SEO BrightNow: March 15, 2022

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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.

Google Officially Announces Search Central Virtual Unconference – April 27th

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Google 2022 Search Central Unconference

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.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Here’s what an ROI-worthy search advertising budget looks like in 2022

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Here’s what an ROI-worthy search advertising budget looks like in 2022

30-second summary:

  • Digital marketers experience a potential ROI tunnel vision when it comes to search advertising
  • Seriously, do you need to burn dollars over those high-competition keywords? Does it trickle down into actual business?
  • How do you not lose vision and outweigh the paid search cost with your revenue?
  • We’re bringing you the finer details of designing a paid media budget straight from an SEO expert and serial entrepreneur

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that success in digital marketing depends on a whole lot of things. There’s your skill-set, your team that helps you, and your understanding of the market where you’re trying to make a dent, either for yourself or your clients.

But how often do you think about your budget? Specifically, we’re talking about your search advertising budget here.

On its face, running paid media ads on Google Ads, the Google Display Network, Facebook, Microsoft, and other platforms is pretty simple: you bid on your keywords, define your target audiences, and run your ads for the length of the campaign.


You might not think that your budget factors into things beyond showing you the funds you have to work with, but I argue that there’s more to it than that, especially when every dollar counts and you have a potential tunnel vision on ROI.

The thing is, only you will be able to say ultimately what your ROI-worthy search advertising budget will look like this year, but in this article, I’ll explain how to design your paid media budget to strike gold in 2022.

The basics: What do you want?

So, you want to know what your search advertising budget should look like in 2022.

Let me ask you this first: who are you, how big is your business, how much do you have to devote to search advertising, and, most importantly of all, what do you want to accomplish?

There are so many factors here that only you will know, but the questions I’d ask myself if I were looking at designing a search advertising budget for 2022 would include:

  • What do I want out of my campaigns?
  • How many conversions can I reasonably expect to get from my campaigns?
  • Is search advertising my only growth channel right now, or are there others?
  • How much will I also be putting into SEO or email?
  • How can I track my search advertising to make sure my performance is what I expect?
  • What will success look like?

Your budget is going to reflect what you want out of your campaigns, and what you want should reflect what growth looks like to your business.

For instance, are you an affiliate-marketing blogger who just needs more eyeballs on your pages? Are you a law firm looking for real, honest form-fills? Are you an ecommerce brand that’s retargeting your audiences for products they’ve viewed?

All of it matters, because your approach to your search advertising, and consequently your budgeting, will be determined by your goals.

Closing in: What do you need?

After figuring out what you want, it’s time to think of what you need to get there. Here’s where we’ll talk about hard figures: budgeting.

Only you will know what your search advertising campaigns should be producing (the results ideally will be based on the goals you’ve laid out).

So, if you want to grow by, let’s say, $2,000 a month, then you need to do some math to get there.

How many leads does your current search advertising campaign bring in? Of those leads, how many convert? Knowing your conversion rate will be key, as will knowing what each lead is worth to you and what your cost per lead is.

When you figure these things out, you’ll have a better idea of how to budget.

If a conversion will bring you $500, and your cost per lead is $10, and your conversion rate is five percent, then you need to bring in 80 leads a month through search advertising.

Here’s how it works.

You need four conversions a month to hit your $2,000 goal. You convert five percent of the leads you get. Four is 5% of 80. You, therefore, need 80 leads per month to reach your goal.

And if you pay $10 per lead, then your budget should be $800 a month for search advertising.

Now, that’s an ideal situation. That’s assuming you can make it all happen consistently like that, month after month.

In the perfect world, that budget will indeed be ROI-worthy.

But campaigns may fail, certain methods may not follow through for you.

How can you ensure your budgeting and efforts are worthwhile?

Pulling it together: Get smart about bidding

You want to design an ROI-worthy search advertising budget for 2022. That means you want to be in the big leagues like your competitors. What do you think they’re doing that you aren’t? Do they have some insight into Google Ads that you don’t?

No, it really comes down to your keyword strategy for your ads.

In case you didn’t know, it works like this in SEO, too: the more mainstream, general, and competitive keywords – such as “SEO company” – are going to be pretty expensive to bid on. Depending on your budget, you may not be able to sustain that kind of campaign for long, and it’s going to end up as a lot of wasted dollars.

But again, look at your similarly sized competitors. They probably have roughly the same budget as you do. If they’re outperforming you, they may have a smarter keyword bidding strategy than you do.

Taking the example from above, maybe you don’t want or need to rank your ads for “SEO company.”

A longer-tail keyword such as “SEO agency for link building” will cost you less and have fewer monthly searches. But as in any sales funnel, when searchers get more specific, they tend to be more ready to convert.

Just remember that when you get more specific, you’re going to want to hone in on the quality and relevance of your ads’ corresponding landing pages.

A long-tail keyword search requires a long-tail ad, and a long-tail ad requires a long-tail landing page (so to speak). Be sure to deliver on what your ad promises. Surely, you can develop content related to hiring an SEO agency for link building.

Think of those funnels here. People want to see content related to where they are in the buyer’s journey. When they see it, they will be more ready to convert. It works the same in SEO.

If you want to talk about really honing in on ROI with your search advertising, that’s the way to do it.

What will you do next?

Many businesses spend between seven and 12 percent of their annual budget on marketing. It’s a necessary expenditure for growth.

If you want to make sure that whatever you spend on your search advertising this year is actually worthy of a satisfactory ROI, study the tips I have laid out. Know your strengths, what you can do, and your bidding limitations, as well.

If you’re smart, you can really build something great.

Kris Jones is the founder and former CEO of digital marketing and affiliate network Pepperjam, which he sold to eBay Enterprises in 2009. Most recently Kris founded SEO services and software company LSEO.com and has previously invested in numerous successful technology companies. Kris is an experienced public speaker and is the author of one of the best-selling SEO books of all time called, ‘Search-Engine Optimization – Your Visual Blueprint to Effective Internet Marketing’, which has sold nearly 100,000 copies.

Subscribe to the Search Engine Watch newsletter for insights on SEO, the search landscape, search marketing, digital marketing, leadership, podcasts, and more.

Join the conversation with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.




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Refine This Search & Broaden This Search Now Live In Google Search

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After the announcement in September at months and months of testing, the Refine This Search and Broaden This Search features are fully live in US English Google Search results.

This is not to mean the Things To Know and Things To Consider feature is live yet, it is just being tested.

I am personally able to see these live now in the search results, as I reported at Search Engine Land:

click for full size

click for full size

Also, this is not using MUM yet, Google told me “we anticipate that applying MUM for “things to know” will enable us to uncover even deeper insights and help people explore information more easily.” As a reminder, MUM is currently barely used in Google Search.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Payday loans algorithm update 2022

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The payday loans algorithm continues to challenge search engine optimization (SEO) practitioners across the world, notably in the US and UK – the two largest markets for payday loans.

In 2012, UK’s payday loan market was worth around £2 billion and was so sought after that Google’s entire first page for payday loans was dominated by black hat results.

In response, the tech giant created a dedicated algorithm – which was revised in 2018 – known today as ‘payday loans 2.0’. The purpose of the algoritm was target what Google deemed “spammy queries”; never before had Google devoted an entire algorithm for one particular product or service.


The payday loan market in the UK is now heavily regulated and no longer as lucrative. But SEO professionals looking to help promote payday loan companies are still hoping to land on a search engine’s first page in order to access very high converting products with over 100,000 monthly searches.

Drawing on Tudor Lodge’s findings from the 2019 and 2021 algorithm, we look at how the payday algorithm has developed in the UK and US, and what techniques are succeeding in 2022.

 Frequency of updates

 Payday loan companies looking to rank their sites higher on search engines may fine they are struggling to make progress, even with the help of SEO practitioners. When this progress will appear, may also seem uncertain.

In the UK, Google infrequently updates its SEO algorithm which means a company with ‘good’ SEO could result in it ranking highlight for months or even a year, without having to change very much. This means companies can ‘ride the wave’ of their previous good SEO work.

There is an age-old SEO assumption that Google takes the techniques used by websites on page 1 of its search and uses these techniques as the basis for the algorithm. Therefore, companies which copy the links and style of content of page 1 should be successful.

In the US, however, the frequency of SEO changes for payday loans is significantly quicker, with the search results changing far more regularly and competitors having to be consistent to maintain those results.

This could reflect the more competitive environment in the US and how state-specific lenders, such as those from Florida or Ohio, might suddenly start to rank higher due to demand in those areas.

Role of exact match and partial match domains

 Traditionally, having the word ‘payday’ in a business’ domain name was a strong ranking signal to secure a page 1 position, but this seems to be less relevant as time goes on.

Filtering by the UK’s geography, only one website appears on Google’s Page 1 search results page with the word payday in the businesses’ domain name; it is one of the oldest payday lenders in the market. The same occurs when filtering for the US market, only in this instance, the firm has used a black hat technique.

As a result, companies looking to set up a website in this market do not need to include the word ‘payday’ within their domain name to be successful.

Popular techniques and red flags

There are a couple of techniques, however, which will stand businesses looking to gain traction in the payday loan market in good stead.

  1. Careful phrasing is one of these techniques. Companies looking to improve their payday loan SEO should look carefully at the phrasing used by websites which rank on page 1 in the UK and US.

These websites tend to use the following terms: “direct lenders”, “bad credit”, and “alternatives”. Other popular phrases include payday loans online used by Dime Alley and include the word “instalment”.

Tudor Lodge’s previous investigation into the algorithm suggests these phrases push websites up the ranking because Google wants to: provide “alternatives” rather than expensive payday products; ensure “direct lenders” are promoted over brokers; and appeal to “bad credit” which is the real use of the product.

  1. Another technique to be considered is the use of Google Business, a free service which allows organizations to manage and optimize their businesses’ profile on Google. In recent years, the platform has gained more exposure in the SERPs for payday loans.

Arguably this is not surprising since figures show Google Business clicks are surpassing normal clicks on Google for the first time ever this year. This is particularly relevant in the US where there are over 23,000 payday stores and the role of local listings is far more important than in the UK where the industry is mainly online.

For SEO practitioners, having a populated Google Business account with images, descriptions and organic reviews will only help to secure more exposure and clicks, even for new entries.

And of course, making sure the address and contact details on your website are very clear on the footer and contact us page. Without any contact details or address on your website, you are pretty much a ghost in Google’s eyes.

  1. Another important detail for SEO practitioners and payday loan companies to think about is ensuring there is an explanation of how their product works. Customers need to know how to apply for a payday product listed on a website.

Websites listed on Page 1 of Google’s listings all ensure this copy is clear and concise, whether it be through a steps process – as demonstrated by Pheabs – or a dedicated ‘how it works’ page.

 In addition to best practice, there are a number of techniques which are now grossly out of fashion.

  1. Long content and landing pages are one example. Whilst I personally have always been a fan of long content, and nice strong landing pages, there are several strong examples on Google’s Page 1 which seem to defy this.

These websites, some with limited content (but a strong backlink profile) and others just including a ‘how it works’ page and some strong FAQs on their homepages, have managed to maintain their top spots. This might suggest backlinks are stronger than content in this market.

  1. Another faux pas is having multiple pages on a payday website. It could be assumed that having pages dedicated to each product, service and question would help the consumer journey, the sites that have multiple pages have declined and been penalized in 2021. This suggests companies should approach their website through the lens of having one, focused page which discusses different locations on said.

 Where do links fall into this algorithm?

 Links are always so vital for SEO, and Tudor Lodge’s studies show that acquiring links is likely to make a company’s website rank quicker in in the payday market, than adding more content would.

The role of PBNs is still evident with SEO professionals buying links and this is having a positive correlation on rankings, unless hit with a penalty. Some of the best ranking sites can leverage links from ‘gov.uk’ and ‘.edu’ by offering sponsorships and associating with good causes.

 Long SEO articles on third party sites

 Finally, there has been a surge in the US of companies who are ranking third party articles, rather than individual sites.

The SEO professional is writing very long and detailed pieces about payday loans and including lots of relevant keywords such as “no credit check” and “bad credit” – then listing their 4 or 5 favourite sites or clients in the text to generate leads.

Using third party sites, often regional or state press sites with domain authorities of 80 or higher, ensures these articles rank well and gains instant exposure via Google News. This technique is often underrated by the industry but has gained a lot of visibility in recent years.

It is innovative and well executed and essentially just SEO by any other name.




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Google Page Experience Update Metrics Can Be Split Into Sections Of Your Site

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When it comes to the Google page experience update and its metrics, Google may in some cases split up the scores/metrics it has into different sections of your site. It might go by template type, like all category pages, all product pages or it might go by internal linking structure for sections of the site.

John Mueller of Google explained this at the 10:25 mark in the last video hangout (not that this is 100% new). He explained when Google has enough data on your site, then it might be able to break out this update based on the sections of the site. He said “depending on how much data we have for a website, we might split it up into different sections.”

The sections are determined by “understanding which pages across a website are essentially similar,” John explained. Sections can be by “type of template” or something similar, the example he gave was “for an e-commerce site all of the product pages are really fast and maybe we have enough data to look at the product pages separately, then we can kind of have that group of pages kind of treated on its own.”

So not all sections may be scored the same across the same Core Web Vitals and page experience update of your pages.

Here is the video embed where he said this:

Transcript:

The other thing is with the page experience update, depending on how much data we have for a website, we might split it up into different sections. And we try to do that by understanding which pages across a website are essentially similar. And that can be kind of like by type of template or something like that. Which means if we can see that all of, I don’t know, like say for an e-commerce site all of the product pages are really fast and maybe we have enough data to look at the product pages separately, then we can kind of have that group of pages kind of treated on its own. And if there’s a different kind of page across the site that has enough data that is kind of slow, then we’ll say well this kind of page is more slow.

So that’s kind of the the second part there in that if you have a a kind of page that is very slow and we can have we have enough data for that kind of page to understand well this is just that part of the website, then just that part will be affected by the Core Web Vitals and the page experience update.

Forum discussion at YouTube Community.

Vlog #163: David Melamed About The Earlier Days Of Search Marketing & The Immense Sharing In The Industry

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David Melamed

David Melamed, who I’ve known for about 15 years or so, has been in the space for about that long or even longer. David Melamed is now a search marketing consultant for many companies. You can learn more about him on his website at davidmelamed.com. David and I worked on some projects together early on and we were discussing some new projects, since he was in town and I convinced him to do a vlog with me. The batteries on one of the cameras died, so we ended talking at some point, otherwise we probably would have gone on for hours and hours.

We spoke about how David entered the search marketing space, first leveraging Metacrawler, one of the early search engines from 1995. We spoke about some of the early SEO conferences, SES and where we met. I checked my emails after we spoke and I think we first emailed back in 2008 or so but we probably met in 2007 at the conference.

David said search was his first love and his dream was to do marketing, specifically Super Bowl commercials. He grew up without a TV (sounds horrible to me) but he says that kind of fueled his desire to do marketing. Between that and his dad being a programmer, he really dived right into search marketing.

He sees every marketing problem through the lens of search, the intent level is a layer on the world he said.

We then spoke about some of his work history in search marketing space. This includes how he interviewed for his first SEO job and he was rejected. But he begged them to reinterview him, he learned SEO in a couple weeks through Aaron Wall’s SEO Book, so he credits Aaron Wall for his success in this space. David explained that it is hard to know who to trust in search marketing and he said he often feels like he personally does not know enough himself.

We spoke also about how the SEM industry is one of the most sharing industry, he believes because we all wanted links, so we shared as much as possible just to get links. He said he loved the old Stuntdubl blog from Todd Malicoat – but it is not updated as much.

And this continues to be important, write great stuff that people want to link to and Google will rank it well.

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.

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Turbulence, SafeSearch Classification Is Faster, Plus More SEO & PPC Topics

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On March 4th we had more Google search turbulence, a possible Google search ranking update around then. Google’s John Mueller said they sped up the SafeSearch filter classification process. The translated indexing issue we spoke about last week was from the Google Cloud team, ironically. Google said indexing issues can be old spam related but likely not old adult content related. Google said it ignores widget links, so why bother. One SEO claims that content outside of hidden tabs will result in higher rankings, despite what Google says. Google posted on how they discover content within videos today. Google’s people also ask can be displayed two or more times on a search results page. Does having subdomains give you more of a shot at having more indented grouped results in Google Search. Google web stories tests the URL in the outer and instructions. Google’s Danny Sullivan corrected Andrew Yang and Ramesh Srinivasan on how search works. John Mueller gave a lesson to a novice SEO on links. Google Search Center’s virtual unconference registration opens March 17th and the event is March 23rd. Google Shopping has a filter to see only products from smaller stores. Google Ads is testing grayed out parts of URLs. Microsoft Advertising launched professional service ads and Microsoft Advertising Editor gained audience network support. Google Search also added Jewish Shabbat times to search. 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.

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:


For the original iTunes version, click here.

Search Topics of Discussion:

Please do subscribe on YouTube or subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don’t forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 11, 2022

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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 explained how they understand content in a video in a podcast with a bunch of Googlers. Google continues to test “things to know” in the search results. Google launched vehicle ads to all US based advertisers. I spotted search ads that say “no products found” – how is that for an ad. Google can show the Buddhist calendar in the news results, if that is your default for your calendar. And I posted the weekly search video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

  • Google’s Danielle Marshak On How Google Understands Videos
    In the latests Search Off the Record, Gary Illyes and Lizzi Sassman from the Google Search Central team had Danielle Marshak, a Google Search Product Manager for Videos, as a guest on the podcast. Danielle Marshak, who created a couple new SEO video help resources recently, spoke about how Google understands the content in videos.
  • Google Tests Things To Know In Search Results More Often
    Google seems to be testing displaying the Things To Know section in the Google search results more often. We first heard about Things To Know back in September at the Search On Google event and then a few weeks later we saw it being tested in the mobile results. Now more and more are seeing it in the desktop search results.
  • Google: Vehicle Ads Now Available To All US Advertisers
    Google announced that the vehicle ads are now available to all US advertisers. Vehicle ads are a performance-focused, lower funnel ad format which allows auto advertisers to promote their entire inventory of vehicles to interested customers shopping for vehicles on Google.
  • Google Search Ads: No Products Found
    Here is a weird Google issue where Google is showing a Google Ad slot in the search results that ends up leading to an error that reads “no products found.” It shows a person looking under a curtain for something, which is weird.
  • Google Shows Buddhist Calendar Year For News Stories
    Here is a screenshot of Google News on mobile showing a date that is not the Gregorian date but rather the Buddhist calendar date and year. I assume this is being pulled from some sort of setting override on the phone or in Google Search settings.
  • Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Turbulence, SafeSearch Classification Is Faster, Plus More SEO & PPC Topics
    On March 4th we had more Google search turbulence, a possible Google search ranking update around then. Google’s John Mueller said they sped up the SafeSearch filter classification process. The translated indexing issue we spoke about last week was from the Google Cloud team…
  • Google Spirole Umbrella Office Design
    Back when Google was accepting pitches for the new Charleston campus in Mountain View, California, one pitch was for a Spirole building. This would have been a building in the form of three kinetic u

Other Great Search Threads:

  • If you have the other section verified too, it’ll work as well. Similarly if you submit with robots.txt (where you show you control the whole host). The idea is a sitemap wouldn’t use URLs that are ou, John Mueller on Twitter
  • If you mean a site removal, that would include everything under the part you’re submitting. Also, it just hides it in search, it doesn’t remove it from the index, so it’s quick & easy to cancel a reque, John Mueller on Twitter
  • With that, I think also comes a shift with consultants (SEOs!): Some will focus more on platforms, some more on self-hosting. “Self-hosting-consulting” will be by far more complex,, John Mueller on Twitter
  • Just because something’s associated with links doesn’t mean it has anything to do with SEO :-). “rel=noopener” and “rel=noreferrer” are used, like you mentioned, purely for no, 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.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 10, 2022

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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.

Stop taking short cuts, John Mueller of Google gives a harsh lesson to one such SEO looking to do just that. Google ignores widget links, Google will unlikely penalize for them. Google Search Console verify fix can work without you fixing anything. Google Shopping added colorful checkout cart icons. Google Web Stories is testing the domain in the footer and web story tips.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

  • John Mueller Gives A Hard Lesson To An SEO On Google Ranking & Spam
    John Mueller of Google responded to a complaint on Reddit where the SEO or site owner was upset his one month old site was not performing on Google Search. The SEO said despite him “created backlinks on top websites with good DA and low spam score” his site is just not showing up.
  • Google: We Mostly Just Ignore Widget Links And Not Penalize For Them
    As you know, Google has a webmaster guideline against widget links, despite what some SEOs want to tell themselves. But the good news, and we knew this, that Google will likely just ignore those links and not penalize your site for those links today.
  • When Google Search Console Verify Fix Works Without Fixing Anything
    Did you ever get an email from Google Search Console that asks you to take an action to fix an issue and then click the “verify fix” button? Well, did you ever just click that you fixed the issue, without actually implementing any fixes or changes?
  • Google Shopping Add To Cart Icon In Googley Colors
    In the Google Shopping search results, if you can check out with Google, Google will add a Google-colored shopping cart icon to the search results that support checkout with Google. I don’t know if the icon is new, looking back at my old posts, they just read “add to cart” but this can be old, I am not 100% sure.
  • Google Web Stories Test URL In Footer & Tips
    Google seems to be testing displaying the domain the web story is from, while on the web story, in the footer of the story. Also, Google also shows tips on how to interact with web stories when you first load a web story from Google Search.
  • Bag Of Google Jelly Beans
    Here is a photo from several years ago, of a Google branded bag of jelly beans. Yep, that simple, Google jelly beans. I found this on Instagram a while ago and yes, I am digging through the archives

Other Great Search Threads:

  • As a reminder: starting June 30, 2022, you’ll no longer be able to create or edit expanded text ads. (Existing expanded text ads will still serve.) Get tips and resources to help you prepare for this change, Google Ads on Twitter
  • Devs and SEOs have a lot to learn from each other. Watch @JohnMu and @ruthmesfun discuss: 💡 Why interactions between SEO and Devs matter 💡 Why seeing results matters to Devs 💡 The impact of a SEO-Dev liason, Google Search Central on Twitter
  • Google has added “Word Coach Button” – shortcut key for android , l have added before (click on dec 21) and after (latest – round in color red) snap for ref – by click the button you get given word coach shortcut in your, Khushal Bherwani on Twitter
  • Teaming up with the brilliant @SEOJoBlogs – we’re going to host an #SEO event – with all money raised going to the @ifrc, helping those impacted by the horrendous events in Ukraine, Andrew ‘Optimisey’ on Twitter
  • Web Perf folks: Yesterday the CrUX report was updated to include bigquery support for the new responsiveness metric. The linked blog post outlines some decisions we made about the metric. But it’s experimental because we w, Annie Sullivan on Twitter
  • When pages drop out randomly, it can sure cause issues. And the URL Inspection API wouldn’t help there, since it says it’s indexed, but it’s not showing via a site query or when you search for the article. I’m sure it will pop, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
  • This is wild! Google is pairing up products with products mentioned in YouTube videos. Instead of clicking the YouTube video title link, click the thumbnail to watch in the SERP. Then you’ll see G displays the product, Brian Freiesleben on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Feedback:

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