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.

A new Google local ranking study shows keywords in reviews does not improve local rankings in Google Search. Want to see a site that got hit hard by the Google spam update, we got one. Google is showing on-time delivery and order accuracy data in search listings. Google Search Console’s geographic setting is still available but it likely does not work. Google has new fall decorations for some search results. And a new vlog is out today, this one with Rick Mariano.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Keywords In Local Reviews Does Not Impact Google Local Rankings; Study Says
A new study from Sterling Sky shows that putting keywords in the local reviews on business listings does not help improve the local listings ranking in Google Search. The study said, “it does not improve rankings.”
This Scraper Site Got Hit Hard By The Google Spam Update
Mark Williams-Cook shared an example of a test site he was toying with that got hit super hard by the October 2022 Google spam update. He said the site was “scraped content mixed together answering PAAs (People Also Ask).”
Google Showing On Time Delivery & Order Accuracy Estimates In Search Ads
Google is showing the on-time delivery percentages and order accuracy percentages in some of the Google Ads search listings. This should not come as a surprise because Google Merchant Center has been offering e-commerce sites to pass along that data to them for some time now.

Google Search Console Geographic Target Setting Still Visibile But Doesn’t Work
On Friday, Michelle aka @Shelliweb, spotted that the Google Search Console geographic target setting feature was still visible under the legacy features. This is despite Google deprecating the feature months ago.
Google Tests Fall Decorations In Search Results
Google seems to be testing displaying some fall season decorations in the search results. So Google is adding these colored leaves to the background of some search features.
Vlog #195: Rick Mariano On Providing High Volume Digital Marketing Services At Low Cost

Rick Mariano is the Vice President of Digital at Hearst and he runs LocalEdge…

GooglePlex’s Parking Lot Complex Has A Pixelated Mosaic
Google seems to be building a new parking lot complex has this pixelate mosaic covering on the outside. I think this is new, I spotted a few posts about it on Instagram, here is one of those shots, he

Other Great Search Threads:

The Google cache is not a diagnostics tool., John Mueller on Twitter
October 2022 Google Search Observations, WebmasterWorld
All of the new tricks and treats in today’s #GoogleDoodle are ghastly good—in fact, it’s the stalk of the town See if you can keep your ghoul and avoid getting lost in the new corn maze game arena, Google Doodles on Twitter
Worried about many duplicate urls indexed, but blocked by robots.txt? Via @johnmu: If blocked, Google doesn’t know what’s on the page content-wise. If you have to dig for those via advanced site queries, then users typically w, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
If you have SEO / Search questions, please drop them into our new SEO office hours form at https://t.co/KeLoq7p10V — we’ll be using this as a basis for the next office hours episodes. Tha, John Mueller on Twitter
It’s up to you to convince users & search engines. Go for it, make something awesome., John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

13 essential SEO skills you need to succeed
4 digital marketing pain points SMBs face today
How to make the most of Performance Max this holiday shopping season

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

What Deadline? Google Analytics Pushes Back Universal Analytics Sunset, AdExchanger
What is Google Analytics?, Lifewire

Industry & Business

How Google Approaches Supplier Diversity, Harvard Business Review
Tech Boom Ends as Companies From Amazon to Meta Adjust to Turbulent Times, Wall Street Journal
Google acquires Twitter-backed AI avatar startup Alter for $100 million, TechCrunch
Google Case Before High Court Could Reshape Internet Economy, Wall Street Journal
Alphabet Stock Tumbles as Costs, Headcount Surge, Barron’s

Links & Content Marketing

The Key to Sales Enablement? Teach Your Storytellers Well, Content Marketing Institute

Local & Maps

Does the Text in a Google Review Affect Map Pack Rankings for Local Businesses?, Sterling Sky
Updates from Customers Spam in Google Business Profiles, Online Ownership

Mobile & Voice

How to enable Google Assistant quick phrases on your Pixel phone to save time, ZDNET
Malicious Mac and iOS apps could have listened in on Siri conversations, AppleInsider
Report: Google “doubles down” on Pixel hardware, cuts Google Assistant support, Ars Technica

SEO

‘Google is really nailing us’: Publishers re-shift commerce strategies after platform releases flurry of algorithm updates, Digiday
How To Fix “Excluded by noindex tag” in Google Search Console, Onely
October “SEO Office Hours”: A round-up of the latest SEO advice from Google, Lumar
Slashing Your SEO Budget, iPullRank
Keywords for SEO: What Are They and Why Are They Important?, I Love SEO
Mapping the Keywords to Your Website (for SEO), Chris Green
4 Tools for SEO Reporting to Demonstrate Impact, Majestic

PPC

3 tips to maximize budget efficiency across media, Google Blog
Amazon’s ad business earned $9.5B last quarter, here’s how it’s pitching itself to advertisers, Digiday
How to Build a Strategy for Sales Increase?, PPC Expo
How To Import Google Ads Campaigns Into Microsoft Advertising: Everything You Need to Know, Cypress North
Who killed the social media ad boom?, Financial Times
How Google’s Ad Business Funds Disinformation, ProPublica

Other Search

Google Issues Urgent Chrome Update to Patch Actively Exploited Zero-Day Vulnerability, The Hacker News
How we detect, remove and report child sexual abuse material, Google Blog
15 Best Affiliate Marketing Tools & How to Use Them, Ahrefs

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.