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 Confirmed The November 2019 Google Local Update - Here Is What We Know
Google, I believe, for the first time ever, has confirmed a Google Local update. Google confirmed on Twitter the November local update we wrote about here a few times, some are also calling it the Bedlam update. But Google named it the Nov. 2019 Local Search Update. - Google: Legal Interstitials Are Fine As Long As We Can Index Content
Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that "legal interstitials are fine as long as we can index the content without having to do anything special." That means that you are not requiring GoogleBot to click on anything to accept and load the content after. - Google: BERT Does Not Affect Indexing
Google's John Mueller said something obvious to most the readers here, that "BERT does not affect indexing." BERT launched as a way for Google to understand queries better, which can impact how a site is ranked in Google search because Google might match the queries to the content slightly differently now. But it does not impact how Google indexes the pages on your web site. - Google News Publisher Center Request Inclusion Feature Broken?
There are numerous threads in the Google News Publisher Help that there is a bug with the feature to submit a site for inclusion into the Google News index. After you request inclusion, it says successful but then goes back to its original state. It should say "Submitted" and now say "Request Inclusion into News Index." - Google Keyword Planner Now Lets You Share Keyword Plans
Google Ads announced that you can now create and share keyword plans in the Google Keyword Planner tool. Google said "you can now create, save, and share plans from directly within Keyword Planner." - Google NYC Snow
We, New York, had its first real snow of the season. New York City got some snow, I doubt much stuck in the city. But here is a photo I found on Instagram from the Google NYC building looking out at
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Changed to SAB and Traffic Dropped Big Time, Local Search Forum
- It doesn't affect web search at all. However, if you want to have that image findable in Google Images, we'd have to pick one of the two pages as the landing page., John Mueller on Twitter
- It doesn't matter what kind of site, ultimately you need to find a way to differentiate yourself, especially when it comes to "commodity content". What would make your site the objective best result by far for, John Mueller on Twitter
- It'll go away after time, now that the other robots.txt is there. You can request a recrawl for individual URLs if you like, but seeing how it's been a while, I suspect it's not urgent-urgent and it'll be fine i, John Mueller on Twitter
- rating.ewoq.google.com - what's this, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- How to create a seamless cross-channel customer journey with call tracking
- 5 audiences you should exclude from your PPC campaigns
- This Thursday– Get More Value Out of Your First-Party Data
- More EU antitrust heat for Google (and Facebook) over data collection
- Google confirms Nov. 2019 Local Search Update
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Google Data Studio: Interact with your Data, Craig M Sheil
- How to Set up Goals in Google Analytics - 2019 (with Pictures), Google Analytics
- Improve your link strategy with Campaign URLs, Smarter Digital Services
- What is the actual impact of ITP 2.1 and 2.2 on your Google Analytics data? (+ free tool), Towards Data Science
- Why Do You Need Segments in Google Analytics, Avoori
Industry & Business
- Why Expedia Blamed Google for Its Earnings Debacle, The Motley Fool
Links & Promotion Building
- How to Use Podcasts for Link Building, Search Engine Journal
Local & Maps
- Simple Spam Fighting: The Easiest Local Rankings You’ll Ever Earn, Moz
- When Is a Star Not Always a Star? When It’s an Online Review, New York Times
- Help! I Got a Negative Review From Someone That’s Not My Customer, Sterling Sky Inc
- Results of Removing My Google My Business Listing, Bill Hartzer
Mobile & Voice
- Creating stargazing apps and the perfect loaf, Google Blog
- Key Differences Between Google Home Mini And Google Nest Mini, The Digital Wise
- Samsung to End Support for Bixby 1.0, Voicebot
SEO
- Building and Assessing a SEO Holiday Keyword List, Search Metrics
- 8 Reasons Your SEO Game is Weak, Authority Labs
- Powerful new SEO Optimized Content Tool, InLinks
- SEO Year in Review 2019: In Search SEO Podcast, RankRanger
PPC
- Google’s Limits on Political Ads Have a Loophole Trump Could Tap, Bloomberg
- Adding more value to every customer interaction, Microsoft Advertising
- What is Ads Click to Text (SMS) and does it work?, Hallam
