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 Changelog For Google Search Developer Documentation
Lizzi Harvey from Google created a single page to follow the major updates made to the Google Search Developer documentation. So now you can just scan this page over here and see what updates she and her teammates made to the Google Search Developer documentations online. - Is Google Bringing Back Magnifying Glass To Searches Related To Section?
Google is now testing showing a magnifying glass icon next to the search related to phrases. Google had this magnifying glass in 2018 and previous years but removed them. Google is now testing adding them back. - Google Does Not Penalize For Weird Brand Or Product Names
Google's John Mueller said Google does not penalize pages for having weird product or brand names. John said on Twitter "Companies & products use all kinds of weird brand names." So when someone asked if Google might lower those rankings, he said "No, I don't think that would make sense." - Bing Now Supports SpecialAnnouncement Schema
Bing announced that is now supports SpecialAnnouncement schema. Bing said "Bing may consume case statistics from government health agencies at the country, state or province, administrative area, and city level that use the schema.org markup for diseaseSpreadStatistics associated with a SpecialAnnouncement." - Google Search More Button Showing In Different Colors
If you do a search in Google that triggers some of those answer cards that have a circle "more" button, you may see Google show the button in one of many colors. I've seen orange, green, brown, gray and others. - Google Boulder Mountain View
Google's Mountain View office is not the only office with mountain views, check out this view from the Google Boulders office. Those are some nice looking mountains. This was shared on Instagram.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- COVID's Impact on SEO, WebmasterWorld
- Dave (@localoptimizer) contributed a lot to the local SEO community, and we'll miss him - https://t.co/Oh12S5ZBSs, Phil Rozek on Twitter
- Get better App campaigns creative insights with new asset reporting features, Google Ads Help
- PSA: Google Posts seems to be limping badly. Many businesses are having trouble. Google knows about the situation and while it is not a great time for Posts to break, they have. They continue to work for some https://t.co/, Mike Blumenthal on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Reducing digital marketing due to COVID-19? Read this first
- 9 of the best SEO tools you can try for free
- Google My Business not functioning as expected under the strain of coronavirus
- Corona to COVID: How Google’s ‘corona’ results page has evolved
- 5 challenges in selling SEO
- Google intros open testing ads, new asset reporting and more for App campaigns
- [Watch] Live With Search Engine Land: Top SEOs talk COVID-19 upheaval, traffic movements and more
- Bing adopts SpecialAnnouncement structured data for COVID-19
- Video: Max Prin on technical SEO tools and PWAs
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Exit Rate vs Bounce Rate - Which One You Should Improve and Why, Pingdom Royal
- How to build a Google Ads dashboard in Google Data Studio, Michael Howeely
- Understand Google Analytics Attribution Models, In Marketing We Trust
Industry & Business
- Grow your games business with a player-first approach, Google Blog
- 8 Virtual SEO Conferences for B2B Marketers, Online Marketing Blog
Links & Promotion Building
- We accidentally made a discovery tool for lost backlinks, Majestic Blog
Local & Maps
- Effectively Boost Your Local Business's Posts on Instagram, Seer Interactive
- GM offers free, limited internet access in its connected cars, Engadget
- Apple Car solar panel technology could also be used in Apple Watch, iPhone case, Apple Insider
- Do GMB Products Impact Ranking and Drive Website Traffic and Conversions? [Case Study], Sterling Sky Inc
Mobile & Voice
- Google Assistant adds handy 'coronavirus tips' shortcut, 9to5Google
- iOS 14 code hints BMW could be first to use Apple's 'CarKey' API, report says, Apple Insider
SEO
- Bing adopts schema.org markup for special announcements for COVID-19, Bing Webmaster Blog
- Helpful SEO Insights During the COVID-19 Outbreak, Botify
- How to diagnose and deal with Faceted Search problems, Ryte
- It’s Not the Job of SEO to Make a Pig Fly, BruceClay
- What are Good Answers for Queries that Ask Questions?, Go Fish Digital
- Google Webmaster Hangout Notes: March 20th 2020, DeepCrawl
- Managing an SEO Team Effectively & Efficiently: In Search SEO Podcast, RankRanger
- Managing SEO in Times of Crisis - Jordan Koene, Searchmetrics
- You Can Now Take Moz Academy Courses for Free, Moz
PPC
- Create a Holistic Paid Strategy With Paid Social & Search, Seer Interactive
- How To Use Google Keyword Planner for SEO and PPC Campaigns, SEM Rush
- The Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Shopping Campaigns (Dynamic Product Ads), Seer Interactive
- Adapting to a new way of doing business, Microsoft Advertising
Search Features
- Google Search removes Kodi media player due to copyright, 9to5Google
- Massively Scaling Reinforcement Learning with SEED RL, Google AI Blog
- City of Antwerp and Google to digitize 100,000 books, Google Blog
