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: Crawling Bandwidth Benefit To Using jpeg vs webp But Minimal
Google's John Mueller said on Twitter there is maybe a small bandwidth savings when it comes to GoogleBot crawling your site when you use webp over jpeg image formats. But then you would only see that difference when the site is a "very image-heavy site." So normal sites probably wouldn't really see any bandwidth savings there. - Bing: XML Sitemaps Must Include Main Ranking & Category Pages
Bing's Fabrice Canal said on Twitter "Sitemaps are a daily, and ideally real time, snapshots of all relevant pages of your sites." "Sitemaps must include these main ranking pages," he added. This was in response to Dawn Anderson posting something a development team told her. - New Google Home Activities Structured Data
Google added a new section to the supported structured data developer docs for home activities. This structured data should be used on recorded or live videos where you offer instructions on what activities, like fitness classes and so on, to do from your home. - Most Google Support Documents Are Not Proactively Updated
Yesterday in the Google Webmaster Virtual Unconference I asked a Google representative to guess on what percentage of the Google support documents were updated in a proactive way versus a reactive way. The Googler said 60-80% of the time, the docs are updated in a reactive way. - Report Issues To Google Search Over Security Issue False Positives
Google has a new form you can use to report false positives around security issues with your site. In short, if you think your site was mistakenly flagged by Google Search for security issues, you can ask Google for a review using the "Report a Security Issue" button. - Microsoft Bing Office During COVID Is A Ghost Town
Frederic Dubut, Web Ranking PM Manager at Bing, shared a photo from the Microsoft Bing office the other day. It was his first time back in the office in about 5 months and he said not much has changed
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- We don't have to "understand" everything on a page, and even when we do "understand" some things, it's more like being able to recognize "oh, it's about a bike" rather than "ah, this is an ode to a finely layer, John Mueller on Twitter
- Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine, WebmasterWorld
- Even Google Employees Found Privacy Settings Confusing and Difficult to Find, WebmasterWorld
- We spend a lot of time making sure our systems kinda work despite all of the work that sites put into breaking things. I wouldn't build a strategy on that though. You could robot your homepage and still appear in, John Mueller on Twitter
- Websites don't have to be perfect when it comes to SEO, this is why we use so many factors when determining crawling, indexing, and ranking. However, if everything is bad just so that you can create a mass of pages, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- The average GMB profile has 73 reviews, 45 photos, 5 Posts and a star rating of 4.08
- Google tests reporting security issue false positives in Search Console
- Call analytics: How they can drive down costs and improve search conversions
- Bing considers page quality before indexing
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Blending Data in Google Data Studio, Unidev
- Digital Debrief – New Ecommerce Setup and Reporting in Google Analytics App+Web, Krista Seiden
Industry & Business
- Even Google engineers are confused about Google’s privacy settings, The Verge
- Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine to compete against Google Search, Coywolf
- Google Shuts Down More Piracy Sites in Australia, Gizmodo
- Helping retailers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa recover, Google Blog
Links & Content Marketing
- A new hub for your Majestic reports, Majestic Blog
- How to Get Backlinks: 12 Strategies for 2020, SEM Rush
Local & Maps
- 3 easy ways to maximize the new Saved tab in Google Maps, Google Blog
- Apple Maps will let users leave reviews and photos in latest iOS 14 beta, Appleinsider
- Panera Accelerates Digital Commerce & Off Premise Offerings Through Google Platforms Nationwide, PR Newswire
Mobile & Voice
- AMP Advisory Committee elections, The AMP Blog
- Hands-free hotel stays, with Google, Google Blog
- Apple Ceding Wireless Earbuds Market Share Even as AirPods Grow, Bloomberg
SEO
- Amazon Optimization: 4 Steps to Optimizing Your Product Listing, Pure Visibility
- What Is SEO Siloing? Why Should You Do SEO Siloing? How Do You Do It?, BruceClay
- August 2020 Google Webmaster Central – Pagination and Indexation, Search Metrics
- Thinking Outside the SEO Box: How to Find Global Opportunities Now, Search Engine Journal
PPC
- Announcing v5 of the Google Ads API beta, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Google Ads Guide: Responsive Display Ads, Seer Interactive
- The holidays are different this year. Is your advertising plan?, Microsoft Advertising
- Wasteful Wednesday with Wil Reynolds #13 - Keyword of the Week "Languages", Seer Interactive
- Trivia Time – August 2020, Microsoft Advertising
Search Features
- Microsoft adds audio transcription to Word for the web, Appleinsider
- ScrollToText Now Showing for Some Google Knowledge Panels, Brodie Clark Consulting
