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:
- Google Search Ranking & Algorithm Update Over The Weekend?
Over the weekend, maybe started late Friday, August 16th, more noticeable on Saturday, August 17th, there may have been a rollout of another Google search ranking algorithm. It is 100% not as big as the past ones we have been covering recently but there is some chatter and some of the tools showed spikes in fluctuations this weekend. - Vlog #11: Greg Sterling - From Litigation Lawyer To Search Industry Expert
In episode #11 of the vlog series at the Search Engine Roundtable I interviewed Greg Sterling (@gsterling). Some of you might not know this... - Google People Also Ask With Embedded Suggested Video Clips
Scott Clark spotted something pretty wild, a people also ask feature that includes an embedded suggested clip video within it. Scott shared this on Twitter, but I was able to replicate it myself as well. - Google Featured Snippets That Extract Definitions Automatically?
Here is a super interesting featured snippet feature in Google search. It shows a featured snippet but right below it, it shows also a word from the featured snippet that Google thinks you might want a definition on. - A Google Leak? Google News 4,000 Submissions Per Month, Web Spam Works With News Spam, Blacklists & Fringy Search
There is a lot of talk around Project Veritas - of course, hard to know for sure if the documents "leaked" are real or not but even if they are real, there was nothing that "shocking" to me as The Next Web highlights well in this article on it. Note, everything I am publishing below is sourced from that article. - Google May Be Testing Paginated Mobile Search Results Without More Results button
Google may be testing dropping the more results button it launched this past April in the mobile search results and going back to paginated navigation at the footer of the mobile search results. Or maybe it is a bug? - Evergreen GoogleBot Now On Chrome 76
It took just under 20 days from the official public release of Chrome version 76 for GoogleBot to support it but as of yesterday, August 18th, 2019 at around 3pm ET, GoogleBot now supports Chrome 76 features. - Interesting John Mueller T-Shirt
So I just shared a scary version of myself sketched by Andrew Nguyen from Marie Haynes company. Well, it turns out, he also wears an interesting (that is not the word for it) t-shirt with John Mueller
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Yes. Having excluded URLs is normal and not a sign of a problem., John Mueller on Twitter
- There are ways to embed audio & video on pages that don't significantly affect it's speed, so I'd worry more about the content than the coding :). For videos, a common thing I've seen is just to show the prev, John Mueller on Twitter
- Facebook Group Chat Removed, WebmasterWorld
- It's normal to see changes in how often & where rich results are shown - they're not guaranteed to be shown just because markup is on a page., John Mueller on Twitter
- new Chinese search engine Toutiao Search, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Are SKAGs dead after Google’s latest match type changes?
- Are your Google text ads getting truncated? Here’s what to consider
- Conductor purchase price revealed: $15.8M cash + $97.8M stock
- Google My Business adds bulk review management
- How one in-house SEO team is taking on industry incumbents
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Analysis and Optimization with GA360 and GMP Ad Products, E-Nor Analytics
- How to Build Speed Dashboards in Google Data Studio, Search Engine Journal
- How to implement Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking using Google Tag Manager, Analytics Savvy
- How to use GA to measure and improve content marketing, The Coloring In Department
- Lucky Brand creates an insights-driven culture with Data Studio, Google
Industry & Business
- How Google’s tunnel vision cost us all, Spectator USA
- A quarter of desktop searches are now on Bing in the USA, MSPoweruser
- Baidu Q2 2019 earnings preview: Market expects fall in profit, CNBC
- Exclusive: Fearing data privacy issues, Google cuts some Android phone data for wireless carriers, Reuters
Links & Promotion Building
- When does reporting become a megaphone for disinformation?, First Draft News
Local & Maps
- 5 best Google Maps tips, Fast Company
- How to use Google Maps’ re-routing option on the iPhone, Macworld
Mobile & Voice
- Annual Digital Assistant IQ Test, Loup Ventures
- The Who, What, When, Where and Why of US Voice Assistants, eMarketer
SEO
- Why SEO Isn't Enough, MediaPost
- 8-step SEO Crawl Audit for Ecommerce, Practical Ecommerce
PPC