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Programming Note: Offline For Last Days Of Passover 5784
This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the last days of the Passover holiday. The last days of Passover are on Monday and Tuesday, April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live. I will be completely offline, so any social media posts, tweets, anything coming from this site or my social channels are all scheduled beforehand. I won't be able to reply to comments, remove spam or break any stories on those days. I will catch up when I get back online. Feel free to check out the archives or catch up with the weekly videos or just browse the search pics...
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 26, 2024
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 Publisher Center removes the ability to add publications manually. Google is testing placing the snippet date next to the URL. Google now shows IP ranges for user-triggered fetchers. Google Ads has a new warning for low keyword quality. Google and Microsoft impress with earnings reports. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap. Also...
Alphabet Google Ad Revenue Up 13% & Microsoft Bing Ads Revenue Up 12%
Google and Microsoft both reported very good earnings, driving both stock prices up after hours. I like to dive into the ad revenue side, and it looks like Google Ad revenue was up 13% from last year and Microsoft Advertising revenue was up 12% from last year.
Google March 2024 Core Update Finished April 19, 2024
The Google March 2024 core update finished a week ago and Google did not tell us until today. It finished officially on April 19, 2024, and took 45 days to roll out after starting on March 5, 2024. Google also said this helped reduce low-quality and unoriginal content in search results by 45%, which is up from their estimate of 40%.
Video: Google Core Update Updates, Site Reputation Abuse Coming, Links, Ads & More
Google’s core update is still rolling out over 7 weeks later and yes we are seeing more fluctuations and chatter. Forbes blocked its coupon directory in preparation for the Google site reputation abuse policy. Google said splitting and merging sites takes longer than normal site migrations. Google won’t change 301 redirect signals for SEO. Google said they need very few links for rankings. Google said you can ignore link spam. Google said its link best practices document is still good. Google Publisher Center won’t allow you to add publications anymore. Google is testing discussion and forum questions with embedded answers...
Google Says Splitting & Merging Sites Takes Longer Than Normal Site Migrations
Want to scare an SEO? Just tell them they need to manage a site migration. Want to make an SEO faint? Tell them they need to manage to split a site into two or more sites while merging content on those sites. John Mueller from Google said it takes Google longer to process site splits and merges than normal site migrations.
How Prabhakar Raghavan Killed Google Search; Report
Ed Zitron wrote a piece named The Man Who Killed Google Search. It goes through in detail how Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's former head of ads - led a coup so that he could run Google Search, and how an email chain from 2019 began a cascade of events that would lead to him running it into the ground, he said.
Google March Core Update Still Rolling Out & Heated Fluctuations Continue
Over the past few days, while I was offline, the SEO chatter around the Google search ranking volatility continued to be super heated. The Google tracking tools seemed to calm down a bit, but the chatter is still very heated. This is all while the Google March 2024 core update is still rolling out 51 days later.
Bing Testing Lock Icon In New Search Snippet Location
Microsoft is testing moving the lock icon in the Bing Search results snippets from the left of the URL to the right of the URL. Well, most of the time you don't even see a lock but when Bing is testing it, Bing has been testing different lock locations.
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 24, 2024
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 change how it uses a 301 redirect signal. Google says its link best practice are still good guidelines. Google Ads is testing "established in" extensions. Google is testing a tablet design for image search. Bing is testing a new lock icon. I am offline Tuesday and Wednesday for Passover...
Google Says Its Link Best Practices Guidelines Are Still Good Guidelines
Google's John Mueller said the link best practices SEO documentation on its website are still "good guidelines" for both SEO and overall "accessibility & UX reasons." The guidelines are only about 14 months old, so they are recent.
Google Again Says Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
I am not sure how many times Google has said that you do not need to disavow spammy links, that you can ignore link spam attacks and that links pointing to pages that 404/410 are links that do not count - but John Mueller from Google said it again.
Crawl Budget Goes Across All Googlebot Crawling, Not Just Google Web Search
When it comes to crawl budget and Google not crawling your site too much or too little, Google takes into account all Googlebot activity across all verticals. So that includes crawling for web search, Merchant Center, ads, and all the various crawling activities.
Microsoft: Mikhail Parakhin Breaks Silence On Mustafa Suleyman
As you may remember, Mustafa Suleyman became the CEO of AI at Microsoft and then shortly after we heard that Mikhail Parakhin stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising. Since then, Mikhail Parakhin has been very quiet on X, but he did post one response this week on Mustafa Suleyman.
Google Says It Has Taken Action On Some Parasite SEO In Recent Update
Gary Illyes from Google said on stage at the SERP conference last week that Google has taken steps to combat what some of us call parasite SEO in the most recent Google algorithm update. He was quoted as saying, "We have already done stuff against Parasite SEO; the recent update is the proof."
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 23, 2024
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 says it has taken some action on Parasite SEO. Google said you can ignore link spam especially to 404 pages. Mikhail Parakhin finally broke his silence Mustafa Suleyman. Crawl budget goes across all of Googlebot user agents. Google Business Profiles has a new menu source option. I am offline Tuesday and Wednesday for Passover...
Programming Note: Offline For Passover 5784
This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the Passover holiday. Passover is on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 23rd and 24th and then again the following week on April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live. I will be completely offline, so any social media posts, tweets, anything coming from this site or my social channels are all scheduled beforehand. I won't be able to reply to comments, remove spam or break any stories on those days. I will catch up when I get back online. Feel free to check out the archives or catch up with the weekly videos or just browse the search pics...
Forbes Blocks Its Coupon Directory From Google Before The Site Reputation Abuse Penalty
Forbes has blocked its coupons section of its web site at forbes.com/coupons using an x-robots-tag: noindex directive prior to Google enforcing the upcoming site reputation abuse policy. As a reminder, Google will enforce that new policy on May 5th both algorithmically and through manual actions.
Google Needs Very Few Links To Rank Pages; Links Are Less Important
Gary Illyes from Google spoke at the SERP Conf on Friday and he said what he said numerous times before, that Google values links a lot less today than it did in the past. He added that Google Search "needs very few links to rank pages."
Google Business Profiles Posts Button In Search Panel
Google is testing showing a "Post" button in the carousel of buttons in the Google Business Profile local listing panel. So when you view your owned business in Google Search, you may see a "Post" button near the call, directions, share, and save. There is also an "Edit" button there.
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 22, 2024
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 again says very few links are needed to rank webpages and links are a lot less important now. Google is testing answers in the discussions and forums section. Forbes blocked its coupons directory before Google releases its site reputation abuse policy. Google Business Profiles has a posts button. Google is showing 16 shopping ads for one query. Also, I am offline Tuesday and Wednesday for Passover...
Google Says Indexing API May Work For Unsupported Content But...
Gary Illyes from Google said in the recent Google SEO office hours the Google Indexing API may work for unsupported content formats, but that you shouldn't be "surprised if suddenly it stopped working for unsupported verticals overnight."
Google Says It's Unlikely Your Rankings Dropped Because You Have Two Websites
Google was asked if having two websites and Google finding out about them would cause the websites to drop in rankings. John Mueller from Google said that is "not likely," adding that many people have several websites and that is fine.
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 19, 2024
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 is testing more ad formats for its search ads. BingBot is testing new compression methods. Google said it is unlikely your rankings would drop just because you have two or more sites. Google says the indexing API might work for unsupported formats. Google said hyphenated domains are not bad by themselves. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap...