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: Fill In Your Meta Descriptions Because You Know Your Content Best
Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that it is best not to leave your meta descriptions blank. Instead he said try to fill them out because you know your content best. This is despite a recent study from Yoast that shows that Google often uses your web site content, not your meta description, for your Google search result snippets. - SEOs Turn To EAT After Recent Google Algorithm Updates
Google had a big issues years ago, every Google algorithm update was about PageRank and subsequently DA (which is something Google doesn't even have) - it was all about links. Google knew that was an issue. But in the past year or two, espesially since the Medic Update, SEOs have been obsessing around EAT - the messaging within the Google search quality raters guidelines. - Google To Investigate Google News Publishers Concerns Over Discovery
After months of complaints in the Google News Help forums from some Google News publishers saying their content is not being surfaced or discovered by their audience in Google News, Google said they are investigating. Lisa Wang from Google wrote the other day "We're aware of the concerns some publishers have raised about issues around finding their sites or particular articles in Google News. We're looking into the reports and will provide an update soon." - Google AdSense To Verify Your Web Site
Google announced on the AdSense blog a new "quality effort" they are rolling out. Before you can earn money from ads you place on web sites, you need to first add them to your verified sites section in AdSense and Google has to verify them. - Google Halloween Game Doodle & Bing's Spooky Bat
It is Halloween tonight but Google and Bing already have their home pages ready for the scary holiday. Google has a really detailed time wasting Halloween Doodle game and Bing has a spooky bat background. - Google Wine; With No Cork
Here is a photo of a bottle of wine with the Google logo on it. Chris Silver Smith posted it on Twitter after taking some pictures from inside the Google Hardware Store. You can read the label, it s
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- There is no absolute limit.…, John Mueller on Twitter
- Google's event KB redesigned with Save event link or was i missing this all this time? @rustybrick? https://t.co/tTFKkkyxO1, Bishal Shrestha on Twitter
- Medic, Links and the Penguin update. We've worked through more data for SEOs that are seeing recent changes. https://t.co/5pr8zu8i55… https://t.co/R4RM7eiCXx, sistrix on Twitter
- Today, we are excited to announce the launch of reCAPTCHA v3. Your users no longer need to solve any challenges. You’ll get more visibility to the abusive traffic on your site and more flexibility on what actions to take., Google Webmasters on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Bing adds election information, redesigns image search, provides NFL answers, and word of the day
- How to boost search rankings using only your internal linking strategy
- How to navigate Amazon’s sponsored brand ads updates
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- 10 Ideas to Kick Your A/B Testing Program Up a Notch, KoMarketing
Industry & Business
- Google CTR in 2018: Paid, Organic, & No-Click Searches, SparkToro
- Google employees will walk out on Thursday to protest company’s handling of sexual misconduct, TechCrunch
- Majestic win Princess Royal Award for Training, Majestic Blog
Links & Promotion Building
- How Valuable Are Links in Your Market?, Siege Media
- How to Do a Backlink Audit - The Step by Step Guide, Cognitive SEO
- Link Building for Small Businesses: 7 Tactics That Really Work, Search Engine Journal
- Majestic Historic Index Update - October, Majestic Blog
- Should You Disavow a Link That Sends Lots of Traffic?, Search Engine Journal
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
- Google Home to make story time 'magical' with music and sounds for select Disney books [Video], 9to5Google
SEO
- 3 Strategies to Consistently Produce Quality Content, State of Digital
- Organic Results Disappear? What To Do in the Near Future of SEO, BruceClay
- SEO Factor Linguistics: A Scientific Approach to Creating High-Performing Content, Searchmetrics SEO Blog
PPC
- “Holding Out or Holding On?” What are PPC holdouts on Brand Terms?, Periscopix
- Google Smart Shopping: Everything You Need to Know, WordStream
- PPC Audience Strategies for Holiday Success, Metric Theory
Search Features
- Celebrate Halloween with Ghoul-gle, Google Blog
