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 says it has taken some action on Parasite SEO. Google said you can ignore link spam especially to 404 pages. Mikhail Parakhin finally broke his silence Mustafa Suleyman. Crawl budget goes across all of Googlebot user agents. Google Business Profiles has a new menu source option. I am offline Tuesday and Wednesday for Passover, so this was pre-written and scheduled.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
Google: Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
I am not sure how many times Google has said that you do not need to disavow spammy links, that you can ignore link spam attacks and that links pointing to pages that 404/410 are links that do not count – but John Mueller from Google said it again.
Google: We Have Taken Action On Some Parasite SEO In Recent Update
Gary Illyes from Google said on stage at the SERP conference last week that Google has taken steps to combat what some of us call parasite SEO in the most recent Google algorithm update. He was quoted as saying, “We have already done stuff against Parasite SEO; the recent update is the proof.”
Mikhail Parakhin Breaks Silence On Mustafa Suleyman Of Microsoft (Kinda…)
As you may remember, Mustafa Suleyman became the CEO of AI at Microsoft and then shortly after we heard that Mikhail Parakhin stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising. Since then, Mikhail Parakhin has been very quiet on X, but he did post one response this week on Mustafa Suleyman.
Google: Crawl Budget Goes Across All Googlebot Crawling, Not Just Web Search
When it comes to crawl budget and Google not crawling your site too much or too little, Google takes into account all Googlebot activity across all verticals. So that includes crawling for web search, Merchant Center, ads, and all the various crawling activities.
Google Business Profiles Gains Select Preferred Menu Source
Google Business Profiles now lets you select your preferred menu source. You have three options for your restaurant: create or copy a menu, copy from a website, or pick a third-party platform to take the menu from.
Google Branded Crowd Control Posts
Here is an old photo from outside of the Google office in Paris of Google branded crowd control posts and a welcome sign. Nothing like Google trying to control crowds…
Programming Note: Offline For Passover
This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the Passover holiday. Passover is on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 23rd and 24th and then again the following week on April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live.
Other Great Search Threads:
A lot of people in the niche site community don’t seem to realize that social media sites also run on algorithms… Those algo’s can often be even more volatile than Google’s and shadow banning is a real thing, especially if, Charles Floate on X
Correct, QS is also not used in the auction. I address your question in this article as well: Quality Score reflects some of the values in Ad Rank, which determines whether your ad is eligible to show and where y, AdsLiaison on X
Good Morning Google Land! This is the April 22 edition of "Core Update Notes". When I started these quick morning updates, I never thought it would go this long. Please make it stop. 🙂 Let’s start with HCU(X) sites. I checked the visibi, Glenn Gabe on X
Happy Earth Day! Today’s #GoogleDoodle features aerial photos of the planet’s natural beauty and biodiversity and reminds us of the importance of protecting it for future generation, Google Doodles on X
I am looking for the most common complaints SEOs have about GA4. If you have others not listed in the poll, please share!, Lily Ray on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Structure, consume, learn and retire: Google’s pattern of learning
How to fix a huge traffic drop after rebranding
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Analyze The Performance of Any Metric or KPI With Metric Insights, Databox Blog
Industry & Business
Google all at sea over rising tide of robo-spam, The Register
Google scraps minimum wage, benefits rules for suppliers and staffing firms, Reuters
Google shifts culture, CEO notes ‘this is a business’, CNBC
Links & Content Marketing
47 Best Content Marketing Tools to Level Up Your Content Game, 99 Signals
7 Content Marketing Conferences to Attend in 2024, Ahrefs
Crafting content marketing magic, NZBusiness Magazine
Local & Maps
Android Auto’s Google Maps app gets some icon redesigns, 9to5Google
Google Maps to show most fuel-efficient route and may prompt Australians to try greener alternatives, The Guardian
Hidden code reveals new satellite feature for Android version of Google Maps, PhoneArena
Mobile & Voice
‘The party is over for developers looking for AI freebies’ — Google terminates Gemini API free access within months amidst rumors that it could charge for AI search queries, TechRadar
Apple buys French firm to help get iPhone AI on-device, AppleInsider
Apple HomePod leak suggests a full touchscreen display model is coming, but all I want is next-gen Siri, TechRadar
Gemini assistant could finally support music services like Spotify and others, Android Authority
SEO
Extending Your Schema Markup From Rich Results To A Knowledge Graph, Search Engine Journal
Google’s SGE: Insights from the SEOFOMO Meetup NYC, Wix SEO Hub
The Impact of the EU Digital Markets Act on SEO, seoClarity
How Product Recommendations Broke Google, NY Mag
PPC
You Can No Longer Remove Yourself From Google Merchant Center, FeedArmy
Other Search
Guide: What Is Ernie And How To Use It (4 Steps), Dataconomy
Feedback:
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Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
