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 Search Algorithm Ranking Update Again On October 8th & 9th?
I know, Google updates every day, but I promise, I try to limit my coverage of these Google search ranking updates to those that drive a lot of chatter within the community and show additional signs of evidence around a ranking update. And today I am seeing signs again of a Google update, which makes the past several weeks jammed pack with algorithm tweaks and updates. - Google My Business Has A Manual Review Bug
If you have any locations in Google My Business that requires manual reviews, it may result in a bug that leads you to a 404 page not found page. I am told Google is aware of the issue and working on a fix. For now, you may need to speak to someone at Google to get the listing verified. - Google+ Is Shutting Down: How Will It Impact SEOs?
As you probably heard by now, Google+ is shutting down. The reason is over lack of us and a data exposure through their API, which sounds similar to the Facebook issue. The big question in our community is how will it impact SEO and SEOs? - Google: Word Count, Link Count, Anchor Text Ratios Are Not Indicative Of Quality
Google's John Mueller responded on Twitter saying that word counts, anchor texts to word rations, number of backlinks, number of external links, the percentage of anchor text and so on is not "indicative of quality." Here is the tweet and John's response. - Google Tests Expandable Sitelinks In Search Results
Google is testing a new format for Sitelinks in the search results. These sitelinks are not just links that take you to a specific web page, but when clicked on, they expand and show you a snippet of content from the page it is linking to. - Google Bathroom Google+ Wall Art
Google is a fancy pants company and their bathrooms can be fancy pants as well. Here is a picture of one of the bathroom walls in the Google Germany office. The funny part, this was just posted on In
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- I can pass this on, but to be clear, no one is "censoring" recipes. I think it's important to be clear when tossing that word around. Recipes have, can & continue to appear without that data. They just might not get rich snippe, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
- #AdsUnder5' Check out the one-sheeter on Attribution models and learn how to optimize each point along the path to purchase ➡ https://t.co/YyRKJNdUfZ… https://t.co/Ip19qHbZXr, Google Ads on Twitter
- Anyone ever see a "featured" Google Post where other posts exist, but only one shows in the panel (different proportions than normal as well)? Meaning no carousel. cc: @rustybrick #GooglePosts #SEO… https://t.co/2npek8GcNh, Mordy Oberstein on Twitter
- Facebook Portal is New Hardware For Video Calling, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Updated: The big list of Google Easter eggs
- Google to record small percentage of calls from ads for quality assurance
- Manage your match types with this structure checker Google Ads script
- SMX East kicks off in 2 weeks! Join us for actionable SEO & SEM tactics
- Tips for optimizing content for voice search, virtual assistants
- New format for Google Sitelinks shows more site content in search results
- How Search Engine Land is changing to support you better
- How to use data to power target account selection
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- 7 Metrics to Measure Effectiveness of Your Content, Cloo Hawk
- Live-mode dashboard for A/B Test results with Data Studio, Scandi Web
Industry & Business
- Google Drops Out of Pentagon's $10 Billion Cloud Competition, Bloomberg
- Leaked Transcript of Private Meeting Contradicts Google’s Official Story on China, The Intercept
Links & Promotion Building
- Measuring Brand Awareness for Digital PRs & SEO, Majestic Blog
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
- Get help at a glance with Google Home Hub, Google Blog
- Google hardware. Designed to work better together, Google Blog
- Google Pixel 3: Make every day more extraordinary, Google Blog
- Play Store policy to help prevent Android call and text leaks, 9to5Google
SEO
- Rewriting the Beginner's Guide to SEO, Chapter 5: Technical Optimization, Moz
- An SEO's guide to XPath, Builtvisible
- Complete Guide to Featured Snippets, Stone Temple
- Google Webmaster Hangout Notes: October 5th 2018, DeepCrawl
- Site Speed Matters: It’s Fast, or Not At All, Conductor
- The SEO Cyborg: How to Resonate with Users & Make Sense to Search Bots, Moz
- The SEO Problem You Wouldn’t Expect: You May Be Over-Optimizing Your eCommerce Site, Go Inflow
- Yoast SEO 8.4: Helping you optimize taxonomies, Yoast
PPC
- Google search losing some advertising business to Amazon, agencies say, CNBC
- The Amazon PPC Launch Plan: Everything You Need to Advertise on Amazon, SEM Rush
- Video Swells to 25% of US Digital Ad Spending, eMarketer
Search Features
