Daily Search Forum Recap: January 17, 2020

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 January 2020 Core Update News, Favicons & Black Ad Icons Take Over Google Search, Froogle Returns & Much More
  This week Google released two big things; first was a new and big broad core update and the second was the favicons and black ad label design in the desktop search results. The Google January 2020 core update was big, launched on Monday, it was a global update...
• SEOs Share Impact Of The Google January 2020 Core Update
  Yesterday, I asked on Twitter for SEOs to share charts and data on how the Google January 2020 core update had an impact on their web sites or client sites. Here are some of the responses I have received.
• Google: January 2020 Core Update Mostly Done Rolling Out But Is It?
  Google has said that the January 2020 core update is "mostly done" when I and others asked if it was done rolling out. Google said "the update is mostly done, though as with any core update, it may take to two weeks to fully complete." But is it?
• Google Once Again Says Structured Data Does Not Impact Ranking
  Google, once again, had to say structured data does not impact ranking in web search. But this time Google had to say it because their structured data warnings in Google Search Console were confusing to understand and came off like bad structured data can result in a ranking drop.
• Google: Good Spam Reports Can Lead To Broad Spam Action
  Danny Sullivan from Google responded to complaints about spam in Google search asking the user to report the spam using the form. The user complained and Danny responded that good spam reports often lead to "a deep dive to understand networks and take broad action." He added spam "reports to help."
• Google Search Showing Wrong URL In Snippets
  Google is now showing the incorrect URL in the snippets. It isn't a massive problem because when you click on the result, it takes you to the correct place. But Google is placing a www on the URL when it is not there. For example, a search for [harwoods] shows harwoods.www.uk.com as the URL when it is really www.harwoods.uk.com.
• Google Has Evacuation Vests
  This photo was taken at the Google Mountain View office, the GooglePlex. There is a sign hanging for evacuation vests. Yes. Might be a joke or might not. But I guess you never know if a code release

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

• Great seeing the adoption of Bing URLs submission API https://t.co/PsfOdaJLXr accelerating including via this new partnership with Botify https://t.co/qOjVY9c1jC, Fabrice Canel on Twitter
• How would you ask for information then? Maybe with dance moves? :) I think the "keyword1 keyword2" searches over time will move more to natural questions, but we'll see :), John Mueller on Twitter
• It doesn't matter (404/410 for robots.txt=crawl everything, which is fine too), but I'd keep it simple by redirecting the whole subdomain., John Mueller on Twitter
• No, there is no minimum or maximum limit for the amount of content for ranking first in search., John Mueller on Twitter
• I wouldn't worry about crawl budget in most cases, sometimes files are large but we might not crawl them so much anyway. I'd focus on the speed users see., John Mueller on Twitter
• Visible text is not akin to hidden text. It's literally the opposite., John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Case study: The true value of informational content for e-commerce SEO
• Google Search Console unparsable structured data report data issue
• Google January 2020 core update almost done rolling out

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• Better reporting for B2B marketers with Google Data Studio, Torpedo
• How to make a detailed Ecommerce report in Google Data Studio, Michael Howeely

Industry & Business

• Google Reaches $1 Trillion in Value, Even as It Faces New Tests, New York Times
• Google's 'monopoly on search' will be attacked n Congress, 9to5Google

Links & Promotion Building

• Mining Reddit for Content Ideas in 5 Steps - Whiteboard Friday, Moz

Local & Maps

• Apple CarPlay (2020) Review: The Last Word In Auto Infotainment, Digital Trends
• How to stop Google Maps from tracking and saving your location, CNBC
• Why Google Maps Marketing is So Important for Your Business, News Credit

Mobile & Voice

• Google Assistant integration is coming to Chrome for Android, 9to5Google
• Google Assistant Will Replace Voice Search in Chrome This Year, Voicebot

SEO

• 5 Must-Haves When Hiring a B2B SEO Agency, KoMarketing
• 91 SEO Free Classes, Take The Course Now, Ignite Visibility
• Bing partners with the ecosystem to drive fresh signals, Bing Webmaster Blog
• Botify Partners With Bing: Promote Indexing Of Your Site's Critical Pages In Real Time, Botify
• Does social media influence your SEO?, Yoast
• SEO Analysis Of The Google January 2020 Update, Ignite Visibility
• Google Core Update January 2020 - First Data and Analysis, SISTRIX

PPC

• Easily Analyze and Manage Your Bid Adjustments with New Adalysis Features, Adalysis

Search Features

• Manage audio and video in Chrome with one click, Google Blog

Other Search

• Get Ready for New SameSite=None; Secure Cookie Settings, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog