Notes from the Google Webmaster Hangout on the 31st of May 2019.
Demographic Information Isn’t Used Explicitly in Search Algorithms
Google doesn’t explicitly use demographic information in its search engine algorithms. However, search results may vary on a per user basis due to other types of personalization.
Favicons Now Appear in Mobile Search Results
Favicons are now shown in mobile search results in Google. They don’t require any changes from webmasters as they are updated automatically.
Search Quality Raters Evaluate Results of Algorithm Testing
Google uses Search Quality Raters to evaluate pages when they are testing out changes to algorithms. The teams will test out new ideas and then Raters review the quality of the search results and pages linked from them in different test versions.
Internal Search Results Pages Should be Blocked Unless They Provide Unique Value
Internal search result pages should be blocked from crawling because it could overload the site’s server and they tend to be low quality. However, there may be instances where it makes sense to have these pages indexed if they provide value.
Web Spam Team Can Issue Targeted Manual Actions Against Pages With Unnatural Linking
The Web Spam team can take targeted manual action against websites with unnatural linking by choosing to disregard links to individual or small groups of pages.
New Sites Will be on Mobile-first Indexing by Default
Google is now switching to mobile-first indexing by default for new websites.
Rich Snippets Spam Report Tells Google About Manipulated Structured Data
Use the rich snippets spam report form to inform Google about instances of manipulated structured data.
For more insights from Google, check out our recap from Google I/O 2019 with all of the key takeaways for SEOs
