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:
- December 2018 Google Webmaster Report
Here is our monthly Google webmaster report that summarizes and links to the more important SEO and webmaster related stories. The big news this past month was the nice number of unconfirmed Google ranking updates. Google also launched the zero results feature and a new sticky header for their search results. - Google Local Listings Tests New Design For Images
Google is testing a new design for how they display images in a Google local or Google My Business listing in search. The new design shows a carousel of image categories at the top letting searchers filter by inside, by owner, videos, inside and others. - Google: Our Personalized Results Do Not Create Filter Bubbles
DuckDuckGo, a Google competitor, came out with a study that claimed Google's search results create what is known as a "filter bubble," this influencing what you click on and see. Google came to Twitter and defended themselves saying their personalization does not do that. - Google: Do Not Use Q&A Page Structured Data On FAQs Pages
Google launched new structured data for question and answer pages named Q&A Page schema. Google updated the guidelines to say it is against their guidelines to use this markup on FAQ style pages. - Google Gray Logo For President George H. W. Bush National Day Of Mourning
If you go to Google's home page, you will see the multicolored Google logo is a simple gray color. Google changed their home page to honor the National Day of Mourning for President George H. W. Bush. Bing also did with a special photo of the US Capitol with the flag at half-staff. - Google Serves Water In Glass Bottles
Here is a photo I found on Instagram of a drink fridge at one of the Google offices that shows they have water in glass bottles. There is even a sign that says please consider using glass instead of
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Ho-ho-ho-liday time has arrived at the North Pole! Catch a sleigh to Santa's Village to play games, learn coding skills, make artwork and more → https://t.co/66eV5ePqEn… https://t.co/q3pCNMndFS, Google on Twitter
- Strange Google Maps bug: maps loads with a broken lock symbol https://t.co/OvTVG6GxQ2 Shouldn't Google shopping be referenced in source code on page in HTTPs and not HTTP? cc @rustybrick… https://t.co/W8CysYDsq2, Bill Hartzer on Twitter
- Use Autoplay on Home on Android and iOS!, YouTube Help
- WordPress 5.0 Released December 6, 2018, WebmasterWorld
- You can help search pick your preferred canonical in a variety of ways, there's more than just redirecting. I'd check the help center for the details.… https://t.co/guKllPFJoF, John Mueller on Twitter
- You want to ask the guy who hasn't written anything on his blog since a decade about the perfect blog post?… https://t.co/YFIYM8RNpZ, John Mueller on Twitter
- Facebook Communities Can't be Sold, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Google search now supports live streams with Indexing API, structured data
- Compare 15 top marketing automation platforms
- Vote for the final winner in our “exact match” naming contest
- The growing force of women in tech
- 7 tactics to drive more links to your website
- DuckDuckGo study says Google search personalization perpetuating ‘filter bubble’
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- A Google Tag Manager Wishlist for 2019, Builtvisible
- Announcing Kaggle integration with Google Data Studio, Google Blog
Industry & Business
- Googlers Write to CEO Demanding Equal Treatment for Contractors, Bloomberg
- The best US companies to work for, Fox Business
Links & Promotion Building
Local & Maps
- Want to Rank in Local Search? Shift Your Focus, DAC
- How Proximity Impacts Localized Google Organic Results for Law Firms, Sterling Sky Inc
Mobile & Voice
- Yandex gets in the smartphone game, TechCrunch
SEO
- Malware authors have figured out how to get Google to do “irreversible takedowns” of the sites they compete with, Boing Boing
- 250 million New Keywords for the Toolbox, SISTRIX
- 8 Major SEO Mistakes You Might Make in 2019, Cognitive SEO
- An introduction to HTTP/2 for SEOs, Distilled
PPC
- The Critical Element Missing from Many eCommerce PPC and SEO Campaigns, Go Inflow
- Google Shopping 2018: Does more Competition mean fair Competition?, Search Metrics
- Help us improve our services and products, Inside AdSense
- Limiting Customer Match was a Move Google Probably Needed to Make, Merkle
- Top 10 PPC Trends to Jump on in 2019, WordStream
