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:
Most SEOs Say Site UX Can Impact Your Google Rankings
Dejan posted a Twitter poll the other day and it received almost 600 responses from within the SEO community. The question was “Good UX impacts rankings.” The responses available were “directly,” “indirectly,” or “neither.”
Google: Be Consistent. Use Either Slash Or No Slash After URL, Not Both.
Google’s John Mueller said it is best to be consistent with your URL structure and either choose to use slashes after the URL or not to use slashes after the URL. Try not to use both formats if possible.
Google News Search Results Tests Card Layout Again
I am personally seeing the new card layout when I do searches in Google News on some browsers. On Chrome Mac, I get the card layout but on Safari Mac I get the old bundled list layout.
Google Showing More Related Search Boxes In Image Search
Google is now showing more related search boxes in the image search results. Google has for some time shown the related search box but now more people are seeing it come up more often and several times as you scroll through the image results in Google Images.
Google Search Lets You Play Tennis In The Search Results For Wimbledon
Go to Google on desktop or mobile and search for [Wimbledon] then take that live scores box and scroll the carousel where it shows women’s scores, men’s scores, etc to the left and you will see a tennis ball. Click the tennis ball and presto, you go into game mode.
Googlers Go Bowling
We all know Google has a bowling alley at their main offices, the GooglePlex, we’ve seen videos of it. But here is a more recent photo of some Googlers using the bowling alley for some relaxing time.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
Get ready for takeoff! 🚀We’re celebrating 50 years since Apollo 11’s historic journey to the Moon with new, immersive experiences across Google → https://t.co/NAKYPtAPxC #Apollo50th… https://t.co/xAQe5ye6Zr, Google on Twitter
Seems a bit weird, happy to take a look if you post the query. FWIW sites can prevent iframing with X-Frame-Options HTTP headers, if they want to do that.… https://t.co/zyZTeKdJsg, John Mueller on Twitter
There’s never a guarantee for anything, but more specifically, I wouldn’t rely on things outside of the standard. If you see typos in files, just fix them.… https://t.co/mbfbFM2ERk, John Mueller on Twitter
How to no index CDN sites showing up in Google results?, WebmasterWorld
We don’t keep a cached page of all URLs — that’s pretty normal.…, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Ad customizers are now available in all Microsoft Advertising accounts
How to measure success with JavaScript-dependent websites
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Audience Targeting with Google Optimize’s Personalization, Metric Labs
Give your website visitors the experiences they deserve., Google
How to filter data across several sources in Google Data Studio, Baguette Engineering
How to Prepare Your GTM Container for a Site Redesign, UpBuild
What does ‘not set’ mean in Google Analytics?, Vertical Leap
Industry & Business
Google’s 4,000-Word Privacy Policy Is a Secret History of the Internet, New York Times
Links & Promotion Building
250k+ links and no disavow file – here’s what happened when we uploaded on, Rise at Seven
Local & Maps
Explore your world with these new Google Maps features, Official Google India Blog
Mobile & Voice
Google contractors are secretly listening to your Assistant recordings, The Next Web
Google has stopped the rollout of Android Q Beta 5 OTA, 9to5Google
SEO
Executives: How to SPF (Search Protection Factor) Your Summer, Five Blocks
How Google May Handle Question Answering when Facts are Missing, SEO By The Sea
Instagram SEO – 8 Proven Tactics, State of Digital
What’s Most Important for SEO?, SuccessWorks
Disciplined? How www.dailymail.co.uk got placed amongst peers, SISTRIX
PPC
Capture the attention of sports fans with Display & Video 360, Google Blog
Dispelling 3 myths of modern marketing, Microsoft Advertising
Search Features
Google Translate’s camera now works with more than 100 languages, Engadget
Google Translate’s instant camera translation gets an upgrade, Google Blog
Other Search
Bringing the Power of Knowledge Graph to Custom Search, Google Custom Search
Shoelace is a hyperlocal social network from Google’s Area 120, 9to5Google
