Google page experience update for desktop rolls out

In 2022, Google began a nine-day rollout of the desktop version of its page experience update.

Page experience was made up of several Google search ranking factors, including the mobile-friendly update, Page Speed Update, the HTTPS ranking boost, the intrusive interstitials penalty, safe browsing penalty and Core Web Vitals.

The page experience update for desktop included all the signals from the mobile version (except for mobile-friendliness, for obvious reasons):

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
• First Input Delay (FID)
• HTTPS security
• Absence of intrusive interstitials

What Google said:

• “While this update is designed to highlight pages that offer great user experiences, page experience remains one of many factors our systems take into account… Given this, sites generally should not expect drastic changes.”

Read all about it in Google page experience update for desktop now rolling out.

Also on this day

Google’s Pirate Update can cause 89% drop in search traffic for offending sites

2022: A document Google sent to the U.S. Copyright Office showed just how much being hit by the Pirate Update could sting.

New Google Shopping experience scorecard

2022: Merchants that provided an excellent customer experience would see a boost in rankings and other visibility improvements in the Google Shopping tab.

Microsoft Advertising rolls out dynamic descriptions for DSAs, which will become the default starting in April

2022: Advertisers in sensitive verticals would remain opted out of this change for existing campaigns.

Microsoft Advertising auto-apply recommendations out of beta, advertisers opted in by default

2022: Advertisers were opted into all five of the platform’s recommendation types.

Google Search Console adds ‘associations’ so you can link with other Google accounts

2021: These could provide better and wider view of your data across various Google services.

Video: Eli Feldblum on the SEO industry maturing through the years

2021: Going way back into the early days of the SEO industry and walking you through how it matured over the years.

Google Search Console adds Products to enhancements reporting section

2019: This section helped you see how well your product markup was performing in Google’s search results.

Google Q&A: More than 90% of questions unanswered by business owners

2019: The answers that were there mostly came from Local Guides, who may or may not have provided accurate information.

Video comes to Google responsive display ads

2019: Google also introduced two new reporting options to help advertisers better evaluate their responsive display ads.

Not just for auto anymore: Google tests giant image search ads in new verticals.

2019: The ads featured a carousel of images.

AdWords Keyword Planner update appears to be rolling out in the new interface

2018: The latest version featured streamlined workflows and reflected the design updates in the new AdWords experience.

Maile Ohye has left Google

2017: She was best known for her talent for conveying complex technical topics in an understandable and actionable manner.

Updated Google My Business guidelines disallow virtual offices as service-area businesses

2017: Virtual offices were not considered service-area businesses and the virtual office had to be staffed during business hours.

Official: Google’s green outlined ‘Ad’ label replacing solid green version

2017: The new label for search text ads rolled out globally.

FAQ: All About The Changes To Google’s Ad Layout On Desktop Search Results

2016: A look at what was and was not changing.

Google To Shut Down Google Compare Products In US And UK On March 23

2016: The vertical lead generation programs for credit cards, auto insurance, mortgages and travel insurance would start winding down Feb. 23.

Everything’s Not Awesome: Google News Spammed With Pitch To Watch “The Lego Movie” For Free

2014: The “story” appearing at the top of the Google News entertainment section was all types of bad.

After Penalizing Interflora & UK Newspapers, Google Warns Against Advertorials

2013: More:

Google Quietly Rolls Out New Offer Extensions in AdWords

2013: Offer Extensions let AdWords advertisers post deal offers underneath a normal Google Search ad.

Wisconsin State Court OKs Bidding On Trademarks In Paid Search

2013: Court affirmed a circuit court’s ruling that it’s OK to use trademarks as keywords to trigger the display of paid search ads. 

These Five Websites Captured 20% Of All Search Result Clicks

2013: Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Wikipedia and Amazon.

Search In Pics: Google Drive Latte, Google/Bing Traitor Cake & Google Cushions

2013: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

Google Recommending New Video Schema.org Markup

2012: Google did this in combination with Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search as a “joint effort.”

Bing Launches Linked Pages, Promises Better People Search Results

2012: The purpose was to make the search results for you and your friends more personalized and richer.

Google On Designing Mobile Friendly Websites

2011: Pierre Far from Google shared how to design mobile-friendly websites while considering Google’s webmaster guidelines and best practices.

Facebook Organizes Its Search Results

2011: The new display was organized into different content types, replacing the old version which showed results in a straight list format with no organization.

Little-Known Isohunt Case Attracts Google’s Interest

2011: Google filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a civil case against Isohunt Web Technologies, a BitTorrent site, because it was concerned the court would set a precedent it didn’t like.

Google Queries Reveal Potential “Underground” Anti-Semitism In France

2011: Data from Google’s search suggest/auto-complete function indicated that French people were routinely searching on politicians’ names followed by the world “juif,” which means “Jewish” in French.

Russia: Egypt Uprising Fault Of Google

2011: Some in Russia wanted to lock down the Internet in similar ways to China, restricting some Google searches, access to social networks and more.

Oscars Golden Touch: Searches On Yahoo Spiking

2011: “Black Swan” was the top searched nominated film.

China Launches New Censored Search Engine To Compete With Baidu

2011: China Mobile and state-run news agency Xinhua launched Panguso, a search engine that let people search for news, web sites, images, videos and audio.

Google Adds MySpace To Real-Time Results & Images Site Command Updates

2010: Google would show the images on the webpages on that domain, and ignore the host of that image. 

How Google Buzz Hijacks Your Google Profile

2010: Rather than “About me” showing, your Buzz activity appeared by default.

Waiting Game Begins On Google Book Search Settlement

2010: 21 of the 26 speakers during the hearing were against the settlement.

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, & Other Search Engines Must Comply With EU Privacy Rules

2008: European data privacy regulators said that collecting IP addresses or search history is gathering personal information.

Brin “Unnerved,” Yang “Girds,” And Microsoft Shops For A New Yahoo Board

2008: Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he found the prospect of Microsoft owning Yahoo “unnerving.”

Microsoft’s Johnson: “Once Yahoo And Microsoft Agree On A Transaction”

2008: An email from Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft Platforms & Services Division, had a tone of confidence that assumed a deal with Yahoo would ultimately take place. 

Microsoft Launches Search Prizes With Virgin In UK: Big Snap Search

2008: Microsoft was running another search and win promotion. 

Six Minutes With Former Ask CEO Jim Lanzone

2008: What was the most hyped thing Lanzone was seeing? “Beyond social networks, virtual worlds.”

Search In Pictures: Tennis at Google, The Mars Volta at Yahoo, & Schwag

2008: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.

Google To Launch YouTube Content Identification System Soon

2007: Google CEO Eric Schmidt said they would be releasing anti-piracy technologies for YouTube “very soon.”

Google Launches Fee Based Google Apps

2007: Google Apps Premier Edition gave you everything in standard Google Apps, plus several other features.

Yahoo To Redirect More Search Query Types Site Explorer

2007: Yahoo would be redirecting “domain:” and “hostname:” queries to Site Explorer.

Buyers & Information Seekers Search Differently

2007: Buyers viewed more search results (10 vs. 8) and took more time to view the results (11.4 seconds vs. 9.4 seconds) than information searchers.

Free Speech Vs. Trademarked URLs & Keywords

2007: A consumer watchdog filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of a Florida realtor sued by a homebuilder for using its corporate name in the URL of a website and buying sponsored search ads using the trademarked name to promote the site.

Search Rises Above Porn In U.K. Visits

2007: In January, search engines accounted for 13.3% of all UK internet visits, compared with 11.5% for adult websites.

Windows Live Shopping Goes Offline

2007: This beta test had ended.

The Numbers Behind Your Feeds

2007: FeedBurner was able to track clicks on virtually all web-based RSS readers.

Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

< February 21 | Search Marketing History | February 23 >

Google has released the February 2023 product reviews update, and it will take about two weeks to rollout. The update brings new languages to the product reviews update, including English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Polish.

This is the sixth release of the product reviews update, this one is named the February 2023 product reviews update and was released on February 21 at about 5pm ET.

Announcement. Google announced this update on Twitter:

Google product reviews update. The Google product reviews update aims to promote review content that is above and beyond much of the templated information you see on the web. Google said it will promote these types of product reviews in its search results rankings.

Google is not directly punishing lower-quality product reviews that have “thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products.” However, if you provide such content and find your rankings demoted because other content is promoted above yours, it will definitely feel like a penalty. Technically, according to Google, this is not a penalty against your content, Google is just rewarding sites with more insightful review content with rankings above yours.

Technically, this update should only impact product review content and not other types of content.

More languages. The change with this version is that this now supports more languages than just English. This update now works for Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Polish.

Previous advice on the product reviews update. The “focus overall is on providing users with content that provides insightful analysis and original research, content written by experts or enthusiasts who know the topic well,” Google said about this update. That is similar advice to the core update recommendations mentioned above, but here is a list of “additional useful questions to consider in terms of product reviews.” Google recommends your product reviews cover these areas and answer these questions. Do your product reviews…

• Express expert knowledge about products where appropriate?
• Show what the product is like physically, or how it is used, with unique content beyond what’s provided by the manufacturer?
• Provide quantitative measurements about how a product measures up in various categories of performance?
• Explain what sets a product apart from its competitors?
• Cover comparable products to consider, or explain which products might be best for certain uses or circumstances?
• Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of a particular product, based on research into it?
• Describe how a product has evolved from previous models or releases to provide improvements, address issues, or otherwise help users in making a purchase decision?
• Identify key decision-making factors for the product’s category and how the product performs in those areas? For example, a car review might determine that fuel economy, safety, and handling are key decision-making factors and rate performance in those areas.
• Describe key choices in how a product has been designed and their effect on the users beyond what the manufacturer says?
• Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with the product, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.
• Include links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.

Google also linked to its blog post from earlier this year named providing better product information for shoppers.

Google added three new points of new advice for this third release of the products reviews update:

• Are product review updates relevant to ranked lists and comparison reviews? Yes. Product review updates apply to all forms of review content. The best practices we’ve shared also apply. However, due to the shorter nature of ranked lists, you may want to demonstrate expertise and reinforce authenticity in a more concise way. Citing pertinent results and including original images from tests you performed with the product can be good ways to do this.
• Are there any recommendations for reviews recommending “best” products? If you recommend a product as the best overall or the best for a certain purpose, be sure to share with the reader why you consider that product the best. What sets the product apart from others in the market? Why is the product particularly suited for its recommended purpose? Be sure to include supporting first-hand evidence.
• If I create a review that covers multiple products, should I still create reviews for the products individually? It can be effective to write a high-quality ranked list of related products in combination with in-depth single-product reviews for each recommended product.  If you write both, make sure there is enough useful content in the ranked list for it to stand on its own.

Previous product review updates. This is the sixth release of the product reviews update and was released on February 21 at about 5pm ET. The first product reviews update was launched on April 8, 2021, the second was launched on December 1, 2021, the third has been released on March 23, 2022, and the fourth was released on July 27, 0222, and the fifth was released on September 20, 2022.

Not a core update. Google also previously said that product review updates are not the same as core updates. This is a standalone update they’re calling the product reviews update. This is separate from Google’s regular core updates, the company told us. Nonetheless, Google did add that the advice it originally provided for core updates, “about producing quality content for those is also relevant here.” In addition to that advice, Google provided additional guidance specific to this update.

Why we care. If your website offers product review content, you will want to check your rankings to see if you were impacted. Did your Google organic traffic improve, decline, or stay the same?

Long term, you are going to want to ensure that going forward, you put a lot more detail and effort into your product review content so that it is unique and stands out from the competition on the web.

Also, those impacted by previous core updates, that put in the work, may be rewarded by this February 2023 product reviews update.

Microsoft’s plan to leverage its investment in ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI, is moving fast, with ChatGPT already surfacing in the Microsoft Bing interface.

Mere months after Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai referred to chatbots as a “code red,” Google soft-launched Bard, its answer to ChatGPT. 

And user interest is keeping up. Interest in ChatGPT has exploded since it was released to the public at the end of November:

For SEOs contemplating a future that combines chatbot results with Google (and Bing’s) fundamental focus on “helpful content,” the path forward is a complicated one. 

In this article, I’ll take on the topic of keyword research in the ChatGPT era: 

• What’s changed for the better.
• Potential threats that could emerge.
• What might happen next.
• The skills and philosophies SEOs need to maintain to get results.

Let’s jump in.

AI in search: How does it help?

First, remember that AI-driven chatbot technology has been around for a while. What changed with the release of ChatGPT is that it was suddenly broadly accessible. 

That said, many SEOs are already familiar with using ChatGPT (either by reading one of the thousands or articles or trying the free tool themselves) for keyword research. 

Here’s an example of some block-and-tackle work it can help you perform.

Query

Initial output

Drill-down

In two short queries, we took a good-sized list of keywords, sorted it by topic, and assigned user intent – all in seconds.

This is a great surface-level start that saves SEOs a ton of time over more manual methods. It’s a great example of ChatGPT’s function as a tool.

In general, ChatGPT speeds up the way you can do research. You can ask it to create relevant topics quickly, it can help you classify the intent of different keyword lists, and it can look at semantics and cluster them. 

Think of it like you would think of Excel. In Excel, macros let you spend more time in analysis rather than writing the formulas manually. ChatGPT can serve a similar function, doing the grunt work and leaving more time for the human layer of nuance.

What threats could it pose?

I’m sticking to the topic of keyword research here. (It would take many thousands of words to dig into the topics of AI-generated content vs. human-generated content, the business threats of chatbots keeping users on the SERP and away from brand sites, and AI-driven SERPs vs. current SERPs.)

The main threat posed by ChatGPT functionality to effective keyword research is similar to the threat posed by other powerful tools: it tempts marketers to take too many shortcuts. 

It can be enticing to type in a keyword and ask ChatGPT to find all the related keywords for you and stop there. But that work won’t be very good and it’s something a lower-priced competitor could offer. 

The next step after that should be a gap analysis. What’s not there? 

Finding a negative is hard work. It takes reading and deep thought around the concept to realize what’s missing. Uncovering the need nobody else is addressing is how you strike keyword gold. 

The threat of using ChatGPT for keyword research is falling in love with its ease.

The real value of good SEOs still comes in doing the hard work of nuance and recognizing negative space. (Once AI can do that, we’ll have new threats to discuss.)

What’s not changing at all?

ChatGPT hasn’t changed the questions I hear about keyword quantity and word count.

I still get asked “It should be at least 300 words, right?” and “How many times should we include the main keyword in this?” with regularity.

ChatGPT also hasn’t changed how I answer these questions. 

It’s about delivering value, not counting words or keywords. 

Good SEOs use keywords to evaluate intent and understand what the user wants to learn. 

They strive to understand the psychology of a searcher. Sometimes they need short content (“How do you double-knot your shoelaces?” but sometimes they need a book (“What is the meaning of life?”). 

Especially as systems get more intelligent at delivering what people need, the human differentiator of assessing the psychological nuance of keywords will become more important.

I have a process called “keyword drafting.” Here, I think of the concept first and then write the draft only thinking about the value and quality of the answer to the question.

Only after that do I start to ask what keywords could be applied, then re-draft the content. 

This works well when you have information from your sales or product teams on customer questions and needs. You’ve gotten your topic without researching keywords, so write your content without them before figuring out where they seamlessly fit in.

What might come next?

My educated guess for the near future of ChatGPT is that it’ll be integrated into keyword planning tools, content and topic analysis features. AI-driven chatbots will become more entwined in the SEO planning landscape, not a separate workflow. 

The details of Google and Microsoft’s AI-driven chatbot rollouts will be closely scrutinized. Marketers will keep a close eye on user behavior and traffic trends to get a pulse on the short-term effects on the SEO industry. 

What’s certain is that understanding and utilizing AI for keyword research now can help clue SEOs into the models and how they’re trained.

The more understanding you can build now, the better you’ll be positioned to use AI to your advantage as it becomes more integrated.

Search marketers can gain an edge

As with most tech innovations, ChatGPT will force marketers to understand and develop skills around the layer(s) of expertise that will supercharge the power of the tech output. 

Once ChatGPT has had its say during keyword research, the nuance and psychology of intent must inform what you do with those keywords – including finding the gaps the tech can’t yet reach.

Google is rolling out a feature over the next week that will allow you to automate a daily bulk export of your Search Console performance data to BigQuery. This will allow you to run complex queries over your data to an external storage service, where you can do deeper analysis in a more automated fashion, Google announced.

The export. Google said you could configure an export in Google Search Console “to get a daily data dump into your BigQuery project.” This includes all of your Search Console performance data but not the anonymized queries. The daily data row limit does not impact this data, so you can extract more data using this method.

The cool part is not just the reduction of data limits but also that this is an ongoing daily export that can be automated.

Who this helps. Google said this is likely more helpful for larger sites with larger datasets. “This data export could be particularly helpful for large websites with tens of thousands of pages, or those receiving traffic from tens of thousands of queries a day (or both!),” Google wrote.

How to export. Google created a help document to walk you through how to export your data to BigQuery, it is somewhat technical, and you may need assistance from a developer or programmer. The higher-level stages of this work as follows:

1. Prepare your Cloud project (inside Google Cloud Console): this includes enabling the BigQuery API for your project and giving permission to your Search Console service account.
2. Set export destination (inside Search Console): this includes providing your Google Cloud project ID, and choosing a dataset location. Note that only property owners can set up a bulk data export.

This export is daily, and the first time it will start within 48 hours. If the export simulation fails, you should receive an immediate alert on the issue detected; here’s a list of possible export errors.

The data. Google provided a quick description of the three tables that will be available to you:

• searchdata_site_impression: This table contains data aggregated by property, including query, country, type, and device.
• searchdata_url_impression: This table contains data aggregated by URL, which enables a more detailed view of queries and rich results.
• ExportLog: This table is a record of what data was saved for that day. Failed exports are not recorded here.

BigQuery. BigQuery is Google’s fully managed, serverless data warehouse that enables scalable analysis over petabytes of data. It is a service that supports querying using ANSI SQL. It also has built-in machine learning capabilities.

Why we care. The more data you have access to in your own platform, the more you can do with analysis of your search performance. That means you can slice and dice your data in ways you probably could not prior. This should allow you to develop new ideas to improve your site and user experience.

Also, third-party data tools may find useful ways to build out new reports with this. Google said, “We hope that by making more Google Search data available, website owners and SEOs will be able to find more content opportunities by analyzing long-tail queries. It’ll also make it easier to join page-level information from internal systems to Search results in a more effective and comprehensive way.”

Do you know what makes an SEO eager to apply for an open position and what makes them click “back” quicker than a guest posting request email?

I do. At SEOjobs.com, I’ve been reviewing thousands of job descriptions for open SEO positions for almost a year now. Some were bad, many were OK but few were great.

Today, we take the first step in addressing all the above. No more excuses for subpar job descriptions. You’ll learn how to match great candidates with great companies.

5 of the biggest mistakes SEO job descriptions contain

Do you know why people view your description and choose not to apply? You might be surprised at what turns potential applications off before talking to them. 

Below are a few items that SEO professionals dislike about job descriptions based on my Linkedin and Twitter polls that received more than 500 responses.

1. Lack of salary transparency

We get it, not every company can pay the top of the market. However, not posting a salary range and hoping you can get applicants in your interview process with promises of “we have a family culture” and “we have beer on tap” isn’t going to work anymore.

Pay transparency has upsides beyond compliance. Up to 91% of job seekers said that including salary ranges in a job post affect their decision to apply, according to a recent LinkedIn survey.

Share your salary range regardless what it is. If you know your not competitive than you can further leverage the rest of the description to explain why applicants should still consider you. 

While we all have to pay our bills, many applicants are interested in the total compensation package including benefits.

Word of advice

Putting a salary range that is extremely vague may end up being worse than putting no salary range at all.

Your first impression with your applicants shouldn’t be simply meeting legal requirements (if required in your state).

2. Lack of remote working flexibility

SEOs spend most of their day behind a computer screen.

If there was any benefit to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was realizing that in most instances, a remote work culture can be just as effective as in-office working. This is especially true for SEO roles.

Word of advice

Flexible working arrangements are quickly becoming an expectation and I’ve talked to many SEOs who would even take a lower salary for this benefit.

If you cannot offer a remote working arrangement, consider how you make up for this in other areas of compensation.

3. Off-putting terminology

Are you even an SEO if you aren’t called an “expert,” “guru,” “ninja,” “pro” or “rockstar”? 

Please, let’s stop using these. 

There are so many ways to articulate the required skillsets for all roles ranging from entry-level position all the way of to VP of SEO.

Word of advice

Are you aware that terminology such as this can be considered gendered language?

4. Educational requirements

No higher education institution offers a dedicated degree in search engine optimization. 

Setting the expectation that your future SEO needs both an undergraduate and graduate degree will severely limit your pool of applicants.

Those who do meet all your higher educational requirements are likely to demand top compensation.

Word of advice

Reconsider your education requirements in favor of real-life and proven SEO experience.

Focus on testing your applicants’ SEO knowledge similar to how you would any other technical role.

4. Multi-channel skillset requirement (vs. nice-to-have)

You’ve removed the requirement for having a masters degree in astrophysics for your open SEO role, that’s a great step forward. 

Now, we need to address that your SEO job position requires individuals to not only be efficient in search engine optimization but also equally experienced in paid advertising, affiliate marketing, email marketing, social media, and at least a bronze medal in ice skating from the last Winters Olympics.

Does having multi-channel marketing experience provide you some benefits when it comes to the organic search channel? Sure! 

But these are skills that should be sussed out during the interview process and help differentiate a good from great candidate.

Word of advice

Mentioning that additional consideration will be given to candidates with multi-channel marketing experience will likely increase your applicants.

Making it a requirement will only reduce the number of applicants that may otherwise be fully qualified for the role.

Reviewing a world-class SEO job description

In the thousands of SEO job descriptions we’ve reviewed, one job description from the Upgrow team continues to stand out to me. 

I’ve kept the job listing live (despite no longer needing to be filled) simply so I can share with people looking for a great example.

First and foremost, let’s check to see if this job description passes the “cringe test” (everything we outlined above to avoid):

✅ Base salary transparency.
✅ Remote working opportunity.
✅ Clear experience and education expectations.
✅ Prioritizes SEO channel, but upside for T-shape marketers.
❌ Minus one point for use of “wizard warrior.” (We’re not all perfect!)

What makes this job description special?

There are several components within this job description that go beyond that of a standard job listing.

You’ll see why adding just a few of these extras can make a difference in making your SEO description stand out from the competition.

Team hierarchy

Wouldn’t it be great to understand exactly where a “Sr. Manager” position at this company sits within its hierarchy?  

This job listing not only explains what’s expected of this role but how it works within the ~five different roles within the company.

Is this role a good fit for me?

Imagine if you could avoid multiple rounds of interviews to find out a component of the job simply isn’t a good fit? 

This job description outlines qualities of individuals who find working at this company awesome and some that may make this not the right fit.

A transparent hiring process

If you are like most people, you’ve been through hiring processes that are a single interview and an offer/no offer. On the flip side you may have gone through 4-5+ interviews to receive an offer/no offer. 

This job listing goes the extra mile in outlining the complete hiring process starting with the online application all the way through to the job offer/onboarding process.

Let’s help everyone win

Job descriptions aren’t easy to write but neither is finding a new job. 

Taking the time to articulate what the position requires but is transparent with expectations and company goals, that it will only make it easier to hire.

Look at Search Engine Land’s weekly post on “The latest jobs in search marketing” for more examples of search marketing job listings or if you want to submit your own. 

Bing chat sessions are now capped at 50 questions per day and 5 per session, Microsoft announced.

There have been many bad examples shared of the new Bing AI chat sessions featuring everything from gaslighting to accidental racism. Microsoft has said it didn’t anticipate extended chatting, which “can confuse the underlying chat model.”

What’s changing. Chat sessions on the new Bing are now capped at 50 chat “turns” per day and 5 chat “turns” per session. A “turn” is a conversation exchange which contains both a user question and a reply from Bing, Microsoft explained.

Our data has shown that the vast majority of you find the answers you’re looking for within 5 turns and that only ~1% of chat conversations have 50+ messages. After a chat session hits 5 turns, you will be prompted to start a new topic. At the end of each chat session, context needs to be cleared so the model won’t get confused. Just click on the broom icon to the left of the search box for a fresh start.

– Microsoft, The new Bing & Edge – Updates to Chat

Microsoft may increase its caps on chat sessions in the future.

AI tools “somewhat broken.” Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has acknowledged that AI tools are “somewhat broken” but believes its critical to show them to the world to “get it right.”

“We think showing these tools to the world early, while still somewhat broken, is critical if we are going to have sufficient input and repeated efforts to get it right. the level of individual empowerment coming is wonderful, but not without serious challenges.”

And while this crop of AI tools isn’t very scary, Altman hinted at a need for regulation, saying “we are potentially not that far away from potentially scary ones.”

You can read his full tweet thread here.

Why we care. We are witnessing a technology revolution. ChatGPT’s debut was a game changer like the iPhone was to smartphones, as Altman mentioned. AI continues to have many issues and will impact our every day work – good and bad. For now, we’ll continue to watch and document as the search engines and tool providers evolve.

We’re no longer in that phase where everyone was saying, “Video is blowing up.”

Nope. Video has blown up, and it’s here. It’s there. It’s everywhere.

These days, audiences expect and demand video content from creators and brands. On average, people watch 19 hours of online video per week – and across the last three years alone, consumption increased by 8.5 hours per week. 

What does this mean for marketers? For businesses?

If you aren’t creating video content yet, you should seriously consider it.

In this guide, you’ll find an overview of video content, including why it matters for SEO, best practices for creating your video content strategy, and examples of various effective video types.

What is video content?

Video content is any video format meant to entertain, educate, or inform an audience.

By the same token, video content marketing is a strategy that involves producing useful and helpful video content to attract, nurture, and convert that audience. (Read: No ads, no sales pitches.)

Video content isn’t as straightforward as you’d think. There are multiple types of videos and formats that creators and brands are producing these days, and all of them can be used to reach your goals:

• Explainer videos
• Tutorials/how-tos
• Presentations
• Live streams
• Interviews
• Video podcasts
• Social media videos (Stories, Reels, Shorts, TikToks)
• Animated videos
• Webinars
• Product reviews/demos
• Testimonials
• Vlogs

Why is video content important for SEO?

Video content helps your SEO strategy in a few key ways.

For one thing, search engines like Google stay on top of user content consumption trends. These companies know how online video has grown as a medium, and thus serve relevant videos in search results when the user’s query could be answered with a video. 

For example, some “how-to” queries are better suited for a video demonstration, like “how to add text to reels” or “how to tie a bow tie.” It would be hard to teach someone how to do these things in a written blog or article, so serving up a video makes a lot more sense.

That means a lot of keywords have ranking potential if you make and optimize video content for them. (Google has a guide you can follow to help them find and index your videos so they can rank.)

Besides direct rankings, video content also helps your SEO in indirect ways. For example, publishing a blog with a related video embedded in the post can be a way to further engage your audience and keep them on your page longer. 

Publishing regular, high-quality videos that educate, inform, or entertain your target audience is additionally a way to showcase the E-E-A-T (expertise, experience authoritativeness, trustworthiness) for your brand and website. Publishing video content can help prove your brand in essentially the same way as consistently publishing high-quality written content.

Video content can also help you convert more customers. For example, 88% of people say a brand’s video on a product or service has convinced them to buy.

As you can see, there are many ways to leverage video content to boost your SEO. But before you run off to hit “record,” don’t forget that you need a strategy set up before you dive in for the best results.

Best practices to create your video content strategy

1. Set goals

Every good strategy has at least one or two goals behind it that drive the strategy forward. Your video content strategy should be no different.

To make things simpler, the goals you set for your content marketing can be directly related to your video marketing goals. For example, you could aim to increase awareness of your brand by publishing videos on YouTube. Or you could set a goal to increase conversions on your website by embedding product videos on product pages. 

Instead of creating video content just to get it out there, consider what you want each video to do. What purpose will it serve, and how will that content help you meet your goals? 

Ultimately, staying goal-focused will help your video content strategy go further.

2. Choose your video formats and theme

Don’t try to do it all with video. You might feel tempted to try your hand at all the formats, but that approach is scattershot at best.

Instead, choose three or fewer formats to focus on for video content creation. For instance, you might focus mainly on publishing how-to videos every week with some behind-the-scenes, vlog-style videos thrown in once a month.

Along with your main video formats, choose a theme for your videos. What topics will you focus on? What do you want to become known for? 

For example, in 2021 Hootsuite, a SaaS company, launched its YouTube channel called Hootsuite Labs. All of the videos are focused on social media “experiments,” hacks, and tips – and feature the hosts wearing lab coats and goggles like they’re working in a laboratory.

3. Determine where you’ll host your videos

After setting goals, setting a theme, and choosing formats of focus, next decide where you’ll host your videos.

An obvious option is to create a YouTube channel and upload all your videos there. Since YouTube is full of people searching for and watching videos, this option has the added benefit of more exposure and reach. Plus, YouTube videos are easy to share and embed wherever you want them to appear.

However, don’t feel pressured to default to YouTube. Other options will not just host your videos, but also offer creation tools without ads – for a fee, of course.

For example, Vimeo offers these features with a pro plan starting at $7/month. Or, you could go with a premium option like Wistia or Jetpack.

There are pros and cons to any of these services, so weigh your options against what’s best for your brand.

4. Research video topics and keywords

To make sure your videos reach the right people, you should research your video topics and find keywords those people are using to search for video content.

Generally, most video keyword research focuses on YouTube – but that’s because it’s the second-largest search engine, behind Google.

There are quite a few tools specifically for YouTube SEO that will help you find keywords and vet video topics:

• VidIQ
• KeywordTool.io
• KeywordKeg

5. Script each video

The best video content that keeps your audience watching stays on topic, gets to the point, and offers value from beginning to end.

How do you ensure you hit all of those notes? Script your videos.

Scripting can involve writing out every line you (or your speaker) will say, or just creating an outline of main points you can follow while filling in the blanks off the cuff.

Your script can also be helpful for post-production. You can note the places where you’d like video effects added in or text displayed on the screen along with your talking points.

If you decide to script every word, read it aloud before filming to see how long it runs. To not sound like you’re reading from a script (even though you are), ensure yours contains conversational language, and practice until it flows naturally.

6. Invest in production for long-form videos

Different formats of video call for varying levels of gloss and production. 

For example, a long-form YouTube video needs more prep and polish, while a Story posted to Instagram can be recorded on your phone at the moment.

It depends on where you post your videos and what your audience expects from that format.

That means, if you decide to create mostly interview-style videos, for instance, you’ll need to invest in more production, such as a higher-quality camera for filming, studio lighting, and video editing software (or enlist a professional video editor).

7. Optimize each video

Finally, for the best possible chance of getting your videos ranked and watched, optimize them for SEO. This applies whether you’re uploading them to YouTube or embedding them in specific pages on your website.

Here are the key things you need for optimization:

• An engaging, keyword-optimized title: Especially on YouTube, videos with engaging titles get more clicks and views. On top of that, your main keyword should appear in your video title.
• A keyword-optimized description: Your video description helps YouTube (and viewers!) understand the content and context of your video. These should be helpful, clear, and optimized with at least your main keyword. If you’re embedding a video on a page on your website, that page should be optimized for the same (or similar) keywords your video targets.
• Relevant tags: This is specific to YouTube, but every video you upload needs a few relevant tags (similar to hashtags). The first tag should, of course, be your main keyword.
• Closed captions or a video transcript: Closed captions and/or video transcripts are a useful aid for your viewers with hearing impairments, or any viewer who just wants to know exactly what you’ve said in a video. They’re also helpful for SEO because you can and should include your keywords inside both.

3 video formats with examples

Here are a few examples of effective video content that help brands meet different goals.

The long-form, nurturing video

Some videos can fulfill the exact same purpose a long-form blog would. The point is to give your audience value, answer their questions, and provide helpful information. 

Here’s an example from Healthy Gamer, a mental health coaching service, on the topic of feeling tired all the time.

The how-to/explainer video

Video is a great medium for brands with products or expertise that translates better to show-and-tell versus written instructions or descriptions. 

Food and cooking brands, especially, benefit from videos showing off products or tools for cooking or baking, like this video that shows you how to use KitchenAid’s bowl-lift stand mixer. Watching this video might push prospects who are on the fence about buying to make the purchase.

The testimonial video

Testimonials from real customers are incredibly convincing and can help boost conversions – especially when you capture those stories on camera and embed them in your sales pages and landing pages.

For example, Dropbox has a whole series of customer testimonials and stories they feature on their YouTube channel and their website.

Take advantage of the video content boom

Video content is here to stay, so now’s the time to hop on the bandwagon and get your video content strategy laid out.

As part of a larger content strategy that includes written blog content and social media, video can edge you that much closer to your goals. That’s true whether you’re building brand awareness, nurturing trust with prospects, or trying to increase conversions. 

Don’t be intimidated, either, if you’ve never done video before. The key is to get your feet wet and experiment to find what works best for your brand. Your team will only get better at video with time and practice, so start now and press that record button.

Google stops supporting meta news keywords tag

In 2018, we learned that Google had quietly dropped support for the news meta keywords tag.

Google did not announce this change, which had actually happened months earlier.

It was Google Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller who confirmed this on Twitter:

“It looks like we dropped support for this around the time when we removed it from the help center. Keeping it on pages is fine, we just don’t use it for Google News anymore.”

Using the news meta keywords tag no longer helped Google understand your news content. Google ignored it the same way they ignore the normal meta keywords tag.

Google introduced the news meta keywords tag specifically for publishers in 2012.

Also on this day

Google: Spam less than 1% of Maps content

2020: Spam represented less than 1% of the 20 million daily contributions Google received on Maps.

Google adds new image license metadata for licensable image label

2020: Google was beta testing a new way for sites to display licensing information about content that appears in Google Images.

Advertisers can now view Google mobile speed scores for more landing pages

2019: Google Ads tweaked its mobile speed score algorithm to reduce the number of ad clicks needed to generate a result.

Bing to require LegitScript certification for addiction recovery advertisers

2019: Drug and alcohol addiction recovery centers would have to be certified before running an ad campaign and could no longer use lead generators.

Yelp tests offline attribution using guest WiFi and email matching

2018: The company said that every $1 spent on Yelp ads resulted in a $110 offline return, based on aggregate transaction data.

Google says no algorithm changes in new deal to demote pirated content in UK search results

2017: Google and Microsoft Bing agreed to reduce pirated content from their search results in an agreement named the Voluntary Code of Practice.

New ‘Call-Only’ Ad Types Arrives In Google AdWords To Make Mobile Easier

2015: Ad type would give mobile-centric marketers the ability to set up phone call conversion only campaigns.

Yahoo Wants To Syndicate Search To 600,000 Mobile Apps

2015: Yahoo had an ambitious plan to extend the reach of its search, display and video ads through a new Mobile Developer Suite.

Search In Pics: Google Glass Book, Android Mobile & Pebble Beach Box Seats

2015: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.

Bing Webmaster Guidelines Updated To Include Demotions For Keyword Stuffing

2014: The warning said Bing may demote or delist a site that uses keyword stuffing. 

Yahoo Gives $10 Million To Help Develop Next-Gen Siri And Better “Contextual Search”

2014: Yahoo gave $10 million to Carnegie Mellon University to support “InMind,” a project that sought to develop a next generation intelligent assistant and enhanced personalization capabilities.

Yandex Reports Revenue Up 37% In Q4, Ad Network Revenue Nearly Doubles

2014: The company said it had more than 270,000 advertisers, a 30% gain year-over-year and up 10% from Q3 2013.

No, Google Hasn’t Released Unannounced Penguin Updates

2013: A recent Google video might have suggested that Google was pushing Penguin Updates without announcing them, but Google said this wasn’t the case.

Google Shopping Tops Amazon Product Ads: 32.7% More Cost Effective

2013: In the second half of 2012, Google Shopping sent 120% more traffic to merchants than Amazon Product Ads.

Google Enables Blocking AdWords Results With Block Site Feature

2012: It appearsed you could block sites from showing up in the paid search ad results, whether signed into Google or not.

“Googler Killer”, Cuil, Patent Applications Acquired By Google

2012: Cuil, which launched in June 2008 and went defunct in September 2010, had their patent applications acquired by Google.

AdCenter Revamps Location Targeting To Mimic AdWords

2012: Microsoft adCenter made changes to its location targeting functionality that brought it into line with the industry standard Google AdWords.

The Microhoo Bunch

2010: The recently approved Microsoft-Yahoo search deal, set to a TV theme song.

Google Suggests Ways To Prevent Hacking

2009: Using Google site search could help identify if a hacker had added common spam content, or Google Alerts could be used to monitor spammy words and phrases.

Google Changes Display URL Policy: One Domain Per Ad Group

2009: Advertisers could only have the same domain showing in a specific ad group in the display URL field.

Google Maps: Transit Updates, Map Maker In 27 Languages

2009: The objective of the product was to enable local users/developers to build out maps data and content for places in the world where there are no commercial or other third-party databases that Google could easily implement.

Google AdSense Adds Font Selection

2009: Publishers could pick between Arial, Times, and Verdana font types and they would be present on all of their Latin-based character units.

Google Brings Back Video & Drops Shopping From Top Navigation

2009: In November 2007, Google did the exact reverse.

Search In Pictures: Ask.com At Daytona, Vint Cerf At SMX & Yahoo Hack Day India

2009: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

Lee Odden Interviews Google’s Adam Lasnik

2008: Topics included duplicate content issues, and if there are penalties, and using the nofollow to “sculpt PageRank.” 

Microsoft & Google Sued Over Paid Search Patent Infringement

2008: A company named Paid Search Engine Tools of Liberty Township said Google’s AdWords and Microsoft’s adCenter products infringe on their patent, “Paid search engine bid management.”

Gates On Yahoo Acquisition: It’s The Engineers We Want

2008: It wasn’t the advertisers, the brand, or the traffic so much as the engineers that Microsoft wanted in the Yahoo acquisition.

Yahoo Search Index Now Supported By Open-Source Hadoop Architecture

2008: The benefits, among others, were cost savings and scalability.

Van Natta To Leave Facebook, Yahoo Offers Enhanced Severance To Retain Employees

2008: The reason given for the packages was employee retention in a climate of uncertainty, which had accelerated the departures of a number of high profile Yahoo employees.

Newspond Lauches News Aggregation Site That Uses A “Tireless Electronic Brain”

2008: Newspond was a news aggregation site that boasted “No editors. No voting. Just an AI news engine.”

SES London 2008 Day Two Recap

Mobile Search Still A Close Race

2007: Google had about 4.75 million U.S. subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2006, roughly 1.1 million more than Yahoo.

New Stats On Google’s Products Show Video & Blog Increasing While Froogle & Directory Decreasing

2007: “Super performers”: Google Video, Google Blog Search, Google Scholar and Google Desktop.

Listing Of Lists Of Google Products

2007: A listing of lists of Google products.

Let Google Drive Your Car For You

2007: Page “proposed giving computers control over cars” so that there will be fewer accidents.

Google Teaches Programming Class At University Of Washington

2007: This course would “teach students to use 40 computers to solve problems such as how many times the word ‘mild’ appeared on the Internet and which ‘mild’ was most relevant to Internet users.”

Viacom To Sign With Joost Over Google’s YouTube

2007: Joost was like YouTube but they specialized in commercial video. 

Text Messaging: Where The Volume And The Dollars Are Today

2007: Mobile advertising as a mass medium would take off, but the question was: when and in precisely what form?

From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

< February 19 | Search Marketing History | February 21 >

Google removes ads from right side of search results

In 2016, Google removed ads from the right side of its desktop search results (with two exceptions: Product Listing Ad boxes and Knowledge panel ads) in all languages, worldwide.

Google Ads would only appear at the top and/or bottom of the page.

An additional ad (so, four instead of three) would appear above Google’s organic search results for what it called “highly commercial queries.”

This was actually the culmination of a test that began in 2010 and ramped up significantly in 2015, mostly outside of the U.S.

Google’s official statement on the change:

“We’ve been testing this layout for a long time, so some people might see it on a very small number of commercial queries. We’ll continue to make tweaks, but this is designed for highly commercial queries where the layout is able to provide more relevant results for people searching and better performance for advertisers.”

Read all about it in Confirmed: Google To Stop Showing Ads On Right Side Of Desktop Search Results Worldwide.

Also on this day

Bing announces refreshed Bing Webmaster Tools

2020: The new toolset promised to offer a faster, cleaner, more responsive and even more actionable set of features.

Vast majority of Amazon advertisers plan to spend more on ads again this year

2020: Specialized Amazon marketers and paid search marketers were most likely to be managing campaigns on the platform, our survey found.

Video: Rhea Drysdale on hyperlocal SEO & saving clients money

2020: From running a small business to digging deep into SEO to help clients win.

Google may use different ranking weights for YMYL-type queries

2019: Google has confirmed that for Your Money, Your Life, queries they will give more weight in their ranking algorithm to factors around expertise, authoritativeness, or trustworthiness.

Google Actions vs. Alexa Skills is the next big App Store battle

2019: There were thousands of Skills and Actions but very few people were using them.

Google changes request recrawl limits, noting daily limits versus monthly quotas

2018: Google finally disclosed the new recrawl limits in a revised help document.

Google Maps adds mall directory search & browse in local panel

2018: Google added a new tab to the local panel in the search results named “directory.”

Google Chrome extensions bringing back ‘View Image’ & ‘Search by Image’ buttons in Google Image Search

2018: Google removed some much-loved features in image search, but some Chrome extensions bring back that functionality.

Keyword infringement: Edible Arrangements files $209M trademark suit against Google

2018: The central claim was that when users searched for [Edible Arrangements] (or versions of that name), they were seeing product ads for competitors, such as 1-800-Flowers.

Webmasters: Be On The Lookout For Hreflang Implementation Notifications From Google

2016: Google sent out a large number of notifications to webmasters who had incorrectly implemented hreflang markup.

Google App Streaming Now Live For Many Apps Via Try Now Button

2016: You could preview apps directly from the search results before downloading them.

Search In Pics: Brett Dennen At Google, A Doctor’s Google Sign & Google Moving Boxes

2016: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.

Google’s New Hacked Classifier Misclassifies Some Web Sites As Hacked

2015: Many websites noticed Google labeled their sites as being hacked and dangerous in the search results. The issue was not with their websites but rather the Google hacked sites classifier.

Google AdWords Launches An Android App For Advertisers But Currently Only For Canadians

2015: Canadian Google AdWords advertisers could download an Android app to manage their campaign on the go. Google promised to expand support to other countries soon.

Google News Bug Drops Trending Topics From Side Bar Navigation

2015: A fix was coming soon.

Google Mobile Search Put Publishers’ Content In Carousels

2015: Users could quickly scan topic-based content from single sources on mobile devices.

Bing Offers Link To Order Food Online From Your Favorite Restaurants

2015: You could search for a restaurant that offered online ordering and click the order online button.

Google’s Matt Cutts: Backlink Relevancy Is A Big Win In Terms Of Search Quality

2014: Cutts answers: “Is there a version of Google that excludes backlinks as a ranking factor?”

New Google Maps Comes Out Of Preview Today

2014: Overall, it was a more visually-compelling product than the old Maps with a wide array of enhanced features.

Google Was Nearly A Site That Allowed Users To Order Pizza Through A Fax Machine

2013: Sergey Brin explained how a single failed fax allowed Google to be born.

Bing Updates Friends’ Photos Search With Windows Tiles Layout & Slideshow View

2013: The changes included a new title-like layout you are familiar with when it comes to Windows 8 and a slideshow view for faster and richer photo viewing.

Burden Of Search UI Innovation Now Falls To Yahoo Veteran Laurie Mann

2013: Laurie Mann, who had been senior vice president of engineering operations at Yahoo since 2002, was promoted to run Yahoo Search. 

Alibaba Creates Aliyun Search Engine To Challenge Baidu, Google In China

2013: The appearance and functionality of the SERP on Aliyun was more like Google than a comparable page on Chinese search leader Baidu’s site.

ChaCha Defeats Google, Bing And Siri In “Answers Quality” Study

2013: “ChaCha delivered the highest quality responses consistently across the largest group of categories and question types.”

Twitter’s Traffic Up 9%, Thanks To Google

2010: When Google added real-time results to their search interface in December, it had a major impact on people discovering tweets in the search results.

Google: “With Buzz We Failed To Appreciate That Users Have Differing Privacy Expectations”

2010: Also, Google revealed that for every 15 people who click through to the privacy controls and preferences that “four users edit preferences, one opts out and 10 do nothing.”

Google Shopper: Scan Books, DVDs, Video Games, Bar Codes & Get Prices

2010: You could point the app at books, CDs, DVDs, and video games, and barcodes and it would fetch the details of that product and give you the prices, stores, reviews and more about that product.

Google Adds Maps, Local Search For 30 Countries In Africa

2010: Users could now find local businesses.

Yahoo Formalizes Rich Ads In Search, Text Ads Gain Images Or Video

2009: After testing this for close to a year, Yahoo would formally announce Rich Ads In Search – a service that placed images and videos into paid ads in Yahoo’s search results.

Go Figure: Twitter Tests Adding Search To Main Navigation

2009: Twitter Search had become incredibly popular, even thought most people had no clue how to find it.

Official: Google To Enforce AdWords URL Policy Starts April 1

2008: The policy required the ad’s display URL match its destination URL. 

Microsoft Signals Long Term Commitment To Search Even Without Yahoo

2008: Bill Gates said with or without Yahoo, the company would invest heavily in web search over the long term to compete with Google.

Yahoo Makes Big Customer Satisfaction Gains In Search

2008: Yahoo called out the “Search Assist & Suggestions Rankings” metric, where it apparently outperformed Google, based on the introduction in October of Search Assist.

Google Earth Image Update: Spain Images

2008: The imagery update covered the eastern edge of Spain, including Barcelona.

China Government Censured Baidu For Spreading “Filthy Pictures”

2008: Internet users in China were reportedly using Baidu to find images of actor Edison Chen and several female stars in sexual acts that were spreading throughout the web.

Topix To Power Community For Local NBC Affiliates

2008: Topix already did this for selected newspapers and Gannett TV sites and claimed 100 media partners for its local news and/or community features.

SES London 2008 Day One Recap

Google Sending Wikipedia A Ton Of Traffic

2007: The percentage of Google’s downstream traffic going to Wikipedia increased by 166% year over year.

Google Finance Plus Signs In Google Search Results

2007: Clicking on the plus sign opened a Google Finance preview.

Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

< February 18 | Search Marketing History | February 20 >

Yahoo stops using Google search

In 2004, Yahoo stopped using Google’s web search results and rolled out its own new index and ranking system.

Although Yahoo had purchased Inktomi in December 2002, Yahoo opted to build its own web search engine. Yahoo still relied on Google for image search and and News search was a combination of Yahoo’s own editorial and technological resources.

The quality of Yahoo’s results were impressive at the time. As for what was being indexed:

“The Yahoo Search index is capturing the full text of web pages, up to a 500K limit. This is greater than the 101K maximum indexed by Google. A broad range of file types, including HTML, PDF, and Microsoft Office documents is also included in the mix.

How big is Yahoo’s index? They aren’t saying, despite Google’s announcement yesterday that it has expanded its index to nearly 4.3 billion documents (6 billion, if you count images and newsgroup postings, as Google does).

Interestingly, in almost all of my tests with random queries, Yahoo reports more results found than Google. Does this mean that Yahoo’s index is bigger? Perhaps — but reported results are estimates, not exact counts. They also can include factors other than keyword matches and so are notoriously unreliable measures of overall index size. Suffice to say that Yahoo’s index is comparable to Google’s for most queries.”

– Search Engine Watch, Yahoo! Birth of a New Machine

At the time, Microsoft had yet to launch its own web crawler for MSN Search, and Ask Jeeves/Teoma was the only other top tier search engine available.

Search Engine Land also wished Yahoo a happy 5th birthday in 2009.

Also on this day

Google testing questions and answers in the Google Maps interface

2022: This feature first launched in 2017 in the local panel and Google appears to be testing it in Google Maps.

LinkedIn’s Service Pages for freelancers adds features to showcase credibility

2022: Service Page owners could show the organization they worked for and include media from their portfolio.

Google updated metric boundaries for core web vitals in Search Console

2021: Google made a small change to the metric boundaries it used for defining red versus yellow versus green scores in this report.

Responsive search ads now the default in Google Ads

2021: Though expanded text ads could still be created.

Google brings Display ads to attribution reports as an open beta

2021: Advertisers could see Display ads alongside search and YouTube.

Google Search Console Change of Address tool adds redirect validation & reminder

2020: Google announced two new features to the Change of Address tool within Google Search Console.

Google Ads intros ‘continuous audience sharing’ for manager accounts

2020: The opt-in capability was available in manager account settings.

Goodbye Search Engine Land, SMX and Third Door Media

2020: After more than two decades of writing about search and online marketing, as well as speaking at and organizing conferences, Chris Sherman moved on.

Marketers can now view Shopping Campaigns in Bing Ads search terms reporting

2019: The updated reporting grid also included an Added/Excluded keywords column.

Tell Google Why You Want More Than 90 Days Of Search Analytics Data

2016: Despite having a way to export your Search Console data and the Search Analytics API, Google wanted to know why you wanted more data directly in the Search Console.

Google To Launch AMP In Search Results On Feb. 24, 2016

2016: That meant that mobile searchers wou8ld begin to see AMP-optimized content from publishers in the search results.

New In AdWords: Stage Campaign Changes In Drafts, Test Changes In Experiments

2016: Campaign drafts and experiments made reviewing proposed changes and testing those changes more accessible.

Since 2013 Bing’s Share Up 5 Points, Ask & AOL Going Way Of The BlackBerry

2016: There was almost no movement in the numbers from the previous month.

Trademark Court’s Impossible Order: Uber Told To Change Google Search Results

2016: Judge tried to strike a balance but failed to understand the inherent problem at the heart of order – controlling search outcomes.

Bing Rolls Out Red Carpet For The Oscars With Its “Academy Awards Experience”

2016: Bing’s Guide to the Academy Awards delivered Oscar-related content, including past winners, red carpet fashions and memorable show moments.

See All Of The New Google AdWords Updates On One Web Page

2015: Google created a new page that acts as a release notes document for showing advertisers the latest updates and feature releases.

Competitive Bid Opportunities Arrive On Bing To Help Advertisers Analyze Themselves Against Rivals

2015: Tool allowed advertisers to stack themselves up against the competition, and instantly make changes where they see fit.

Google Testing More Ads On Knowledge Graph Panels: Google Play Gets The Spotlight

2014: Ads on the knowledge graph were for movie streaming rentals that gave Google Play the VIP treatment.

Out Of Beta: Google Shopping Campaigns For PLAs Now Available Globally

2014: After just over a 3-month beta period, Google rolled out Shopping campaigns to all users.

Bing Adds Three New Apps For Windows Phones: Travel, Food & Drink and Health & Fitness

2014: Bing added three new apps for the Windows Phone and refreshed several of their other apps.

Aviate Is Yahoo’s Answer To Google Now (And More)

2014: But it wasn’t “robust” enough to fulfill its strategic potential. 

Delivering On Search: Behind The Scenes With An Ad Agency SEO Manager

2014: Insight on Hillary Glaser’s role within ad agency Lowe Campbell Ewald and how she saw brands failing when it came to search efforts.

Google Works To Prevent Illegal Download Sites From Having A Credit Source

2013: Google was in talks with Visa, Mastercard and PayPal to prevent these types of companies from using credit cards or PayPal accounts.

Search Engines More Trusted Than Social Media For News & Information [Study]

2013: When it came to getting general news and information, consumers worldwide put as much trust in search engines as they did in traditional media — and more in both than they do in social media.

Reddit AMA Reveals Graph Search Has Been In The Works Since Early 2011 & Specs On How It Works

2013: One reason that Graph Search rolled out so slowly: privacy.

Court Reversal Brings Surprising Loss For Google In AdWords Trademark Case

2011: A Federal judge in California denied Google’s motion to dismiss a “false association” claim.

Obama’s Silicon Valley “Tech Supper” – Who Sat Where? Why Was He There?

2011: Google CEO Eric Schmidt was there, as was Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz.

Search In Pics: Google Lederhosen, Umbrellas & Logos

2011: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.

Is Google Referrer Spamming To Detect Spam?

2010: Possible evidence that Google was using fake referrers, possibly to detect forms of spam.

Google Gets Patent For Variable Content Access By Geography

2010: Google book scanning and search appeared to be the primary intended use case. 

Yahoo & Microsoft Receive Go Ahead To Implement Search Deal

2010: They received “unrestricted” clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission to proceed.

Google Wants Mountain View To Change Zoning Laws

2010: Google wanted to enable their employees to live closer to the Googleplex, which would make for happier employees.

Google Maps On Steroids: New Display Shows Dozens Of Businesses (Maybe More)

2009: Google added a layer for local search results that activated when there were more relevant results than it could show on one page.

Google Expands AdSense For Domains Globally

2009: Google had promised to continue the expansion after making the program available to all U.S. publishers In December 2008.

Google Latitude Attracts A Million Users In A Week

2009: That’s what Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra said.

Google Finally Releases Google Mobile App For Windows Mobile

2009: Seven months after the release of the iPhone, Google brought their mobile app to the Windows Mobile device.

SearchBiz Legal Edition: Varney Uses The “M Word,” More AdWords Litigation, Yahoo Lawyer Files Complaint — Against Yahoo

2009: This question of whether Google was a “monopoly” when “the competition is a click away” was subtle and complex.

Google 10K: 55% More Employees, 99% Of Income Via Ads & More

2008: Advertising revenues made up 99% of Google’s revenues in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

It’s The Culture Stupid: Happy Googlers Sound Off On What They Like About The Place

2008: There was a self-conscious effort internally to maintain the atmosphere and culture that had enabled Google to succeed.

Google Contractor Sues Google Over Google Sky Layer

2008: A Google contractor sued Google for allegedly stealing a Sky layer idea from him.

Google Helps In Child Porn Bust In United States

2008: A high school teacher was indicted for distributing and soliciting child pornography on Google-owned Hello.com.

Blueprints Of Google’s Oregon Data Center

2008: The data center would require enough power to light up about 82,000 homes, equivalent to 103-megawatts of electricity.

Yahoo Buzz: Next Digg Competitor

2008: Yahoo Buzz would be similar to Digg, but start only with 100 sites allowed into the system. 

Hitwise: Google Users Older, Bigger Spenders Than Yahoo’s

2008: Google users were more likely to be affluent and have spent more online.

From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

< February 17 | Search Marketing History | February 19 >