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.
Did you know that most SEOs said the pandemic resulted in an increase in demand for their SEO services? Google local might have a bug with double ad placements (update, this is not a bug). Google had to say that URLs with UTM parameters on them are not by default paid links. Bing migrated the Bing News PubHub into Bing Webmaster Tools. Google Chrome is rolling out Journeys, which is browser history improved.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Survey Says: The Pandemic Brought An Increase In Demand For SEO
Joe Hall posted a Twitter poll asking the SEO community how the pandemic impacted their SEO business. The poll had 614 responses and most said that the pandemic has brought an increased demand in SEO. - Google: Links With UTM Parameters Are Not By Default Paid Links
John Mueller of Google has to say on Twitter that just because a link has UTM parameters on them, it doesn't make it a paid link. He said "links with UTM parameters are just links." "They're definitely not considered paid links," he added. - Google Local Pack With Double Ad Placement Bug? (Not a bug)
We've seen Google legitimately test two ads in the local pack but what Iampk spotted on Twitter and some were able to replicate seems like Google placing an ad unit spot twice in the local pack. Like this is some bug where Google decided to not show two ads, but ads two ad features to the local pack - it is a subtle difference. - Bing News PubHub Moved To Bing Webmaster Tools
Microsoft Bing has moved the Bing News PubHub to within Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing News PubHub is a way for publishers to submit their site for approval in Bing News and also check on the status of their approval. It is no longer available at pubhub.bing.com - it has been moved to Bing Webmaster Tools. - Google Chrome Journeys Rolling Out
Back in October 2021 we reported that Google was testing in Chrome something called Journeys. Journeys will cluster all the pages you've visited related to your previous browsing history so you can easily view them without having to sift through your browsing history. - Google Pillow Swag: Google TV & Chrome
Satyajeet Salgar from Google shared a photo on Twitter of some recent (the past year) of Google pillow swag he accumulated. This looks like a Google TV pillow and a Chrome pillow.
Other Great Search Threads:
- First time seeing that keywords have to go into a review process when you add them to custom segment audiences. #ppcchat, Greg on Twitter
- Note if you do not add video assets yourself in the performance max campaigns Google will do this for you. These videos are 19 secs long and are very generic. You cannot delete these automatically created video's. #ppccha, Alex van de Pol on Twitter
- New pagination in Google SERP on Mobile. Is it new?, Pradeep on Twitter
- So many ways to use the new indexing API data. Find how popular each path on your site is (super-mini log analysis?) 1) Crawl with @screamingfrog 2) CTR-A, CTRL-C from Search Console tab, paste into sheet 3) See avg days, Mike Richardson on Twitter
- Robots.Txt is for controlling crawling., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- SparkPost Global Survey reveals 74% of marketing leaders concerned with impending privacy changes
- Microsoft Advertising launches Cruise Ads
- Google adds Journeys to Chrome: search your history by topic
- Google launches revamped Search Ads 360
- Bing News PubHub moves to Bing Webmaster Tools
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- How to Find Which Device Users Search For You On: Google Analytics, Measure Minds Group
Industry & Business
- Chip Errors Are Becoming More Common and Harder to Track Down, New York Times
Links & Content Marketing
- 82% of Internal Linking Opportunities Missed - Case Study, InLinks
- How I Built Links for InLinks, Dixon Jones
- 5 Steps To Find and Work With Quality Freelancers, Content Marketing Institute
- Content Marketing Priorities for B2B and B2C Companies in 2022, Search Engine Journal
Local & Maps
- 'Apple Car' needs Machine Learning to make driving decisions fast enough, AppleInsider
- Get a slice of these Google Maps pizza trends, Google Blog
- Google Releases Android Auto 7.3 for All Users, AutoEvolution
- Hyper-local ads targeting made easy and automated with Radium, Google Developers Blog
- Linking to your Google Business Profile doesn't work, SearchLab Digital
Mobile & Voice
- Google Assistant is getting a new design on Wear OS, 9to5Google
- Google Revamps Text-to-Speech Interface, Voicebot
- Apple AR headset to run 'realityOS,' come with App Store, AppleInsider
SEO
- Google CTR Stats – Changes Report for Q4 2021, Advanced Web Rankings
- Google Search Console URL inspection API in Data Studio (free dashboard template), Lazarina Stoy
- Yoast SEO 18.1: More fixes and enhancements, Yoast
- Everything Publishers Need to Know About URLs, SEO for Google News
PPC
- 19 PPC Influencers You Need to Follow in 2022 (& Their Best Advice), WordStream
- Create a Slack App: Lookup Search Volume and CPC for a Keyword, iPullRank
- RSA Optimization Series: Part 1 - RSAs vs ETAs, Adalysis
- Does it really matter if a cruise ship was raised "cage-free"?
Search Features
- Finding answers gets better with Chrome, Google Blog
- Treats, trends and touchdowns — it’s game time, Google Blog
- News Showcase is launching in Poland, Google Blog
Other Search
- 150th Anniversary of the State Historical Museum, Google Doodles
- Ask a Techspert: What does AI do when it doesn’t know?, Google Blog
- Robot See, Robot Do, Google AI Blog
- Celebrating Toni Stone, Google Doodles
Feedback:
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