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:
- SEO Test Proves New GoogleBot Is Live
Valentin Pletzer didn't want to just take Google's word that the new evergreen GoogleBot is live, so he tested it. In short, Google's word was the truth and the new GoogleBot is indeed live. - Google: Don't Just Blindly Delete Old Pages
Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that it doesn't necessarily make sense to just go into your content management system and delete old pages after a certain date. John said "FWIW sometimes good, old stuff becomes interesting again over time, so you might want to avoid just blindly deleting everything over a certain age." - Steven Levy: Google Search Results Overrates Freshness As A Ranking Signal
Steven Levy, the tech reporter that most tech reporters look up to. He has interviewed legends of tech, has access to companies like Google and Apple more than others. He is a legend and when he called out Google's search algorithm for failing him and searchers yesterday, Google's Danny Sullivan noticed and went on the defensive. - Google: New GoogleBot & Indexing Bugs Unrelated
Google's Martin Splitt said the new GoogleBot has zero impact or was completely unrelated to the indexing bugs we saw back in April. He said "Fair question, but no" when I asked if they were related at all. - Google Rolled Out The New GoogleBot Over Several Months
Just an FYI, Google did not simply flip the switch last week and turn on the new GoogleBot, the evergreen GoogleBot, over night. Google said it was already indexing 10% of the web back in November. It scaled from less than 1%, to 1%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 75%, to 100% over several months and just reached 100% last week. - Peter The Greeter - Welcomes Everyone To Google
We saw this guy numerous times, in fact, I see him come up in Google photos numerous times a day. He calls himself Peter The Greeter and says he greets everyone who comes to the Google sign at the Go
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- U.S. Supreme Court Rules Apple Customers Could Sue Over App Store Monopoly, WebmasterWorld
- I don't think that makes sense. One is a web page that we could index for web search, the other is just an image (which we'd index only together with a web page, for Google Images). They're very different things.… https://t.c, John Mueller on Twitter
- Those approximate result counts aren't useful for diagnostics purposes; they're optimized for speed, not accuracy. I wouldn't use them as an indicator. For example, when pages are seen as duplicates, they may or may not be "cou, John Mueller on Twitter
- We'll look into this. The photo comes from Google Images. In turn, images are largely based on the words describing them -- that's why a wig image, for example, might make it in regardless of the wearer. We're just seeing the w, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Welcome to the Golden Age of competitive research
- 7 best social media monitoring tools for any business
- The Future of Display Advertising
- I/O announcements have some applauding and others shaking their fists
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Advertising metrics for your bottom-line, Think with Google
- Does Your Organization Have Seasonal Affective Data Disorder?, Medium
- How to Set Up Google Analytics Event Tracking, HootSuite
- How to track outbound clicks from your site using Google Analytics and Tag Manager, Thomas Patracco
Industry & Business
- Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major outlets, Columbia Journalism Review
- Ex-Google boss defends multiple controversies, BBC News
- Supporting the vital work of European safety organizations, Google Blog
- Want to know how SEO pricing works? We've got you covered, Know Techie
Links & Promotion Building
- In Search SEO Podcast: How to Effectively Build Local Links, RankRanger
- You're Doomed Without Links [2019 Case Study], The Upper Ranks
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
- Google Requests Nest Account Holders Switch to Google Accounts, May Use Data in Ad Personalization, and is Shutting Down the Works with Nest Program in August, Voicebot
- How to stop Google from keeping your voice recordings, The Verge
SEO
- How to Hunt Down and Capture Featured Snippets for More Traffic in 2019, Kinsta
- How Often Does Google Update Its Algorithm?, Moz
- The Top 15 Free SEO Tools You Should Be Using, Search Engine Journal
PPC
- Amazon Adds Sponsored Brand Ad Negative Keywords, PPC Hero
- State of Paid Social Survey Closes Friday, May 17th, PPC Hero
- The Keyword Is Dead: Accept And Adjust, MediaPost
Search Features
- Here's what Google's bet on visual search means for advertisers, AdAge
- The Try Guys Try 13 Future Technologies At Google, YouTube
- New Google Lens icon is now rolling out across Android, 9to5Google
Other Search
- 'Game of Thrones' creators now show up as 'bad writers' on Google, Business Insider
