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:
- Possible March 10th Google Search Algorithm Update
I am seeing some chatter from March 9th through March 11th (today) about a possible Google search algorithm update. The chatter is not explosive but there does seem to be enough chatter to write about it here. Some of the tools are also showing the change but not all. - Vlog #53: Detlef Johnson - One Of The Earliest Pioneers In SEO
My final interview at SMX East was with Detlef Johnson, an individual who was part of a small group of pioneers who helped form the SEO space and SEO profession. We discussed some of that super early history, there nothing like looking back at the past... - Google: 3D & AR Images Are Not A Ranking Factor
I am not sure why it surprises me anymore but Google had to say that adding support for 3D and AR images to your site won't help your pages rank better. Google's John Mueller said on Twitter "No, we don't" when asked if Google ranks these pages higher because of the 3D image support. - Google Ads Business Operations Verification Program Starting This Month
I'll be honest, I am not sure what this is. Google announced "In March 2020, Google will introduce a new Business Operations verification program." Basically if you are asked to verify your business and you do not within 30-days, Google Ads may place restrictions on advertiser's ads serving. - Google Ads Now Prevents Advertising Face Masks
Google is now not allowing its advertisers to bid and place ads on face mask related keywords. Lane Rizzardini first notified me of this by sharing a screen shot of Google Ads disallowing this in the advertising portal. If you try to search for these keywords, I personally do not see any Google Ads show up in Google search. - Ten Years Ago, One Woman Stopped SEO From Being Trademarked
Ten years ago, Rhea Drysdale, who I interviewed here, defended the SEO industry by stopping an individual from trademarking "SEO." I have stories on this from ten years ago on Search Engine Land named "Meet The 25-Year-Old Who Saved 'SEO' From Being Trademarked" and here named "Why The SEO Industry Is Special." - Google's Fake Horse Named User-Agent?
John Mueller from Google posted this photo on Twitter of a cut out life size horse. He said "I miss our horse, "User-Agent" ." I guess Google has this cut out horse, like they had a cut out Spock and
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Added nofollow links on top side of each page and my rankings dropped, WebmasterWorld
- Yeah, there's no specific markup that forces it ( https://t.co/LpDfGdEema ), but having a clear site structure, with good internal links & a clear hierarchy helps., John Mueller on Twitter
- Yes, that's still recommended, if you have a really large & regularly changing site. RSS feeds are like small sitemap files (like news sitemaps too), if you can list your changes in one place, then that makes, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Google’s ‘Interesting finds’ SERP feature: The ‘interesting’ reason why mobile organic search traffic remained strong while desktop dropped
- Google bans face mask ads globally due to misleading coronavirus claims
- Yelp to Congress: Don’t investigate Google without looking at search
- Coronavirus disrupts search, digital ad budgets
- Building top-funnel content to influence bottom-funnel pages (with real example)
- Google showing ‘key moments’ feature on multiple videos in search results
- Improve your SEO with new technical training at SMX Advanced
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Google Analytics App+Web FAQs Answered, Seer Interactive
- How to Categorize Traffic Outside Default Channel Groupings in Google Analytics, Portent
- How to Use Google Analytics to Increase Conversions, Foundr
- What is Attribution Modeling and How Can I Apply it to My Digital Campaigns?, OnScreen Media
Industry & Business
- Coronavirus: Google recommends North America employees work from home, Business Insider
- DeepCrawl Raises $19M in Series B Funding From Five Elms Capital and Beringea, Business Wire
- Supporting our extended workforce through the COVID-19 outbreak, Google Blog
- Congress takes aim at Google search in antitrust hearing, The Verge
Links & Promotion Building
- Link Building: Dofollow vs. Nofollow in 2020 (#SEMrushchat), SEM Rush
- Google Says Paid Links Don't Work, Search Engine Journal
- International Link Building For Every Digital PR, State of Digital
Local & Maps
- Automating Knowledge Panel & GMB Image Change Detection, Local SEO Guide
- Google Maps lets shops share info about COVID-19 changes, SlashGear
Mobile & Voice
- Google working on Assistant settings revamp with search, 9to5Google
- Hey Siri, I'm so depressed, The Lighthouse
SEO
- Engineering Content for Superior Search Performance: Introducing Structured Data, Simplea
- Google Webmaster Hangout Notes: March 6th 2020, DeepCrawl
- Squarespace SEO for People Who Don’t Know SEO, Distilled
- Google Search Console Clustering, Vincent Terrasi - Medium
- The Ultimate Guide to JavaScript SEO (2020 Edition), Onely Blog
- We Need to Talk About Google's “People Also Ask”: A Finance Case Study, Moz
PPC
- Paving Our Way Towards Automated Bidding, PPC Hero
- Preventing App engagement campaigns for prohibited apps, Google Ads Developer Blog
Search Features
Other Search
- Join us for the digital Google for Games Developer Summit, Google Blog
- More Efficient NLP Model Pre-training with ELECTRA, Google AI Blog
- Project Stringer provides video coverage for U.S. elections, Google Blog
