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.
Google's Danny Sullivan said again that personalization is used in a super light way in search, in fact, it is rarely used he said. Google is testing "suggested channels" in Google Search. Google Search Console has a new filter for the performance report, specifically cross-language results. Google won't be separating out discover, top stories, etc for blocking indexing. And a poll shows that too many SEO projects don't lead to successful outcomes in the client's eyes. Plus I posted the Friday recap video - have a great, safe and fun weekend!
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Ranking Update, Pages Dropping In & Out, Big Publishers Benefit & Author URLs and Rankings
This week, we had not just one, but two different unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm updates - one on Saturday and one on Wednesday. Google said the link spam update that was suppose to be done rolling out about two weeks ago... - Google: Personalization In Search Is Extremely Light & Rare For Ranking
Google's Danny Sullivan confirmed, again, that personalization in Google Search is an "extremely light" ranking signal. In fact, he said personalization is "fairly rare" to be used for ranking purposes. - Google Search Tests Suggested Channels Box
Google seems to be testing a new feature in the Google search results named "suggested channel." I personally cannot replicate this but he is a screen shot from Jonas Sickler on Twitter who spotted this last week. - Poll: How Many SEO Projects Lead To Successful Outcomes For Clients
Aleyda Solis ran a super interesting poll on Twitter asking SEOs about their SEO project success rate. She asked "what percentage of the SEO Processes/Projects/Initiative that you work at end up having the "agreed/expected outcome" & are seen as a "success" by the client/stakeholders?" - Cross-language Results Google Search Console Performance Filter
Google has a new (I think new) filter in the Google Search Console Performance report named Cross-language Results. I have never seen this filter, but I suspect this is related to if Google Search will take other languages, translate them for you, and include them in the search results. - Google Has No Plans To Separate Out Control Of Indexing For Discover or Top Stories
Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that the search company has no plans to separate out indexing and visibility controls specifically between Google News, Search, Discover or Top Stories. If you are in Search, you can be in the top stories carousel and there isn't a whole set of individual controls for each feature. - Google Search Console Insights Shirt
Daniel Waisberg from the Google Search Relations team, who focused on the Search Console product, flashed his new Search Console Insights t-shirt on Twitter the other day. It says Make a good impress
Other Great Search Threads:
- Ask HN: Google is confusing me with others in a harmful way – what can I do?, Hacker News
- Looking for a way to preview your Web Stories across multiple devices? 📣 Introducing the new Web Stories Dev-Tools! 🧩 Test your Stories before publishing them to ensure they're just the right fit. Learn more, AMP Project on Twitter
- EP 22 of #SearchOffTheRecord is LIVE. @methode, @JohnMu and @g33konaut chat with guest @Aurora_Morales on: Website monetization Publisher policies Google Search experiments → https://t.co/UPTOi, Google Search Central on Twitter
- Great job with that title rewrite for the POTUS, Google. https://t.co/pwIhcekV2h, Mark Williams-Cook on Twitter
- Hey - Am I crazy or did @Google shut down their Free Natural Language API Demo. I liked that thing!!! Can anyone find it?, Cindy Krum on Twitter
- Hey @MordyOberstein "it's not new" got a mention by @methode on the latest Search Off The Record https://t.co/TIBbgvv77, Barry Schwartz on Twitter
- It depends on how and where the URLs are shown in Search. For most URLs, we canonicalize them and track those. Also, in some cases, it can happen that a UTM URL is a canonical URL too., John Mueller on Twitter
- It's hard in the beginning, keep in mind that just making something great doesn't mean great traffic quickly. You have to promote it, you have to make it easy & interesting for others to recommend & spread the wo, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Advertisers can adjust conversion values in Smart Bidding in the coming weeks
- “It depends” doesn’t have to be the answer if you ask the right questions; Thursday’s daily brief
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Getting Started With Google Optimize, Portent
- Google Analytics 4 Guide for Managers, Business Ahead
- Google Analytics for Shopify Stores: Everything You Need to Know, Search Engine Journal
- How to Use Google Analytics to Create a Positive User Experience, Business 2 Community
Industry & Business
- Google Health Boss Leaves to Take Over Cerner, Wall Street Journal
- Google investing another $1 billion, buying Columbus land for data centers, Dispatch
- Google’s ‘Project Hug’ paid out huge sums to keep game devs in the Play Store, Epic filing claims, The Verge
- Apple tried to hire former Google search chief Ben Gomes, Deccan Herald
- Google and Apple discussed an Android-iOS partnership years ago, Android Police
Links & Content Marketing
- 21 Experts: Don't Fear Life After Cookies – If You Have Content (and Consent), Content Marketing Institute
- How To Create a Black Friday Content Strategy, iPullRank
- 3 Video Content Takeaways From Salesforce, TikTok, and Facebook, Content Marketing Institute
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
- How to Use Competitor Keywords to Improve Your Digital Strategy, Semrush
- SEO Rank Checkers: Know Where You Stand in the SERPs, BrightEdge
- eBook: Which Sportsbook Brands Are Performing Best on Google?, Receptional
- First Input Delay (FID) and Total Blocking Time (TBT) Explained, Semrush
- How To Improve Crawl Budgets for Top-Performing URLs, Botify
- John Mueller SEO Insights from 08/06/2021 Office Hours Hangout, I Love SEO
- The Most Common SEO Challenges (and How to Overcome Them), BruceClay
- What Is CLS and Why Is It Important?, Semrush
- How to scale your organic traffic through programmatic SEO, DeepCrawl
- What To Do After A Site Migration, Searchmetrics
PPC
- 12 Important PPC Trends to Watch in 2021, PPC Hero
- Back to the (Contextual) Future?, Didit
- What’s in Search Ads 360’s Secret Sauce? - Part Two: Spreading the Sauce in SA360, Adswerve
- How Different PPC Channels Impact The Customer Journey, Vertical Leap
Other Search
- Monetized websites, search experiments, and more!, Search Off the Record
Feedback:
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