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:
- Revealing The Google March 2019 Core Update Survey Results
About ten days ago we began collecting data from you all around the Google March 2019 core update that touched down on March 12th. We collected over 500 responses and I wanted to share the results with you all. - Google: Accents In URLs Work Fine For Google
Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that having URLs with accents are perfectly fine for Google. John said "Accents in URLs are no problem -- feel free to use them." - Having Both Mobile URLs & Responsive Design Can Confuse Google
Google's John Mueller said that if you have a web site that deploys both a separate mobile URL and also has a responsive design, it can lead to confusing Google. He said on Twitter "We'd probably get confused - which one should we show when? It's unclear." - Google: Schema Still Not Required For Featured Snippets
Google's John Mueller said once again that schema is not required for having featured snippets. Back in 2015 he said schema may help get you featured snippets but then shortly after Gary Illyes said Google does not use schema or structured data for featured snippets. Here, a few years later, John is saying it is not required. - Google AMP & Mobile Friendly Tests Adds Code Editing
Yesterday Google added the ability to edit code inline within both the AMP test and the mobile-friendly test. So you can run the tools on your URLs and then make code changes in the tool's code editor, rerun the test and see the outcome. - Google New York Has Grassy Benches
You don't see much grass in New York City, so the city tries to put grass wherever they think they can. Here is a bench at the Google NYC office with grass on it. I am not sure if it is real grass o
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- I don't know what you mean with WP gallery -- but in general, people embed images in many different ways, we try to make do with what we get. I can't imagine we'd take manual action just because of the type of embed.… https:/, John Mueller on Twitter
- Apple Launches New Credit Card Made of Titanium, WebmasterWorld
- Google Release Real Time Content Insights for Publishers, WebmasterWorld
- Our #GoogleAdsCommunity Is Moving to a New Home 🏠! In a few weeks, the Google Ads Community will share the same home as Google Ads Help Center. You can now get updates, learn and discuss - all in one platform. Check out more det, Google Ads on Twitter
- Unfair threat to bad review, Local Search Forum
Search Engine Land Stories:
- SEOs show mixed results following Google March 2019 core update
- SMX Overtime: Learn the difference between mobile-first indexing and mobile-friendly SEO
- The majority of listings for car accident attorneys on Google are fake
- B2B Marketing Automation Platforms Marketer’s Guide–Updated for 2019!
- Google AMP, mobile-friendly testing tools support code editing
- Bing Ads bad account takedowns doubled in 2018
- Google webspam report: Hacked sites, user-generated spam, bad linking topped 2018 priorities
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Google Analytics Guide: 10 useful tips to increase traffic and improve rankings (1/2), Paradigma Digital
- How to Build a Campaign Dashboard in Google Data Studio, Michael Howe-Ely
- Integrate Google Analytics tracking with Mailchimp, Julien Coquet
- Justifying your content investment with analytics, Builtvisible
Industry & Business
- Growth of the SEO Industry, TG Daily
- EU Parliament passes copyright ruling that will hit Google, Facebook, CNBC
- Google says EU copyright reforms will hurt creative industries, Reuters
- Pentagon Says Google’s Drone Work Is Exempt From Freedom of Information Act, The Intercept
Links & Promotion Building
- Survey: 3 PR trends in tactics, measurement and organization for 2019, PR Daily
- Does Google Use Virtual Anchor Text for Ranking?, Search Engine Journal
- In Search SEO Podcast: How to Get Content Marketing Right, RankRanger
Local & Maps
- Google Maps introduces public event creation, rolling out now, 9to5Google
- Down under, over and all around: Sydney in 3D on Google Earth, Google Blog
- Google's Local Experiments Project Targets Community News, Fortune
Mobile & Voice
- Google Home Hub vs. Amazon Echo Show (2nd Gen): Which Is Better?, Daily Dot
- Google Assistant John Legend voice preview available, 9to5Google
SEO
- Local SEO - how to optimise and generate leads, Vertical Leap
- The Website Migration Checklist, SEM Rush
- Why & How Bing Plans to Improve Its Crawler, Bingbot, Search Engine Journal
- Google’s move to "mobile first crawl" and the impact on SEO performance, Search Metrics
- What is the impact of Google’s March 2019 algorithm update?, Econsultancy
PPC
- Announcing v2.1 of the Content API for Shopping, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Time-Savers for Marketers in Google Ads, PPC Hero
- Top Paid Social Advertising Trends in 2019, Seer Interactive
Search Features
- Madelyn Knight, MediaWise teen fact checker, on how she analyzes news, Google Blog
- New data tools from the Google News Initiative, built for publishers, Google Blog
- Google News Initiative launches global Innovation Challenges, Google Blog
Other Search
- Debugging Websites in Chrome for iOS, Chromium Blog
- Killed By Google is a digital graveyard of the company’s dead products, The Next Web
