Daily Search Forum Recap: February 21, 2020

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.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Video: Google Search & Local Updates, New Bing Webmaster Tools, EAT, BBB, Maps Spam & More
In this video I covered a small Google organic search update that was not confirmed by Google. I also covered a Google local search update that happened last Friday through Monday. Bing announced a new Bing Webmaster Tools…
Example Of How Google Communicates Search Issues Internally
We report issues to Google in many ways, but did you ever wonder how Google reports issues with search internally? Danny Sullivan from Google shared an example of how he documents the issue for internal reporting and…
Again, Google Does Not Use BBB Ratings As A Search Ranking Factor
In 2012, 2017 and 2018 Google said they do not use the BBB (Better Business Bureaus) rating of a business as part of its search ranking factors. Well, Google had to say it again, this time in 2020.

Google Local & Map Ads Purple Ad Label Again
Back in 2016 we reported that Google Maps ads can and do show a purple ad label next to the local listings that are ads. But that has changed over the years and now Google is once again testing…

Google’s John Mueller On Where To Start With Hreflang
John Mueller from Google posted a mindful and useful response on Reddit mostly around where to start with hreflang. He said “It’s easy to dig into endless pits of complexity with…

Google Maps Removed 4 Million Fake Business & 75 Million Local Reviews
Google announced this week that what it has done in 2019 to combat Google Maps spam and violations. Google removed 4 million fake business profiles from Google My Business in 2019.

Google Will Slow Crawling For 429/503 HTTP Status Codes But…
Gary Illyes from Google came on to Twitter for a brief moment to share a PSA about 429/503 HTTP status codes. He said while you probably know 429/503 HTTP status codes will slow GoogleBot’s crawling activity…

Google Winter Jacket?
Check out this winter jacket. The photo was taken on one of the balconies at the Google Chicago office. So I am assuming someone made a custom winter jacket that is Google…

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

1) sure, it still exists :). 2) robots.txt files are refreshed daily in most cases. Crawling depends on the URL and can be between minutes and several months., John Mueller on Twitter
Report: Google Plans on Moving UK Users Out of E.U. Data Protection, WebmasterWorld
Time to amp up your web knowledge!⚡️ In this session of Search Console Training, @danielwaisberg goes over… 🔎The benefits of @AMPhtml 🔎AMP implementation in Google Search 🔎Detecting and fixing issues with, Google Webmasters on Twitter
You could create great content. That’s not really new though, and you’d want to do that regardless of Bert., John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Google adds new image license metadata for licensable image label
A quick guide to understanding Google’s quality rater guidelines
How digital commerce marketing is reshaping search, marketplaces and social
E-commerce category pages outperform product detail pages in SERPs
Google: Spam less than 1% of Maps content

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