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 Featured Snippet Deduplication, Data-Vocabulary Deprecation, Google Datasets Search & More
This week in search Google deduplicated, as they are calling it, the featured snippets URLs, so if you have a featured snippet…
A Google Search Algorithm Ranking Update On January 23rd?
This is going to be a hard one to judge because I see chatter within the SEO community and also many of the tracking tools are lighting up. These are all signs that there was a Google search ranking algorithm update. But truth is, this can be directly related to the featured snippet deduplication change on January 22nd.
Google Search Console Performance Reports Not Impacted By Featured Snippet Change
Just to be clear, and honestly, I am surprised so many people do not know this, but the featured snippet change from the other day has no impact on the Google Search Console performance reports. That report only counts the top-most result anyway, so the lower results on the page did not count anyway.
Google Dataset Search Is Now Out Of Beta With New Features
Google announced that Google Dataset Search which launched in beta in 2018 is now out of beta. With that launch, it added several new features. This can probably be used for awesome research when developing rich content and might also send traffic to your site if you implement the correct datasets schema markup.
Google Rolls Out Profile Icon To Local Knowledge Panel
Google announced this a while back but now it seems to be rolling out. Profile icons for your local knowledge panel is now showing up on many local knowledge panels. Google has been testing this for about a year but it should be live for most businesses.
Google Tests Desktop Results Without Favicons; The Old Design
Some folks are seeing Google test the old Google desktop search interface. Remember the one before Google launched those (what I feel are horrible) favicons and black ad labels for the snippets? Yea, Google is testing showing the old interface to some searchers.
The Good Old SEO Days: Sergey Brin With Heather Lloyd-Martin & Detlef Johnson At The Google Dance
I am not going to lie, there are times I miss the old days, the old SEO days. Here is a photo from I think the first Google Dance in 2006. You can see the young Sergey Brin from Google talking with
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
When I was at Google, part of the media training I had to do included watching video of myself, ugh! (They had us talk to an "audience" of exercise balls with post-it note smiley faces on them so we could rea, Vanessa Fox on Twitter
2020 Local Search Industry Survey, Local Search Forum
Sites get hacked in lots of really weird & bad ways, so I definitely wouldn’t recommend that for anything other than research purposes., John Mueller on Twitter
URL INSPECTION NOTICE Next up in Search Console Training, @danielwaisberg goes over the URL Inspection tool and how to… see the current index status of a URL test a live U, Google Webmasters on Twitter
Don’t let anyone tell you that sharing knowledge without any specific ‘actionable’ tactic is not valuable. Acquiring the knowledge allows you to build your own much bigger strategies and tactics than tiny, granular, limited, Dawn Anderson on Twitter
Rankings change all the time. It sounds like before the change, you were a featured snippet and a web listing underneath. Even without the change, that could have shifted to two featured snippet as you see ther, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Bridging SEO and web development: How to get developers on your side
Google Dataset Search is out of beta and adds new features
Default Search in Chrome Switched to Bing for Office 365 ProPlus users
9 pitfalls to scaling content and how to avoid them
Video: Search pioneer Mike Grehan on everything from the early days of SEO to AI’s role in paid and organic search
Google removes ‘ads’ and ‘sponsored’ labels from flight search results
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Aggregate & Automate Performance Reporting With Lighthouse & Google Data Studio, Local SEO Guide
Google Data Studio visualization and reading helpers with switch, Wissi
What Is Google Data Studio & Why Will Your Business Need It?, KPIS
Measure Form Usage with Event Tracking – Whiteboard Friday, Moz
Industry & Business
Google I/O 2020 will kick off on May 12th, The Verge
The House Democrat Taking On Silicon Valley, POLITICO
TripAdvisor Cuts Hundreds of Jobs After Google Competition Bites, Bloomberg
Google and Apple Clash Over Web Browser Privacy, Bloomberg
Links & Promotion Building
Advanced Link Reclamation and Link Moves: Tips for Success, Siege Media
Manually Manage Internal Linking, InLinks
Local & Maps
A New Navigation System Hinted at Google Maps, Go Fish Digital
MIT’s new GPS system uses satellite images to put you in the right lane, Engadget
Mobile & Voice
Visual Search Users are 50% More Likely to be Influenced to Make Purchase Decisions, Reports National Research Group, MarTech Advisor
SEO
4 Step eCommerce Keyword Research Strategy (Advanced Guide), Go Inflow
Excel formulas for SEOs: cheatsheet and cell manipulation, Builtvisible
Google Core Update for January 2020, BrightEdge SEO Blog
Predictions And SEO Advice for 2020, State of Digital
SEO in 2020: Experts Predict Top Digital Marketing Trends, Search Metrics
URL Inspection Tool – Google Search Console Training, YouTube Blog
PPC
5 Things to Check After Launching a PPC Campaign, Seer Interactive
Migrate to Expanded Text Ads and final URLs, Microsoft Advertising
Other Search
Google’s latest user-hostile design change makes ads and search results look identical, TechCrunch
