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 Promoted Governmental Web Sites In Its Latest Algorithm Update? The Federal Update.
On June 23rd we reported about a big Google algorithm update. It seemed pretty big based on the chatter and the tracking tools. But it was not as big as a core update. After about a week, we are now seeing reports from folks in the SEO community that this update may have had a stronger influence on governmental web sites. - Bing On How It Ranks Web Pages & Content
In the newly updated Bing Webmaster Guidelines, Bing disclosed how it ranks content in the Bing search results. Well, it doesn't disclose the exact ranking formula, but it does describe that it uses these areas for ranking; relevance, quality & credibility, user engagement, freshness, location and page load time. - Bing Webmaster Guidelines Are Updated; A Must Read
Bing has spent the past year working on revising the Bing Webmaster Guidelines and now it is live. The prior version was from the original 2012 version but now, it has been almost completely revamped. - Google Replaced The Sponsored Label With The Ads Label
Yesterday Google has removed the "Sponsored" label on the Google Shopping Ads and replaced it with the "Ads" label you see on normal Google Search Ads. Ginny Marvin said this is "streamlining" the ads label. - Video: Google & Bing Talking About The SEO Community
Google released the first video in part two of the SEO Mythbusting series. It starts with Martin Splitt of Google sitting down and talking with Sandhya Guntreddy of Bing. In short, they talk mostly about SEO community related topics. - Google Local Panels Tests Images In Story View
Google is testing a new way of displaying the images in a Google local business knowledge panel listing. Google is using the stories view, where it plays the image like a slideshow story book. - Construction Worker At The New GooglePlex
Here is another photo of a different construction worker at the new Google mega campus near the current GooglePlex. Before we saw a video of a worker operating a digger, here is one working on the bu
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Is there such thing as “backlinks"? What constitutes a "backlink”? Is there a direction associated to it? I'm trying to understand where this stems from. The way I see it, there are external links and internal links. There, Pedro Dias on Twitter
- Google Assistant is also celebrating Pride. Just say, "#HeyGoogle, happy Pride." https://t.co/F7KnKIEPCa, Google on Twitter
- July 2020 AdSense Earnings and Observations, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- The pillars of successful link building
- Usage of voice has plateaued — for now
- What to look at when considering a Digital Asset Management platform
- Google is streamlining ‘Ad’ labeling for Shopping ads
- Bing supports rel=sponsored & rel=ugc
- Bing’s search ranking factors; relevance, quality & credibility, user engagement, freshness, location and page load time
- Bing updates its Webmaster Guidelines
- Replay: Addressing diversity, recruitment and retainment in agencies and marketing teams
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- How to Use BigQuery in Your Digital Marketing Workflow, Portent
- Up Your Data Studio Game: Conditional Formatting, Data Runs Deep
- Why Setting Up Goals in Google Analytics is Important, Rubicom Digital
Industry & Business
- One percent of Googlers get to visit a data center, but I did, Google Blog
- Our focus on helpful devices: Google acquires North, Google Blog
- Google Pushes Back U.S. Office Reopening Plan After Virus Surge, Bloomberg
Local & Maps
- Auto Dealer Google Listings Are a Wreck, Whitespark
- Travel back in time with AR dinosaurs in Search, Google Blog
Mobile & Voice
- Announcing Enhanced Smart Home Analytics, Google Developers Blog
- Work profile: the new standard for employee privacy, Google Blog
SEO
- Rankable - The Dos & Don'ts of Enterprise SEO, iPullRank
- The Dirty Secret to Ranking #1 in Google (Part 3 of 3), SparkToro
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider Update – Version 13.0, Screaming Frog
PPC
- How to Use Portfolio Smart Bidding Strategies in Google Ads, Metric Theory
