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Featured Snippets callouts now uses MUM and general consensus

Now, with the help of MUM, Google can understand if there is a consensus across the web to help highlight the callout portions of the featured snippets.

Here is an example

Google reenables the validate fix feature in Search Console and adds new classifications

Google said the URLs or items in the Search Console report are no longer grouped at the top level by three or more status categories, i.e. Valid, Warning, and Error. Now they are grouped or classified into two more broad statuses that reflect whether those URLs or items are invalid or not. Google said invalid means that there is a report-specific critical issue in the page or item, and not invalid means that the item might still contain warnings, but has no critical issues. The implications and exact terms for the valid and invalid states varies by report type, Google added.

Google explained “grouping the top-level item (a rich result for the rich result reports, a page or URL for the other reports) into two groups: pages or items with critical issues are labeled something like invalid; pages or items without critical issues are labeled something like valid. We think this new grouping will make it easier to see quickly which issues affect your site’s appearance on Google, in order to help you prioritize your fixes.”

Google featured snippet callouts, the word or words called out above the featured snippet in a larger font, now can be powered by MUM (which is a new and rare use of MUM in search) to check what other sources are saying about the topic. Google said, "our systems can check snippet callouts against other high-quality sources on the web, to see if there's a general consensus for that callout, even if sources use different words or concepts to describe the same thing."

As a reminder, only 20% of SEOs said they noticed any ranking changes related to the helpful content update and I believe a good percentage of that 20% are confused

As Alan Kent of Google recently said on Twitter “a merchant’s product page with user reviews is not considered a “product review page” in this context.”

Identify product reviews. Google also recently clarified that structured data may help Google identify product review-type content, but it is one of many ways Google identifies such content. Danny Sullivan wrote, “as for structured data, it might help us better identify if something is a product review, but we do not solely depend on it.”

Most article links that appear in Google Discover are sourced from non-Google publishers.

There are not many technical requirements to be featured in Google Discover, compared to Google News. You do not need a specific sitemap for Google Discover, nor is there any sort of manual submission process to make your content eligible for Discover feeds.

less predictable or dependable when compared to Search

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Make sure it’s mobile-friendly

Content is automatically eligible to appear in Discover if it is indexed by Google and meets Discover's content policies. No special tags or structured data are required.

Monitor your performance on Discover

Search ad conversion rates down, cost per lead up in 2023 While CPCs increased, a drop in conversion rates resulted in higher CPLs in the 23 industries analyzed in this report.

CPL: $53.52.

91% of industries saw an increase in CPL as well as a decrease in conversion rate, WordStream reported.

Amazon and eBay are very popular brands, but they lack authority in certain thematic areas. That’s why more specialized stores usually rank better than the big e-commerce portals.