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 Robots.txt Changes, Leasing Subdomains For SEO, Search Console Updates & Google Maps
This week, Google made big news by announcing they are working on making the Robots Exclusion Protocol a real standard. With that they announced they will no longer support unsupported features including the noindex…
July 2019 Google Webmaster Report
Here is that big recap where I go over the past month of changes related to Google search and webmaster topics and sum up the more important bits. This month we had the June 2019 core update and the diversity update roll out earlier this month. We had Google say they probably will pre-announce these updates in the future. Google will change how they process noindex and other directives in the robots.txt file.
Google Maps Launches Place Topics
Google has launched what they are calling place topics. Place topics use data based on reviews to provide concise information on what customers highlight about your business. In short, it summarizes the reviews left by your customers into tags.
Google My Business Tests New Design For Console
Some folks when they login to their Google My Business account and click on a business to manage will see a more visual and image friendly interface. I am not seeing it myself but I am seeing numerous reports of the new design.
SEO Mythbusting Video On The Future Of The Web (Web Evolution)
Martin Splitt had a chat with his colleague at Google Dion Almaer the Director of Web Development Ecosystem about SEO and the future of the web. It was an interesting high level chat that talked about PWA/desktop site/AMP, tools, web components and virtual scroller compatible and assistant devices. Oh and we finally found out that it is iced tea in that pitcher.
Google Probably Won’t Be Turning Off Any Other Search Console Features
Google’s John Mueller hinted this morning that no additional legacy Google Search Console features will be turned off. He said “If we thought it wasn’t important, we would have turned it off already.” That kind of implies that the remaining features that are in the old Search Console will some how, in some way, be migrated to the new Search Console.
Google Gifts Americans Working On July 4th In Zurich US Flag Balloons
A Googler who works in Zurich, Switzerland posted a photo of US flag balloons given out at the Zurich office on the July 4th holiday. He said “Lovely that they represent those few of us in the office
Happy Fourth Of July From Google, Bing & The Search Community
Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day in the United States and to celebrate some of the search engines have special logos and themes. We saw Google’s baseball Doodle yesterday, that one is still up today. Bing has a fireworks theme from Lake Union in Seattle. Yahoo and Dogpile have nothing right now – which is a bit weird.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
Search isn’t perfect and doesn’t understand things as humans do. That’s why these types of things can happen for entirely unintentional reasons. It’s a challenge we keep working on to improve., Danny Sullivan on Twitter
Today is my last day at Google. 🎉 12 years on Buzz, Google+, Ingress and more. Help me have a googley goodbye: a scenario thread.… https://t.co/JEitHYlgrr, brian rose on Twitter
We just added two new events to our Webmaster Conference schedule! 🥳 Come learn from @piropiroanna, @atcoustic, and many others in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam or in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia., Google Webmasters on Twitter
Robots.txt is weird in that way – sometimes CMSs / Hosters give defaults, often times folks just copy robots.txt files from other sites without knowing what they do.… https://t.co/DjMHSc1KS4, John Mueller on Twitter
Should you give up on SEO?, WebmasterWorld
Some sites are quite visible in search despite doing a lot of things — don’t just follow what others are doing in the hope they’re doing it right.… https://t.co/YGWssGc47b, John Mueller on Twitter
Amazon Says it Keeps Alexa Data With No Expiry, WebmasterWorld
The response time and caching configuration is usually tricky to get a good user experience with.…, Martin Splitt on Twitter
U.S. Court Rules Amazon Can Be Held Liable For Third-Party Seller Defective Products, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
SMX replay: SEO that Google tries to correct for you
Only 30% of SMBs would recommend their current SEO provider, survey finds
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Demystifying Data Science, Part IV: Models and Machine Learning, Lies, Damned Lies
Why SaaS tools are important for end-to-end customer engagement, Fresh Works
Industry & Business
Google and Facebook under scrutiny over UK ad market dominance, The Guardian
How To Talk to Your Clients in a Language They Understand, Moz
Baidu CEO Soaked by Stage-Invader During Keynote Speech, Yahoo Finance
Table Stakes Europe, a program to help local journalism thrive, Google Blog
Links & Promotion Building
How to Use Guest Blogging for Natural Link Building, Search Engine Journal
Local & Maps
Google Maps down: Customers unable to access online mapping service, Daily Star
Mobile & Voice
HomePod ‘Hey Siri’ responses to AirPods ad prompts complaints, Apple Insider
Sonos expands Google Assistant support to six additional countries, CNET
SEO
Google: Facing the Music, Five Blocks
The Google E-A-T update: what you need to know, Vertical Leap
10 Rich SERP Elements Your Can Leverage to Build Trust, SEM Rush
5 Characteristics of Enterprise SEO, DeepCrawl
How to Make a Technical SEO Recommendation – Whiteboard Friday, Moz
PPC
Why You Should Use PPC as a Content Marketing Tool, State of Digital
Search Features
Hit the sauce: What barbecue lovers are searching for across the U.S., Google Blog
Google is making Night Sight one of the main camera modes on Pixel phones, The Verge
Microsoft Builds Bing Search into Windows 10 20H1 Lock Screen, WinBuzzer
