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:
- New Google AdSense Reporting
Google announced it is rolling out new AdSense reporting that will "enable publishers to make decisions to grow their businesses by providing information and insights about their monetization performance, audience and content," Google said. This is rolling out in the next week or two, I do not personally see it yet. - Google: The 2004 Sandbox Ranking Theory Was Likely About Indexing
The Google Sandbox theory started in early 2004, where new sites would not rank well for a while. Well, Gary Illyes and his Google friends spoke about it in the latest Search Off the Record podcast. In short, Gary said he thinks it wasn't a ranking related thing but a symptom from how Google's index worked back then. - Google Tests Line Separators Between Search Results Again
We see Google testing line separators between the Google search results every now and then. We saw it twice in 2015 and every now and then since. Here is another attempt at doing these dividers in the Google search results. - Do SEOs Blindly Believe Google's John Mueller
There is this Reddit thread asking if you blindly believe and follow what John Muller of Google says. So John actually shared this thread on Twitter and added Twitter poll asking the question. I reshared it, as did dozens of others and there are thousnads of responses. - Google Search Console Performance Report Data Hints At Featured Snippet Filters
Fairly recently Google told us we should not expect to see a filter to see featured snippet related data in our performance reports in Search Console. But then we saw the that Google started showing #:~:text= url parameters in the reports for image results and now Glenn Gabe is seeing them for web results. - Google Search Snippet Shows "X Topics Include"
Kevin Webster shared this screen shot of a Google search result snippet. The snippet says "4 topics include" and then shows those four topics. It pulled from the header tags on the page he said. I think this specific snippet is newish but Google has been doing these types of smart snippets for years. - Mask Wearing At Google Austin Near The Cowboy Android
We've seen plenty of photos of the cowboy Android statue figurine at the Google Austin office. But this is the first time I have seen someone wearing a mask near the cowboy. I guess it is best to be
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Facebook Starts Rolling Out its New Look, WebmasterWorld
- Google is not crawling my new pages., WebmasterWorld
- That's why it's SEO and not SEO₂ -- it's safer & less-concentrated that way, John Mueller on Twitter
- You're asking about a site that has been shut down since 2017, FWIW., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- 2020 Google paid search trends that have nothing to do with the pandemic
- More than 70% of SEOs in the U.S. are men, make more than female colleagues
- Early bird ends this Friday for the 2020 Search Engine Land Awards
- Replay: Live with Search Engine Land season wrap-up—COVID and marketing disruption
- SEO horror stories: Here’s what not to do
- Video: Pam Auugst on SEO automation & XML sitemaps
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Efficient Audience Growth in Challenging Times, Cardinalpath
- Google Analytics on Android now shows App+Web and Firebase data, XDA Developers
Industry & Business
- How Big Is the Gender Gap Between Men and Women in SEO?, Moz
- Celebrating Barbara Hepworth Doodle, Google
- Google can afford a slice of its billions to help sustain journalism, Labor says, The Guardian
Links & Content Marketing
- How to Determine the Value of a Backlink, Search Engine Journal
Local & Maps
- Google My Business Search and Engagement Trends Define the Next Normal, Street Fight
- Apple Maps Improvements Appearing On UK iPhones, Macworld UK
- How to stop Google Maps from storing your location, Android Central
Mobile & Voice
- After Android Auto, CarPlay Now Hitting Voice Commands Issues Too, AutoEvolution
- Google Pixel 4a's 'Caption Calls' feature is now rolling out to older Pixels, Android Central
SEO
- Podcast: Why big brands should still care about SEO, Vertical Leap
- Product Vs Marketing Lead SEO, Search Metrics
- Reporting on Ranking Changes with STAT’s Google Data Studio Connectors, Moz
- SEO summer: index waves, sandboxes, crawling, and more!, Search Off the Record
- The World of SEO for eCommerce Sites: SEO Podcast, RankRanger
PPC
- 2 Tips For Identifying Mobile UX Gaps, PPC Hero
- 4 Killer Google Ads Optimizations to Stretch Your Budget Further, WordStream
- Announcing v202008 of the Google Ad Manager API, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Stricter field validation implemented for Doubleclick Bid Manager API, Google Ads Developer Blog
