Daily Search Forum Recap: September 8, 2020

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 Asks You To Verify These Facts
  Google is asking some searchers with some queries to "verify the facts to help others." Brian Freiesleben shared an example of this on Twitter this morning and Mordy Oberstein shared on Twitter a couple months ago. It seems to be on some knowledge panels.
• Google Search Console Coverage Report Delay & Stuck
  Google Search Console seems to be having another data issue. This time with the coverage report. The last it was updated was around August 31st or September 1st, from the reports I am seeing. Normally it is about 2-3 days delayed but not over a week delayed.
• SEO Companies Can Sabotage Your Web Site & Maps Listings
  Sadly there can be pretty immoral people in the world, including a lack of business ethics. It seems an SEO company and their client got in a disagreement about a work contract and the client wanted to part ways. The SEO company allegedly decided to completely sabotage the company in Google Search.
• Google image:loc URLs Are Not Counted Towards 50k XML Sitemap Limit
  The same question was asked both on Twitter and on Reddit, asking do URLs in the image:loc tag also count towards the 50K XML sitemap limit? The answer is no, it does not count to the 50,000 URL limit in the XML Sitemap files.
• Google: No A Way To Limit Visibility Of A URL By Country In Search
  Google's John Mueller said that within Google Search there is no way to limit the visibility of a URL in the search results by country. So if you do not want a specific URL to show in Google UK but you do want it to show in Google Ireland, there is really no good way to do that.
• Microsoft Advertising Xbox Prize
  Looks like Microsoft Advertising sent out some prizes. Well, this prize is an XBox One X and it was sent to Mabo Media in the UK. The letter says congratulations, this package has been supplied by M

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

• This seems new - Google Discover Hashtags, Jason Mandragona on Twitter
• Nope, John Mueller on Twitter
• You can now correct issues with Google Optimize experiments that started running https://t.co/hrWGZ5WY8j good job @googleanalytics team, Andrea Cruz on Twitter
• (1) My schema.org code is in 'http' and not https'. Big deal or no?, Reddit

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Video: Part 2 with Kevin Lee on nofollows, 302 redirects, branded content

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• 6 Ways to Use Google Analytics You Haven’t Thought Of, Search Engine Journal

Industry & Business

• Apple iCloud, Google Drive and Dropbox probed over ‘unfair’ T&Cs in Italy, TechCrunch
• Google pulls out of talks to lease 2,000 office spaces in Dublin, Independent
• Australia’s Investigating Apple and Google’s App Store Practices Now, Gizmodo
• EMEA Retail Week not to be missed!, Microsoft Advertising

Links & Content Marketing

• How to Build an Effective Content Marketing Funnel, SEM Rush
• White Hat Ways to Build Links: SEO Podcast, RankRanger

Local & Maps

• Apple Maps cars use LiDAR, Mac Pro to capture street data, Appleinsider

Mobile & Voice

• Google Assistant Hits 50,000 Smart Home Device Milestone, Voicebot

SEO

• SEO For SaaS: How To Compete With Capterra, Go Fish Digital

PPC

• Drive engagement with Multi-Image Extensions, Microsoft Advertising
• The Travel Industry PPC Landscape in 2020, PPC Hero

Search Features

• 5 New Mobile Search Bar Tests in Google Search, Brodie Clark Consulting