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 Search Dark Mode Makes Ads Harder To Distinguish From Organic Listings
More are seeing dark mode in Google Search, what is hard to see are the search ads or at least see what are organic listings versus paid listings. It is just harder to distinguish the search ads in dark mode than it is in light mode. If Google made the ad label in white text in dark mode, that would work better than the gray colored font. - Google Ads Lead Form Now Triggers On Headline Click
Google launched lead form extensions in 2019 as a beta and then expanded it more over the years. Heck, they even beta tested a form of lead forms via Google Ads in 2011. In any event, Google just updated the lead forms to trigger when you tap or click on the headline of the ad, as opposed to a sublink. - Google Video On Image SEO In Detail With 12 Tips
Google's John Mueller released an almost 10 minute long video on image SEO best practices and tips. It is one of the more detailed image SEO presentations I've seen from Google. He lists off 12 specific actionable tips and then talks more about implementation and measurement. - Google Search Tests Dark Mode Theme Controls
I believe since December 2020, Google has been testing a dark mode theme in the Google Search results. Now I am seeing Google test a toggle to turn on and off the dark mode theme. - Google Search May Use Core Web Vitals Data From Noindexed Pages
Google may or may not use the Core Web Vitals metrics from pages not within Google's indexed, pages you may explicitly block from indexing, as part of its overall calculation for the upcoming Google Page Experience Update. John Mueller of Google said he believes this to be the case but is not 100% sure. - Toy Monkey Dangres Ju Visits The GooglePlex
This made me smile when I saw it, so I am sharing it here. A toy monkey, I think named Dangres Ju, who seems to have an active Instagram account (with few followers) posts photos of the monkey at plac
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Interesting question! I don't think we'd have a "homophone-detection" part in our algorithms, but we do pick up "pseudo-synonyms" / typos like these. My assumption is that natural language processing models de, John Mueller on Twitter
- Anyone else seeing this letter spacing test in the SERPs? @rustybrick @stevenjohns21 https://t.co/UOt4FCqKZm, James Bertram on Twitter
- Yo! Google super bowl on mobile and check out the fireworks 🎆 Cc: @rustybrick https://t.co/vzWAP8Rx7W, Mordy Oberstein on Twitter
- Mexican singer & songwriter María Grever is widely considered one of the country’s all-time greatest composers 🇲🇽🎵 She produced 100s of songs & was covered by famous artists such as Placido Domingo, Aretha Frank, Google Doodles on Twitter
- That said, a lot is possible with hreflang, but it can get super-complicated + hard to maintain. Because of that, I'd strongly recommend first checking if you're really solving a problem, or if things are mos, John Mueller on Twitter
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Google Analytics 4 Migration: Your Guide to Getting Started, Blast Analytics
- How To Blend Data in Google Data Studio For Better Data Analysis, Hacker Noon
Industry & Business
- A New Australian Law Is the Wrong Answer to Big Tech, OneZero
- Behind the scenes of our first Women of Color Summit, Google Blog
Local & Maps
- Google Kicks Location Data Broker That Sold Muslim Prayer App User Data, VICE
- Apple Maps is getting Google and Waze-like accident reporting, The Verge
Mobile & Voice
- Apple Judge Tosses Out Suit Claiming Siri Serial Eavesdropping, Bloomberg Quint
SEO
- Driving Growth in Russia: Yandex SEO, Conductor
- Google's Page Experience Update is Almost Here, Friday Blog
- SEO 101 Ep 400: Google's John Mueller, StepForth
- Understanding Google SERP Features in 2021: The Complete Guide, KoMarketing
- How to Combine SEO and CRO for the Ultimate Lead Generation Strategy, Moz
PPC
- Announcing v6.1 of the Google Ads API, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Generate phrase keywords from modified broad match (Google Ads Script), Internet Marketing Inside
- Local Service Ads Destroying Profitability of PPC for Criminal Law Businesses, ProLaw Marketing
