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:
- Social Media Icons Return To Google Knowledge Panels
Some SEOs are noticing that Google has brought back the social media icons in the knowledge panels for both personalities and local businesses. I personally didn't notice they ever were gone but I guess they were. - Google Ads Bug Shows Too Many Ads; It Is Resolved
We've seen it numerous times, where a bug leads Google to either show too many Google Ads in the search results or the organic listings do not load and Google only shows ads. It is rare, but we see it every now and then. Google recently confirmed a bug where they showed too many ads in the mobile results. - Google+ APIs Shut Down Concerns Google My Business Developers
Yesterday, I and many developers received an email from Google Developers that had the subject line "[Action Required] Google+ APIs and OAuth requests are being shutdown on March 7, 2019." The issue is not specific with Google+ but some of those APIs in there are specific to Google My Business and they have no replacement or migration path. - Google AMP Crawl Error Bug Fix Is Here
We've been tracking the big AMP crawl error and AMP issues in search over the past week. Yesterday Google confirmed it was a bug on their end and said they would fix it. Today they documented the issue on their data anomalies page and RankRanger is showing AMP content coming back in the search results this morning. - Now Google My Business Bulk Users Can Download/Upload Spreadsheets
Kara from Google announced a small update in the Google My Business Help forums saying "Now, bulk users can download and upload their locations to and from spreadsheets." "This feature enables bulk users to easily manage and organize their multiple locations... - Google Nikes
Google orders some custom Nike sneakers with G logo. Eric J. Duran, a Google software engineer, posted the photos on Instagram and wrote the following.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Google’s got jokes… (cc: @rustybrick @JohnMu)…, Ben Cook on Twitter
- Hide all the links, like it's 1999 all over again? :-)…, John Mueller on Twitter
- I can't promise things for the future... Our goal with this gradual switch-over is to mention the parts that are planned to go away well in advance. Some things will change though, hopefully for the better, of course!… https:, John Mueller on Twitter
- If it's only active on a small part of your site, it might be that the webspam team is just "neutralizing" those weird links for you. Still, if you're unsure, it's worth checking in with folks who have experience with these iss, John Mueller on Twitter
- In your opinion which structured data markup syntax is the easiest to use when adding #schema.org information to a web page?, Aaron Bradley on Twitter
- That's generally not a problem -- it's a really common design pattern (lots of menus on sites are made like that, for example).… https://t.co/ptNmXJaZVo, John Mueller on Twitter
- Ah, speed -- that's partially because it runs through a lot of the normal websearch pipelines for testing what would actually result in search. That's a good point though.… https://t.co/PH5sG1Xevf, John Mueller on Twitter
- Apple Quarter Revenue Down 5pct to $84.3 Billion, WebmasterWorld
- If you have any specifics, it would be interesting to post them to double-check. From my experience, Joost & his team are top-notch, and given the number of sites using those plugins, it would surprise me if there were anything, John Mueller on Twitter
- Using Text in Profile Photo in Google My Business?, Local Search Forum
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Now your Google text ads can show on YouTube search results, too
- Agencies say search, social spend will rise, but increases target 5 platforms
- Targeted SEO: Here’s how to grow a page from 200 visits per month to 30,000
- Bing offers a trio of new local search APIs
- What customers expect in the age of AI
- Google adds voice input and spoken results to mobile web search
- How to know when it’s time to pay for search analytics tools
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- The Analytics 360 Solution Guide: How today’s top brands gain a deeper understanding of the customer journey, Google Blog
Industry & Business
Links & Promotion Building
Local & Maps
- Google Maps is getting a clever new feature lots of people have been waiting for, BGR
- Waze expands its Bluetooth beacons to New York City to end GPS signal blackouts, TechCrunch
Mobile & Voice
SEO
- B2B Local Search Marketing: A Guide to Hidden Opportunity, Moz
- January 22, 2019 - Google Help Hangout Notes, Marie Haynes Consulting
- Mobile-First Algorithm: Did You Make These Mistakes?, BrightEdge SEO Blog
- A new type of Featured Snippet on Google?, Brodie's Blog
PPC
- Apple Devices Account For Majority Of Google Clicks, MediaPost
- Merkle Q4 2018 Digital Marketing Report Released, Merkle
- How to choose the right keywords for your PPC campaign, SEO Shark
Search Features
Other Search
- Bitcoin searches on Yandex, Russian Search Marketing
