Hey SEO peeps, it’s Friday again! Now it’s time for our weekly round of SEO news updates, and here’s a quick overview of what happening this week. 

1. Google blocked 3.1 billion ads and introduce a new ad spot at Google Map Business
2. Emojis in Google Search Suggestions & Autocomplete (🖥️ & 📱)
3. Google: Pages with Core Web Vitals May Have Tiny Ranking Advantage
   
4. Can Browser Extensions impact your Google Core Web Vitals?
   
5. Featured Snippets back to Normal Levels in Google Search
   
6. Google Video SEO tips in New Video and Updated Help Docs

Without further ado, now let’s dive into the details.

17/3/2021 – Google blocked 3.1 billion ads and intro a new ad spot at Google My Business

Google has published its annual Ad Safety Report and disclosed that it has:

• Blocked/removed over 3.1 billion ads for violating its Google Ads policies
• Restricted over 6.4 billion ads
• Suspended over 1.7 million advertiser accounts
• Removed ads from over 1.3 billion pages in 2020

Just for perspective, Google has removed 130 million bad ads a decade prior to 2011.

Bryant Suellentrop spotted a new ad placement recently in the Google Map interface whereby you can spot an ad when you are browsing Google Maps and click on a business pin. Here’s the screenshot he shared. 

17/3/2021 – Emojis in Google Search Suggestions & Autocomplete (🖥️ & 📱)

Google is reportedly showing emojis in part of the search and autocomplete suggestions as you type your query into Google search. 

We are not sure what SEO agency Primelis has up its sleeves but we are sure to keep an eye out. 👀

17/3/2021 – Google: Pages with Core Web Vitals May Have Tiny Ranking Advantage

Martin Splitt of Google tweeted yesterday, “…given all things equal, a page with core web vitals (CWV) field data may have a tiny advantage over one without.”

In other words, if your page has core web vitals field data, it might benefit you over pages that do not have this field data. 

Why would a page with core web vitals field data have a tiny ranking advantage? 

Martin explained “because the page experience is a mix of multiple signals, including CWV. If (and that’s a big if) the CWV label launches, it may have a non-ranking advantage if users prefer those pages over others.”

Here’s the actual tweet. 

17/3/2021 – Can Browser Extensions impact your Google Core Web Vitals?

Over the past week, there has been a lot of chatter in the SEO industry around the potential threat third-party browser extensions can have on your core web vitals scores.  

Specifically how it might impact your rankings in Google Search based on how a user who visited your site may have installed a plugin that impacts maybe the CLS score on your pages.

But this might not be a huge concern after all since…

1. Most people do not have browser extensions on their mobile browsers and these scores, at least how Google uses them for ranking, are mobile-only. 
2. Most users, and no, SEOs are not the average browser user, probably do not install browser extensions on their desktop browser.
3. The Page Experience Update won’t be a massive ranking change anyway.

15/3/2021 – Featured Snippets back to Normal Levels in Google Search

It was as of Feb 19th or so that Google significantly dropped the number of times featured snippets would show up in the Google search results. 

But well, as of March 12th, it looks like the percentage of time Google shows featured snippets in the results is finally back to normal. Glenn Gabe was the first to notice and tweet about this. 

18/3/2021 – Google Video SEO Tips in New Video & Updated Help Docs

Google has published some new and updated resources around video SEO.

First, there is a new lighting talk on the topic of video SEO best practices by Danielle Marshak, Product Manager at Google.

Second, there is an updated help doc section on video SEO best practices.

So depending on which type of content format you prefer, do make sure you check out these best practices especially if you are doing any video marketing. 

That’s it, folks! Make sure you stay tuned to next week’s SEO news!

Updated: 25 April 2024

About Vivian

Vivian is an anthropologist lost in the world of digital marketing. She has an interest in learning about the science of marketing and the creativity that businesses use to transform themselves into purple cows.