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 Ranking Algorithm Update; Is It Product Reviews Related?
Starting around Friday, April 30th but really spiking a lot on Saturday, May 1st, we are seeing signs of another big Google search ranking algorithm update. There are signs that this update had a big impact on the Product Reviews update as well. It is hard to say if they are separate or maybe Google rolled out something, unconfirmed, that impacted product reviews and other categories of sites? - Google Adds Links To Featured Snippets Leading Back To Google Search Results
Google is adding links to featured snippets that when clicked on send the searcher to a new set of search results at Google. So a query refinement feature without Google telling you those links are refinements to your previous query. - Google Advice On How To Optimize Images While Not Hurting Image Search Rankings
Google's John Mueller posted a great thread on Twitter about considerations around how to make your images more optimized, so that your pages load faster, while also taking into account how that might impact your rankings in Google Image Search. John posted several tweets on Twitter with the information. - Local SEOs Not Seeing Unusual Google Local Ranking Fluctuations
Over the past week, actually, starting since Friday, April 23rd, the BrightLocal tracking tool has been showing very high fluctuations and volatility in the local pack results in Google Maps and Google Search. But the local SEO community is not noticing the changes with their clients. - Google Tests Trending Searches In Google Discover
Google seems to be testing trending searches in the Google Discover feed. Jason Mandragona, the SEO manager at CNBC, shared a screenshot with me of this in action, he posted it on Twitter but here it is: - Google Ads Customer Match Now Has Real-Time Match Rates
Google announced that is is now making the Customer Match feature in Google Ads. Now the Customer Match lists can show you in real time the percentage of your customer list that is usable with Customer Match. - Vlog #118: Justin Abrams On Customer Success From Mountain Climbing To SEO Technology
Justin Abrams is a Senior SEO Consultant at BrightEdge and also the co-founder of Cause of a Kind. I had the honor to host him outside of my office on my birthday. He is such a smart and personable individual that really has a passion for his customers and their work... - YouTube Red Slide
This slide is not new, we covered it in 2014 but this is a better photo of it. YouTube's office in San Bruno, California, has this really red slide that has not lost its color over the years. Even m
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Survey in GMB today https://t.co/g13czhYtqX, Mike Blumenthal on Twitter
- I don't know about HTML, but for Google depending on the characterset of the page, both can be the same. I'd use either just plain unicode directly on a page with the appropriate characterset, or the HTML entity (, John Mueller on Twitter
- My thought when consciously using it is that people tend to focus on just the part of the answer they feel applies to them, so prefixing the answer with "it depends" might make it clearer that t, John Mueller on Twitter
- SEO isn't an adversarial attack. It's following acceptable guidelines we encourage anyone to do. It helps increase chances that any helpful content might be found. That's why we have a guide a, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
- There is no ranking boost for AMP - but it generally does make it a lot easier to create significantly faster sites., John Mueller on Twitter
- May 2021 AdSense Earnings and Observations, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- How 5 agencies delivered incredible results for their clients
- Bing’s new shopping features emphasize comparison shopping
- Case study: More content is not always better for ranking in Google
- SEOs, stop wasting time and focus on what really matters; Friday’s daily brief
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- How to Track Clicks on a Link in Google Analytics 4, Hubspot
- reCAPTCHA v3 With Google Tag Manager Server-side Tagging, Simo Ahava's blog
Industry & Business
- A Matter of Impact: April updates from Google.org, Google Blog
- Verizon Is Said to Near Sale of Media Arm to Apollo, Bloomberg
- Verizon sells Yahoo and AOL businesses to Apollo for $5 billion, CNBC
Links & Content Marketing
- B2B Content Marketing Strategies for Organic Search, Business 2 Community
Local & Maps
- What to Do If You Lost All Your Google Reviews after Accidentally Deleting Your GMB Page, Local Visibility System
- Google Maps for Android Starts Mixing Up Words, And This Is a Bug, Not a Feature, AutoEvolution
- The Best Google Maps Alternatives on Android Auto, AutoEvolution
Mobile & Voice
- Apple still top tablet maker in Q1 2021 as global market booms, Appleinsider
- Google confirms new Google Assistant product announcements coming at I/O 2021, Chrome Unboxed
- How to Turn a Rotary Phone into Google Assistant with Raspberry Pi, Tom's Hardware
SEO
- Questions Executives Need to Ask Their Marketing, Engineer, and SEO Teams About Site Rendering, Botify
- SEO Success: The Motley Fool Story, DeepCrawl
- What is E-A-T & Why it's Important (Google, E-A-T and SEO), Terakeet
- The Keywords Mapping Cheatsheet For Different Types of Sites [with a Google Sheets Included], Aleyda Solis
- Local Justifications Are a Big Deal and You Can Influence Them, Moz
PPC
- EU regulators raise concerns regarding Google's FLoC, 9to5Google
- Google Ads API v4 and v5 sunset reminder, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Reminder to migrate to the AdMob API, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Google's Grand Plan to Eradicate Cookies Is Crumbling, Wired
- Why can't Google get a grip on rip-off ads?, BBC News
Search Features
- New product comparison features on Bing Shopping, Bing Search Blog
- US Teacher Appreciation Week 2021 Begins!, Google Doodle
