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:
- Is Quora In Google Trouble?
Gary Illyes, a Google Webmaster Trends Analysts, posted on Twitter "Anyone from the Quora SEO team? We need to talk." Clearly that implies that Quora is doing something potentially not in accordance with Google's webmaster guidelines and a penalty is possibly on its way? - Google: Structured Data Not A Ranking Factor But May Be Worthwhile
Most of you reading this will say, yea, we know Google has said structured data is not a ranking factor. Yea, we covered that before. But John Mueller from Google said in a Reddit thread that while it is not a ranking factor it may be worthwhile adding, because of how it may enhance your snippets. - Google: Two Waves Of Indexing Less Vital & Going Away
In the hangout with John Mueller and Martin Splitt of Google, Martin Splitt said "the two waves of indexing play less and less of a role." He added, "I wouldn't say that two waves of indexing are dead, it's definitely not. I expect eventually rendering crawling and indexing will come closer together." - Invalid Markup Does Not Cause Google Manual Actions
John Mueller from Google was asked if having invalid markup for structured data would lead to having a manual action. The answer is no, John said "Just having invalid markup wouldn't be a cause for a manual action there." - Google AdSense Adds More Methods To Improve Ad Quality
Google announced new "safeguards" to "protect the quality of our ad network, and the benefits to our publishers and the advertising ecosystem," they said. This includes the site verification process and Google is enhancing its defenses even more by improving the systems that identify potentially invalid traffic or high risk activities before ads are served. - Back Alley By Google Dublin
Here is a photo I found of a back alley by the Google Dublin office. Truth is, it is a lot nicer than just an alley and if you look at the other photos he shared on Instagram, the area looks pretty ni
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- The rel-canonical link element helps us to understand your preferences regarding URLs. It's not a redirect. When we use that URL, we do try to concentrate the signals though, so in a way, it's a multi-posit, John Mueller on Twitter
- If there's no message in Search Console, then it wouldn't be a manual action, so one thing less to worry about :). Hope the rankings work out!, John Mueller on Twitter
- No, there's no setting for changing the crawling location., John Mueller on Twitter
- Quick guide for cleaning up Google My Business spam listings - includes examples, Local Search Forum
- Since we generally crawl from the US, I suspect that would be tricky. My recommendation would be to create content that's accessible to the US, use that for ind, John Mueller on Twitter
- That report was removed in January, so it would be hard to look at it now. https://t.co/Bp2DH2YKAK, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Video marketing tops list of marketers’ priorities, voice search ranks low
- Who’s speaking at SMX East?
- Yelp adds new personalization features in bid to regain local momentum from Google
- Review fraud: Hijacked Amazon reviews a big problem says Consumer Reports
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Enable BigQuery Export For Google Analytics: App + Web Properties, Simo Ahava's blog
- How to make a Stock Market dashboard in Google Data Studio, Michael Howeely
Industry & Business
- Ex-Google engineer charged in Uber self-driving theft case, AP
- Google faces EU investigation over job-search tool, BBC News
- How to create a winning submission for the 2019 Regional Partner Awards, Microsoft Advertising
- Former Google Engineer Charged With Stealing Trade Secrets, Wall Street Journal
Links & Promotion Building
- First Analysis: DejanSEO Google Penalty for Toxic Links, Link Research Tools
Local & Maps
- Travel your first and last mile with Google Maps, Google Blog
- Google Maps now lets you combine subway directions with cabs and bikes, The Next Web
Mobile & Voice
- BBC to Launch Voice Assistant Next Year in UK as Rise of Independent Voice Assistants Continues, Voicebot
- Downloads needed to rank No. 1 on App Store is down 30+% since 2016 for apps, up 47% for games, TechCrunch
- Google Discover adds restaurant recommendation cards, 9to5Google
- Podcasts and Voice Assistants - Interviews with Google, Edison Research, Westwood One, Spoken Layer, Amplifi Media and Witlingo - Voicebot Podcast Ep 111, Voicebot
- Want to Hear a Harry Potter Story? Just Ask Google Assistant, Mental Floss
SEO
- 5 Things I Learned as a New SEO Account Manager, Seer Interactive
- SEO & Content Strategies to Drive Blog Success: In Search SEO Podcast, RankRanger
- We Analyzed 5 Million Google Search Results. Here's What We Learned About Organic CTR, Backlinko
- How to Use Keywords in Your Blogging Strategy, Moz
PPC
Search Features
- Google will shutdown Google Hire in 2020, TechCrunch
- How Word uses Bing to tell you more about your writing, TechRepublic
Other Search
