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:
- Search Buzz Video Recap: Google Subtopic System, Algorithm Update, SMITH & Search Console Updates
This week we learned that Google launched its subtopics ranking systems back in mid-November, which aligned to a few unconfirmed Google updates. Google may have pushed out a small Google ranking algorithm update on January 12th... - Google URL Inspection Tool Now Displays Multiple Referring Pages
It seems like Google is now showing multiple referring pages for some URLs in the URL Inspection Tool within Google Search Console. Amy @amy91485 noticed it and Glenn Gabe thinks it is new as well. I spotted up to four different referring pages in this tool now. - Microsoft Bing Search QR Code Generator
If you search for [qr code] on Microsoft Bing Search you get a built in QR code generator tool. It is not a huge deal but it is something I had no idea Bing offered and it is something that Google Search does not offer. - Google Tests Large & Small Images In Mobile Search Result Snippets
Google seems to be testing displaying both large and smaller image thumbnails within a single snippet in the mobile search results. This does not surprise me and it actually looks pretty good. I cannot replicate this but here is a screen shot from Menucha Zimmerman. - Google Marketing Search Console Owners To Verify Via Domain Property
Looks like the folks at Google are doing an email marketing push to Search Console properties that have not yet verified the property through the domain property method. Google is sending out different flavors of emails, some pitching you can see all your data in one place, another saying your missing 8% of your impressions. - Old Google Disavow Tool Going Away On January 19, 2021
Two months ago Google launched the new disavow link tool, a tool Google says you really do not need, but relaunched it anyway in the new Google Search Console. Now, Google is sunsetting the old tool in just a few days from now. - Google G Logo Printer Machine Simulation
This is a cool video simulation (I don't think it is real) of a video illustrating how Google prints the G logo on boxes or items. The video was originally from @scienceandfacts101 and I embedded it - James Naismith Google Logo To Celebrate Inventor Of Basketball
Today Google is celebrating the invention of my favorite sport, basketball. The inventor, James Naismith is featured in a Doodle watching kids play his game. James Naismith was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, sports coach, and innovator. He was born on November 6, 1861, Almonte, Mississippi Mills, Canada and passed on November 28, 1939, Lawrence, KS.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Good morning! Did you know that Bing has a sunrise/sunset tracker? ☀️🌙 (How are you liking your sliver of sunshine, Seattle?) https://t.co/hj4nyyjV9Y https://t.co/QZjENsapgg, Microsoft Bing Dev on Twitter
- I’m seeing in person events being rescheduled for later this year again! And I’m curious: When do you think you’ll be able to go to a big industry event again (not a meetup) that requires you to travel to an, Aleyda Solis on Twitter
- One is a CMS the other is a framework - they're different kinds of things. Any significant change on a website can have an effect on SEO, some people make changes to improve SEO, for example :), John Mueller on Twitter
- Users don't care why a page is slow. It doesn't matter if it's because of AdSense units, if it's slow, then it's slow. For improving, it can make sense to split problems up, but in the end the overall measurements, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Google Data Studio adaptative sparkline for your dashboard KPIs, Wissi
- Google Universal Analytics (UA) vs Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Vaimo
- How and When to Automate Google Analytics Event Tracking in Google Tag Manager (GTM), Data Driven U
Industry & Business
- Google completes Fitbit acquisition, Google Blog
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
- Google Posts: How to Use Google's New Feature for Local SEO, Pure Visibility
Mobile & Voice
- The best of Google, now in new devices, Google Blog
SEO
- How to rewrite and republish content with Yoast Duplicate Post, Yoast
- IndexWatch 2020 - The Year's SEO losers, SISTRIX
- Should You Have a Trailing Slash at the End of URLs?, Ahrefs
- Investigating Traffic Upticks, Moz
PPC
- A key milestone for privacy-centric measurement on YouTube, Google Blog
- Changes to conversion columns in AdWords API and Scripts, Google Ads Developer Blog
Search Features
