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:
- Bing Advice On Optimizing For Intelligent Answers & Questions?
I will be honest, the blog post Bing posted yesterday confused me. The title is "How to Optimize Your Content for Search Questions using Deep Learning." The author of the blog post, which is unknown, said "I think one approach to do this is to evaluate our content by following the same process that Bing's answering engine follows and contrast it to an evaluation of competitors that are doing really well." - Web Stories Image Thumbnails In Google Mobile Search Results
In 2018, Google launched AMP Stories and then they got more visual, with visual stories in 2019. Now, Google renamed them from AMP Stories to Web Stories. Did you know that if you publish a web story, Google's mobile search results will show you a fancy image thumbnail in the search result snippet? - Google Tests Video List View
Google is testing replacing the carousel interface in the Google search results for videos with a list view. Here is a screen shot from Mordy Oberstein where he spotted this when he was looking for new jeans :). - The Google Indexing Issue From A Month Ago Was A Crawling Issue
On June 2, 2020, Google yet again confirmed it was having issues displaying new content in its search results. Google said it was an "indexing issue." Well, it was actually a crawling issue that led to Google not being able to show the new pages in the index. - Google: Scoring 100 In SEO In Lighthouse Doesn't Make You A Good SEO
Gary Illyes of Google said on Twitter "achieving a SEO score 100 in Lighthouse just means that you can follow a handful of directions, not that you're great at SEO." He did say "but good job!" Those that do score 100 he said are good at following directions. - Google Mic Catchbox
This won't fly until COVID is over but here is a photo of a catchbox, those soft microphones you can throw to each other when doing Q&A at an event. You speak into it and it goes to a loud speaker.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- If you host your content on other people's websites, it's possible that their websites rank for the content instead, of or above, yours., John Mueller on Twitter
- Is it a good idea to follow the content strategy of your competitors?, WebmasterWorld
- Just added to the GMB Guidelines: "There should only be one profile per business, as this can cause problems with how your information displays on Google Maps and Search.". Not a new rule but still good to see them highlight, Joy Hawkins on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Replay: What SEO practitioners can do to make sites ‘algorithm-proof’
- Less than a third of consumers aware of Facebook ads boycott, Gen Z most engaged
- Video: Christi Olson of Microsoft on audience targeting, syncing with Google and Promote IQ
- Regular expression filter support coming to Google Search Console performance reports
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- 15 Google Data Studio example dashboards and reports, Supermetrics
- Create personalizations for different interest groups in Optimize, Jonas Bayer
- The Art Of The Double Negative — Using Trigger Exceptions In Google Tag Manager, Bounteous
Industry & Business
- U.S. tech chiefs to testify before House antitrust panel on July 27: committe, Reuters
- Unhappy Google Advertiser's Lawsuit Completely Falls Apart-Dreamstime v. Google, Eric Goldman
- YouTube’s Power of the Purse, New York Times
Links & Content Marketing
- A Beginner's Guide to Inbound Links: What Are They & How to Get More of Them, Search Engine Journal
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
- Contributions to Web Platform Interoperability (First Half of 2020), The AMP Blog
- Google Assistant gains support for soundbars, streamers, 9to5Google
SEO
- An Alternative Approach to XML Sitemaps, ohgm
- How to Optimize Your Content for Search Questions using Deep Learning, Bing Webmaster Blog
- New & Improved Content Briefs and Content Audits, InLinks
- People Also Ask: How Brands Can Leverage Google's Q&A, Five Blocks
- UK Supermarket Visibility - Ocado Slides as Tesco Rises., SISTRIX
- Upping Client Confidence with Meaningful SEO Metrics: In Search SEO Podcast, RankRanger
PPC
- Discover new keywords with Keyword Planner, Microsoft Advertising
Search Features
- Why Does Search Suck?, MediaPost
- Web Stories by Google, Samuel Schmitt
Other Search
