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.
Google says old content is not unhelpful content. Google Ads is popping up a survey when you try to pause a campaign. Google SGE is showing recipe AI answers. Google Local Service Ads seems to be showing advertisers more evenly. Google has expanded its people also ask speaker and list icons.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google: Old Content Doesn’t Make It Unhelpful Content
Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said on X that just because content is old, it doesn’t mean that content is unhelpful. He said, “Just because something is older doesn’t make it unhelpful.” - Google Search Generative Experience Now Triggers AI Answers For Recipes
The new Google Search, the Google Search Generative Experience, now shows AI-generated answers for recipe queries. I am told it did not show in early releases of SGE but sometime in the past several days Google SGE started to show for recipe queries. - Google Ads New Intrusive Popup Survey When Pausing A Campaign
Google Ads is now popping up a short survey asking you why you are pausing your ads campaign before you end up pausing it. Yes, this adds more unnecessary time to the PPC manager’s day and I can see it being insulting for some PPCers. - Report: Google Local Service Ads Showing Ads More Evenly
Google is reportedly showing its Local Service Ads more evenly. This means that previously, the same advertiser would often show up in the LSA spots in the Google Search results and remain there, but now it seems Google is bringing in a more diverse set of advertisers. - Google Expands Testing People Also Ask Speaker & List Icons
Google is expanding its testing the people also ask speaker and list icons. A nice number of people noticed these icons showing up in the Google search results within the people also ask section over the weekend. It does not seem to be rolled out yet, as I do not see it yet. - Halloween Ghost Zombie Prop In Google Office
Googlers love their props and here is one from Halloween that is of a Ghost Zombie of some sorts. It looks like someone put it up in the work area for some fun this year.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Confirmed: Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines are not currently indexed, Cyrus SEO on X
- I am now seeing the Google SGE lite interface that @glenngabe spotted a couple of weeks ago, Barry Schwartz on X
- No. It means if you’re doing those things primarily to rank better rather than because you think they make the page better, don’t do that. If it’s for your readers, fine. What’s the page and what queries was it ranking for that you think this was , Google SearchLiaison on X
- Thousands of 404 Errors in GSC from Spam Sites – Should I Care?, Red
- You won’t start from 16 months. According to our help centre: “Data is collected for a property as soon as anyone adds it in Search Console, even before verification occurs. However, it takes a few days f, Daniel Waisberg on X
- I need some more Google Updates – post your photos of SEO’y / Web’y halloween costumes!, John Mueller on X
- That doesn’t sound like the kind of thing which you’d want to be found for in image search, so I imagine the main effect would be on page experience / cwv., John Mueller on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
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