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 Indexing Issues With Canonicalization, Mobile-Indexing & News-indexing & Google Shopping Free Globally
Well, well, well, this week we had not one, not two, but three different indexing issues that Google confirmed. The first was Monday night with issues indexing news content. The second was around canonicalization issues that I believe started on September 23rd…
Google: Removing Links May Impact Your Rankings But Links Aren’t The Only Reason You Rank
Google’s John Mueller on Twitter stated something that is obvious but he said “ff links are the reason why a site is ranking higher, then if you remove them the site will rank lower.” But then he added that “links aren’t the only reason sites rank.”
Google On Cookie Consent Banners Impacting Cumulative Layout Shift
One of the items in the core web vitals, which is part of the upcoming Google Page Experience Update, is Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). There have been some reports that cookie consent banners have been impacting a site’s Cumulative Layout Shift score. Google wants examples of this, so share when with Google’s Martin Splitt on Twitter.
Google News Showcase: Timelines, Bullets & Related Articles
Google announced yesterday that it is launching Google News Showcase. It is a new experience for publishers to show news in Google. With the News Showcase publishers can curate content using timelines, bullets and related articles.
We Were Right: Google Had Indexing Bugs With Canonicalization & Mobile-Indexing
After noticing changes in Google since September 23rd and actually calling out canonical issues with Google a few days later, Google has now confirmed the indexing bugs where pages were dropping out of the index. The issue was two-fold Google said; one with canonicalization and the other with mobile-indexing.
Google Color By Number Offices In Irvine
Here are some photos I found on Instagram of a few offices inside the Google Irvine building. It looks like some rooms are color coded. Pretty cool and funky, right?
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
Have you actually clicked on a social media share button to share a piece of content in the past year?, Lily Ray on Twitter
Shopping Actions update: changes to Retailer Standards, Google Merchant Center Help
Sounds like Yoda Mueller 🙂 -> Via @JohnMu G’s Mobile-friendly algo only impacts mobile rankings. If most of your traffic is from dtop, then it won’t impact dtop rankings. But… maybe most of your traffic is from dtop b/c the, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
Those pages seem to be auto-generated doorway pages, so I can imagine our algorithms also wanting to just pick a representative URL., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Solving an age-old SEO-PPC issue: How to bid on your brand name based on incrementality
Google confirms indexing issues with both canonicalization and mobile-indexing
Google gives publishers new content ‘Showcase’ on News, Search, Discover
45+ expert-led search marketing sessions… just $149
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Track Logins and Signups with Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics, Analytics Mania
Industry & Business
$2 million for Black founders to build a more equitable future, Google Blog
Senate committee votes to subpoena CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter to testify, CNBC
Links & Content Marketing
11 Sites to Find Free Images For Your Content, SEM Rush
Finding the Right Writers for Your Content Production Efforts, Search Metrics
Local & Maps
A new sense of direction with Live View, Google Blog
Apple launches the new detailed Apple Maps experience in the United Kingdom, Look Around in select cities, 9to5Mac
Google Maps’ Nazi problem, Boing Boing
Mobile & Voice
Google’s ‘Hold for Me’ Assistant feature appears first on new Pixel phones, Engadget
Google’s new Nest Audio smart speaker is official, costs $99.99, The Verge
SEO
How to Rank in ‘People Also Ask’ Boxes and If You Should, Ahrefs
NLP & SEO FTW! Harnessing Natural Language Processing for Organic Marketing, Conductor
Why Safe Browsing Matters to Your Website, Visitors and Rankings, BruceClay
PPC
Developing a PPC Analyst Mindset, PPC Hero
New third-party verification in Google Marketing Platform, Google Blog
Overcoming Blockers: How to Build Your Red Tape Toolkit — Best of Whiteboard Friday, Moz
Search Features
Bing Releases Intelligent Question-Answering Feature to 100+ Languages, Bing Search Quality Insights
Other Search
Audiovisual Speech Enhancement in YouTube Stories, Google AI Blog
More controls and transparency for your selfies, Google Blog
