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 May 2020 Core Update Is Live - What We See So Far
Yesterday at around 3:50pm ET Google said the new Google May 2020 Core Update is now rolling out. Google said on Twitter "we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year." "It is called the May 2020 Core Update," Google added. Google also said "it will typically take about one to two weeks to fully roll out." - Google Search Console Adds Reports & Tools For SpecialAnnouncement
Google announced this morning that it added support for the new SpecialAnnouncement structured data to Google Search Console. This means that the enhancement report, the Performance report and the rich results test now all support SpecialAnnouncement structured data. - John Mueller: Emojis In Google Search Result Snippets Are Unprofessional
Google's John Mueller is not a fan of emojis in the Google search results - at least for the most part. He said, in some cases, he finds them to be unprofessional. This is his personal opinion, not the opinion of Google as a company, but he said it nevertheless. - Google Now Displays More Local News In Top Stories Carousel
Google also announced yesterday that a month ago it began to show more news stories in the top stories carousel from more local news sources. Google said on Twitter "last month, we made a change to help local content surface better within our Top Stories box." - Google: AMP No Longer Required For COVID-19 News In Top Stories Carousel
Google announced yesterday that news sites no longer need to publish using AMP to be seen in the top stories carousel, specifically for COVID-19 related news. Google said for other news topics you need AMP, but there is now an exception made for COVID-19 related news. - Google Snippets & People Also Ask Not Always Updated The Same Time
Ethan Lazuk shared a screen shot showing how a snippet was recently updated by Google but the people also ask version was not, and was still showing the 2017 version. This shows that Google can show a snippet in two different spots from different times those snippets were indexed. - First Day As A Google Employee During COVID-19
Here is a Noogler, a new Googler, on her first day as a Google employee, during the coronavirus, unable to go to the Google office, to work with her new coworkers in person. Instead, she is home, work
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- It's fine to have localized websites for individual countries, it's no problem to use the same logo & images. I'd just try to make sure the content / text is unique per country (translations are fine too)., John Mueller on Twitter
- We almost never index all pages, regardless of the size of a site. It's expected for there to be a (sometimes significant) number of pages that are known, potentially crawled, but not indexed., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Shopify launches post-COVID POS, Yelp rolls out omnichannel tools for SMBs
- Google surfacing more local COVID news content to satisfy massive search demand
- Google May 2020 Core Update rolling out today
- Your sidebar featured snippet’s ranking didn’t change because of COVID [Video]
- Video: Aaron Friedman on content generation ideas and do small things in SEO matter
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- How to Track Organic Google Shopping Sales in Google Analytics, Metric Theory
- How to use Google Maps in Google Data Studio, Michael Howeely
- Page Load Time vs. Response Time - What Is the Difference?, Pingdom Royal
Industry & Business
- Google is like a poster in the newsagent's window for publishers, tech giant says | Australian media, The Guardian
Links & Content Marketing
- 5 Tips to Run a Sustainable Link Building Campaign, Search Engine Journal
Local & Maps
- Is Your Google My Business Listing Getting Filtered?, Sterling Sky Inc
Mobile & Voice
- Creating accessible sites with AMP, The AMP Blog
SEO
- New Version of SEO Toolbar, SEO Book
- April 2020 Winners and Losers, Searchmetrics
- Should You Still Optimize for Mobile-First SEO? - Cindy Krum, MobileMoxie
- To What Extent Does COVID-19 Really Change SEO? - In Search SEO Podcast, RankRanger
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