Daily Search Forum Recap: June 13, 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 description overlays on local photos in the Google local pack. Microsoft Bing is testing black review stars. Google said we should not let Googlebot crawl action URLs. Google is testing larger fonts for the snippet title link and smaller fonts for the site links. Google updated GA4 attribution models to associate conversions better to paid search campaigns. Reminder, I am offline today and this newsletter was pre-written and scheduled.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Fixes GA4 Attribution Models To Better Associate Conversions To Paid Search
  Google posted a notice that it fixed an issue where Google Analytics, GA4, would sometimes not credit the proper conversion attribution to the paid search campaign. Google said it will update the "attribution models in GA4 over the next two weeks to improve the accuracy of conversion credit for paid search campaigns."
• Google Tests Larger Fonts For Main Snippet Title Link & Smaller Font For Sitelinks
  Google is testing a larger font size for the main search result title link, followed by smaller fonts for that same snippet's sitelinks. This was spotted a few days ago by both Umair Khan on X and Lily Ray on X.
• Google: Disallow Crawling Of Action URLs (Buy Now, Sign Up, etc)
  Google posted a public service announcement saying you should disallow Googlebot from crawling your action URLs. Gary Illyes from Google posted on LinkedIn, "You should really disallow crawling of your action URLs. Crawlers will not buy that organic non-GMO scented candle, nor do they care for a wishlist."
• Bing Tests Black Review Stars In Search Results
  Microsoft is testing using black-colored review stars in its Bing Search results. This is instead of the yellow or orange review stars. I am not sure why they are testing it in black, but they are.
• Google Local Pack Photos With Labels
  Google seems to be testing adding labels and descriptions on the photos within the local business profile listings. These are on both the carousel of images and on the detailed business profile page.
• I'm Feeling Lucky Notebooks At Google
  Here are some colorful notebooks that say "I'm Feeling Lucky" that were spotted at the GooglePlex, the Google office in Mountain View.
• Programming Note: Offline For Shavuot On Wednesday & Thursday
  This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the holiday of Shavout/Shavous, from Tuesday night, June 11th, through late Thursday night, June 13th - I return Friday, June 14th. Any stories published here will be scheduled, written beforehand, and not written during the holiday hours.

Other Great Search Threads:

• In case you're wondering, that test that @randfish had us do on the webinar with @iPullRank where a few hundred people searched "vietnamese restaurant seattle" and clicked on the Google Business profile for a specific business. This, Joy Hawkins on X
• Recently viewed artists that only you can see?, Mordy Oberstein on X
• Google > Mobile Google is again testing Price range Slider on SERPs., Saad AK on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• 13 SEO takeaways from Google’s Elizabeth Tucker at SMX Advanced
• Knowledge base SEO: A comprehensive guide
• 3 PPC KPIs to track and measure success
• Google Search now supports return policy markup at the organization-level
• Google Ad Manager updates give publishers more creative controls
• Google launches Google TV advertising network

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• Google Analytics Update To Improve Paid Search Attribution, Search Engine Journal

Industry & Business

• How Nvidia Could Help Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft Stocks Soar Even More, The Motley Fool
• Why Google is one of the big winners from Apple’s WWDC, MarketWatch

Links & Content Marketing

• Personalization vs. AI content: Finding the balance, The Drum
• Website Pages Don't Need to Explain What Something Is, Adam Riemer

Local & Maps

• Apple Gives Users Another Reason to Say "No" to Google Maps, AutoEvolution
• Google Maps 2.0: Google Develops "Smart" Alternative Route Feature to Avoid Traffic, AutoEvolution
• More on: How much is a cappuccino at the cafe near here?, SearchReSearch
• New features come to Apple services this fall, Apple

Mobile & Voice

• Can Apple Rescue the Vision Pro?, New York Times
• Will Apple Intelligence Features Boost iPhone Sales? It May Take Years, Bloomberg

SEO

• 70+ SEO Interview Questions and Answers for 2024, Simplilearn
• Is 2024 the year of Reddit for Google SEO?, SmartBrief

PPC

• Google, Meta, TikTok & others agree to improve age assurance for alcohol advertising, The Drum
• How To Make Sure Google's Automation Settings Aren’t Working Against You, Search Engine Journal

Other Search

• Bloomreach Offers an Unprecedented New Way to Maximize Ecommerce Search Revenue With the Launch of Loomi Search+, Business Wire
• First Came ‘Spam.’ Now, With A.I., We’ve Got ‘Slop’, New York Times
• Introducing Apple’s On-Device and Server Foundation Models, Apple Machine Learning Research
• Opinion | An interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook on the company’s new AI, Washington Post
• Yandex open-sources an LLM training tool that saves up to 20% of GPU resources, Yandex

Feedback:

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Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Shavout.