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: Google Update, Search Console Data Loss, Bing Ads Now Microsoft Advertising & Star Wars
This was a super busy week starting with a possible Google search algorithm update over the weekend. Google also admitted they lost 16-days worth of data within Google Search Console…
Google: Mobile-First Indexing Is Still On Track & Making Good Progress
It has been a while since we talked about Google’s mobile-first indexing initiative and the last we know is that over 50% of Google’s index is built through mobile-first indexing. But since then, I haven’t seen many notifications from webmasters of a new wave of mobile-first indexing migrations.
5 Months Later Google Has Not Fixed A Googlebot Search Exploit
Tom Anthony after 5 months of informing Google about a way to manipulate Googlebot to execute Javascript on other people’s websites where Google can and will index those changes, including links, he decided to publish the details publicly, since Google didn’t take action.
Google Search Console Adds Three New Reports
Google announced three new reports to Google Search Console yesterday. They include uparsable structured data report and two enhancement reports (a) sitelinks searchbox and (b) logo enhancement reports.
Google Launches Video Series On SEO Myth-Busting
Google has announced with a video on the Google Webmasters YouTube channel a new video series named SEO mythbusting. The trailer for the series looks awesome and fun – but let’s see what the actual videos include and if they include anything too revealing.
Google Search Console Star Wars Mode For Star Wars Day
Everyone in our community is talking about how Google Search Console is doing a special theme within the toolset for Stars Wars Day, which is on May 4th (May the Force/Fourth be with you). If you toggle it on at the top right of the page you will find tons of easter eggs within the tool with references to Star Wars.
Google Employee Wearing A Giraffe Hat
So you are walking through your office, headed to a meeting and you walk into a colleague wearing a giraffe hat. This is all in the days work at the Google office in Dublin. Here is Miriam O’Shea wi
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
Good point, if you use CallJoy, you can gather keyword research from actual calls. And of course, Google can choose to do what it wants with the data (like learn more about what people are looking for help with across verticals)., Glenn Gabe on Twitter
Any SEO Harm From Incrementally Pushing a Redesign?, WebmasterWorld
If you need to keep 2 pages indexed, then they’ll rank independently. You can’t pick their order in search.…, John Mueller on Twitter
OK, just so I’m clear on what you’re saying, the analytics UI will be removed from the official AMP plugin soon. And then other plugins should handle the implementation of analytics tracking for AMP urls. Is that right? Thanks fo, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Survey: More consumers trust accuracy of SMB websites over Google My Business
Static reports are dead: Here’s why you need to move to Google Data Studio
Sites vulnerable to XSS can be used to phish Googlebot
7 Ways To Attend SMX Advanced
Learn how to get better returns from Microsoft Ads
Google launches new video series: SEO Mythbusting
Sitelinks searchbox, logo enhancement and unparsable structured data report added to GSC
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Form Analytics: What You Can Track and How to Track It, ConversionXL
Your Analytics Data Isn’t Real and It’s Only Getting Worse, iPullRank
Four ways to optimize your landing pages for conversions, Google
Industry & Business
EU Political Advertising Transparency Report 2019, Google Blog
Local & Maps
Make the most of Mother’s Day with Maps, Google Blog
Your 3-Step Guide to Creating a Successful Review Acquisition Strategy, Moz
‘Philadelphia Badlands’ label on Google Maps latest controversy over neighborhood names, Philly
Google Maps now highlights photos of restaurants’ most popular dishes, Engadget
Mobile & Voice
Global Smartwatch Shipments Grew 48%YoY in Q1 2019 with One in Three Being an Apple Watch, Counterpoint Research
Introducing the Google AdMob App Policy Center, Google Blog
Can devices like Alexa, Google, Home, Nest, and Furbo actually make life better?, Vox
SEO
Amazon SEO in 2019: The Beginner’s Guide to Increased Sales, HigherVisibility
Structured Data in Search, Go Fish Digital
Structured Data: A Dirty Little Secret, Dixon Jones
What good looks like when it comes to effective SEO auditing, Builtvisible
Where did my Search Console errors go?`, Yoast
XSS attacks on Googlebot allow search index manipulation, Tom Anthony
Google Webmaster Hangout Notes: May 1st 2019, DeepCrawl
Optimizing for China’s Baidu search engine with its two billion users worldwide, Search Metrics
PPC
Keyword Planner changes finalized, Google Ads Help
Export Google Ads data to Google Sheets, Google Ads Help
Google Ads Mistakes to Avoid – Whiteboard Friday, Moz
