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 at the Search On event went big on MUM and also announced a slew of other features including a bunch of interesting features to the about this result feature. Google Search Console products rich results report got an upgrade. Google's knowledge panel is query dependent. Google said that directory submission, article submission and bookmarking services for links are against Google's guidelines. Microsoft has their weird red dot in the search bar.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Search On: MUM, Things To Know, Shoppable, About This Result & More
Google had a slew of Google Search related announcements at the Google Search On 2021 event. The announcements ranged from improvements and more uses for MUM, to the about this result expanding, to shoppable search experiences, in-store inventory, Google Lens updates and a bunch of features and redesigns to the Google Search experience. - Google Products Rich Results Search Console Report Now More Granular
Google has said that the Google Search Console rich results report for product structured data now provides more granular levels of errors. Google said starting September 29th, "Search Console now provides more granularity in error reporting for Product structured data items." - Google Knowledge Panel Categories Change Based On Query
Did you know that the categories or buttons Google shows at the top of some knowledge panels are query dependent? Meaning that the categories and the order Google places the buttons can dynamically change based on the query the searcher entered into Google Search. - Bing Search Mysterious Red Dot Near Shopping Tab
Microsoft Bing seems to be testing this mysterious red dot in the search bar navigation, near the shopping tab. I was able to replicate this and honestly, I do not know what this does, but here is a screen shot. - Google: Directory, Article Submission & Bookmarking Links Are Against The Webmaster Guidelines
Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that directory submissions, article submissions and bookmarking links are generally against Google's webmaster guidelines. He said they are generally seen by Google as artificial links and thus you should likely avoid a link building strategy using those. - Google Froogler Ceramic Frog
A ceramic designer named Jordeen designed a ceramic frog named Froogler. You can see the little Google propeller hat and the Googely colors. This was shared on Instagram.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Check this test out. Google is showing a Schema-like snippet for eCommerce category pages on mobile, but is instead based on HTML. This new test replaces "results" with "products", along with providing a price range approxim, Brodie Clark on Twitter
- I gather there was an unofficial way to do this in robots.txt that we dropped support for back in 2019, in part because it seems like creators sometimes had conflicting rules. @methode did the, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
- IMO infuriating is more when you try to look at the details there. (But at least it looks like they avoid sending identifying cookies before confirming the dialog -- lots of sites send them anyway.), John Mueller on Twitter
- They should find a different way to do load balancing, one which allows them to use the same hostname. Doing it like this creates a mess that takes a lot of time to clean up. It's not terrible, but, John Mueller on Twitter
- Without checking in more detail, I think you're redirecting US-based users to /us/. You can see this in the mobile friendly test ("view tested page" / html / search for canonical) and in https://t, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- The top 4 data issues campaign managers face and how to solve them
- Google search gets larger images, enhances ‘About this result,’ gets more ‘shoppable’ and more
- MUM brings multimodal search to Lens, deeper understanding of videos and new SERP features
- Fancy like🕺… why brands should pay attention to TikTok
- How Dennis Publishing made first-party data core to its business transformation
- Yelp adds virtual restaurant attribute to help reduce customer confusion
- Boost your online reputation with your Google My Business ranking
- E-commerce SEO guide: New documentation from Google
- Best SMX rates expire this Saturday… book now and save!
- Data-driven attribution to become the default in Google Ads; Tuesday’s daily brief
- Microsoft Advertising’s new Credit card ads continue its streak of vertical-specific products
- Should robots.txt support a feature for no indexation? Take the survey
- Social media advertising is getting harder; Monday’s daily brief
- Google Ads announces machine learning-based data-driven attribution models in new privacy landscape
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- How To Ask Good Simple Questions About Your Marketing Analytics, Pierre DeBois | Medium
- What Are Sessions in Google Analytics, Semrush
- Get Key Insights with These X Google Analytics Dashboards, Semrush
Industry & Business
- Google Hands SoftBank Patents From Failed Balloon Moonshot, Yahoo Finance
- Google Veteran's Fiery Resignation Letter: 'I Just Can't Keep Going.', Business Insider
Links & Content Marketing
- 7 'Secrets' of Award-Winning B2B and B2C Content Marketing Programs, Content Marketing Institute
- How to Create a Content Brief and Best Practices (With Free Template!), Portent
- The 5 Best Marketing Campaigns We’ve Ever Seen (& How to DIY), WordStream
- Why Focusing On Google Is Like My High School Relationship, SuccessWorks
Local & Maps
- Apple Maps gets 3D view with iOS 15 in selected cities, more to come, AppleInsider
- Apple Maps rolls out 3D view to London, L.A., New York, and San Francisco, TechCrunch
- Google Local Filler Content Isn't Good UX, and Needs Revisions, Moz
- Restaurants on the Vax Front, Sloppy Stats, Love-Hate Tech Relationship, Near Media
- 'Apple Car' windscreen could block glaring lights from view, Appleinsider
- New ways maps and AI keep communities safe and informed, Google Blog
Mobile & Voice
- Bring the best of Google to your iPhone 13, Google Blog
- Google TV tests support for Assistant broadcast messages, 9to5Google
- Apple removes Siri features used by visually impaired users, Appleinsider
- YouTube testing Google Assistant integration on Android, 9to5Google
SEO
- How to build 3 automated SEO audits with Python and Slack, OnCrawl
- Innovation vs. best practices, Kevin Indig
- Rewritten Queries and User-Specific Knowledge Graphs, SEO By The Sea
- What publishers need to know about the latest changes in Google search, Journalism
- Loading Font Files with Best Practices, Holistic SEO
- Reveal Your Rivals with True Competitor (Beta), Moz
- SEO Split-Testing [Case Study] “Adding “(Updated Day Month)” to The Title of Category Pages”, Semrush
- Structured data for live news - by WTF is SEO?, WTF is SEO?
- You Have an SEO Emergency – Who Do You Call?, BruceClay
- 180+ SEO Best Practices From Google, SEOsly
PPC
- Better measurement for video ads on Display, Google Ads Help
- Google's [Disputed] Changes to Keyword Matching Rules Explained, WordStream
- PPC Strategies for Out of Stock Products on Google Shopping, Go Inflow
- Prepare to upgrade from TrueView for action to Video action campaigns, Google Ads Help
- Credit card ads: Showcase your offerings, Microsoft Advertising
- How advertising technology is helping power our digital economy, Google Blog
- How to Improve Measurement with Cross-Domain Tracking, Metric Theory
- Zero-party data: Trust & relevance in ads, Microsoft Advertising
- Pivoting your Paid Media strategy in a privacy centric landscape, Hallam
Search Features
- A Guide on How to Do a Reverse Video Search, Semrush
- Improving Generalization in Reinforcement Learning using Policy Similarity Embeddings, Google AI Blog
Other Search
Feedback:
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