A lot of interesting things happened at Google this week with a new LGBTQ+ attribute to Business Profiles, updated guidelines for product variants pages and rich results, added YouTube ‘Video Corrections’ feature, and more.
ICYMI, here’s what happened at Google This Week.
- YouTube Adds ‘Video Corrections’ Feature
- Updated Local Service Ads Reviews Requirements
- Google Updated Guidelines for Product Variants Pages and Rich Results
- New Look for Google News
- Google Adds LGBTQ+ Attribute to Business Profiles
- Added Insights to Google’s ‘All In’ Marketing Accessibility Resource
- Will Only Crawl and Index the First 15MB of Content Per Page
YouTube Adds ‘Video Corrections’ Feature
YouTube has launched a new feature that will allow YouTube creators to add corrections to their videos after publishing them. When creators add a correction to their YouTube video, viewers will see a card appear at the time of the error.
With YouTube video corrections, you can alert viewers when a particular moment in a video contains an error, and link them to the description section where the clarification is provided.
Updated Local Service Ads Reviews Requirements
Local service ads requirements have been updated with the new requirement to have five customer reviews from the previous requirement of having only one review. The update says “starting June 30, 2022, real estate agent businesses will need at least 5 customer reviews to run a new ad“.
Google’s Ads Liaison said on Twitter that the only change here is the requirement went from one review to five reviews. Ginny Marvin said, “The process to advertise with Local Services Ads hasn’t changed, it’s just that the reviews requirement has changed from 1 to 5. More customer reviews help build trust and will mean more opportunities to connect with potential clients”.
Google Updated Guidelines for Product Variants Pages and Rich Results
Google has updated the product rich results support page to add details around how these rich results can be used for product variants, where each product variant has a distinct URL.
Google simply clarified how rich results on product variants work by adding this single line: “This includes product variants, where each product variant has a distinct URL”. If you choose to use a distinct URL per variant, Google recommends using either:
- A path segment, such as /t-shirt/green
- A query parameter, such as /t-shirt?color=green
New Look for Google News
Google News is redesigning its desktop site with a new layout that allows users to track global and local news on one screen. The redesign puts Your Briefing, Local news, and Top Picks section on a single page in different columns.
The redesign moves all topics from the sidebar to the top of the screen, to better accommodate other columns like Local news and Top picks. The weather widget now takes up a small space on the top right of the screen.
Google Adds LGBTQ+ Attribute to Business Profiles
Google announced that it’s adding a new label on Maps and Search that will allow people to identify their business as being LGBTQ+ owned. The new label is now available to merchants with a verified business profile on Google.
The new LGBTQ+ attribute label joins the current options available to merchants, which include Black-owned, Latino-owned, veteran-owned and women-owned. The LGBTQ+ attribute also expands on the “LGBTQ+ friendly” and “transgender safe space” labels that are visible on business profiles on Search and Maps.
Added Insights to Google’s ‘All In’ Marketing Accessibility Resource
Google has expanded its “All In” marketing toolkit to include more insights on accessible marketing, in order to help ensure that advertisers consider accessibility within their outreach initiatives.
The “All In” mini-site (all-in.withgoogle.com) includes a range of helpful tips and notes on how to maximise inclusion in your marketing approach, across various categories.
Googlebot Will Only Crawl and Index the First 15MB of Content Per Page
Google has updated its help document on Googlebot to specify that Googlebot will crawl up to the first 15MB of the page. After the first 15MB of the file, Googlebot stops crawling and only considers the first 15MB of content for indexing.
In the Googlebot help document, Google says, “Googlebot can crawl the first 15MB of content in an HTML file or supported text-based file. After the first 15MB of the file, Googlebot stops crawling and only considers the first 15MB of content for indexing“.
Thank You for Reading
Have you noticed the new LGBTQ+ attribute to any business profiles or any other changes from Google this week?
Check back next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.
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