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.
Google now is saying that the page experience update is not a tie breaker ranking factor. Microsoft Bing announced new AI named MEB that makes search results way more relevant. Google Maps is testing a ton of weird interfaces. Google posted a crawling pop quiz in the help docs area. SEOs are claiming Google is stealing their SEO traffic. Finally, I posted the weekly video recap - have a great weekend!
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Drops Safe Browsing Signal, Core Updates Impact Images & Local & Bing MEB AI
I start off this week with the big Google webmaster report for August, it is a good one. Google has decided not to use safe browsing as a ranking signal in the Google page experience update. Google is now saying... - Google Says Now The Page Experience Update Is More Than A Tie Breaker Ranking Factor
Google's John Mueller said on Reddit this morning that the page experience update that incorporates core web vitals is more than a tie breaker ranking signal. He said "it is a ranking factor, and it's more than a tie-breaker, but it also doesn't replace relevance." - Official Google Crawling Exam
Google has posted an exam to test your SEO knowledge on crawling. Google said this is to test your knowledge on how Google crawls and indexes websites. This is a true and false test, with explanations on why the answer is right or wrong. - Sparse Looking Google Maps Local Pack With Just Directions Icon
Google's local pack user interface and design tests have been a bit whacky over the past several days. Google is now showing a super sparse looking local pack for bus rental types of queries. Google is just showing the directions button, there is no review stars, and no website icons, no ABC label - just not much there. - Microsoft Bing Announces Make Every Feature Binary (MEB)
Microsoft announced their next AI model, a large-scale sparse model that complements our production Transformer models, they are calling MEB or "Make Every Feature Binary." Microsoft said this makes the search results on Bing more relevant. - Some SEOs Say Google Grabbing All The SEO Related Traffic
This is an SEO/SEM blog, we get some of our traffic from people doing SEO/SEM related queries in Google Search. But some SEOs are claiming that Google is sending more of those searchers to google.com sites, like the Google blogs, than SEO or SEM blogs. - Ices Google
Here is Peter the Greeter at the Google offices in Mountain View, California, sharing a photo of his ices, sometimes referred to as icies. Not sure how he will eat it with the mask, but they do look
Other Great Search Threads:
- How to Deal with AdSense DMCA Policy Violations, WebmasterWorld
- I got an adult chat site-SEO requirements, WebmasterWorld
- The Google cached page is just the HTML from the page as we fetched it. Sometimes images, javascript, css work in that context, sometimes they don't. I wouldn't optimize for the cached page view - that's not, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- How to win in Google’s E-A-T
- MEB or meh? Make Every feature Binary is Bing’s new search tech; Thursday’s daily brief
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- A beginner's guide to successful A/B testing, Vertical Leap
- Configuring Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce and Google Tag Manager on Elastic Path, Bounteous
- Reporting with Comparisons in Google Analytics 4, Evolytics
- Understanding Data Deletion Requests in Google Analytics 4, Data Driven U
Industry & Business
- Google Approved 85% of Roughly 10,000 Remote Work, Relocation Requests, Business Insider
- Google founder gets New Zealand residency, raising questions, AP News
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
- Apple challenges patent troll targeting Maps navigation, AppleInsider
Mobile & Voice
- Google Wifi App Removed From the Play Store, Android Headlines
- Voice Assistant Transactions Will Reach $19.4B by 2023: Report, Voicebot
SEO
- How to structure an eCommerce site for SEO, DeepCrawl
- Manual vs. Automatic SEO Audits, Portent
- What Are Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) Webpages?, BruceClay
- 500+ "unsolicited" SEO tips, With Candour
PPC
- 5 highly-effective PPC strategies for restaurants, Vertical Leap
Other Search
- Discontinuing Google Sign-In JavaScript Platform Library for web, Google Developers Blog
- July Updates from the Google News Initiative, Google Blog
- Google says it has created a time crystal in a quantum computer, and it's weirder than you can imagine, ZDNet
Feedback:
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