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 seems to have hinted that it is going after a new linking scheme - interlinked sites. Google is testing a local pack with five results, not three results. Google launched a set of sustainability initiatives in Search including Google Maps, Google Flights and Travel and much more. Google is testing featured snippets that are super wide. Google is also testing search refinement bubbles in the auto complete search suggestions.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Hints It Will Penalize Interlinked Link Schemes?
Google's John Mueller posted a cryptic tweets this morning with a dark photo with the date, October 6, 2021 imprinted on an object. John's tweet says "A system of sites interlinked." To me, this says Google has claimed interlinked sites as a link strategy as dead as of October 6th - but John did not say much more. - Sustainability With Google Initiative: Eco-Friendly Map Routes, Flights With Carbon Emissions & More
This morning, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, announced a slew of initiatives that Google is taking to make their efforts more sustainable and eco-friendly. This includes new features in Google Flight Search, Google Maps and also across Nest, their offices, server farms and more. - Google Tests Five Results In The Local Pack - A 5 Pack
Google is possibly testing the local pack in a five pack form, with five local results. The local results box is known as the three pack because it has shown 3 results since 2015 but we've seen Google recently test this five pack, also a two pack and a ten pack - all recently. - Google Tests Search Refinements In Autocomplete
Google is testing placing those search refinement bubbles directly in the Google suggest autocomplete. Shalom Goodman spotted this and posted a screenshot on Twitter showing this in action. - Google Search Featured Snippets Full Width Design
Google Search is testing an updated design interface for featured snippets. You can see that the featured snippet goes across the full width of the layout, when it normally cuts off at the end of the search box. - Lush Game Room At Google Dublin
Did you know Google has this, as the fancy people call it, "lush" game room at the Google Dublin office. You can see the fancy chandeliers, customized branded pool table, the fancy carpet, and shades
Other Great Search Threads:
- Video Ads are coming to the Microsoft Audience Network! Video can boost awareness, capture attention, and drive leads for your brand! Join the pilot:, Microsoft Advertising on Twitter
- Artificial sites like that tend not to be as useful for testing, and the results are not representative of what you'd see otherwise. Making useful test-sites has gotten harder than just putting, John Mueller on Twitter
- From what I saw, it's not so much trends, it's more rewritten articles from other sites. When we say "unique" content, it's not about a combination of words being unique; tweaking & us, John Mueller on Twitter
- Do people still use tables for layout? There are so many better options for lots of years now, that I suspect SEO is the smallest problem if a site is still stuck in the tables-phase of webpages, John Mueller on Twitter
- Improving our Largest Contentful Paint Watch and learn from @patrickkettner as he dives into: ✨ What a good Largest Contentful Paint score is ✨ How to measure it across your website ✨ How to optimize, Google Search Central on Twitter
- Make separate pages by language would be my number 1 advice by far., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- U.S. Soccer unifies the fan experience with Customer Data Platforms
- Google Analytics 4 updates include data-driven attribution, machine learning models to fill in measurement gaps and a Search Console integration
- Facebook: Have you tried turning it off and on again; Tuesday’s daily brief
- We asked, you answered: Should Google add noindex support to robots.txt? Poll results
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Google Analytics 4: A Definitive Guide, CXL
- Meet your marketing objectives with the new Google Analytics, Google Blog
- Use Google Data Studio To Report On The Fly, Koozai
- What Is a Causal Impact Analysis and Why Should You Care?, Seer Interactive
Industry & Business
- A new way publishers can stay financially sustainable, Google Blog
- Exclusive: Government Secretly Orders Google To Identify Anyone Who Searched A Sexual Assault Victim’s Name, Address And Telephone Number, Forbes
- Google’s AI unit DeepMind makes first-ever profit, Financial Times
- Google confirms $1B investment into Africa, including subsea cable for faster internet, TechCrunch
- Google files document production demand against one of its biggest public critics, The Verge
Links & Content Marketing
- 9 Easy Local Link Building Tactics, Ahrefs
- Out of Ideas? 10+ Tools to Spark Content Creation, Content Marketing Institute
Local & Maps
- Local SEO: Why you can't ignore Yelp, SearchLab Digital
- Google Maps adds a dedicated 'lite' navigation mode for cyclists, Engadget
- The Launch of Google Maps Driving Mode Comes with Bad News for Some Users, AutoEvolution
Mobile & Voice
- Everything Siri can do with HomePod software 15.0, iMore
- Google Discover tests showing stock alerts at the top of the feed, XDA Developers
- HomePod could gain touch-sensitive fabric & more convenient controls, AppleInsider
SEO
- 6 Technical SEO Challenges for Financial Institutions, iPullRank
- Adding "Near You" to Title Tags, SearchPilot
- How To Do A SEO JavaScript Audit: Serving Users and Bots, The Gray
- The Effect Of Optimising Multiple Pages On A Site For the Same Keyword Phrases, Hobo
- What is a website: Examples, Types and Structure, Holistic SEO
- What Is Spam? Why Should My Website Avoid It?, BruceClay
- 7 On-Page SEO Tips to Enhance Your User Experience, RankRanger
- Best practices for using third-party embeds, Web Dev
PPC
- For the Love of Sitelinks, PPC Hero
- Key October product updates, Microsoft Advertising
- Celebrated Partner spotlight: April 2021 winners, Microsoft Advertising
- Resurgence of the personal computer (PC) as the productivity hub for work and life, Microsoft Advertising
Search Features
- RocksDB in Microsoft Bing, Bing Engineering Blog
Other Search
- Fighting misinformation online, together, Google Blog
- Google turning on 2SV for 150M more accounts by 2021 end, 9to5Google
- Making sign-in safer and more convenient, Google Blog
Feedback:
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