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:
- Confirmed: Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On March 12 & 13th
I am seeing plenty of signs from the SEO community, the tracking tools and so on that there was and is a Google algorithm update going on right now. It started on March 12th, yesterday and is continuing on today. - Google Testing New Simple Black Ad Label
Google looks to be testing changing the ad label in their search results once again. The last time they changed it was in February 2017, when they went with a green outline ad label. This new test shows small black text labeled as "Ad" and that is it. - Google: No Exceptions Broken & Unclean Headers With Hreflang
Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that if you cannot have a clean header in your source code where Google can fully interpret the hreflang, then you are out of luck. Google said either fix the issue with your header or you really cannot depend on Google properly understanding your hreflang markup. - Google Search Quality Raters Don't Directly Impact Rankings
I must have covered this topic a few times but here we go again, Google has said numerous times that the search quality raters they hire as consultants do not directly influence their search rankings. An article was highlighted yesterday but some folks in the search community implied that after a rater visits your site your rankings can immediately improve or drop down - that is not true. - Google: Words You've Searched For Dictionary Results
Google now can show you words they think you've searched Google for to get dictionary answers. If you search for [dictionary] or other variations around that, Google will show you "Words you've searched" previously for. I don't think this is super new, at least some have said they've seen this for a few months now. - Adventureman Talks At Google New York
Here are some photos from Adventureman, Jamie McDonald, who is running across America right now, rushed that run to make it for his talk at Google NYC. He posted on Instagram some photos and this mes
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Chrome Lite Android Data Saver Feature, WebmasterWorld
- Google Marketing Live broadcast on May 14th: register today, Google Ads Help
- How to Prepare For & Recover From Google Updates, WebmasterWorld
- Office Hours - Gain confidence in the results the grant is returning for your organiz.., The Google Advertiser Community
Search Engine Land Stories:
- What’s going on with In-depth Articles on Google?
- What will Google Hotels mean for online booking sites?
- DuckDuckGo CEO testifies: Privacy legislation isn’t ‘anti-advertising’
- Bing Ads brings 3D ads to Search with Samsung
- Google Ads rolling out Budget Planner forecasting tool
- Book your SMX Advanced pass by Saturday for up to $900 in savings
- Back to Basics: App optimization and Firebase indexation
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- CASE STUDY: The easiest CRO you can do is via Google Tag Manager, Pavel Brecik's blogpost
- 10 Vital Customizations to Make in Google Analytics, Quick Sprout
- 4 Free Data Studio Templates You Need To Showcase Results, Directom
Industry & Business
- How to Cut Costs as a Digital Marketing Agency, State of Digital
- Jade Raymond Named New VP of Google, Variety
- Submissions Now Open: SEMPO Introduces 2019 Search Marketing Awards, SEMPO
- YouTuber threatens Google, travels cross country to confront them, gets arrested in Mountain View, ABC 7 News
- Google has moved dozens of employees out of its laptop and tablet division, Business Insider
Links & Promotion Building
Local & Maps
- With Lookout, discover your surroundings with the help of AI, Google Blog
- Your mission, gumshoe: Catch Carmen Sandiego in Google Earth, Google Blog
Mobile & Voice
- An All-Neural On-Device Speech Recognizer, Google AI Blog
- Google's Allo messenger waves goodbye, Engadget
- New Android adware found in 200 apps on Google Play, TechCrunch
SEO
- Debugging Common SEO Issues Part 2: SEO Issues In Content, Authority Labs
- How Google Dishes Out Content by Search Intent, Moz
- March 5, 2019 - Google Help Hangout Notes, Marie Haynes Consulting
- 5 Reasons Legacy Brands Struggle With SEO (and What to Do About Them), Moz
- A Darker Shade of Gray, SEO Book
PPC
- How to Improve B2B Lead Quality with SEO and PPC, KoMarketing
- The Complete Google Marketing Tools List Every Business Should Know About, Cognitive SEO
Other Search
- Chrome Lite Pages - For a faster, leaner loading experience, Chromium Blog
