The Featured Snippet: April 2023

The Featured Snippet is the official SEO newsletter of Performics, dedicated to keeping you up to date with the latest SEO industry news, trends, and events. See below for the latest version of The Featured Snippet:

In the April 2023 issue of The Featured Snippet: 

• Google releases the April 2023 Reviews Update
• Google announces its new AI search engine & Project Magi 
• Bing releases site names in search results
• Search Console page experience report will be deprecated
• Google announces GoogleOther bot
• Google unveils the Webspam Report 2022
• Google Analytics will show Universal Analytics data until July 2024
• Bing webmaster tools will gain Bing Chat impressions and clicks in May 2023
• Yelp unveils 3 new features to transform user experience and boost engagement

Google releases the April 2023 Reviews Update

On April 12, 2023, Google released the April 2023 Reviews Update. Unlike previous reviews updates that focused exclusively on products, this update is expanded to include services and businesses, destinations, media, and any other topic that is reviewable. As of April 25, the update finished rolling out.

Sources:

• https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/write-high-quality-reviews 

Google announces its new AI search engine & Project Magi 

Google announced that it is working on a new search engine, powered by its recently unveiled AI technology, while simultaneously updating new AI features into its current search engine. The new project is known as “Magi”, and according to the New York Times, “the new search engine would offer users a far more personalized experience than the company’s current service.” The new project does not have a timeline.

Sources:

• https://9to5google.com/2023/04/16/google-search-magi/
• https://searchengineland.com/google-planning-new-search-engine-while-working-on-new-search-features-under-project-magi-395661

Bing rolls out site names in search results

On April 25, Bing added both favicons and site names to search results in much the same way as Google. Users searching on Bing will now see icons next to specific search results, although this has not been rolled out for every site yet. Favicons and site names do not affect ranking but can affect click-through rate.

Sources:

• https://searchengineland.com/bing-search-results-gain-site-name-and-favicons-396010 

Search Console page experience report is going away

On April 19, 2023, Google announced that the Google Search Console page experience report will be deprecated. It will be replaced with guidelines about page experience instead. Google claims that this change will be happening “in the coming months.”

Sources:

• https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-page-experience-report-going-away-395788 

Google Announces GoogleOther bot

Google announced a new crawler called GoogleOther. This new crawler will be used to help with crawling and freeing up space for Googlebot to crawl internal-only projects. 

This bot has the same features and will do the same thing that Googlebot does.

Source:

• https://www.seroundtable.com/google-crawler-googleother-35261.html

Google unveils the Webspam Report 2022

Google announced the Webspam Report for 2022. This report reviews how Google fought spam over the year. Many improvements were made to SpamBrain, Google’s AI system used to detect and catch spam. Some of the improvements made were teaching SpamBrain to detect sites using spammy links. There are more ways that Google fought spam in 2022 in the article.

Source:

• https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/04/webspam-report-2022

Google Analytics will show Universal Analytics data until July 2024

Google recently shared that Google Analytics will still give you access to your historical data for a year (July 1, 2024). It should be noted that users will only have viewer access and not editor access to their historical data. Universal Analytics data will stop processing on July 1, 2023 for those using the platform for free. 

Source:

• https://www.seroundtable.com/google-analytics-export-report-deadlines-35308.html

Bing Webmaster Tools will gain Bing Chat impressions and clicks in May 2023

Microsoft Bing announced that some time during May 2023, Bing chat data will be available in Bing Webmaster Tools. This data includes clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and more. The insight into this data will be beneficial for site owners, allowing them to see the metrics to their site from Bing Chat. 

Source: 

• https://searchengineland.com/bing-webmaster-tools-to-gain-bing-chat-impressions-and-clicks-next-month-396008

Yelp unveils 3 new features to transform user experience and boost engagement

Yelp will reveal 3 features to improve user experience and boost engagement between businesses and their customers. The three features are:

1. Yelp Guaranteed: this is a satisfaction guaranteed program where users can get up to $2,500 back if something goes wrong on a home improvement project. Businesses abiding by this guarantee will have a ‘Yelp Guaranteed’ badge on their listings. This program is only available in select cities, and is expected to be live nationwide this summer. 
2. AI and Large Language Models to enhance its search experience. Some new features will be available in search, and one of them is a ‘surprise me’ feature that will help you make dining suggestions. 
3. New Visual and Interactive features will be available for users to share their experience with businesses. Some of those features are videos up to 12 seconds that can be posted in the reviews section, new review reactions, and more. 

Source: 

• https://blog.yelp.com/news/yelp-consumer-product-updates-april-2023/
• https://searchengineland.com/yelp-unveils-3-new-features-to-transform-user-experience-and-boost-engagement-395939