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:
- Search Buzz Video Recap: Google Indexing System Failure Caused Major Search Result Fluctuations
Well, this was an interesting week, to say the least. Monday afternoon we saw some insane Google search ranking fluctuations with really unusual search results coming from Google. It turned out it was a glitch with Google's indexing system that trickled down to... - Video On How Google Search Improves Results Both Algorithmically & Via Policies
Yesterday, Google published a new short video on how Google search works. This was on specifically how Google Search continues to improve results. Clearly this is in response to the US Congressional hearings from a few weeks ago. The video is super simplified but I think does a great job explaining what Google does to make changes to search to make it better. - Google: No Such Thing As Too Many Outbound Links
Google's John Mueller was asked if there is such a thing as having too many outbound links, even if those links are natural. John said "I'm not aware of anything like that." He did add that maybe there is a situation where you are lacking content because you have so many links, i.e. like directories. - Google: High Domain Authority With Backlinks Does Not Guarantee High Rankings
Google's John Mueller said even if your site has "high domain authority with backlinks" there is no guarantee that it will lead to high Google rankings. This is a good continuation from our coverage of Moz spam score and DA not being Google ranking factors. - Google My Business Upgraded Its Inline Editing In Search & Maps
Google announced that you can now edit your Google My Business listing directly from Google Search and Google Maps. Truth is, this is a feature Google kind of launched in 2017 but now Google improved the user interface and made some additional improvements. - Google Explains That Canonicalization Is About Duplication Management
Google has another SEO mythbusting video, this one is on canonicalization and it is with Rachel Costello and Martin Splitt. Martin Splitt explained first you need to understand that canonicalization is about duplication management. But the whole video has tons of excellent nuggets on this complex SEO task. - Google Can Help You Find Live TV & Sports Games
Yesterday Google announced it can now help you find live TV shows to watch and also live sports game through the MLB and NBA leagues. Google said "today we're adding new features to Google Search in the U.S. to help you quickly find the live games you're looking for. And when the game is over, we're here to help you discover live TV shows or movies that you may like too." - Google Working From Home Box
Daniel Waisberg, who works primarily out of the Google Tel Aviv office, shared a photo of a box he received at his home from his employer. It is a cup, two mugs, a pen, some stickers and magnet. The
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- @rustybrick Was I the only one that missed that Google Ads offers free shutterstock images in ads?! I thought just Bing did that, I guess they both do now. - Barry did you know this? https://t.co/HjVt5uVVEI, KowAbundant on Twitter
- Google moving the "Ad" label back to green? This was an incognito desktop search in the UK just now... @sengineland @sejournal @rustybrick https://t.co/CVmchUSose, Darren Taylor on Twitter
- No matter where you live in the US, find answers for “how to register to vote” and “how to vote” directly from your state and county election administrators in Search. Read more about our election efforts → https://t.co/, Google on Twitter
- URLs are mostly identifiers, you don't need to translate any words in them when localizing content. You can, but you don't need to. We generally don't do it with our content, we just add ?hl=... parameters. (Not, John Mueller on Twitter
- Too many internal links?, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- How to optimize your Google local Knowledge Panel
- Google Search adds flight, hotel search features around COVID-19
- Google Search helps users find live sport games, linear TV shows
- Google now enables GMB profile edits from Search and Maps [updated]
- Replay: What SEOs need to know about Bing Webmaster Guidelines
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Detox your Google Tag Manager account, Hallam
- Google Whisperer's Guide to using Site Search Data from Google Analytics, LinkedIn
- Improve performance and security with Server-Side Tagging, Google Blog
- Server-Side Google Tag Manager Set to Improve Performance & Security, Cardinalpath
Industry & Business
- Google ends direct cooperation with Hong Kong on data requests over national security law, Washington Post
- Yandex Search Engine Faces $40m Copyright Lawsuit For Indexing Videos, TorrentFreak
Local & Maps
- 'Apple Car' may control how doors move, offer motion sickness-free VR, Appleinsider
- Waze will help pay the bill at gas stations from your phone, 9to5Google
Mobile & Voice
SEO
- How a WordPress SEO Plugin Can Help You Win at Keyword Optimization, BruceClay
- Shifting from What Happened to What’s Next: How Publishers Can Use Data to Predict User Behavior, Adswerve
- The "Don'ts" for SEO in the Wake of COVID-19, Searchmetrics
- The Beginner’s Guide to Google Search Console (GSC), iPullRank
- What Is Crawl Budget? | How to Optimize for Increased Traffic, Botify
- Why In-House SEO is the Answer, Conductor
- How to Do Your Own Local SEO Audit — Quickly and Easily, DAGMAR
- Optimizing Podcasts for The Local Businesses, PPC Hero
PPC
- How to Gain Hidden Google Shopping Seasonality Insights - Free Tool, Go Inflow
- Smart Display Campaigns: What Are They and How Do You Create Them?, Seer Interactive
- Update Your Google Ads Tags for CCPA Compliance, Seer Interactive
- 50 Google Ads Scripts You Should Be Using In 2020, Koozai
- Google's advertising platform is blocking articles about racism., Slate
Search Features
- Bing shopping: Nearby product search, Bing Search Blog
