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 Predicts That the Ranking Factor For Backlink Strength Will Decline
John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, predicts the future of backlinks during a live talk at Brighton SEO. During a live session of the Search Off The Record podcast, Myriam Jessier, Lizzi Sassman, and Mueller take questions from the audience. Since it’s a podcast, the hosts respond to pre-selected questions rather than interacting with the live audience; therefore, the questions are addressed as a group discussion. The hosts respond to a query on how Google penalizes backlinks collectively.
Google Debuts New Coupon & Promotional Search Labels
Google has added new labels to its shopping search results that emphasize discounts and deals and allow users to compare prices across different merchants. According to a recent Google survey, 43% of Americans who plan to buy for the holidays said they would hunt for more discounts and sales than they did the year before. For US consumers, Google is a crucial component of the purchasing experience. 60% of people have used Google properties for shopping in the last two days. Google is introducing a number of new features to make it easier for users to locate the products they want at the greatest pricing.
Google Explicitly Defining Alt Text for Buttons & Logos
Google’s Lizzi Sassman and John Mueller discuss the ideal approach to manage alt text for logos and image-based buttons in a Google Search Off the Record podcast. There are best practices to follow when adding alt attributes to buttons and logos. The regulations may appear a little challenging initially, but they are straightforward. It’s advantageous for users and profitable to get the alt properties properly in the long term.
Google Examines New Website’s Favicon & Name in Desktop Results
Google is now testing the newly introduced site name and favicon design modification on the desktop results. As Google did for the mobile search results, this adds the favicon and site name to the desktop search results.
You Can Expand Videos on Top of Search Results on Google Search
You can click an enlarge icon on some of the videos that Google Search displays for you in the search results. A larger, more detailed playable video overlays when you click the expand button. Punit said this was a test, but it appears to be completely operational to us; he supplied some instances on Twitter to demonstrate.
Google: Having Multiple URLs for the Same Piece of Content Won’t Probably Affect Your Ranking
On Twitter, Google’s John Mueller reaffirmed that having a Sitemap file that contains pages that are identical to others won’t always affect your site’s rating. According to John, it might throw Google’s crawlers off but shouldn’t have an effect on results.
Google Has Added the Lens Button to The Desktop Homepage Search Bar
The Google Lens button is now present in the search bar on the Google.com homepage. Google’s Rajan Patel quietly announced this on Twitter, pointing to the Google Lens button and adding that the Google homepage, which seldom changes, has changed. This comes after the Google Lens button was added to desktop image search earlier this year and mobile search in 2018; it is now present in desktop search at Google.com. By the way, Google has been testing this button on the desktop for months now.
Sites Verified by Google Search Console are Not Crawled as Frequently
If websites that have been validated using Google Search Console are scanned more frequently or with higher priority, John Mueller of Google was asked. As John stated, “crawling is independent of Search Console.”
PPC Related Updates and News
Google Declares the Retirement of Similar Audiences
Another Google Ads upgrade, affecting comparable audiences targeting, is the result of the continuous focus on consumer privacy. Google will phase out similar audience targeting in 2023, according to Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin, who made the announcement this week. There won’t be any changes to your campaigns and ad groups if you currently use similar audiences.
Until August 2023, you can continue using the currently available similar audience segments, but you can’t add any new similar audience segments to campaigns or groups.
Microsoft Releases Google Ads Performance Max Import Tool
Microsoft Advertising is introducing a feature that will let users of its Google Import tool duplicate existing Google Ads Performance Max campaigns. The import function for Performance Max campaigns using a Merchant Center is now available from Microsoft. Microsoft will import the campaigns as Local Inventory Ads and Smart Shopping Campaigns.
Microsoft is developing a method for integrating other Performance Max campaigns without a Merchant Center, with Search campaigns receiving priority.
Social Media Updates and News
YouTube Updates: New Channel Page Layout and More Search Insights
This week, YouTube released a number of upgrades. Until recently, search analytics were only available in English and may surface searches from US, Indian, Canadian, and UK viewers. YouTube is now experimenting with adding more languages to Search Insights on desktop, including Japanese, Korean, and Hindi, with other languages coming in the future.
This is not the one! Two strategies are used by Youtube to update its channel. First, the channel information area is placed underneath the navigation bar.
The separation of videos into two tabs—long-form videos and YouTube Shorts—is the second modification.
Instagram Introduces New Streams Of Income For Creators
Instagram is launching a platform for creating and selling digital artifacts, and subscriptions are being expanded to all qualified US producers. Meta is introducing new avenues for producers to make money directly from their Instagram audience. Here are more details regarding Instagram’s new monetization tools.
Facebook Now Allows All Users to Create Professional Profiles
With the launch of Facebook’s professional profile mode, individuals everywhere can now present their skills and aptitudes in novel ways. Facebook’s “Professional Mode” is a profile setting that gives access to features that were previously only available to Pages, and it was first made available to users with US addresses only in December of last year.
In order to get your material in front of a broader audience, the professional mode only requires you to create a Facebook Page a little more.
