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:
- August 15th - Another Possible Big Google Search Algorithm & Ranking Update
Super rare that I come on, on a Saturday night, and write something here. But I turned up the computer after Shabbat ended and I see the SEO community is buzzing in a big way about some significant changes to the Google search results today. This is not as big as that bug from last Monday but it does seem very big. - Google Search Console Insights Is Live For Some
Google has announced a new Google Search Console Insights BETA tool for publishers. We told you this was in the works a couple of months ago and now Google officially confirmed it. Google said "today we're starting to roll out a new experience to beta testers: Search Console Insights. It's a way to provide content creators with the data they need to make informed decisions and improve their content." - Vlog #80: Patrick Stox - Heavy On Technical SEO with a Touch Of Humor
Patrick Stox (@patrickstox) is now the Product Advisor, Technical SEO, & Brand Ambassador at Ahrefs. Prior to that he was at IBM, he worked there for four years. This was my last interview at SMX West, so I was a bit loopy... - Google: Header Tags Are Not Magical Pixie Dust That Make Your Site Rank Better
Over the weekend there has been a lot of chatter about headers and their importance for ranking in Google search. It may have been that what John Mueller said in a recent video hangout was taken a bit out of context (trust me, I know, I have done this too). John Mueller of Google clarified on Twitter afterwards on header tags "they're useful for understanding the context of content (text & images), but they're not magical pixie dust that will make your site rank better." - Google: We Do Not Want Machine Translated Content In The Index
There has been a ton of chatter in the SEO industry around GPT-3, Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3, an autoregressive language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text and its use for translating content that Google might want to consume. Google does not want to consume it, Google does not want you to use GPT-3 to translate your content and be fed it for indexing. - Google: XML Sitemap Do Not Help With User Experience
Pascal Birchler, a Developer Programs Engineer at Google and works closely on WordPress related tasks, used this ð¤... facepalming emoji after quoting this on Twitter "a good-looking XML sitemap will bring a better user experience." - Google Australia Notice - The Way Aussies Use Google Is At Risk
Australians who go to Google are seeing a notice, a pop up, on Google Search that reads "The way Aussies use Google is at risk." It adds "your search experience will be hurt by new regulation" and then asks the user to dismiss the alert or learn more. - A Private Google Office 5 Months Into COVID-19
We've seen some Googlers say they have ventured back into the Google office. Some to retrieve stuff and some had to go back to maintain things. Here is a photo of a private office at Google Dublin af
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Mozilla Keeps Google as Default Search Provider, WebmasterWorld
- I'd worry more about the quality of the content rather than the quantity. If your pages are fantastic and something users have been looking for, we'll be happy to do what it takes to show them., John Mueller on Twitter
- Many times copywriters struggle when SEOs give feedback because we're not specific enough. Eg: Instead of saying "high quality" & "relevant" content, share what makes it high quality and relevant, like: * Straightforward * De, Aleyda Solis on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- How to prepare your e-commerce ad strategy for an uncertain Q4
- Facebook launches free ‘paid online events’ for SMBs and others
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- How To Analyse Your Content In Google Analytics, Spin Dogs
- Identify personas using Google tools, OnCrawl
Industry & Business
- Travel startups cry foul over what Google’s doing with their data, TechCrunch
- 'A shady move': Apple News+ Safari change automatically redirecting traffic to itself infuriates publishers, Digiday
- Dear Google Cloud: Your Deprecation Policy is Killing You, Medium
- Fifteen Years Is a Long Time in SEO, Moz
- Google says its free services are 'at risk' over Australia's proposed law, Engadget
Links & Content Marketing
- Why Content Marketers Should Keep Up With The Daily News Flow, Screaming Frog
Local & Maps
- Google Maps finally works with CarPlay’s excellent dashboard mode, The Verge
- Waze just got another cool new feature that Google Maps needs to steal, BGR
Mobile & Voice
SEO
- 14 Google Sheets Formulas Every SEO Needs To Know, SEM Rush
- Preparing for the Uncertain Future for SEO, Searchmetrics
- Textual Image Queries and Classification of Images at Google, Go Fish Digital
PPC
- How to Use Google’s “By Conversion Time” Columns to Better Understand Performance, Metric Theory
- Product Listings: Show products on Bing Shopping, Microsoft Advertising
Search Features
Other Search
