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:
- Use 404s & Temporary Sitemaps To Speed Up Page Removal From Google
Have a lot of pages you want removed from the Google index and don't want to use the page removal tool for each URL? Google's John Mueller said you can try to 404 and noindex all the pages you want removed and then submit a temporary sitemap to Google. It might speed things up he said. - Google Rich Results Test Now With Code Editing
Google announced on Twitter yesterday that the Google Rich Results Test now lets you not just test live or sample code, but also let's you make edits to code that you run and test it on the fly. So after you run it, you can then click into the code on the left side panel and edit what you want, then run it again. - Google Manufacturer Center With New Content, Analytics & Availability
Google announced they added some new features to the Google Manufacturer Center. They added a new section on Shopping product detail pages that has more content from your site. They added new and improved analytics. And they also expanded availability of the Manufacturer Center from seven countries to 24 countries. - Google PSA: Do Not 301 Pages that Should 404 To Your Home Page
Google's John Mueller said it again, if you 301 redirect pages that should 404 to your home page, Google will treat them as soft 404s anyway and thus all you are doing is confusing your end users. There is no benefit in using a 301 redirect for a page that you killed off when you are redirecting it to a page that is not relevant to that 404 page. - G Logo Made Of Google Colored Basketballs
Google posted on their Instagram channel this shiny photo of a bunch of colored basketballs on a basketball court in the shape of the G logo. I believe it is to promote the NBA All-Star Vote that we
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Manual SEO tools... old-school/ non-commercial, WebmasterWorld
- Please Use the New YouTube Help Forum!, YouTube Help
- Removing the script tags would also drop any JSON-LD structured data on the page, which might not be what you're trying to achieve. FWIW we'll generally still render pages without script tags.… https://t.co/iZvCnR527c, John Mueller on Twitter
- What would be the use-case for it?…, John Mueller on Twitter
- In general, I'd avoid making pages that you don't need, you can have multiple hreflang value s on a single page, eg if you have DE-language for DE, AT, CH countries.… https://t.co/QhSpcoJKuK, John Mueller on Twitter
- That's still the same. I'd also redirect desktop users to the desktop site from the m.-site, like you would redirect mobile users from the desktop site to the m.-site. Or, even better, just use responsive web design :-))… ht, John Mueller on Twitter
- Want more profits? @BuyerZone added the Microsoft Audience Network to their SEM strategy. The result? An extra 20% profit on top of their original search campaign. https://t.co/Vys5oZrDyt… https://t.co/7BNtbD2KHQ, Bing Ads on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Help us anonymously benchmark marketing operations and technology salaries
- Learn how one startup doubled CPL and saved money
- Need to expedite page removal in Google’s search index? Try a temporary sitemap file
Other Great Search Stories:
Industry & Business
- Google to Lease Converted Mall in Race for L.A. Office Space, Bloomberg
- Principles for evolving technology policy in 2019, Google Blog
Links & Promotion Building
- We Used Ahrefs to Analyze 25 Highly Competitive eCommerce Search Terms. Here’s What We Found, Go Inflow
- What Happens When SEO and CRO Conflict?, Moz
- Who’s who of content marketing in 2019, Brafton
Local & Maps
- ‘Use Google Maps to combat traffic’, Times of India
- Samsung says Bixby will soon work with Google Maps, YouTube, Engadget
Mobile & Voice
- Anker's Roav Bolt puts Google Assistant in your car, Engadget
- Google-enabled Smart Mirror announced at CES, Android Authority
- Hands-on: Moen will control your shower w/ Google Assistant, 9to5Google
- Hey Google, what's new with the Assistant at CES this year?, Google Blog
- JBL Link Drive brings Google Assistant to your car, Android Police
- Two new ways the Google Assistant can help with an upcoming trip, Google Blog
SEO
- How to decide what faceted pages you should index - #CrawlingMondays 2nd Episode, Aleyda Solis
- 11 Little-Known Features In The SEO Spider, Screaming Frog
- Identify missing phrases in your content using the SEMrush or Search Console API, Builtvisible
- In Search SEO Podcast 09: Where Do We Stand with SEO After 2018?, RankRanger
- Raven Tools SEO Audit Tool: The How-To Guide, Raven Blog
- SEO Practices: Search Engines Around the World, Distilled
- The Ultimate Blog SEO Checklist, Search Engine Journal
- Why you should try out the new Yoast SEO analysis, Yoast
PPC
- Google Ads Not Working for Your Small Brand? Try Something Different, Search Engine Journal
- Google Steps Up Enforcement Of Publisher Violations For UGC, MediaPost
- Increasing Conversions in Facebook and Decreasing CPC, PPC Hero
- Interview with Pamela Lund on PPC & Work Efficiency for Consultants, SEM Rush
- [Infographic] Traffic tips, Inside AdSense
Other Search
