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:
- Video: Google Drops Twitter Carousel After Hack, Google Updates Discover Document & New Google Ads Policies
It was a bit of a slower week, with the big news this week being that Google dropped, for now, the Twitter carousel box from the search results after Twitter was hacked. Google updated the publisher help document on Google Discover. Google's Martin Splitt and Merkle's Alexis Sanders did a video on crawl... - Google Local Panel Displays When Hours Were Last Updated
Casey Bryan shared a screen shot with me on Twitter showing what I think is a new, nifty feature by Google My Business. Google is now showing for some business local panels when the last time that business updated its business hours with Google. - Google: Don't Blame GoogleBot For Your Slow Database Queries
GoogleBot is pretty good, actually, very good, at not crawling most sites too much where it actually ends up slowing down the site from loading. GoogleBot is designed to detect that and back off. But if you have a specific set of pages or a page that is super slow because the way you wrote your database query is super inefficient, Google says - don't blame them. - Google: Our Algorithm Reviewers Are Different From User Reports Reviewers
Google's John Mueller said that Google has very different people in the corporation who are responsible for reviewing search algorithms from those who review user reports of spam and feedback. Both are humans but those humans do not impact the search results directly, they just provide feedback on those results. - Google Pruning The Rich Results & FAQ/How To Schema Results?
There has been chatter recently, with some data backing it up from the data tool provider RankRanger, that Google has stopped showing a nice percentage of rich results and how-to / FAQ schema rich results in the search results. - Google Tests Blue Shaded Related Search Buttons
Google has been busy testing different variations of related searches interfaces at the bottom of the Google search results. Now Google is testing them with the magnifying glass icon but in a shaded blue background. - Google Rainbow Face Masks
Google may be giving out rainbow colored face masks for workers at the Google Netherlands office. Maria Sikora, who posted this image on Instagram from inside the Google Nederland office said "Mask p
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- We see "site:" more as a restrict (show me results, but only from X), and less as a comprehensive dump (not: show me all results from X). It's subtle. In practice, I use it as a rough guide, John Mueller on Twitter
- I'll go with "it depends". There are a lot of times when others add significant value because of other viewpoints. When we post something on our blog, that's our POV. When others copy it & write, John Mueller on Twitter
- It's not that it would be impossible, it's just that it would take a lot of resources that are +/- only used for this special case of sites wanting to work around what, John Mueller on Twitter
- The protocol has absolute no effect there -- it's just an identifier. There are no requests made from the browser to the URLs. That said, please do file feedback directly on the pages where you thi, John Mueller on Twitter
- That's flakiness that can happen if resources don't load due to the fact that the MFT (and other tools) don't use caching. I can see that the "not mobile-friendly" side apparently had issues l, Martin Splitt on Twitter
- We’ve updated our publisher support content related to Discover, including guidance around article titles, enabling high-quality large images and having timely, engaging content. More here: https://t.co/OkWTbH32Xv, Google SearchLiaison on Twitter
- New Twitter API V2, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Does Google respect the URL parameters tool?
- How to show up on Google Discover: Google’s latest guidance
- Writer onboarding and brand guidelines: The unsung heroes of content marketing success [Video]
- How brands can operate with purpose and embrace change as businesses move to reopen
- Replay: CCPA enforcement is here. What marketers need to know
- Google Search drops tweet carousels after Twitter hack
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- 16 Google Analytics Custom Dimensions for Tracking Your Ecommerce Store, Databox Blog
- Avoid the Adventurist Trap: Don't Take Data Quality for Granted, Blast Analytics
- How To Navigate Google Optimize, PPC Hero
- Setting Up Goals In Google Analytics: Web Engagement, DELVE
Industry & Business
- Runtime Resources, iPullRank
- Siri, Alexa Targeted as EU Probes ‘Internet of Things’, Bloomberg
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
- 5 ways to boost your Core Web vitals, Yoast
- SEO Myth: SEO Is a One-Time or Sometime Thing, BruceClay
- Wix SEO: 11 Tips to Improve Your Website‘s Performance, SEM Rush
- Core Web Vitals: The Next Official Google Ranking Factor - Whiteboard Friday, Moz
- Why Duplicate Content Is Bad For Your Site & How You Can Fix It, Koozai
PPC
Other Search
- Shoploop: an entertaining new way to shop online, Google Blog
