We hope you are in good health. Here are some of the major SEO news updates of the week you need to know:
Search Related Updates and News from Major Search Engines
Google’s New Local Search Features are Finally Available
Google’s creative local search upgrades were the talk of the town at its virtual Search On conference in September. Google is officially launching the local search features that were first shown earlier this year, including the capability to use the camera on your phone to search your surroundings. Google demonstrated a new search feature integrated into Google Maps’ Live View as well as an option to search for restaurants by dish. All of those updates are currently accessible.
Google Simplifies Purchasing Items From the Shopping Tab
Google is making it simpler for e-commerce sites to display their products in the shopping tab of the search results. Products can now be listed in the shopping area of Google Search Console without having to submit a product feed or re-verify your website. With Search Console, you can now list products with a few clicks.
Google is updating business profiles with missing reviews
Google is fixing an issue that led to reviews disappearing from Google Business Profiles. Google affirms that reviews are being updated. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, made the announcement on Twitter in response to Mike Blumenthal, who claimed to have discovered the problem one week prior. Blumenthal isn’t overstating how dangerous the bug is. The removal of reviews, which are a restaurant’s main source of income, can have a severe effect on business.
Google Updates Structured Review Snippet Data
To standardize how numbers are written within the structured data code for reviews, Google modified the review snippet. The modification standardizes one method for expressing decimal numbers as opposed to another that is fairly popular in other nations.
The Google Update You’ve Never Heard Of: The Google Coati Algorithm
In a recent interview, Hyung-Jin Kim claimed that Coati is not just another black and white animal like a Panda or Penguin, but rather the development of a Panda. Yes, Google’s Panda algorithm update evolved into Coati, an updated Panda algorithm that was given that name internally.
He assured us that, as we discussed in 2016, Panda had really been “consumed” into the broader core ranking algorithm. But first, “Panda has later been replaced with Coati,” I suppose. He said that Coati is an update to the Panda algorithm and what Panda developed into. Coati was Panda’s successor.
Google Examines New Street View & Photo Layout for Local Knowledge Panel
In a local information panel within Google Maps, Google is developing a new user interface and design for the pictures and street view imagery. Numerous SEOs in the community have seen this.
Google is Experimenting With Picture-In-Picture Results For Videos
Pictures-in-pictures are being tested by Google for videos that appear in search results. At the bottom right of the search results page, there is a video preview image that you can click to play. Khushal Bherwani noticed this and shared a video of it in action on Twitter.
Live Clippable Coupons & Google AR Products
It appears that the Google AR items are now available, at least for shoes, including the clippable coupon functionality. When you search for different pairs of shoes or sneakers, you will notice that some of the product images include 3D icons that connect you to Google Search’s augmented reality feature, and some even have clippable coupons.
Social Media Updates and News
Campaign to Support Small Business Shopping Has Been Launched By Meta
In order to get users to support small and medium-sized companies (SMBs) during the holiday shopping season, Meta has launched a campaign. Meta has announced an extension of the #BuyBlackFriday campaign, a list of holiday presents for 2022 that is sponsored by the Meta Business Leaders Network, and a guide to SMB Christmas marketing for 2022.
YouTube is Trying Out Short Form In-App Shopping
According to a story first reported by the Financial Times, YouTube is expanding its short-form video platform with new commerce options. Shorts would let users make purchases as they scroll through their feeds, adopting a format akin to that of social media rivals TikTok and Instagram.
The initiative is anticipated to start sometime in the next year for users in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, and India. Once it does, authors will receive a 45% share of ad revenue. The program will eventually be expanded to additional nations, according to YouTube.
Instagram Explore Home Ads Placement Via Marketing API, according to Meta
Through the Instagram Marketing API, Meta officially announced the “Instagram Explore home” Ads Placements, allowing businesses to display advertisements on the Instagram Explore home page.
On October 4, 2022, Meta declared that companies could officially run advertisements on the Instagram Explore front page. The announcement from October outlined: Businesses are now able to display advertisements on the Explore home grid, which visitors see when they first click the Explore tab.
