Daily Search Forum Recap: August 29, 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.

Google says core updates do not impact Google autocomplete search suggestions. Bing Chat is now testing third-party plugins in the wild. Google shared when a 304 HTTP server status code can hurt your SEO. Bing says it releases its search features globally, it doesn\'t discriminate. Do not, I repeat, do not slow your website down for SEO reasons.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google: Core Updates Do Not Impact Autocomplete Search Predictions
  Google said that core updates have no impact on what Google shows in the autocomplete search predictions or suggestions. Danny Sullivan, Google\'s Search Liaison was asked about this and he said no, there is no impact.
• Bing Chat Third-Party Plugins In The Wild
  We are all expecting to see Bing Chat support third-party plugins really soon, and for now, Bing is testing it. We now see some screenshots of plugin support in Bing Chat in the wild.
• Bing: We Release Search Features Globally (We Don\'t Discriminate)
  Bing\'s CEO, Mikhail Parakhin, said that Bing does not release some features slower or delayed in some countries. He said they release "All countries at the same time," adding that they "don\'t discriminate."
• Google Explains How 304 (Not Modified) HTTP Status Codes Can Go Very Wrong
  Gary Illyes from Google posted how serving a 304 HTTP server status code can "backfire spectacularly," even though the 304 can be a super useful signal for search engines.
• Don\'t Slow Your Website Down To Increase Time on Website - It\'s Not A Google Ranking Factor
  I spotted Google\'s John Mueller laughing at a LinkedIn post that is telling SEOs to slow down webpage load time so that people spend more time on your page. The advice says that Google uses time on website as a ranking factor, which Google had denied countless times, and says to improve time on website, you should slow down your site.
• Google Fuel Pump
  Google has its own branded gas/fuel pump at the Google San Francisco office. Yes, this is just an office prop of an old-fashion fuel pump but Google wanted to brand it with the super G Google logo.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Found a new kind of ad in the bing chatbot answer that looks interesting as it is more inline with an image and takes a good amount of space Is it to invasive?, Wladimir Kirianov on X
• Everything old is new again; the crawlers of the future will have to learn to deal with the quirks - purposeful & accidental - of the web from the past. At least WAP/WML & Flash pages are mostly gone now., John Mueller on X
• Google published a set of rules (checklist) for #GA4 UTM tracking, but most people continue to ignore this checklist and tag URLs however they please. Then, they complain about the unassigned traffic appearing in their reports., Himanshu Sharma on X
• I\'d think about which search features you\'re aiming for, and their requirements. If these don\'t map to requirements, I\'d ignore them (also, they\'re warnings). If Yoast\'s plugin is making this harder: ping them w/details, they\'re friendly, smart, and helpf, John Mueller on X
• Impact of too much HTML in content, Reddit
• SC is not GA, so there will always be differences. I don\'t know how GA attributes things to News. There\'s a separate Google News report in SC & also Discover, it might be worth checking there. That said, for larger sites, focusing on the metrics of a sing, John Mueller on Mastodon

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

• Google to announce new Ohio investment on Monday, Columbus Dispatch
• Google, Meta are best-paying Big Tech companies for software engineers, The Verge
• How it Began: Starting an Agency with Greg Finn and Matt Mombrea of Cypress North, Cypress North
• Meet the guy responsible for helping Meta, Google and Amazon prepare for new laws, CNBC
• Microsoft pulls Bing ads targeting Google Chrome on Windows 11 after outrage, Windows Latest
• Scoop: Schumer to host Musk, Zuckerberg for AI forum, Axios
• Amazon, Google, Apple rank among most culturally resonant brands: The Marketing Arm, Ad Age
• How Google made the world go viral, The Verge

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

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