The Featured Snippet is the official SEO newsletter of Performics and is dedicated to keeping you up to date with the latest SEO industry news, trends, and eventsâall in an easy-to-read, summed-up format. See below for the latest version of The Featured Snippet:
In the September 2022 issue of The Featured Snippet:
On September 12, 2022, Google began rolling out the September 2022 core update, which took two weeks to complete. Google announced the update from Twitter, saying, âToday we released the September 2022 core update. Weâll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete.â The last core update launched in May 2022.
Sources:
Search On, Googleâs annual search conference, was held on Wednesday, September 28, 2022. Google unveiled a number of innovations coming to search, including:
Making search more natural and intuitive: Google will be using AI to move beyond text-based search and include âimages, sounds, text and speech, just like people do naturally,â according to Google.
New features and tools for easier shopping on Google: Google is adding new visual tools using AI to their shopping tools.
Expanding Reach. Google announced two new features coming to search to expand the news and information available from a given search:
Sources:
On September 20, 2022, Google released the September 2022 Product Reviews update. Product Reviews updates are meant to prioritize review-based content that is most helpful for searchers. While Google mentions that this is not meant to punish thin content, higher-quality content may see a boost in the rankings which could de-prioritize unhelpful content. This is the fifth Product Reviews update Google has released.
Sources:
On August 25, 2022, the Google Helpful Content Update began rolling out. According to Google, âThe helpful content update aims to better reward content where visitors feel they’ve had a satisfying experience, while content that doesn’t meet a visitor’s expectations won’t perform as well.â The update finished rolling out on September 9, 2022, and any changes in ranking should be complete.
Sources:
New Merchant Listings Report
Google Search Console has released a new report to the platform, a merchant listings report. Merchant listings are for pages that allow shoppers to buy a product directly on the site.
This report is aimed to show the performance of various product listings and help identify problem areas to fix within your product structured data. The new merchant listings report covers three main features: identifies structured data issues, is relevant to pages that sell products, and covers a wide range of different structured data properties and types.
Sources:
New HTTPS Report
Google Search Console has released a new HTTPS report, which will be gradually rolled out over the next few months. This report is meant to help get more insight into your HTTPS pages and identify any issues that prevent pages from being served as HTTPS. This report will be important to utilize because it can help you improve the overall user experience for your website.
Some issues that Google has flagged that may prevent your page from being served as HTTPS:
Sources:
International Targeting Report Deprecated
The International Targeting Tool within Google Search Console is no longer available as of September 22, 2022. With the deprecation of this tool, you will no longer be able to target search results for specific countries. Google mentioned that this feature didnât provide much value over the years. Google will continue to support hreflang and their overall recommendations for managing international sites will still stand.
Sources:
TikTok is testing a new âNearbyâ content feed, in addition to the current âFor Youâ and âFollowingâ tabs, which may be a direct challenge to local search. Here is a look at the new feature (via Social Media Today):
This trend of TikTok eating in local search is being notified by Google, as a Google executive suggested that almost 40% of young people go to TikTok or instagram when theyâre looking for a place for lunch.
Sources: