to talk SEO. Riley started in SEO by doing unpaid internships for non-profits after high school, this was during the “dark ages” of YouTube and Facebook she said. She reached out to a founder of company she found online she seemed to like and she got a real contract job. She learned SEO there and worked there for about two and a half years. Riley started her masters while a director at the agency she is at. It has been fun explaining how SEO works to her master advisors in university.
Ethics In SEO:
Riley explained the ethics behind SEO, she actually did her thesis on this topic. Some of it was about not deceiving or manipulating Google’s algorithm for personal or financial gain. The other part was not harming users/searchers, and also an aspect of collecting data on people around data collection – GDPR stuff.
Riley said she explained recently, like the past year or so, got into the SEO space on Twitter. She observed that some companies target small businesses with misinformation and then others in the space call them out. We spoke about some popular names in the industry a bit and then moved back into talking about her career including her work in the SEO auto space.
Automotive SEO:
We then spoke about some of the challenges about doing SEO work in the automobile space and industry. She said working in the auto industry, specific with SEO, is like working in any other industry in the early 2000s and trying to get SEO things done, it is super hard.
We mentioned some names of SEOs in the auto space, such as Melissa Fach and Greg Gifford. Riley explained that SEOs in the auto SEO space is mostly male but in her agency it is more female.
You can learn more about Riley Hope at RileyHope.com or follow Riley on Twitter @reillyhope13.
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So it is now 2022 and some folks are asking if keyword density is an SEO Google search ranking factor. The answer is still no, according to John Mueller, a Search Advocate at Google.
This came up on Reddit just days before the end of the 2021 year. The question posted was “in your opinion, is keyword density still a SEO factor in 2021?” John Mueller responded to that saying “no.” Yes, that is all he said – no.
John has been saying this for about a decade, maybe longer.
Keyword density as an SEO topic is older than Google and it is one of those topics that will likely never die.
Oh, if you do not know what keyword density is, according to Wikipedia “keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. In the context of search engine optimization, keyword density can be used to determine whether a web page is relevant to a specified keyword or keyword phrase.”
