In this week’s recap, I covered the unconfirmed Google update that seemed to impact product review sites but maybe more on January 26th. Yandex had a huge leak, and SEOs and marketers dug through the search engine’s source code. Google’s answer to ChatGPT might be Apprentice Bard using LAMDA Sundar Pichai of Google basically confirmed this. Google’s John Mueller blasted some links sellers. Google Search Console updated the video indexing report. Google said to try to nofollow site credit links in your footer. Google said spammy links from porn sites should not be a priority. Google said if you redesign your site, the rankings make go “nuts.” Google Search Console verification does not impact your rankings. Google said firewalls and CDNs are the biggest reason for why your site is blocking crawling. Google updated its canonicalization docs in a big way. Google said don’t use relative paths in your canonicals. I posted the big Google webmaster report for Friday. Microsoft Bing said the lastmod field in your sitemap file is critical. The new BingBot might go 100% today. Google Ads announcements and news seemed to have slowed since late last year. Google reported earnings that showed their ad revenue was down 3.6% year over year. Yahoo Search is really going to be making a comeback, I have more evidence. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Sponsored by BruceClay, who has been doing search marketing optimization since 1996 and also has an amazing SEO training platform.

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Search Topics of Discussion:
Unconfirmed Google Update Impacting Product Reviews Sites On Thursday, January 26th?
Yandex Search Ranking Factors Leaked & Revealed
Google Testing Apprentice Bard: Google’s Answer To OpenAI’s ChatGPT?
Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai Confirms New Chat Based Search Feature Coming Really Soon
Is This The Microsoft Bing ChatGPT Search Interface?
Google Blasts Agencies That Sell Links & Disavow Link Services
Google Search Console Video Indexing Report Gains Impressions & Sitemap Filters
Google: Nofollow Site Credit Links Footer Links If You Control Them
Google: Spammy Links From Porn Sites Are Not Something To Prioritize
Google: If You Redesign Your Site Your Rankings May Go Nuts
Google: Search Console Verification Does Not Impact Your Ranking
Google: Firewalls or CDNs Issues Are The Most Common Reason For Blocking Googlebot
Google Does Major Refresh Of The Canonicalization Help Documentation
Google: Don’t Use Relative Paths In Your rel-canonical
February 2023 Google Webmaster Report
Microsoft Bing: lastmod Tag In XML Sitemap File Is Critical
Is The New BingBot Now Fully Live Today For Microsoft Bing?
Google Ads News & Feature Announcements Dry Up
Google Ad Revenues Down 3.6% Year Over Year, Working On Cost Structure
Yahoo Working On Yahoo Search

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