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's product reviews update is only for English language pages, it is not currently for other languages but that might change in the future. Google Business Profiles now has a way to mark products as special so they show up at the top. Google Ads has a weird but useful "past violations" status for some of your ads. SEOs mostly did not work over the Christmas holiday break but many did. Microsoft Bing has a Santa easter egg hat in the search results.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Product Reviews Update Likely Will Expand To Other Languages
Google's April 2021 and December 2021 product reviews update only targeted English language content. But John Mueller of Google said he suspects it will roll out to other languages in the future. He actually thought it did already but no, it did not. - Google Business Profile Products "Mark As Special" For Top Placement
Google Business Profiles (formerly Google My Business) seems to have added or is testing adding a new check box for products. There is an option named "mark as special" that will show that product at the top of the page in Google Search. - Google Ads Past Violations Can Limit Your Ads
Shaun Elley posted a screenshot of one of his ads in Google Ads showing a status of "eligible (limited) policy (past violation)." This seems to mean that an ad you once had was disapproved because of a past violation but now that ad is not longer disapproved because Google later decided to no longer disapprove such types of ads. - Poll Results: Did SEOs Work Over The Christmas Holiday Break?
With all the changes and updates Google made recently, I wondered if some SEOs felt they couldn't take off over the Christmas weekend holiday. Google gave us permission to take off but did you? It seems like most of you did based on this very unscientific and not statistically sound poll I did on Twitter. - Bing Search Santa Hat Video Play Button Easter Egg
If you go to Microsoft Bing and conduct a search that triggers a video preview box to show up, there may be a little holiday easter egg for you. A Santa hat on the play button of the video that wiggles when you hover your mouse cursor over the video. - Five Golden Bing Logos
Microsoft's Bing Dev team shared on Twitter these five golden Bings - the Bing logo in gold five times. Here is the tweet - if someone who gets it wants to explain, please do in the comments.
Other Great Search Threads:
- It appears that audiences created prior to September 2020 aren't able to switched. Might just be audiences applied to display campaigns. can anyone confirm? #ppcchat, Greg on Twitter
- Ummm, I think this should be new, I had never seen this before... Many new features are on their way...either tested or applied. cs: @rustybrick https://t.co/VTovFc2S8t, Jason adams on Twitter
- Error 500 message google search when I am logged into only my account, Google Search Community
- Google > Mobile > Featured Snippets Interesting: I am seeing a background color added to Featured Snippet images (images which are not full width) which might get blurry if stretched to SERPs width. And the color is chosen from t, Saad AK on Twitter
- Did selecting Google’s first search result for “NBA allstar voting” automatically vote for an all-Heat lineup?, Reddit
- Kinda lost with SEO - How would you proceed?, Reddit
- A client asked if competition in #GoogleShopping is rising. Indeed. They faced 3x more unique competitors at the ad group level in 2021 than 2019. An interesting client to review because they're a generalist selling ac, Mike Ryan on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
- Local SEO Statistics that Tell Our Industry’s Story, Moz
- Google Maps Keeps Relaunching on Android Auto, Don’t Try Any Extreme Workarounds, AutoEvolution
- Google Maps' bug prevents useful feature from working perfectly, PhoneArena
Mobile & Voice
SEO
- SEO Split Testing vs. Standard A/B Testing: What's the Difference?, SEO Clarity
- The Ultimate Guide to Redirects in Technical SEO, Onely Blog
- How To Fix “Crawled – Currently Not Indexed” in Google Search Console, Onely Blog
PPC
- What is the new default in Google ads?, PPC Hero
Other Search
Feedback:
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