Daily Search Forum Recap: January 14, 2019

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 Incentivizing Ad Partners To Use Automation
Kirk Williams posted on Twitter that he got an email from Google with new rewards and incentives if he uses more of Google’s ad automation features. He said he doesn’t have an issue with automation but the incentives should be tied to client goals, not using a feature in Google Ads.

Google Spammers Using Open Date Edits To Hurt Local Businesses
In November, Google began supporting the option to specify when the business opens in the future. So if you are a new business and you want people to find you in Google local before you open, you can set a future open date for your business. But some are using this to hurt competitors, competitors that have been open for years and years already.

Google Fixed The Knowledge Panel Hack
Google has finally fixed the exploit with the knowledge panel in their search results. It only took them about three years to do so, but it is fixed. You can no longer create fraudulent knowledge panels with this hack.

Google May Consolidate Even More Search Console Messages
Google already began consolidating the mobile-first indexing notifications sent via Google Search Console. But Google confirmed that if the consolidation goes well, they may go ahead and do it for other types of notifications.

Google Will Shut Down Deprecated Search Console APIs As Well
Last week we reported that Google will be deprecating some of the reports and features within the old Google Search Console and they won’t be replaced in the new version of the Google Search Console. John Mueller from Google confirmed that when/if this happens, the related APIs will also go away.

Google Donuts Conveyor Belt
Here are some photos and a video of a Google Home Mini donut truck but the back of it. It has a conveyor belt in the back that serves the donuts. Here is a video of it in action. Pretty cool.

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

New: GMB Dashboard showing store codes in the home view. I have been asking for ways for us to tell SAB’s apart in the dash since the change to SAB addresses. This seems like a small measure, as you can enter a city name or identif, Ben Fisher on Twitter
Getting a GMB Verified *INSIDE* a Verified Business?, Local Search Forum
Not sure why when in incognito we would suggest results that aren’t phrase matching. But happens for me, too. I’ll pass it on.… https://t.co/r0BXfgD6J8, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
Adsense checks every new website now, WebmasterWorld
Google and Automattic/WordPress Partner Over Newspack Publishing System, WebmasterWorld
If you change URLs (for PDFs or anything), make sure to set up a redirect!…, Google Webmasters on Twitter
Interested in speaking at a conference but don’t have the confidence? We’ve teamed up with @Kirsty_Hulse to run a *free* speaker confidence training session the day before #brightonseo. Details – https://t.co/VbLT57DRlJ. Tickets, BrightonSEO on Twitter
The mobile-first index is independent of anything in Search Console, but if you’re seeing things in that regard, I’d love to hear more.… https://t.co/7pZr4fzRSp, John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Nofollow couldn’t save the Google webmaster blog from comment spam
The explosion of PAA: Answering questions is the new way to dominate search

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