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 Product Reviews Update Was Really Big For Affiliates & Review Sites
Last Thursday, Google began rolling out the new Google Products Reviews Update - I covered everything Google has said about it over in that story but now, it is time to cover the impact. It has been a few days since it started rolling out and those hit by this update are showing that this update can be as big as a core update if impacted. - Vlog #115: Fay Friedman On Duplicate Content, Featured Snippets & People Also Ask
In part one, Fay Friedman and I spoke about E-Commerce SEO vs Other SEO & Common SEO Audit Issues in part two we spoke more about duplicate content... - Google: After Rendering; Focus On If Your Site Adds Value Over Others
Gary Illyes from Google said when it comes to ranking in Google, it is often not about your core web vital scores, if you are using AMP, nor your database size. After you know that Google can access and render your pages, the next step is making sure your content adds value over the competition. - Google Has Changed Cumulative Layout Shift Metric
Google has made changes to how it calculates the CLS, cumulative layout shift, metric within core web vitals. Specifically maximum session window with 1 second gap, capped at 5 seconds. This was done to make it "more fair for long running pages and single page apps," Malte Ubl from Google said. - Microsoft Bing Can Crawl Parameterized URLs Occasionally
Frederic Dubut from Microsoft said Bing "may still crawl parameterized URLs occasionally." He said that the "most common parameters are taken into account in indexing" but it still may crawl the other parameterized URLs here and there. - Google Search Console Office In Tel Aviv Partially Opens Back Up
Daniel Waisberg from Google went to his office for the first time in a year or so. He works with the Search Console team that is based in the Google Tel Aviv office. He shared this photo on Twitter
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Here's my simple take on this: you can either test it and see an effect, or if there's no visible effect, then there's no noticable effect. That people are still speculating on this suggests to me t, John Mueller on Twitter
- I didn't see any simple approach when I tried it for 5 minutes - maybe there's a trick, maybe you can't? Perhaps @danielwaisberg can check with the folks working on it :), John Mueller on Twitter
- Importance of Meta Description in 2021, WebmasterWorld
- Search doesn't care either way. Filter, block, ignore - whatever makes your life easier otherwise., John Mueller on Twitter
- Yes folks, the Internet existed 22 years ago. Here's some videos from the Google offices back then. https://t.co/7fPmbBagR6, John Mueller on Twitter
- I've seen this kind of setup a few times for proxies -- usually they're not meant, John Mueller on Twitter
- Clean url's breaking custom 404 page, WebmasterWorld
- Yeah, technically. That said, we're pretty good at picking these up too., John Mueller on Twitter
- You're probably guessing right: if there's just one country / language version then the hreflang meta tag has no effect. If won't harm anything either though., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- How inclusion can lead to diversity in marketing and communications
- Google released a new algorithm update, it’s not a core update, it’s a product review update; Friday’s daily brief
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Reinventing Analytics for the Data Privacy Era, Cardinal Path
- What Is Google Analytics 4 and How Will It Help My Reporting?, Databox Blog
Industry & Business
- Google’s Secret ‘Project Bernanke’ Revealed in Texas Antitrust Case, Wall Street Journal
- Microsoft Is in Talks to Buy Nuance, Bloomberg
- Antitrust and Privacy Are on a Collision Course, Wired
- Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin Join $100 Billion Club on Tech Boom, Bloomberg
Links & Content Marketing
- What is SEO PR?, Koozai
Local & Maps
- Google Maps vs. Waze: Which navigation app is better?, Tom's Guide
- TomTom AmiGo arrives on Android Auto as further nav option, 9to5Google
Mobile & Voice
- Google officially confirms the Pixel 5a 5G, launching this year, 9to5Google
- Google Shopping for Android shuts down in favor of the web, 9to5Google
SEO
- Expanding support for APAC Search Central Help Communities, Google
- How to Outsource SEO Services to Agencies (Why You Should), Terakeet
- March Winners & Losers - Tyson Stockton, Searchmetrics
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider Update - Version 15.0, Screaming Frog
PPC
- How to Supercharge Your PPC Performance Using LinkedIn Audiences, WordStream
- Privacy-first web advertising: a measurement update, Google Blog
- Announcing the Sustainable Monetized Websites video series, Google
- Performance: Microsoft Audience Network ads, Microsoft Advertising
Search Features
- Take a look at these pandemic pastimes, Google Blog
Other Search
