A lot of interesting changes at Google This Week with a new recycling attribute in business discovery, autosuggest in Google Analytics 4, search by image and text with Multisearch, improvements to invalid impressions and clicks counting, and more.
ICYMI, here’s what happened at Google This Week.
- Confirmed Latency Issue With Google Ads Reviews
- Google’s New Recycling Attribute to Business Discovery
- Google Cloud’s Retail Search for Ecommerce Sites
- Google Ads Updated Inappropriate Content Policy
- Out of Stock Products May Impact Google Search Visibility
- Google Pathways Language Model Algorithm
- Added In-Store Products in Google Help Doc
- Autosuggest for Search in Google Analytics 4
- Improvements to Invalid Impressions and Clicks Counting
- Optimised Performance with Search Console Bubble Chart
- Search by Image and Text at The Same Time with Google Multisearch
- User-based Ads Control Now Available to Authorised Buyers
Confirmed Latency Issue With Google Ads Reviews
Google has confirmed a latency issue with the Google Ads console where there is “higher than normal latency” during the ad review process for Responsive search ads (RSAs). The search company said this is impacting a “significant subset of users”.
Google posted “we’re aware of a problem with Google Ads affecting a significant subset of users. The affected users are able to access Google Ads, but are seeing error messages, high latency, and/or other unexpected behavior. Currently, Responsive search ads (RSAs) might experience a higher than normal latency during the ad review process”.
Google’s New Recycling Attribute to Business Discovery
Google has added a new recycling attribute for business profiles that will enable businesses to raise awareness of their recycling programs, and drive more activity as a result. Businesses can now add the new recycling attribute within their Google My Business listing, which will show up both in Search and Google Maps.
To add the recycling attribute to your business profile:
- Go to your Business Profile (you can search for ‘my business’ in Google search or go to Google My Business)
- Select ‘Edit profile’, then ‘Business information’
- Near the top, click on the ‘More’ tab
- Select the category that you want to change
- Next to the attribute, select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
- When you’re finished updating your attributes, select ‘Save’’
Google Cloud’s Retail Search for Ecommerce Sites
Google Cloud has announced the release of Retail Search, a tool designed to give retailers the capabilities of Google’s search engine on their own domains. Retail Search is intended to help businesses improve on-site search and the overall shopping experience.
Merchants can apply business rules to fine-tune what customers see, diversify product displays, filter by availability and add custom tags, as they see fit. This allows them to drive desired outcomes for engagement, revenue or conversions.
Retailers can make product discovery even easier for shoppers, while optimising their business goals with advanced capabilities, including:
- Advanced Query Understanding – A more accurate understanding of what searchers want produces better results.
- Semantic Search – Effectively matching product attributes with website content creates fast, relevant product discovery.
- Optimised Results – Results leverage user interaction and ranking models to meet specific business goals.
- Advanced Security and Privacy – Strong access controls protect retailer data and ensure it is only used to deliver relevant search results on their own properties.
Google Ads Updated Inappropriate Content Policy
Google Ads announced a new policy that will go into effect on June 1, 2022. This policy is an update to the Inappropriate Content policy that will prohibit content that shares personally identifiable information that promotes financial fraud, identity theft, harmful direct contact, or harassment.
Google said that violations of this policy won’t lead to immediate account suspension without prior warning. A warning will be issued at least seven days prior to any suspension of your account.
Ready or not, here comes Google Analytics 4! Here’s everything you need to know about GA4 plus our advice on what to do next.
Did you know that you have until June 2023 to migrate from Universal Analytics to @GoogleAnalytics 4?
Yes, it’s time to start learning how #GA4 works. From 1st July 2023, you will see zeros in your reports and only historical data will be available. 👇 https://t.co/IWjGVx25Rh
— In Marketing WeTrust (@InMktgWeTrust) April 6, 2022
Out of Stock Products May Impact Google Search Visibility
Google may reduce the visibility of a product page if the item for sale is listed as ‘out of stock’ on the retailer’s website, stated by Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller during a recent Google Search Central SEO office hours hangout.
John Mueller explains that Google treats ‘out of stock’ as a soft 404 error saying “when it comes to the normal search results, it can happen that when we see that something is out of stock, we will assume it’s more like a soft 404 error, where we will drop that URL from the search results as well. Theoretically, it could affect the visibility in search if something goes out of stock”.
Google Pathways Language Model Algorithm
Google announced a breakthrough in the effort to create an AI architecture that can handle millions of different tasks, including complex learning and reasoning called the Pathways Language Model or PaLM.
PaLM is a 540-billion parameter, dense decoder-only Transformer model trained with the Pathways system, which enabled us to efficiently train a single model across multiple TPU v4 Pods. The algorithm was trained using a combination of English and multilingual datasets that include high-quality web documents, books, Wikipedia, conversations, and GitHub code.
Added In-Store Products in Google Help Doc
Google has added a section on the “how to improve your local ranking on Google” page by adding In-store Products. The search company also added products to the edit your business profile section as well.
You can see the new section for ‘add in-store products’ in the “update your business info for better visibility” part of the help page.
Autosuggest for Search in Google Analytics 4
Google has introduced a search box at the top of Google Analytics 4 that provides suggestions to help users find information. The auto-suggest feature will show useful queries as users type in Google Analytics 4, highlighting the suggested portion of the text.
You can use the up and down keys to highlight a suggestion and press enter to accept one. For example, when you start typing “user”, you will see the following suggestions in the Search panel.
Improvements to Invalid Impressions and Clicks Counting
Google Campaign Manager 360 teases improvements to invalid impressions and clicks counting. Some users may see a decline in invalid clicks and impression counts.
This is due to improvements to what is counted as invalid clicks and impressions and will not affect the count of actual invalid clicks or impressions.
Optimised Performance with Search Console Bubble Chart
Google shared an insight on how a Bubble Chart can help understand which queries are performing well and which could be improved from the latest Google search central blog. The search company also shared a bubble chart dashboard template in Data Studio to connect and tweak to any settings users want.
Google explains the main elements in the bubble chart by describing specific settings and defining how they influence the data. Google also provides some pointers on what to look for when analysing data.
Search by Image and Text at The Same Time with Google Multisearch
Google announced the roll of a new “multisearch” feature that allows users to search using text and images at the same time via Google Lens, the company’s image recognition technology. This tool is designed to be used for searches that aren’t as straightforward as a singular image or textual phrase.
Starting today, the new multisearch functionality is available as a beta feature in English in the United States. With the new multisearch feature, you can ask a question about an object in front of you or refine your search results by colour, brand or visual attributes. Google says this lets searchers “go beyond the search box and ask questions about what you see”.
User-based Ads Control Now Available to Authorised Buyers
Google has made a small change to the user-based ad controls within Google AdSense. Instead of only being applied to Google Ads and Display & Video 360 ads, it is now also available to Authorised Buyers.
Google wrote “Starting May 6, 2022, the user-based ads control in AdSense will be updated to also apply to ads from Authorised Buyers. Previously this control only applied to ads from Google Ads and Display & Video 360“.
Thank You for Reading
Are you excited to try Google’s Multisearch? Have you noticed any other changes from Google this week?
Check back next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.
