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 has no estimate for when the November 2023 core and reviews updates will be completed. Google emailed Google Ads advertisers right before Thanksgiving that their ad accounts were suspended and their ads were not running, it was a bug, Google apologized on Friday morning. Google Merchant Center may automatically create promotions based on your website content. Google is testing new flight price rich results. Google is testing shading and coloring favicons. Google dropped the robots FAQ documentation. Google had a Thanksgiving Doodle. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google: No Estimate For Completion Of November Core & Reviews Updates
Many of you are wondering when the Google November 2023 core update and Google November 2023 reviews update will be completed. Normally these updates finish about two weeks after they start but now the core update is 22 days since it started and the reviews update is now 16 days since it rolled out. - Google Ads Bug Sends Notice To Some Advertisers That Their Ad Accounts Were Suspended
Right before the Thanksgiving holiday season and right before the big holiday shopping season, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Google Ads sent emails to some advertisers telling them their ads are no longer running and their accounts were suspended. This was a technical issue, a bug, with the Google Ads system and Google said they can be ignored. - Google Merchant Center Automatically Creating Promotions Based On Your Site
Google Merchant Center has been automatically creating and applying promotions to some of your products over the Black Friday holiday season. The truth is, Google has been doing this for some time, but more are noticing this now because there are a lot of discounts going around this season. - Google Tests New Flight Prices Rich Result?
Google may be testing a new type of rich result for flight prices. This test shows a section under the flight search snippet that contains the dates, trip details and price. - Google Tests Shading Colors Of Favicons - Altering Your Official Favicon
Google is testing shading and adding color and depth to favicons that they display in the search result snippets. This was spotted some time ago but it seems to be more broadly being tested now, including the shading experiment. - Google Removed The Robots FAQs Document
Earlier this week, Google removed its Robots.txt FAQ help document from its search developer documentation. When asked, John Mueller from Google replied to Alexis Rylko saying, "We update the documentation from time to time. Feel free to submit feedback if you feel something's missing. Robots.txt is definitely still a thing." - Mock Alligators At SEO Conference
There have been a number of conferences in the SEO space since the Verge's piece came out and of course, SEOs are brining alligator props to various conferences. Kelvin Newman even dressed up as one a - Happy Thanksgiving: Google's History of Thanksgiving Doodle
Happy Thanksgiving everyone and to celebrate the holiday, I will not be posting news today. Don't worry, a lot of news will be posted tomorrow, including the weekly SEO video recap (subscribe!). - Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Core & Reviews Update Not Done, Google Simple Search, Date Issues, Follower Counts & More
This week was much slower than the previous weeks, and yes, the core and reviews updates are not yet completed...
Other Great Search Threads:
- Did you remember I mentioned there was a bug in Google Search, that it was misclassifying pages with _video_ in the URL in the video pack? Well, it looks to be fixed!, Gaston Riera. on X
- SERP Feature Update: the 'Short Videos' grid that appears on mobile (featuring social media videos) has now decreased in Search. Going from showing for ~6% of queries down to ~2%. I guess Google decided it wasn't as useful as they, Brodie Clark on X
- :-) 12ish, Mikhail Parakhin on X
- Oh what fresh hell will Google bring today. Account suspended for unpaid balance. Balance = $0.00, Anthony Higman on X
- Sampling has now been introduced into GA4 standard reports. Previously, all standard reports were fully unsampled. This is no longer always the case., Charles Farina on X
- There were a LOT of changes to the names of Google Business Profile categories in the last 2 months. These aren't new categories, they're just called something different now. This picture shows a few. I'll reply with a link to the full list., Joy Hawkins on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Best of the Bot: Create a Facebook post promoting Black Friday deals
- Google’s 2023 Search quality rater guidelines update: Here’s what changed
- Snapchat is testing an ad-free subscription
- Sam Altman returns to OpenAI as CEO ‘in principle’
- YouTube is deliberately ‘suboptimal’ for people using ad blockers
- Google Ads investigating issue impacting AdMob
- AI content creation: A beginner’s guide
- Local SEO for new physical locations
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- How to track backlinks for free with Google Sheets and GA4, Wix SEO Hub
- 21 Best Web Analytics Tools Recommended by Experts, Measure Minds Group
- Data to Dollars: Ecommerce Analytics with Google Analytics 4, Semrush
Industry & Business
- Apple employees most likely to leave to join Google shows LinkedIn, 9t
- How Effective Altruism Split Silicon Valley—and Fueled the Blowup at OpenAI, Wall Street Journal
- How Google's data centers help Europe meet its sustainability goals, Google Blog
- OpenAI Made an AI Breakthrough Before Altman Firing, Stoking Excitement and Concern, The Information
- Reflecting on 18 years at Google, Hixie's Natural Log
Links & Content Marketing
- 7 Strategies for Creating Epic Content That Converts, Semrush
- Diversify Your Brand Publication: Why and How to Get Started, BrightLocal
- B2B Influencer Marketing Best Practices - New Data!, Online Marketing Blog
- Content Ideation: 8 Ways to Generate Infinite Blog Post Ideas, Ahrefs
Local & Maps
- How Google Maps protects against fake content, Google Blog
- Ex-Googler Reacts to Google Maps' New Design, Business Insider
- Google Maps takes travelers on a shortcut home that instead strands them in Nevada desert, NY Post
- Microsoft's Bing search engine claims Australia doesn't exist, TechSpot
- 3 Steps to Move Your Service Area Business Google Business Profile Without Destroying Your Ranking, Sterling Sky Inc
Mobile & Voice
- Google officially launches redesigned Play Console app for Android, 9to5Google
- Assistant Quick Phrases also work on Pixel Buds Pro, 9to5Google
- Google to let you use ‘Classic Assistant’ without Bard in the future, Android Police
SEO
- Build Your Keyword Tool with Python and ChatGPT: A Subreddit Insights Guide, Moz
- Guaranteed SEO Services: Why You Shouldn‘t Trust Them, Semrush
- Mordy Oberstein, of Wix, on the past and future of SEO, eMarketing Association
- SEO for Lawyers: Your Top 16 SEO Questions, Answered, JDSupra
- What Are Google’s Top Ranking Factors?, BruceClay
- 3 New Metrics for Today's SEO, Practical Ecommerce
- How natural language process can transform publisher SEO, pres
- Latest Google updates have had major impact on news publishers, Press Gazette
- Ethical SEO Strategies: Driving Organic Traffic the Right Way, Semrush
PPC
- 13 Display Ad Best Practices for Visibility & Performance, Semrush
- How to Tell if Temu is Spending More in Google Ads for Black Friday 2023, ZATO Marketing
- Google Performance Max: Everything You Need To Know, Search Engine Journal
- How to Find Related Keywords? Step by Step, PPC Expo
Search Features
- How to create Google News alerts, Android Police
Other Search
- Google's latest Read Aloud update hamstrings its best feature, andr
- 11 Best AI Assistants for Marketers, Semrush
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