Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Brewing
There are some signs of a Google search ranking algorithm update happening now. Google has not said or confirmed anything but there is some chatter over the past few days and now signs from the automated tracking tools of an update. - Are You Writing Too Much Content On Your E-Commerce Category Pages For Google?
Another interesting tidbit from Marie Haynes interview of John Mueller was a snippet around how people place text on the bottom of e-commerce category pages. John kind of suggested that 90% of that content is unnecessary but it is useful to have a sentence or two. - Some Businesses With Temporarily Closed Status On Google My Business Cannot Change It
At the beginning of this COVID-19 pandemic, the Google My Business team added a new option for temporarily closed. But it seems like some businesses are not currently or temporarily closed and cannot change the status to open in Google. - Preventing Google's Featured Snippet Scroll Won't Lead To Snippet Removal
Last week we covered how Google launched for some browsers and some featured snippets that Google will highlight and scroll down to the content of the featured snippet on your web page. As expected, some publishers and web site owners are not happy about it. But did you know you can opt out and still have featured snippets? - Google AdSense Starts Site Reviews Again & More Changes
A few weeks ago we reported that Google paused doing site reviews for AdSense publishers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Well, it seems Google has kicked things back up with these AdSense site reviews. Google also announced two new changes to AdSense this week; global settings for ads and changes to AdSense experiments. - Google Web Spam Report: 99% Spam Free Search Experience
Google has released the 2019 version of the yearly Google web spam report. We have covered it the past couple of years; 2018 and 2017 versions. This year, Google said all is good and the preventive spam efforts resulted in "more than 99% of visits from our results lead to spam-free experiences." - Google Mountain View Campus From Afar & Empty
Jennifer Barr posted a photo of the Google office in Mountain View and also from Shoreline, showing from afar, how empty the area is. She wrote on Instagram "Out walking in Mountain View over by Goog
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Am I missing something? Why is so much of https://t.co/55z1JeOujG noindexed? 🤔 https://t.co/kytTXOsN0U, Lily Ray on Twitter
- hreflang is so surprisingly complex in practice that I think anything which makes it easier to understand & debug should be considered a requirement :)., John Mueller on Twitter
- Out of respect for the current social climate, we've decided to postpone tomorrow's Lightning Talk on Rich Results and Google Search Console. We look forward to resuming the Lightning Talk series. Until then, be well an, Google Webmasters on Twitter
- Well, it's not about "skipping" the policy, it's more about violating it. Ultimately that's your decision. Manual actions on structured data tend to disable rich results across the site, so that's not something, John Mueller on Twitter
- If a page is robotted, it can still become indexed/canonical based on things like links, redirects, etc. So if you're worried about the links to the old site being forwarded to the new one, you might, John Mueller on Twitter
- Let us know, what you think is missing in our JavaScript SEO troubleshooting guide 📯 Read it here 👉 https://t.co/n9b6i5XmWI https://t.co/MqtnWd75ch, Martin Splitt on Twitter
- Practically speaking, if those old-site links are just "sketchy" then they're probably being ignored anyway, so it's a fun exercise, but it's not like this is something many sites would ever need to c, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- When silence is not an option: Brands dive in with protest support
- Google webspam report: Cracking down on renegade linking practices, auto-generated content
- Google Search Console performance report gets recipe filters
- 4 things we learned about automated bidding during the pandemic
- Prospect for in-person conferences fades for 2020
- Explore the SMX Next agenda!
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- 10 Strategies to Manipulate Google Analytics Data, Online Metrics
- 5 Ways To Use Google Tag Manager On Your Review Funnel, Grade
- How to Set Up and Test Cross-Domain Tracking In Google Tag Manager, Portent
Industry & Business
- No gym, no sleep pods as Google employees return to the office, San Francisco Chronicle
Links & Content Marketing
- Is Content Syndication Your Secret Weapon to Successful PR?, State of Digital
Local & Maps
- Did Apple Maps Photoshop The Black Lives Matter Mural Into Its DC Satellite View?, Forbes
- Google Maps May Soon Offer Navigation in Amitabh Bachchan’s Voice, NDTV
Mobile & Voice
- Google Pixel shipments hit 7.2 million in 2019, highest yet, 9to5Google
- The original Google Home is dead and we don't need a replacement, Android Central
SEO
- How to Handle Discontinued Products: SEO Tips and Strategies, Content King App
- Post-COVID Predictions: 5 SEO & CX Trends That Are Here to Stay, Botify
- What Is a Google Penalty & How to Recover: SEO Foundations, RankRanger
PPC
- Google AdWords Conversion Tracking with Multiple Events, Metric Theory
- Reduce Ad Copy Mistakes With Team Calendars, PPC Hero
