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 Video On Crawl Budget & SEO
Alexis Sanders of Merkle sat down with Martin Splitt of Google last year (before COVID) and spoke about crawl budget. It may be one of the more informative videos in the SEO mythbusting series to-date. - Google: Do Not Block GoogleBot From Crawling 404s
John Mueller of Google said it would be "a really bad idea which will cause all sorts of problems" if you block Google or other search engines from crawling pages that return a 404 server status code. He said "billions of 404 pages are crawled every day" by Google and it is normal. - Google Discover AMP Articles Going To Main Canonical URL?
Valentin Pletzer has noticed that Google Discover is showing some AMP labels for stories but when you click on the story, Google is not taking the user to the AMP version, the AMP URL, but rather the canonical URL, the main URL of the story. - Google My Business Products Section Design Updated
Google has updated the products section within the Google My Business Console. It now has a cleaner interface, with "see it on Google" and a nice layout for "All products" and a way to filter your products. - Google Maps: Wear A Mask Alert
Yesterday, like many others, when using Google Maps, Google showed a notification box at the top right, warning people to wear a mask. The notice said "wear a mask, help slow the spread of COVID-19." The notice was also on Google.com's home page. Both are gone today. - GooglePlex Dog Weaving
Here is a fun video I found on Instagram from the Google offices in Mountain View, California, the GooglePlex. It shows a dog being trained to weave between the bike racks. Here is the video.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Hey @rustybrick seeing something similar to the Local Panel in Street View you reported on recently... It's a pretty weird hybrid of Knowledge & Local Panel - but in either case, it's clearly not related to a biz listing, Mordy Oberstein on Twitter
- Seeing the Google Guaranteed messaging again on some Google My Business listings. G is injecting tracking numbers on these GMB listings and sending the calls through the Local Services ad platform. They're not charging the, Tom Waddington on Twitter
- So @semrush stops guest posts on its main blog https://t.co/3fU1V4ngpa, Barry Schwartz on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Search engines penalize websites – but why?
- Replay: How to find (and foster) relationships with content writers
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- How To Create Custom Metrics in Google Analytics, Conversion Uplift
- How to Quickly Leverage Your Data Layer for Enhanced Site Tracking, Seer Interactive
Industry & Business
- Google Steers Users to YouTube Over Rivals, Wall Street Journal
- House Oversight Lawmaker Wants Apple, Google to Step Up Security on Apps With Foreign Ties, Nextgov
- The Future of the SEMrush Blog: Changes and Improvements, SEM Rush
- Google fined $670K for violating GDPR’s ‘right to be forgotten’, Compliance Week
- Google sued for 'blatant lies' about user privacy, Appleinsider
Links & Content Marketing
- An Authority "Non-Content" Audit - Mike King // iPullRank, Search Metrics
Local & Maps
- Apple Car could use infrared light pulses to detect ranges of other vehicles, Appleinsider
- Google Maps can now use Live View AR to calibrate location, 9to5Google
- Google My Business: When to use secondary hours vs. nested locations, DAC
Mobile & Voice
- Google Gets Fred Armisen (and His Characters) to Spotlight Google Assistant Before Annual Hardware Event, Voicebot
- Microsoft craftily adds Bing Search shortcut via Outlook app, 9to5Google
- Web Stories Powered by AMP – 12 Tips and Recommendations For Creating Your First Story, GSQI
SEO
- Declaration of SEO: 6 Fundamental SEO Truths To Live By, Bruce Clay
- How Long Should Blog Posts Be? [The Real Answer], Ahrefs
- How to Find a Static Business or Topic Knowledge Graph URL, MobileMoxie Blog
- Why Google E-A-T Should Matter to Everyone, Wellspring Digital
- June Winners and Losers Part 1 - Tyson Stockton, Searchmetrics
- Using The Screaming Frog SERP Snippet Tool, Koozai
PPC
- What Matters When Doing Keyword Research?, RankRanger
