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 Products Reviews Update Refreshes Won't Likely All Be Announced/Confirmed
Another tidbit I wanted to pull out of my larger story on the Google Product Reviews update was that when Google does refreshes or updates to this algorithm, Google may not announce those updates or even confirm the update has been made. - Google Soft 404 Detection Bug May Be Causing Ranking Issues In Google Search
Over the past several days, I think starting around April 9th, Google made some change to how it detects soft 404s and that change may be causing ranking issues for some sites in Google Search. - Google Ads Will Apply Recommendations Automatically If Opted In
Google announced that it is rolling out the option to apply recommendations automatically, that is, if you opt in to this feature. Google said "many of you that reviewing and implementing recommendations can be time consuming," so Google is going to give you an option to just trust them 100% completely and let Google just apply those recommendations. - Google My Business: Edit Your Profile, Hours, Photos & More From Web Search
In 2017, Google My Business began adding features to let business owners manage their local listings directly in the web search results. In 2020, Google upgraded that and now in 2021, Google added the ability to edit your business profile like hours, category, products, photos, location and more. - Google Podcast On Search Serving, Debugging SEO, Hreflang Complexities & More
Google's John Mueller, Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt published another Search Off The Record podcast and this one talks about how Google (or any search engine) serves results, Gary spent a lot of time on this topic. Martin Splitt spoke about the process he used to demo debugging SEO issues. John Mueller spoke about the complexities of using hreflang and so much more. - Google Product Reviews Update May Impact Your Discover Traffic
Google told us that the product reviews update is a lot like the core update in many ways but it is not a core update. So I asked if like core updates, can the product reviews update impact your Google Discover traffic. The answer is yes, yes it can. - Video: Google Parabola String Art
The other day I shared some photos from the Google Pittsburgh office of a team of artists installing parabola string art. Well, I think it is about done and here, embedded below is a video of it. Not
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Hosting the PDFs on a server where you can? :-) Robots.txt should also work, we might still index the URL (we don't know what's there without crawling), but usually a site has enough normal content on a topic, John Mueller on Twitter
- First: we wouldn't see the noindex if the page is blocked by robots.txt, so I'd pick one or the other. If these pages are duplicates of content you have on your site anyway, I don't see a problem with blocking, John Mueller on Twitter
- German craftsman & inventor Johannes Gutenberg forever left his imprint on the world 📚 Learn how his invention of the modern printing press made books more accessible than ever → https://t.co/zxPQg8kRB3 #GoogleDoodle, Google Doodles on Twitter
- It's supposed to be a bit scary. Don't remove your site without thinking a few times about it. What would you change with the wording?, John Mueller on Twitter
- They're not crawled if they're blocked by robots.txt :-). They don't take away any of your site's crawl budget, but you might have better internal linking if you focused on crawlable & indexable URLs, so it, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Is it time to switch to a new SEO tool?
- The 2021 Search Engine Land Awards are open for entries
- Google tips the scales in its own favor–but do marketers care?; Tuesday’s daily brief
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Google Analytics 4 – what you need to know, AffiliateINSIDER
Industry & Business
- 'FLoC off!' Vivaldi declares as it says no to Google's tracking system, ZDNet
- Apple behind Microsoft, Google, Intel, Samsung in reputation survey, Appleinsider
- Google is poisoning its reputation with AI researchers, The Verge
Links & Content Marketing
- SEO Writers: Are You Making These 5 Common Mistakes?, SuccessWorks
Local & Maps
- Google Releases the First 2021 Google Maps Update on iPhone and CarPlay, AutoEvolution
- You Can Now Use Google Maps to Help the Homeless—Here's How, House Beautiful
Mobile & Voice
- Apple researching HomePod-style Spatial Audio for Apple AR, Appleinsider
- Can Medical Alexas Make Us Healthier?, New York Times
SEO
- 7 ways to improve product descriptions in your online store, Yoast
- Bing SEO: Higher Optimization Awaits!, RankRanger
PPC
- Searching for the way, Google Blog
