Google ranking update intensifies, new Google mobile design, SEO and much more

By rahmat hidayat

Saturday, February 18, 2023

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.

FYI, the volatility picked up with that Google search ranking update I reported about a couple of days ago. Google is testing a new mobile search interface where the search menu is on the left side in an overlay. Google says stop using 403s or 404s to reduce Googlebot crawling. Google said not all Googlebots render the page. Google is testing knowledge panels that scroll and expand. Bing is testing an animated more menu. Plus, I posted my weekly SEO video recap - it goes down the rabbit hole of AI search and EEEAT.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Big Google Search Update, Google Ads Bug, New Link Best Practices & More On Bing AI Search
What a week, we had another big unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update. Google Ads had a pretty massive bug with campaign disapprovals and suspensions. Google published a new SEO link best practices. Google has implied its guidelines...
Google: Stop Using 403s or 404s To Reduce Googlebot Crawl Rates
Gary Illyes posted a new blog post on the Google Search Central site asking all of you to stop using 403 and 404 server status codes to reduce the crawl rate of Googlebot. He said they have seen an uptick in the number of sites and CDNs doing this and they need to cut it out.
Google: Not All Googlebots Use Same Rendering Engine & Render JavaScript
John Mueller of Google said not all Googlebots use the same rendering engine, in fact, not all Googlebots need to do rendering John added. So while the main desktop and mobile Google search crawlers, the main Googlebots, do rendering and render JavaScript pretty well, not all the Googlebots do or need to.
Google Mobile Tests Search Menu On Left Side Bar
Several months ago, Google tested displaying a left-hand sidebar filter on the desktop search interface. Google is doing something similar on mobile search, but now they are tucking the search menu items, video, images, maps, etc., in a left bar menu.
Scrollable & Expandable Google Knowledge Panel
Did you see the scrollable and expandable features in some user experiences with the Google Search knowledge panel and answer boxes?Well, here are examples of both - I am not sure if they are new, for some reason, I don't think they are - but I don't think I've covered it before.
Bing Featured Snippet More Expansion Button
Microsoft Bing has added a "more" button on some featured snippets in the mobile search interface. When you click on the more button, there is this brief and subtle animation that opens up more details from the site.
Google Dungeons
Okay, this is fake but I found it funny. Mike Ryan shared on Twitter these Google looking, Googley, dungeons. One looks even to be made of large lego.

Other Great Search Threads

(What is cascading sampling?) Anyway, I suspect it's nothing controversial, but I'll poke around and see if I can dig something up for you all (and the 172.3k people reading, John Mueller on Twitter
If you only listen to one Raquel Welsh link today, make it @internetarchive's 80s treasure. Abdominal breathing exercises (🪑 not included) before it was cool. "When you let go of your body, you'll notice that your t, Dan Brickley on Twitter
Site ranks only for its brand name in incognito mode, WebmasterWorld
The cheese penalty, definitely., John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories

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