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 Team Launched Changes That Negatively Impacted Revenue Substantially
Ryan Moulton, a software engineer who has worked at Google for almost 15 years now, said in a HackerNews thread that the Google Search team and he personally have purposefully launched "ranking changes [in Google Search] that negatively impacted revenue substantially." He said this to drive a point that "there's an aggressive firewall between the ads and search organizations." - Reminder: Google Search Console Coverage Report Silently Follows Redirects
Google Search Console Coverage report and URL inspection tool silently follow redirects, as John Mueller of Google put it a while back. Glenn Gabe posted a useful reminder on Twitter yesterday that Search Console reports on destination urls and "if you see urls that are categorized as blocked by robots.txt or noindexed, but they aren't, they could be redirecting to urls that are." - Beware: Yocale May Be Added To Your Google Local Listing
We have seen restaurants have to deal with food ordering services being automatically added to their Google Maps and Google Local business listings. Now it seems professional service businesses, like law firms, need to worry about this happening as well. - Google Maps Calling Out Square Ad Pins As Ads
In June Google launched new square map pins to take the shape of advertisements in Google Maps. Well, now Google is making it clear to some Google Maps users that these square pins are ads. Aaron Grote shared a screenshot of Google overlaying a dialog with this notice. - No, A Google My Business Profile Not Required To Show In Google Web Search
Google's John Mueller had to confirm that you do not need to have a Google My Business verified business listing to show up in Google Web Search. You do need a Google My Business listing to show up well in Google Maps and in the local pack results or to show a local panel in search but not to rank in web search. - Miss Earth Armenia Modeling At Google On LEGOs
Rippi Hripsime Sargsyan was crowned new Miss Earth Armenia 2019 and here she is in March 2020, right before all the COVID lockdowns, modeling at Google's office. This was in the Google New York City o
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- The URL removal tool in Search Console just temporarily hides pages from the search results, it doesn't remove anything from the index. Sometimes these pages take a while to be reindexed (& usually those a, John Mueller on Twitter
- Tons of 301-redirects in website and Googlebot's crawl rate dropped, WebmasterWorld
- Is SEO Useless if I’m Not Actively Blogging?, WebmasterWorld
- We use a lot of elements to determine how to put together a search results page. It doesn't make sense to focus on a single factor. https://t.co/5J6aT360Np has some informa, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Google confirms showing homework practice problems in search results
- Google’s Lighthouse is now recommending JavaScript library alternates
- The Auction Insights Visualizer can turn your data tables into useful charts
- Become a master of analytics at Search Marketing Expo
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- 3 Tips To Plan Your Migration To GA4, Search Discovery
- Track Clicks with Google Analytics 4 and GTM, Analytics Mania
Industry & Business
- Google workers form new labor union, a tech industry rarity, AP News
- Here’s what we know about the Google union so far, The Verge
Links & Content Marketing
- The B2B Content Marketing Report, Backlinko
- Maximising your link profile: how to find redirecting and broken backlinks at scale, Builtvisible
Local & Maps
- Apple accused of 'censoring' directions to Washington, D.C., ahead of election protests, Appleinsider
- Google Maps Rival Sygic Gets New Features in the Latest Updates, AutoEvolution
Mobile & Voice
- Global Consumer Spending in Mobile Apps Reached a Record $111 Billion in 2020, Up 30% from 2019, Sensor Tower
- 'Apple Glass' prototype reportedly enters second stage of production, AppleInsider
- Google Assistant gains a 'Do Nothing mode' in India, 9to5Google
- Tell Google Assistant to "Eat a 5 Star" and watch it do... nothing, XDA Developers
SEO
- 5 SEO Best Practices for 2021, Portent
- Create Better Knowledge Graphs, InLinks
- How to Create an SEO Strategy for Modern Marketing, BrightEdge
- JavaScript SEO: An In-Depth Guide, SEM Rush
- SEO A/B Split Testing 101, SEM Rush
- What Can You Do to Optimize Your Wix Site for eCommerce?, DeepCrawl
- Google may bring knowledge panels to productivity apps, Coywolf
- International and Search Engine Rank Tracking, RankRanger
- SEO Stuff to Stop Worrying About, Siege Media
- SEO Writers: How Much Money Should You Pay for SEO Tools?, SuccessWorks
PPC
- 2021 CEO Priorities: Digital Marketing or Bust, BruceClay
- Google Ads Is Going Rogue, Sunhouse Marketing
- 5 PPC strategies for B2B eCommerce companies, Vertical Leap
- Announcing the Microsoft Advertising Sweepstakes, Microsoft Advertising
- How to use Google Trends, Koozai
- Something is Rotten in Online Advertising, SparkToro
