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 Quality Raters Guidelines Goes Missing - 404s
If you try to access the Google Quality Raters Guidelines PDF document, you will be out of luck. The PDF seems to have been removed from Google's servers. This happened before and when that happened it was a mistake, Google fixed it. This time, I suspect it is almost a mistake and Google will fix it. - Google Removes References To PageRank & 200 Signals In Disavow Help Doc
Several months ago, the disavow backlinks help document in Google's help center mentioned a section about PageRank and how PageRank is one of 200 signals Google uses for rankings. That help document was updated sometime in the past several months and removed both those references. - Search Rep: Removing Search Spam ≠ Suppressing Free Speech
I wanted to highlight a tweet from Bing search spam fighter, Frédéric Dubut, who basically said removing spam from the search results is not the same thing as suppressing free speech. He said if you do not remove spam "the entire product becomes completely unusable." - Google Tests Removing (Or A Bug) Breadcrumb From Mobile Search Results Snippet
Google may be testing - or it may be a bug - removing the breadcrumb from the mobile search results snippet. Sergey Alakov posted a screen shot of the snippet just showing the domain and favicon, without the breadcrumb trail of the page. - Google Ads Editor v1.1 & Keyword Planner Adds Most Relevant Keywords
The Google Ads team released upgrades to both the Google Ads Editor and Keyword Planner tool. Google Ads Editor is now at version 1.1 and added a bunch of new features. The Keyword Planner tool now can show the most relevant keyword ideas right in the tool. - Google Dublin Indoor Kiddie Pool
We have seen kiddie pools at Google's offices before, but it was filled with ice cream. Here is a kiddie pool filled with stuffed Android toys and a Noogler, a new Googler.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- @ohgm I'm fine with that, since you can't seem to accept that this is not about you and a handful of others who can actually write robotstxt correctly, Gary Illyes on Twitter
- E.U. Court Says Sites Using Facebook Like Button are Liable for Data, WebmasterWorld
- If you're really worried, I'd just drop the domain names into a disavow file. Most sites don't have to worry about this, but sometimes it sleeps better to know that you've made sure of it :), John Mueller on Twitter
- Ads rejected: " "Third-party consumer technical support", WebmasterWorld
- Looking for a tool to scrape local results, Local Search Forum
Search Engine Land Stories:
- The 4 big reasons agencies need marketing automation to survive
- Google swaps ‘voice search’ on Android for Google Assistant
- Simplifying Google Analytics configuration with Google Tag Manager
- How to Design and Build the Ideal Martech Stack
- Video: Rand Fishkin on Google’s anti-competitive practices and more
- Google notifying webmasters to remove noindex from robots.txt files
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- #GTMTips: Introducing The GTM Templates Library, Simo Ahava's blog
- 5 Google Data Studio “hacks” that will change your life (or at least your reports), twentysix
- How we think about digital-first planning, Think with Google
- uplifter - AI-driven insights and recommendations for Google Analytics, Product Hunt
Industry & Business
- LinkedIn fixed a flaw that let someone post a job opening for Google's CEO position, The Next Web
- Locking In Google Gains, Seeking Alpha
Links & Promotion Building
- Which Backlink Checker is Most Accurate? [2019 Case Study], The Upper Ranks
- 11 Ways to Improve a Suggest a Link Campaign, Search Engine Journal
- How to secure links and coverage reactively, Builtvisible
Local & Maps
- New York City travel tips from Google Maps Local Guides, Google Blog
- Google Maps gives users more control over their personal and shared lists, Android Police
Mobile & Voice
- (Don’t) hold the phone: new features coming to Pixel 4, Google Blog
- Google to Capture & Learn Our Emotions on a Smartphone Camera?, Search Engine Journal
- How to Make Your Google Home Quieter at Night, How To Geek
- How UK consumers are using voice search, Microsoft Advertising
- Google researchers disclose exploits for 'interactionless' iOS attacks, ZDNet
- Huawei Google Assistant smart speaker shelved, Android Authority
SEO
- The Rise of “No Click” Searches and Why They Matter , Stephan Spencer
- Google Webmaster Hangout Notes: July 26th 2019, DeepCrawl
- How to Write Content for Google as a Discover Engine: In Search SEO Podcast, RankRanger
- The Future of SEO - How Google Search Has Changed in 2019, Cognitive SEO
PPC
Other Search
