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 Ranking Algorithm Update November 17th & 18th?
I am seeing some evidence of another unconfirmed Google Search Ranking algorithm update starting around November 17th, yesterday, and progressing through today, November 18th. There is chatter within the SEO forums and social media and many of the tools are showing spikes, some really significant spikes on November 17th and/or 18th. - Google Ads Automatically Changing Some Campaigns Without Documenting In Change History
Lior Krolewicz spotted that one of his clients had changes in his Google Ads account, changes that the client did not make, nor did his agency. After digging in, it turns out that the client was enrolled in "Auto Applied Recommendations Control Center" and because of that, the changes were being made. - Google Updated Remove Outdated Content Tool
Google has also updated the remove outdated content tool. Google said the update is more visual, saying "we freshened the tool interface and also made the existing capabilities more intuitive to use." - Google Ads Smart Bidding Adds Predictive Simulators, Recommendation & Reporting
Google has added a bunch of features to Google Ads Smart Bidding including predictive simulators, recommendations, and reporting improvements. Here is what is new. - Who Is Alex Trebek Google Search Easter Egg
As you know, Alex Trebek passed on a couple weeks ago, after a public battle with cancer. On November 16th, I believe, Google added a little easter egg to the search results for a search on his name - Alex Trebek. The "Did you mean" result added "WHO IS" to the result. - Who Is Your SEO Mentor ❤️
Kim Doughty posted a simple tweet, asking you to list who your SEO mentor is. It is a way of celebrating and honoring someone in the SEO space that may have not known you were important to them. In fact, a lot of folks said just that, they had no idea they had an impact on some of these people. - Google Disavow Tool Finally Migrated To New Search Console
Google has finally migrated the old version of the disavow link tool to the new version of Google Search Console. With that, Google made the form prettier, added the ability to download the file as text and added more errors to the error reports for uploaded files. - Birthday Party In The Google Office During The Coronavirus
This is not something I see every day, and trust me, I look every day. Here are photos from a Googler at the GooglePlex, the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. You can see Neland, a G
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Google really, really wants us to start creating Web Stories. As an end user, do you like and engage with Web Stories or generally skip over them for regular results (articles and videos)?, Jon Henshaw on Twitter
- News: Google My Business Adding Reinstatement Request To Contact Flow - Note this is a limited release. https://t.co/wRkFShHC0, Ben Fisher on Twitter
- Twitter Rolls Out "Fleets" Which Last For 24-Hours, WebmasterWorld
- @chromeuxreport is there a bug in the dataset for country_nl? Only that country seems to be having issues with the standard Python SDK. https://t.co/UyiTSAo1ST, Ryan Siddle on Twitter
- Shopping Actions update: Review defect alerts on "Orders" page, Google Merchant Center Help
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Don’t miss out on the most unpredictable holiday season yet
- Google’s new Small Business Advisors program aims to help SMBs grow
- Google’s Auto Applied Recommendations catch advertisers, agencies off guard
- Google migrates the disavow link tool to new Search Console
- How to check Google search results for different locations
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- A Complete Guide to Understanding Bounce Rate, SEO Hacker
- Council Post: 13 Strategies For Collecting High-Quality Data, Forbes
Industry & Business
- Apple cuts App Store commission to 15% for developers paid less than $1M per year, AppleInsider
- Introducing your Microsoft Advertising Community, Microsoft Advertising
Links & Content Marketing
- How to Find Backlinks (For Any Website), SEM Rush
- How to Monitor Your Backlinks Effectively, RankRanger
- SEO API: Creating Optimal Content through Entity SEO, InLinks
Local & Maps
- Visit 100 cultural sites in Search, Google Blog
- Waze now supports Amazon Music integration, 9to5Google
- Business as Unusual: How to Communicate Your New and Updated Services with Google My Business, Moz
Mobile & Voice
- Assistant Driving Mode in Google Maps early preview arrives, 9to5Google
- New tools for a healthier, more active life, Google Blog
SEO
- Google Discover: How to Rank and Drive Traffic, Ahrefs
- Google Knowledge Panel Interface Patent, Go Fish Digital
- How to Answer the Dreaded Question: How Much Does SEO Cost?, SEO Theory
- How to pull GSC data with a simple Python script, Builtvisible
- Yoast SEO 15.3: Zapier integration and Hebrew word forms, Yoast
- How To View Historic SERPs And SERPs From Different Countries In SEM Rush, Koozai
- Successfully combining user intention and SERP features, SISTRIX
- The unknown side of search: when words become numbers, Majestic Blog
PPC
- A CMO’s Guide to Google Click Fraud in Less Than 5 Minutes, BruceClay
- How To Fix Google Merchant Center Tax Suspension, Seer Interactive
- The Ethics Of PPC And How To Set An Example, PPC Hero
- YouTube audio ads help drive reach and awarenes, Google Blog
- Over 1 billion people you may be overlooking, Microsoft Advertising
Other Search
