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:
- Search Buzz Video Recap: Yelp Ghost Update, Google Featured Snippets, Bing Crawler & New Years
It has been a bit slow with the holiday and New Years season but we have some news for you all in the SEO world. We posted our monthly Google webmaster report. Yelp did an update a couple months ago that made reviews disappear. Google launched a new AMP feature for featured snippets... - Yelp's Ghost Update In October: Reviews Drop Out & Not Recommended
Craig Mount posted a detailed analysis of a Yelp update being named the Ghost update over at Search Engine Land. In short, sometime around October, Halloween time, Yelp dropped tons of reviews in their results and in some cases, it ended up listing them as "not recommended." - Google Drops Unicode Hack In Local Panel
Earlier this week we reported how one Google My Business listing added unicode like text to their business name listing and it shows up all funky and cool in the local panel. Well, now it is gone - it no longer shows up as unicode. I guess Google didn't like it. - Google: Too Many Repeated Internal Links Doesn't Hurt
Google's John Mueller responded to a question on Twitter around having too many internal links with repeated links to the same page. John implied that it doesn't hurt for you to link naturally internally to your pages. - Google Featured Snippets Tests Blue Feedback Bar
Two SEOs from India noticed and told me about Google showing them a new blue bar under some of the featured snippets that let them give Google feedback about that specific featured snippet. This is in addition to the small "feedback" link that I currently see. - Google Indoor Swing Chair
Here is a fun chair that is inside one of the Google offices. It looks like a half of a bird cage but it is a chair that swings in many directions. Kelly Whelan posted a video of it in action on Inst
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Another @Google community being shut down. This time it's the Small Business Community from Google, on January 16th. https://t.co/5oeLw7h7QL #seo #localseo cc @rustybrick… https://t.co/hAgidZvK2X, Bill Hartzer on Twitter
- DuckDuckGo served over 9 Billion private searches in 2018 (and is on pace to shatter that record in 2019)! Despite our traffic growth, though, the number of personal profiles we store remains unchanged. It's still zero. https://t., DuckDuckGo on Twitter
- Making the Measure Tool better!, Google Maps Help
- No, you'd need to let them be crawled & show a noindex. Usually these only show up for site:-queries though, assuming your site otherwise has content for the query.… https://t.co/8z6UjjRIBP, John Mueller on Twitter
- I'm stuck it's like a 'Minus 30' still exists, WebmasterWorld
- No, use it like it's been documented for the past 10 years, that generally works best :).…, John Mueller on Twitter
- There's no defined order for a site:-query.…, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- DuckDuckGo broke 9 billion searches in 2018, and it’s growing
- How are your YouTube campaigns performing on TV screens?
- 3 things sales leaders should know about ABM measurement
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
- Google shifted $23bn to tax haven Bermuda in 2017, filing shows, The Guardian
- How Big Tech is breaking antitrust laws, CNN
Links & Promotion Building
Local & Maps
- Tracking the Demise of My Marriage on Google Maps, New York Times
Mobile & Voice
- Klipsch brings Google Assistant and Alexa support to its smart sound bars, The Verge
- LG gets steamy at CES with a Smart Mirror and Google Assistant-compatible Styler closet, Android Police
SEO
- Epic Local SEO Strategies to Pave the Way Into 2019, Search Rank
- On-Page SEO for 2019 - Whiteboard Friday, Moz
- The SEO's guide to Google quality raters and how to meet their standards, Vertical Leap
PPC
- Paid search ad trends: What gets people clicking?, Netimperative
