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:
- Search Buzz Video Recap: Bing Spam Penalties, Google Local Ranking Update, Speed Reports & More
This week in search I posted the big monthly Google Webmaster report, so catch up there quickly. Bing announced a boat load of new search spam penalties that is rolling out. Google may have done a local search algorithm update this week. Google.... - Google: SEOs Use "No" As A Way To Confirm Their Theories
Earlier this week, I wrote how yet another Googler once again said Google does not use user behavior signals for rankings. But what happens is people don't believe Google and they come up with theories on how Google does use user behavior as a ranking signal no matter how many times Google says no. - Google: It Is A Bad Sign If Your Robots.txt Or Sitemap File Is Ranking For Normal Queries
We had a slew of tweets triggered by Gary Illyes of Google and then followed up by John Mueller of Google around robots.txt and XML sitemap files ranking in Google. In short, if they rank for normal queries, John Mueller said "that's usually a sign that your site is really bad off and should be improved instead." - Google: Do Not Use Robots.txt To Block Indexing Of URLs With Parameters
Google's John Mueller said you should absolutely not "use robots.txt to block indexing of URLs with parameters." He said if you do that then Google "cannot canonicalize the URLs, and you lose all of the value from links to those pages." Instead use rel-canonicals and link consistently throughout your site. - Google Ads Editor v1.2 Adds New Campaign Types & Cross-Account Features
Google released Google Ads Editor version 1.2 yesterday. This release has a lot of new features including support for new campaign types and updates to multi-account management. Version 1.1 was released in July, so it has been a while since Google came out with a new version of Google Ads Editor. - Jeopardy: SEO Is Short For
SEO was featured on Jeopardy the other day. The statement was "wanna boost traffic to your website? Try SEO, short for this." Marshall Simmonds shared this on Twitter.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- On a related/unrelated note... Festivus is getting some respect in the SERP 😂 https://t.co/6ArdlAGAjP, Brian Freiesleben on Twitter
- BERT is not working in Indonesian, except for featured snippets., Danny Sullivan on Twitter
- If your website is from the 80s then it's worth upgrading that first. If you're just curious about speed, you can also use the pagespeed insights test directly at https://t.co/F8BxJ, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- European antitrust chief says Google’s auction-based shopping remedy not working
- Google Ads Editor update includes support for Discovery campaigns
- Choosing a local marketing solution for your multi-location business
- Let’s kill the hourly rate: We are leaving money on the table
- Pro Tip: Don’t add new services reactively
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- 20+ Google Analytics Reports, Metrics, & Tips for Measuring Your Blog's Performance, Databox Blog
- Google Analytics UTM Tracking, Communigator
Industry & Business
- EU's Vestager says Google's antitrust proposal not helping shopping rivals, Reuters
- Google Contract Worker Kevin Kiprovski Describes Frustrating Job, Bloomberg
- Google hires former Disney and Star executive to head its India business, TechCrunch
Local & Maps
- Google expands Google Maps public transport information for Lagos, Telecompaper
- Google Q&A Drops 55%. What is Going on?, GatherUp
Mobile & Voice
- Cortana can now read emails out loud in Outlook for iOS, Computerworld
- Google Assistant refuses to answer some users on Android Auto, despite understanding requests, Android Police
- Microsoft Adds Cortana Voice Assistant to iOS, Voicebot
SEO
- Insights from Google's Webmaster Product Summit, Kieron Hughes
- Portent Refreshes The SEO Page Review Chrome Extension, Portent
- The Top 10 Questions About Redirects, Answered, Botify
- Expedia stock suffers worst day yet as Google threat hits travel websites, MarketWatch
PPC
- Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads: What's the Difference?, Seer Interactive
- Paid advertising tips for a strong Cyber Week, Koozai
Search Features
