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 zero click Google study puts it only at 25%, not the whopping 65% figure from previous studies. Google and Microsoft both announced disappointing earnings, while ad revenue grew, for Google Ads it grew much slower. Google says link wheels are against its guidelines. Big is testing a full size search bar in the bottom right footer of the search results. And Google Ads has a shopping carousel at the top and bottom.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
New Zero Click Google Study Puts Zero Clicks At 25%, Not 65%
Marcus Tober at Semrush, a respected search marketing platform, published a new zero-click study that puts zero clicks across Google on average at 25% of all searches or 26% on desktop and 17% on mobile searches. No matter how you look at it, it is well under the Sparktoro study putting zero clicks on Google at 65%.
Google Ads Revenue Up Only 4.2% & Microsoft Bing Ads Revenues Up 16%
Both Google (Alphabet) and Microsoft (Bing) have announced earnings last night and both companies are down over 5% in pre-marketing trading after the news. Google’s ad revenue was up only 4.2%, while Microsoft’s search ad revenue, mostly from Bing, seemed to be up way more, at 16% – year over year.
Google: Link Wheels Are Against Google’s Guidelines & Are Link Schemes
Google’s John Mueller said that link wheels are against Google’s webmaster guidelines, I mean search essentials, because Google would consider them link schemes and thus spam.
Google Shopping Ads Overlay Carousel Testing Top & Bottom
Google is testing showing the overlay feature for its shopping ads, when you click the “view more” both at the top and the bottom. Here are GIFs showing how the overlay either pins itself to the top or pins itself to the bottom.
Bing Full Size Search Box In Bottom Right Of Search Results
Microsoft Bing is showing the search box in the bottom right corner, when you scroll down the search results page and your browser window is wide enough to fit it. Otherwise, Bing will show a floating magnifying glass to click on and activate your search box.
Samba Dancers At Google Ireland
Google Dublin, Ireland had some sort of event where they had Samba dancers come out and perform. Below are more photos I found on Instagram of this event.
Other Great Search Threads:
A sitemap does not force crawling, it’s a signal, and if we get useful information from it, we can use it appropriately., John Mueller on Twitter
I know you’re joking, but to be clear (I work for Google Search), no human being types that in after a quake happens. It’s all automated. I’m guessing a feed that we received might have had a typo in it — and, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
I’d ignore them. Google ignores them too., John Mueller on Twitter
I’d recommend sticking to our recommendations — we’ve compiled these over many years, and they’re known to be valid. Alt-attributes on images are a good practice regardless of SEO., John Mueller on Twitter
If anyone from the webspam team manually looked at them, they’d ignore them too. Manual actions are more about issues that our systems can’t handle on their own., John Mueller on Twitter
No, I don’t think that’s possible, sorry. (Also “indexing” not “indexation” :-)) What would you do with those metrics? I’m curious if there’s something important missing., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Microsoft FY23 Q1: LinkedIn up 17%, search and news revenue up 11%
Google FY22 Q3 earnings: YouTube earnings down, ad revenue up, advertisers pulling back?
Google search study: 25.6% of desktop, 17.3% of mobile are zero-click
Four new Apple Search Ad placement options
20221025 SEL Brief
Google Ads turns 22: A look back at the biggest changes and advances in search
Marketing leadership: The dangers of ego
Yelp has created a new attribute, Business Fund, and Resource Hub for veterans
Google Search Console mislabeled structured data errors as errors
You can’t grow as a marketer without curiosity – here’s why
Other Great Search Stories:
Industry & Business
Google hit with $113 million fine in India for anti-competitive practices with Play Store policies, TechCrunch
U.S. strikes deal with Google over search warrant data loss, Reuters
Google Agrees to Compliance Reforms in DOJ Settlement, Wall Street Journal
Google Enters Into Stipulated Agreement to Improve Legal Process Compliance Program, Department of Justice
Links & Content Marketing
29 Link Building Terms You Need to Know, The Upper Ranks
How 1 Content Director Leads 10 Growing B2B Publications, Content Marketing Institute
Stretch your marketing budget further with Content Strategy and Digital PR collaboration, Builtvisible
SERP’s Up | Are links everything SEOs make them out to be?, SERPs Up
Local & Maps
GBP Suspension and Reinstatement Chaos, BrightLocal
Android Auto not connecting outgoing call issue under investigation, PiunikaWeb
Looks Like the New 2023 Honda Accord Is Borrowing the CR-V’s Style, Adding Google Maps, The Drive
Woman shares clever travel hack using Google Maps, NZ Herald
Mobile & Voice
tvOS 16.2 adds feature where Siri will recognize your voice, iMore
SEO
4 Common XML sitemap Issues & How to Fix them, Rank Ranger
8 Things that SEO beginner guides miss, Oncrawl
Etsy SEO: An 8-Step Guide, Semrush
How Sustainable Is Your SEO Content Strategy?, SuccessWorks
How To Fix “Blocked by robots.txt” in Google Search Console, Onely
Was Google’s Recent Update About Indexing?, Onely
Why SEO localization is more effective than SEO website translations, Wix SEO Hub
5 Little-Known Rich Result Types in E-Commerce SEO, Brodie Clark Consulting
A Simple SEO Guide for Successful Event Marketing, Ahrefs
PPC
Data Driven Approach for Google Ads Testing to Boost Results, PPC Expo
How to Maximize Google Ads Results With a Low Budget, PPC Hero
Marketing in a recession, Hallam
New ad placements from Apple Search Ads now available on the App Store, Apple Developer
Adding New Google Merchant Center Countries Removes Other Countries, FeedArmy
Developers Complain About Gambling Ads Appearing in Their App Store Listings, MacRumors
Search Features
Open Images V7 – Now Featuring Point Labels, Google AI Blog
[beta] Free Shopping Listings On Google.com (Web Search Main Page), FeedArmy
Helpful Search tools for evaluating information online, Google Blog
The future of fighting misinformation in Asia-Pacific, Google Blog
Other Search
Google Chrome support for Windows 7, 8.1 to end next year, The Register
The 5 best ways to stay secure online with Chrome, Google Blog
Feedback:
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