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We reported on three different Google algorithm updates this week, a bug one on January 9th and 10th, another one on January 5th and 6th, and also a local search ranking update on January 4th. Google reiterates that more changes are coming to deal with the search spam you see in Google’s search results. Google has dropped the FAQ and how-to rich results in the search results again. Google said there is no such thing as a perfect formula for search rankings. Google also said author bylines don’t help you rank better in search. Google said the primary source for your snippets are from the page content. Google said it does not use GA for ranking even within Search Console. Google is still working on site name issues. Google Search Console’s crawl rate setting is gone. Google sitemaps ping endpoints no longer work. We have some data on the Google Perspectives feature. Google talked about the Japanese keyword hack. Google Assistant is dropping a ton of features, does this help us with Google Search. Microsoft may extend Bing Chat’s memory beyond 90 days. Bing Search is testing replacing the Chat menu item with Chat w/GPt-4 and Copilot. Google Ads updated the auction insights box. Google LSAs has a new direct business search feature. Google has updated its sensitive event policy. Microsoft Advertising is moving Hotel Center to Lodging campaigns. Google is shutting down Websites made from Google Business Profiles. Google Search has a bug for zip code searches. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
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