Daily Search Forum Recap: July 18, 2022 -

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.

Was there a Google update this past Saturday or was it related to the Google indexing issue? Google is taking action on the one-star review scams in the local listings. Google said political ads must always be visible and sufficient in size. Google Ads is testing map pins with photos. The Think with Google portal is removing the test my site feature. And we have part five of the vlog with Jon and Jaimie Clark to end out that series.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Search Algorithm Update On July 16th Or Was It Related To The Indexing Issue

As many of you know, there was a pretty massive indexing issue impacting new content in Google Search most of Friday, July 15th, but that was pretty much isolated to that Friday. Now, I am seeing signals of a Google search ranking algorithm update on Saturday, July 16th.

Google Taking Action On Recent One-Star Review Scams & Blackmail Threats

A recent New York Times piece highlighted blackmail threads taken on small restaurants that threaten and blackmail the owners. These threats say the person will leave a one-star review, hurting the business’s reputation in Google Maps and Google Search if they do not send money through digital gift cards.

Google Ads Testing Map Pin Ads With Photos From Location?

Google Maps might be testing a form of map pin ads that contain images or photos from the local business. I cannot replicate this, nor do I know if this is new or not, but this was shared with me on Twitter by Vishal Sharma who showed this in action.

Google Ads For Politics Now Must Be Always Visible, Sufficient Size & Similar Tone

Google is updating its Google Ads Political Content policy next month, in August 2022, to say that ad disclosure must be visible at all times and be of sufficient size, and for audio ads, they must be substantially similar in pitch, tone, and speed.

Think With Google Test My Site Portal Sunsetting

Google six years ago launched a new Test My Site portal in the Think with Google portal. Well, that feature is going away soon, in the next few months Google will sunset the tool.

Vlog #182: Jon Clark On Building An SEO Agency & Happy Employees and Customers

Jaimie and Jon Clark came for a visit and we all spoke SEO and a lot more. Jaimie Clark is the VP of SEO at Centerfield, she was previously the Head of SEO at Wirecutter, a New York Times company…

YouTube Ice Sculpture

Here is a photo I found on Instagram from the Google Washington, D.C. office of some YouTube event. You can see they had an ice sculpture made in the form of the YouTube logo.

Other Great Search Threads:

My guess would be temporarily unreachable robots.txt files, if across multiple sites, probably from unreachable hosting (eg bots blocked, by host or cdn)., John Mueller on Twitter

Charting the Influence of Search Engines, WebmasterWorld

Google Maps is better at a lot of things, but the new high-detail Apple Maps (only out in some cities) is really nice. Here are screenshots of both in Cambridge, which has Google’s high-detail map and Apple’s old one,, Randall Munroe on Twitter

The @RankRanger SERP team discovered something interesting. Is it possible to rank twice on page 1 or is this a bug?, Joel Janovsky on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

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