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.
We may now be seeing signs of the Google link spam update rolling out or maybe it is something else completely? Google said if a page pops in and out of the index, it might be because that page is on the edge of the quality threshold. Google changed its fact check guidelines to disallow multiple ClaimReview elements per page. Google said localized language sections generally get their own signals. Google said you don't need to switch your nofollow links to rel sponsored links. And more news for your all.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Quiet Week After The Google Link Spam Update; Maybe It's Being Felt Now
On Monday, Google announced a new algorithm update named the link spam update. I've been following the SEO chatter both in the public white hat and black hat forums, and the chatter is super limited. Very few SEOs are saying they saw ranking declines or improvements since the announcement. But now, I see some of the tracking tools noticing changes as of this morning. - On The Edge Of Google's Quality Threshold - Pages Disappear & Return After Submission
Gary Illyes from Google posted an awesome question and answer on Twitter talking about pages that are on the edge of the Google quality threshold. He said that if your pages disappear from Google Search and then reappear when you manually submit them to Google, that means you're on that edge. - Google Fact Check Guidelines Now Disallows Multiple ClaimReview Per Page
Google has changed the guidelines around the fact check ClaimReview structured data guidelines to no longer allow multiple ClaimReview markups per page. You are now only allowed one ClaimReview element per page going forward. - Google: You Do Not Need To Switch Rel Nofollow To Rel Sponsored
When Google announced the new link spam update, a ton of confusion arose with that announcement. The confusion was mostly around do you need to change your nofollow links to rel=sponsored for affiliate or similar links. The answer is no, nofollow is fine and you won't get in trouble for using nofollow instead of rel sponsored. - Google: Generally The Localized Version Of Your Site Gets Its Own Signals
Google was asked if you have an English version of your site for years and years and then expand the site to France. So you create an FR subdomain or subfolder for the French users. Does the English version signals pass through to the French version of the site? Gary Illyes from Google said generally no. - Google Says It Does Not Ignore All Edu Links
John Mueller from Google said it is wrong to say that "Edu domains tend to have a ton of outbound links, and as such, Google ignores a big chunk of them." He said "People who focus on .edu links usually have bigger problems to worry about, but I've certainly never said what you're suggesting." - Google Product Experts Summit Swag 2021
Here is what Google sent the Google Product Experts for the virtual summit. This is from Google Ads product expert, Brett Bodofsky. You can see more photos below but there is a puzzle, stickers, a si
Other Great Search Threads:
- I've been in-house for 6-months and it feels like there's a big difference in how agencies and tools treat in-house SEOs. There's an assumption in-house SEOs aren't as experienced or qualified. Why is this? Does anyone else in-, Faye Watt on Twitter
- 301 and 304 Crawl Request increasing in Crawl Stats report, WebmasterWorld
- Google “3 Strikes” policy, WebmasterWorld
- Very happy about the vaccination mandate at work. Both I and team members I talked to were very uncomfortable with the idea of going back without a mandate, even with frequent testing for the unvaccinated. https://t.co/8RFEuCf, Paul Haahr on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Google’s universal search results bid for placement and may be influenced by clicks
- Killer paid search tactics that every marketer needs to know
- Twitter’s Shop Module pilot adds a product carousel to profiles
- The Google link spam update is rolling out; Wednesday’s daily brief
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Google Analytics GA4 Geographic Report Is a Gateway to Analytics, CMSWire
- Making the Move to Server-Side GTM Part Two: What Is a Client?, Adswerve
Industry & Business
- Brain Technologies raises $50M+ for the launch of Natural, a natural language search engine and ‘super app’, TechCrunch
- Vaccines and our return-to-office plans, Google Blog
- Why Turkey’s Regulators Became Such a Problem for Google, New York Times
Links & Content Marketing
- How to Create Winning Sales-Enablement Content, Content Marketing Institute
Local & Maps
- Google Maps adds iOS widgets for search and traffic, 9to5Google
- I-Team Finds Fake Listings on Google, Offers Tips on Avoiding Fraudulent Services, NBC Los Angeles
- Using AI to map Africa’s buildings, Google Blog
- Waze trip preview now shows traffic, toll information, 9to5Google
Mobile & Voice
- Google Assistant rolls out 'Fast checkout,' powered by Duplex, 9to5Google
- 'Apple Glass' UI will let wearers smoothly select new AR scenes, settings, AppleInsider
SEO
- 25+ SEO and Website Conversion Stats: Why SEO Leads to More Sales on Your Site, HigherVisibility
- Author Scores for Recommendations at Google, Go Fish Digital
- Daily SEO Fix: Auditing for Technical SEO Problems with Moz Pro, Moz
- Driving Team Adoption Of Your SEO Stack, Searchmetrics
- How One Artisan Bakery Is Using an SEO Audit to Boost Visibility, Semrush
- Secrets of Effective SEO Discovery, I Love SEO
- What are Word Vectors & How Structured Markup Supercharges them, OnCrawl
PPC
- 8 Common PPC Mistakes to Avoid, Business 2 Community
- Phone Verification in Content API for Shopping, Google Ads Developer Blog
- The Top 10 Google Ads Conversion Tracking Mistakes, Adalysis
- Try the new Google Ads scripts experience, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Update to Advertiser Identity Verification Policy (July 2021), Google Advertising Policies Help
Search Features
- Advances in TF-Ranking, Google AI Blog
Other Search
- A shared responsibility for quality journalism, Google Blog
Feedback:
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