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 Ranking Algorithm Update This Weekend?
Before going offline for this long three-day holiday, I saw rumblings of a possible Google update about to rollout. I was a bit nervous it was a core update but Google did not confirm any update and now that I am back online, the chatter, although elevated, is not at core update levels. - Google Maps To Improve Curbside Pickup & Delivery Features
Google announced this morning new features to improve Google Maps, including improved curbside pickup and delivery options. Plus, the company announced improvements to indoor live view navigation, air quality data and driving directions that are eco-friendly. But let's focus on the curbside and delivery features here. - Google: We Do Not Measure Title Tags By Pixels
Martin Splitt from Google confirmed that Google Search does not measure title tags by the number of pixels. He said "that was a joke" when it was mentioned in the live version of the Search Off The Record podcast. - Google: Bad Idea To Make Your Images Low Quality To Improve Core Web Vital Scores
Often when it comes to getting a better score in some of the core web vital metrics it is about making your images faster to load. One SEO asked if they can downsize the images in a very heavy way where the image would become blurry in order to improve the score. John Mueller of Google said "that sounds like a bad idea." - Microsoft To Share More Details On Bing Content Submission API
In October 2019, Fabrice Canel of Microsoft told us about a new content submission API to not feed just URLs to Bing but to feed the content on those URLs to Bing as well. Well, more details about this API are coming next month said Fabrice Canel. - Google News Algorithmic Inclusion Is A Failure For Publishers
Back in December 2019 or so, Google stopped the requirement for news publishers to manually submit their news site to be included in Google News. Instead, Google said it will automatically through its algorithms figure out what sites to include in Google News. The problem is, this new process is a complete failure for new publishers. - Google Cambridge Mini Golf
Here is a photo from the Google Cambridge office from 2018 of Googlers playing mini golf inside the office. I wonder when we will see Googlers doing this again. Do you think by the end of the year?
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Google replaces ooooooo pagination with colorful triangles on occasion of Holi festival in India. Mouse clicks spread colors on screen . @rustybrick https://t.co/iewOobbqxg, Sunny Ujjawal on Twitter
- Happy #Holi! (Search "Holi" on Google for a colorful surprise:) https://t.co/2huhS64zKZ, Sundar Pichai on Twitter
- One-Man Shop Living off Adsense?, WebmasterWorld
- There is no fixed number. There's a lot more to search than just backlinks., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- The 5 latest Google Ads features and how to make the most of them
- Pickup and delivery attributes, indoor Live View and more AI-powered features are coming to Google Maps and GMB
- Long live small businesses and brand awareness with Prince Harry; Monday’s daily brief
- Beyond the Webinar: Engaging experiences your audience will love
- How to tell stories using data
- User-Generated Content — The secret SEO weapon
- The big Google zero click debate; who is right?; Friday’s daily brief
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Google Data Studio - How to transpose columns of metrics to rows inside a table chart, Wissi
- Google Analytics 4's Enhanced Measurement Simplifies Events Management, CMSWire
- Track Conversions Once per Session in Google Analytics 4, Analytics Mania
- What Is Google Analytics 4? (And When to Upgrade to GA4), WebFX
- How to create a competitive analysis dashboard for Core Web Vitals using Google Data Studio, DeepCrawl
Industry & Business
- Google Aims to Be the Anti-Amazon of E-Commerce. It Has a Long Way to Go., New York Times
- Hackers Hosed by Google Were a Counterterrorism Operation, Wired
- Google’s Cloudy Future, The Information's 411
- Yandex announces management changes, Yandex
Local & Maps
- Why You Should Think Twice About Activating GMB Messaging, Local University
- Apple Maps adds speed camera alerts in more countries [u] | AppleInsider, Appleinsider
Mobile & Voice
- Google using federated learning to improve "Hey Google" accuracy, XDA Developers
- Google's Action Blocks update lets you move your Assistant widgets between phones, Android Police
SEO
- Designing Website Headers in 2021, BrightEdge
- Related Search (Categories) with Python, Briggsby
- Selling SEO To the C-suite, Botify
- 4 blogging pros share how they attract new visitors, Google Blog
- Empathetic Marketing: The Secret Business Ingredient in the 2021 Recipe, Moz
- Google’s algorithm is amazingly smart and incredibly dumb at the same time, Yoast
PPC
- Announcing the New and Improved Interactive Query Builder, Google Ads Developer Blog
- How to Make Paid Search and SEO Work Better Together, DeepCrawl
Search Features
- Discover the best products for everything on Google, Google Blog
- Google Discover increasingly showing old news for some, 9to5Google
- Google Testing New Mobile Display for eCommerce Category Pages, Brodie Clark Consulting
- The ABCs of spelling in Google Search, Google Blog
Other Search
