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 Shopping Ads bug caused massive CPC surges over the weekend. The 2 million sites hosted on SiteGround last week are now able to be crawled and indexed by Google Search again. Google confirmed again that bolding text is an SEO factor. Google Merchant Center now allows the sale of medical test kits, including at home kits. Google said if you see your core web vitals reports come in and out with data, that means your teetering on the edge of having field data for your site. Also, posted another episode with Bryan Cush on health SEO and using schema.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Shopping Ads Bug Causes CPCs To Skyrocket
Friday evening, Google Ads had a bug of some sorts that caused the cost per click (CPC) prices to skyrocket on many Shopping Ad campaigns. Google confirmed the issue on Saturday afternoon and resolved it going forward. The company promised to reach out to those impacted. - SiteGround Sites Begin To Return To Google Search After Crawling Bug
Sites hosted on SiteGround last week found themselves not being crawled by Googlebot, Google's crawler. The issue seemed to have been an DNS issue between the provider's partners (AWS) and Google according to the hosting company. The DNS issue was resolved after a few days but with DNS, things take time to update and now sites are starting to be crawled again. - Google Merchant Center Now Allows Medical Test Kits
Google has updated its Google Merchant Center policies to allow the sale and listing of medical tests kits in both the paid and free Google Shopping search results. This includes at-home results or lab results and over-the-counter test kits. - Google Confirms Again, Bolding Words Does Help With SEO
Google's John Mueller confirmed again that bolding words and "important points on a paragraph" does help with SEO and rankings. But it is all relative, if you bold everything on the page, then it doesn't help, John explained. - Google Chart Teetering On The Edge Of Core Web Vitals Field Data
Ever see a chart in your page experience report or core web vitals reports that shows core web vitals data and then doesn't and then does again? If you do, you are not alone, it means you are "teetering on the edge of having enough field data for evaluating the CWV properly," John Mueller of Google said. - Vlog #146: Bryan Cush On Health SEO with Schema, Structured Data & Google E-A-T
In part one, Bryan Cush, the co-founder of Tidal Health Group, and I spoke about how to use health data for content and search marketing and in part two we dug into using medical databases, local search and E-A-T & YMYL... - Google White Outdoor Area With Slide Entry
Here is a photo Martin Splitt of Google shared on Twitter from the Google office that shows the new outdoor area at that office. It looks like it is all ready a white holiday season and of course, you
Other Great Search Threads:
- Hey SEO fam, yesterday was my last day as your Director of Search Content for Search Engine Land & SMX. The Third Door Media team is amazing, & I can't wait to see what amazing content & events they'll have upcomin, Carolyn Lyden on Twitter
- New ecomm organic standard result rank....product image tiles?? is this new @rustybrick https://t.co/XI0pKJs614", James F Gibbons on Twitter
- "follow your favorite topics" #discover #google https://t.co/Hud93z4uOt, Valentin Pletzer on Twitter
- Embedded ads & ads landing pages are fundamentally different things. The reason to block ads is so that they don't get indexed as a part of the page - you often don't fully control the ads shown,, John Mueller on Twitter
- In practice, any ranking factor is relative. If one site goes up, the others go down. Does that one site get a raised? Do they others get lowered? It's essentially equivalent., John Mueller on Twitter
- Lots of people sell things, they don't all necessarily work the way the sellers want to make you believe. This is unfortunate; we can't review all products/services, so it's important people research appropriat, John Mueller on Twitter
- Breaking down SEO costs like. 😅 https://t.co/Ls84Lx7nj2, Andrew Charlton on Twitter
- 1/🧵 🚨::: Keywords, and Beyond! :::🚨 It’s a standard industry term. Almost everyone that has heard of SEO knows of “keywords”. The problem is, the general perception of keywords is out of date! Worse -, Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- November 15: The latest jobs in search marketing
- Google Ads shopping ads bug results in huge CPC increased; issue now resolved
- Amazon sellers battle the giant’s algorithm-based policy- and decision-making
- Google rolls out product feed support to more video campaign types
- SiteGround Google’s crawling and indexing issues fixed
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Google Analytics is not working worldwide, Digital Boom
Industry & Business
- Apple quietly buying app ads that funnel users to the App Store, developers claim, AppleInsider
- U.S. states file updated antitrust complaint against Alphabet's Google, Reuters
Links & Content Marketing
- How to Level Up Internal Linking for SEO, UX, & Conversion, The Gray
- How to Measure Content Marketing ROI (With Real Metrics), Terakeet
- How to Make Newsworthy Content: Part 2, Moz
Local & Maps
- Google Maps Update Wreaks Havoc on Android Auto, Fix Is Already Available, AutoEvolution
- 99 Problems: Realtor Local SEO Ain't One, Sterling Sky Inc
Mobile & Voice
- Alexa's 7 Now, 65% Don't CTR, Attack on Algorithms, Near Media
- 10 Best Google Home Accessories 2021, Esquire
- Bug leaves Siri unable to spell Dog, Cat, and other words, PhoneArena
- How to teach Siri to pronounce names correctly in iOS 15, AppleInsider
SEO
- 2021 CTR Research Study: The Largest Ever for SEO, SEO Clarity
- Adding alt text to product images: SEO Split Testing Lessons from SearchPilot, SearchPilot
- Blocking URLs: Unmask Googlebot's Real Server Response, Gent Of Search
- SEO Tips, SEOsly
- How to Boost CTRs From Your Organic Search Rankings, Content Marketing Institute
- Keyword Clustering App for SEOs, tl;dr Marketing
- SERP API: Scrape Google Search and On-Page Data with thruuu, Samuel Schmitt
PPC
- Apple Quietly Buying Ads Via Google For High-Value Subscription Apps To Capture App Publisher Revenue, Forbes
- Helping European small businesses grow and succeed, Google Blog
Search Features
- Google's New Scroll-to Sitelinks, How They Differ, Impact on SEO & More, Brodie Clark Consulting
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