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:
- Vlog #24: Danny Sullivan - Father Of Search Marketing & His Transition To Google
Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) is currently the Google Public Liaison of Search, which means he helps with communication between the Google Search team and Google users and others (like us)... - Unconfirmed Google Search Algorithm Ranking Update November 8th
Friday morning, November 8th, I saw a sprinkle of chatter across the industry about a Google search algorithm update. Some were claiming massive changes in traffic and rankings. But to be honest, the chatter was incredibly limited, that is until several hours later and now the chatter throughout the weekend is off the charts. - Google Tests Removing Reviews From Local Knowledge Panels Again
Google may be testing (or it might be a bug) removing reviews from the local knowledge panel in the search results. It seems so weird that I am thinking this is a weird bug, but who knows. Darcy Burk posted this on Twitter with screen shots showing the reviews missing. - Google's Gary Illyes: I've Talked To SEO Spam Email Senders
We all get it and get it a lot, email spam selling links, DA, PR, and metrics around trying to improve your rankings in Google by manipulating Google's algorithm. Some of this spam comes from places like India (not all) and Gary Illyes from Google said he has even traveled to these places and spoken to some of the people who send out these emails. - Google Warns: Don't Build Your Business Around Google Discover Traffic
Gary Illyes from Google commented on how some publishers are getting insane traffic from Google Discover, the feature where Google shows articles from publishers on its Google.com home page. Gary said on Twitter "I just hope people realize that this may go away overnight and they don't build their whole business model around it." - Veterans Day At Google, Bing, Yahoo & The Search Industry
Today is Veterans Day in the United States and the search engines have special logos and themes up for the day. Google historically did not do a special logo for Veterans Day but started doing it recently just a year or so ago. - Google Challenge Coin For Veterans
Google has been mailing out these challenge coins to some of the businesses that are categorized as veterans led in Google My Business and other methods. Google wrote Happy National Veterans Small Bu
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- I wouldn't use the site:-query results for debugging -- they're not meant for that. If you're curious about index counts, I'd use Search Console., John Mueller on Twitter
- Running outdated browsers on purpose seems like a bad idea. It's not just more functionality, but a lot of security issues that get fixed., John Mueller on Twitter
- Yeah, the clearer you can make your canonical preference, the more likely it'll be taken into account. If a website gives our systems a knot of spaghetti, we'll have to guess, John Mueller on Twitter
- That's not an API thing. Any redirected URL would do the same, no API involved. Just standard redirection. Some tools seem to get confused on how to report cookies in these, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- What Is Google Data Studio? (And Why Use Data Studio?), WebFX
- How to analyse sales data using Google BigQuery and Data Studio, Michael Howeely
- Linking Analytics and Ads: The solution to today’s marketing challenges, Google
- TMAI # 52: Machine Intelligence, And Your Future!, Mad Mimi
Industry & Business
- How Google Edged Out Rivals and Built the World’s Dominant Ad Machine: A Visual Guide, Wall Street Journal
- Google's Travel Gains Levy Pain at TripAdvisor and Expedia, Skift
Links & Promotion Building
- Image Link Building: How to Use Visual Content to Earn More Links, Search Engine Journal
- Majestic Historic Index - Reflecting on 2019 & looking forward to 2020., Majestic Blog
Local & Maps
- Google Maps lets you manage your public profile from the app, Android Police
- Google Maps mobile app now lets you manage your public profile, Android Community
Mobile & Voice
- New compact Google Assistant from Pixel 4 starts rolling out, 9to5Google
- Google Assistant on Android Auto giving users a "double beep", Android Community
- Google is rolling out its new Assistant to older Pixel devices, MSPoweruser
- Google Play fans, vote for your favorite content of 2019, Google Blog
SEO
- 5 Things I Learned About SEO as an Intern, Seer Interactive
- What Is BERT? - Whiteboard Friday, Moz
- Ask the Expert: Max Prin Answers Your PWA & AMP Questions, DeepCrawl
PPC
- How to Pivot Paid Search Data in Excel, PPC Hero
Search Features
- Brands vs Ads, SEO Book
- Google Desktop Search Bar Test with "Clear" Icon, Including a (Brief) History of Tests, Brodie Clark Consulting
