Daily Search Forum Recap: April 8, 2020

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:

• Programming Note: Offline Tomorrow Thursday & Friday For Passover 5780

  This is a programming note that I will be 100% offline the next two days, Thursday April 9th and Friday April 10th, for the Passover holiday. This year I decided not to schedule any stories or videos. I won’t be back online until late Saturday night and I will catch up on things then.

• Vlog #61: Alexis Sanders On SEO Strategy & SEO Testing

  Alexis Sanders is a senior account manager at Merkle and has been doing SEO now from about six-years. She told us how she got into SEO and why she does what she does.

  SEO strategy is not just about SEO she said…

• Google Case Studies Series Aim To Show Importance Of Investing In SEO

  This morning I woke up to a nice surprise, Google has started a new series on the Google Webmaster Blog for SEO case studies and success stories. The goal, “help with convincing a boss’ boss that investing in SEO or implementing structured data can be good for the business.”

• Google Maps Disables “What’s For Dinner?” Push Notifications

  Yesterday I saw a push notification on my iPhone that read “What’s for dinner? Check out places to eat & drink nearby.” I tweeted about it, figured it was an oversight and then Danny Sullivan from Google said the Google Maps team has taken care of it.

• Google: Any Site Can Use SpecialAnnouncement Markup

  Danny Sullivan from Google said that any site is able to use the SpecialAnnouncement structured data on their web sites, assuming it is used for COVID-19 or related content. I assumed it was just for official medical and health organizations but I guess I was wrong.

• Google My Business Adds Telemedicine Links For Doctor Offices

  Google has added the ability to add a “telehealth info link” to a Google My Business listing, if the listing is a medical/doctor related office. Erica Paige shared a screen shot of this on Twitter.

• Google Search Console Training Video On Removals

  A few months ago, Google launched a new feature in Google Search Console named removals. Since it is pretty new, I figured I’d share a video from Daniel Waisberg of Google showing off this feature.

• Google Has An Electric Typewriter

  Here is an older photo from Martin Splitt of Google from the Google Zurich office. It shows that Google has an electric typewriter in one of the spaces there. These were cool back in the day.

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

• There’s usually no reason to change URLs for every update made to a page — that seems like unnecessary overhead and just adds room for things to break. For example, Wikipedia pages are updated all the time, John Mueller on Twitter
• Chrome 81 is rolling out now! Shooting from his apartment, @petele has all the details on app icon badging, hit testing for augmented reality, Web NFC’s origin trial, an update on the adjusted Chrome release schedule an, Chrome Developers on Twitter
• I definitely wouldn’t think about it in terms of links. If *people* don’t associate the word with the company, then it would be a bug for search to associate that word with you, John Mueller on Twitter
• I’d just link naturally. There’s generally no need to do anything with rel-nofollow within a site — it’s not like those links are unnatural., John Mueller on Twitter
• Join next week’s Ecommerce Website Office Hours on Monday, April 13 at 11 AM PDT with guest Ben Killmer, Google Shopping Partnerships. We’ll focus the conversation on Google Merchant Center and the Content API. Add the meet, Alan Kent on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google introduces new COVID-19 and Telehealth GMB links for healthcare providers
• Pinterest boosts ability to ‘Shop’ for in-stock home decor and fashion products
• SEO will be a primary focus for marketers during the downturn, says survey
• Live now: SEOs talk COVID-19 search disruption
• The right way to hire an SEO
• Did you know that SEO drives 22% of all website visits?
• Google pushes out Google Ads API v1 sunset date
• A deep dive into the fact check structured data: Who is it right for?

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• Customer Segmentation In Google Analytics, DELVE
• Using Demographics and Interests reports in Google Analytics, Browser Media

Industry & Business

• Google buys Cisco building, widens north San Jose holdings, Mercury News
• China orders Baidu to clean up low-brow content, CNBC

Links & Content Marketing

• Why and How to Bring Empathy Into Your Content, Moz

Local & Maps

• Ability to Respond to Google Reviews Returns to Dashboard, App and API, Local University
• Apple Maps emphasizes food delivery, hospitals, and pharmacies during COVID-19 pandemic, 9to5Mac
• Editing a Closed Google My Business Listing, Online Ownership

Mobile & Voice

• Google featuring COVID-19 news across apps, Podcasts, 9to5Google

SEO

• Google Algorithm Updates | SEO Experts Answer Your Questions, Botify
• Google Webmaster Hangout Notes: March 31st 2020, DeepCrawl
• What’s Google’s Goal? Why It’s Not to Offer Answers, RankRanger
• Google Search Improvements During Coronavirus Pandemic, SEM Rush
• How to optimize your Ecommerce for Google Images and Visual Search, I Love SEO

PPC

• Google Ads Guide: Using RSAs in Your PPC Campaigns, Seer Interactive
• Leveraging Custom Labels in your Shopping Feed, Seer Interactive
• Updates to the AdWords API and Google Ads API, Google Ads Developer Blog

Search Features

• What are SERPs? Search Engine Results Pages Explained, Ahrefs

Other Search

• The Virus Changed the Way We Internet, New York Times