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:
- Day Five & Getting Strong: Big Unconfirmed Google Algorithm Update
Sunday night I reported about a big, and still unconfirmed, Google search ranking algorithm update. Well, we are now going on day five (maybe six) and the chatter and rank checking tools are still at insane levels. This is not typical of Google updates, even core updates, to be at this level for this long. - Turing Natural Language Generation (T-NLG) May Power Bing Search In Future
Microsoft posted on its research blog about advancements it is making with the Turing Natural Language Generation (T-NLG) model. Similar to other deep learning language models like BERT and others, this one is more powerful in that it is the largest model ever published at 17 billion parameters. - Google Fixes Google Posts Rejection Bug
Earlier we reported that Google My Business was rejecting a huge number of Google Posts images. Well, it looks like my assumption that this was a bug was correct. Mike Blumenthal, a top contributor for Google My Business, said on Twitter "The Google has noted that the fix went live today for new posts so any new post you create should work as expected." - Microsoft Advertising If Functions For Dynamic Ad Copy
Microsoft Advertising announced global support for IF functions. You can use these IF functions to customize your ad text and ads for searchers based on their device or a specific audience segment. - Vlog #45: Ann Smarty On Guest Blogging & The Future Of Link Building
First, I am sorry about the audio issues, but I still want to publish this interview. Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) is a link building expert in her own right. She came from the Ukraine and now works with Jim Boykin at Internet Marketing Ninjas. She started her own blog to document her early career and then made a name for herself in the guest blogging space. - Google Shares Advice On YouTube Videos For Search
Google's John Mueller, who has been putting together YouTube videos on search for over a decade, has shared some of his advice on how to use videos for your content and search. He said it is often best to have more details in textual content form, because it is easier to update. - Locked In The Google Garage
Here is a photo of a few Googlers smiling as they are locked in a yellow box in one of the garages in the Google Dublin office. This was shared on Instagram where Jessah wrote
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Googlebot caches aggressively, so we recommend using hashes or checksums as part of the filename., Martin Splitt on Twitter
- FYI - seeing changes with @chevrolet dealership GMB’s showing their Parts/Services profiles instead of their primary profile. These are new profiles they didn’t make never showed, Eric Miltsch on Twitter
- To update. Our apologies for this. The site had previously been blocked from showing in Google News surfaces, including Discover, for violating our news content policies. It shifted domains. We should've caught the, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
- 301 is quite different than a 410. I wouldn't use the removal tool for redirects, since it doesn't change processing of the redirect. An old & redirecting URL shown in search still gets users to, John Mueller on Twitter
- How do you benchmark crawl budget?, Reddit
- I don't see an issue with using the URL removal tool for robotted URLs like that. The "removal" tool hides URLs in search results, it doesn't affect crawling & indexing, so you could keep them in the removal t, John Mueller on Twitter
- I don't think you can submit pure http https migrations there. Also I doubt this is something you need to force, if the URLs aren't moved yet despite a correct setup, they probably get minimal traffic anyway, John Mueller on Twitter
- Link Building Strategies For Our Ecommerce Site, WebmasterWorld
- Micrsoft Now Won't Automatically Make Bing Default to Office 365 ProPlus Users, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Analyzing search results reveals a lot about Google’s view of useful content
- New MarTech Today guide for Google Shopping, Amazon, and more
- Warner Bros. renamed the Harley Quinn movie for better SEO
- Yelp launches ‘Showcase Ads’ and store visits attribution
- Unconfirmed Google Search ranking update feels big
- Google resolves rejected Posts problem
- Conditional IF functions now available in all Microsoft Advertising accounts
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- 10 Great Google Analytics Alternatives, Search Engine Journal
- Do more with Data Studio Community Visualizations, Google Blog
- How to Create SMART Marketing Goals That Your Team Will Actually Hit, Databox Blog
Industry & Business
- Google takes on EU in court over record antitrust fines, Reuters
- Helping families Be Internet Awesome on Safer Internet Day, Google Blog
Links & Promotion Building
- A Link Building Checklist to Earn More & Better Links, Search Engine Journal
- Big link numbers don't always equal big business impact, Builtvisible
- How to Build a Media List for Content Promotion, Portent
- Internal Linking Guide, InLinks
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
- Google Assistant regains 'What's on my screen?' search, 9to5Google
- New Arm Hardware Could Make Voice Assistants 50 Times More Powerful, Voicebot
- Siri will now answer your election questions, TechCrunch
SEO
- Google Helping Identify Semantic Entities in Audio, Go Fish Digital
- Google Update February 2020: Background and Analysis, Search Metrics
- Presidents' Day: Google's Complicated Relationship with Alexander Hamilton, Five Blocks
- Rank & File: How and Why You Should do Automated Testing for SEO, iPullRank
PPC
- Announcing v202002 of the Google Ad Manager API, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Deliver more relevant ads with IF functions, Microsoft Advertising
- Up to 50% Of Potentially Converting Keywords Show No Volume in 3rd Party Tools, Local SEO Guide
Search Features
- Hey Google, turn up the love, Google Blog
- Microsoft backtracks on 'Bing-jacking' Chrome with its Microsoft Search extension, ZDNet
- Searching for love this Valentine’s Day, Google Blog
Other Search
