Daily Search Forum Recap: March 9, 2021

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:

Google’s New Free Hotel Listings Option
Google has announced that it is now offering a free version of its hotel listings, this is now in addition to the paid option. This is very much like how Google made Google Shopping free last year. Google wrote “we’re improving this experience by making it free for hotels and travel companies around the world to appear in hotel booking links, beginning this week on google.com/travel.”
Google: When Unindexing Pages From Search Use Noindex, Not Robots.txt
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that when you want to “unindex,” remove indexed pages from Google Search, you should not block Google with robots.txt, but rather use noindex. He said only unindex pages when if you don’t care if the page doesn’t rank but if you want it to rank, then improve the page.
Google Search Does Not Use Blockchain (For Timestamps)
Google’s John Mueller asked if it would help if a site timestamped its content and pages using blockchain. John responded “Google doesn’t use that.” In short, he said Google does not use blockchain for search.
When Losing A Google Featured Snippet Hurts
A couple of weeks ago we reported a steep dive in the number of featured snippets Google showed in its search results. Those numbers have not improved and not it is settling in that this may be the new norm – for now. Glenn Gabe shared some examples of sites that lost featured snippets on Twitter.

Google PageSpeed Insights Now Supports HTTP/2 – Scores Might Go Up
Google announced that its PageSpeed Insights tool as of March 3, 2021 uses http/2 to make network requests, that is if the server supports it. If your site is on HTPT/2, you may see your PageSpeed Insights scores go up as a result. No, your rankings won’t go up as a result but just a heads up.

Sweet View From Google San Francisco Office
Here is an old photo (again, Google offices are really not busy these days) from the rooftop of the Google San Francisco Office. You get a view of the Oakland / San Francisco bridge and the bay.

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

It kinda sounds like you want Google to make it harder to do SEO? Or just more real UGC? (Let’s ignore that Reddit is gamed immensely by SEOs too :-)), John Mueller on Twitter
Brave Search Coming to Privacy-Preserving Brave Browser, WebmasterWorld
If it’s already moved over, it’s already doing its thing :). The rel-alternate / rel-canonical connection is useful to recognize both sides, even with MFI. For m-dot sites, I’d try to get that set up. If you hav, John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Google Hotel results opens up to free listings
How agencies use call tracking to become indispensable to clients
How targeted advertising is impacted under Virginia’s CDPA
Let’s give ‘em something to FLoC about; Monday’s daily brief
Google brings Full Coverage news to search results
Your customer is calling: Increase your revenue with call tracking

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