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 Question Hub Is Open & It's A Great Way To Find Content Ideas
For years, Google has had a feature called Google Question Hub. It is basically a way for publishers to see what questions go unanswered in Google Search and then create content that matches those questions. It is a neat idea where Google allows searches to submit questions that go unanswered and publishers can then create content to match it. Now this feature seems to have been expanded to US based publishers. - Bing Webmaster Tools Performance Report Adds Crawl & Index Data
Microsoft has quietly added new metrics to the Bing Webmaster Tools performance reports. The new metrics I believe include average position, crawl requests, crawl errors and indexed pages. Previously, when this new report launched in February 2020, it had only clicks, impressions and average click through rate (CTR). - Google Tests Dynamic Customized Tabs In Local Panel
Amy Toman spotted yet another local panel user interface change in the Google search results. This one shows a custom/dynamic tab or menu in the local panel. So in this example, Google is showing a tab for "boarding." - Spotted: Google Note From Your Reviewer For Reconsideration Requests
No, this is not new, Google has been sending out these "note from your reviewer" notifications since 2014. But they are rare and maybe, just maybe, Google will be doing more of these in the future. Kristine Schachinger recently received one before the New Year and it was very specific on what the site owner must do. - Google Search Showing Fewer FAQ Rich Results
It seems like Google has once again pruned which sites are eligible to show FAQ/How To rich results in Google Search. This started around December 21st and RankRanger's tracking tools shows the change but the Mozcast tool does not. Koen Knol noticed for his site that Search Console reported the drop on right after the December Core Update. - Head Bust At The GooglePlex
I do not know when this photo is from but it was recently uploaded to Instagram. It shows a head bust sculpture at the GooglePlex, the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. Do you know wh - Vlog #101: Anthony Church On Conversion Tracking & SEO Strategy
Anthony Church is the VP of client services at Interact Marketing and he and his boss came out to be on the vlog, I interviewed them individually. We also both went to the same university, Baruch College... - Search Buzz Video Recap: Christmas Google Update, Passage Indexing Interface & Search Interfaces
It has been a slow week or so in the search news space because of the holidays but hey - things are never sitting idle in our industry. There has been some speculation that Google did some sort of algorithm update over the Christmas weekend but it seems highly doubtful... - John Mueller Of Google Helping Webmasters On New Years 2021
New Years Day is not over yet and John Mueller of Google has been out helping webmasters both in public forums and privately (I think). Here are some of the public responses John made during New Years Eve 2020 and New Years Day 2021. - January 1 New Year's Day Happy New Year Google Logo / Doodle
New Year's Day is here for some folks and with that the January 1 New Year's Day Google logo or Doodle is also live on those who access Google.com when it is January 1, 2021 at their location. Google has changed the New Year's Eve Doodle cuckoo clock 2020 logo to a January 1 New Year's Day 2021 cuckoo clock.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Cost of Local Service Ads (LSA), Local Search Forum
- We don't have a spam score at Google, so you have my permission to make up any number you'd like :), John Mueller on Twitter
- If you have a link there, we might try to fetch it like a HTML page. Most likely we won't see anything that looks like a normal HTML page and will just ignore it. We definitely don't just try to use any API end, John Mueller on Twitter
- January 2021 AdSense Earnings and Observations, WebmasterWorld
- We pick up links in lots of places. I'm guessing we just saw something that looks like a URL and decided to try it. It's pretty common for us to use all kinds of links for discovering new content.", John Mueller on Twitter
- My first SERP feature discovery in 2021 🎉 looks like a variant of a PAA (but it appears in addition to it and there is also an "People also search for" in the same SERP) #google #mobile #serp https://t.co/8V4iQpr6Rl", Valentin Pletzer on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Simple Tricks To Up-level Your Analytics Reports, Avinash Kaushik
Industry & Business
Local & Maps
- Android Auto 6.0 Is Just Around the Corner as the Biggest Update in a Long Time, AutoEvolution
- Forces oppose mapping by private firms, The Tribune India
- Google Starts Looking into Android Auto Problem Ignored for 12 Months, AutoEvolution
Mobile & Voice
- All the new Google Assistant and Home features in 2020, 9to5Google
- Indian Government is working on Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant-like chatbots for advanced Public services, TechnoSports
SEO
PPC
Other Search
