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.

Google Search Console’s international targeting setting can take weeks to kick in. Google said if you are migrating to a new domain, don’t also remove AMP at the same time. A reminder that error like pages or out of stock or no delivery pages can trigger soft 404s in Google Search. Google is testing a blue header in the search results. Google local shows bike sharing icons with quantity and car charing icons. Plus more…

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Search Console International Targeting Setting Can Take Weeks
  
  Google’s John Mueller said that it can take from a week to a couple of months for Google Search to pick up on the international targeting setting you selected in Google Search Console. He said it would likely go faster for news sites but other sites can take up to a couple of months.
• Google: Pages That Look Like Error Pages Can Be Considered Soft 404s
  
  Several months ago Google told us that returning a “results not found” type of page can result in Google Search considering that page a soft 404 and thus removing it from the search results. The same is true for “Sorry we don’t deliver to this location” or other negative and error looking pages.
• Advice: Don’t Migrate Domains & Drop Google AMP The Same Time
  
  It might not be the best idea to migrate to a new domain name and at the same time also drop your AMP pages. A Google SEO hangout with John Mueller has one case where a site migrated to a new domain back in September and at the same time dropped AMP and has not seen the site’s traffic recover yet.




• Google Search Tests Blue Header
  
  Ric Rodriguez has spotted Google testing a blue colored header for the mobile search results. He shared a number of screenshots on Twitter -here is a side by side of a normal white header for the Google Search bar compared to the blue header for the Google search bar.




• Google Local Results Displays Bike & Car Charging Icons In Local Results
  
  Google is now showing bike icons for the bikeshare data it shows in the local search results, including the local pack and local listing for a bike share location. Google also shows the quantity of bikes that are available at that location. And Google is also showing electric car charging icons.




• Google’s User Agent Horse Wears A Mask – But It’s A Bit Hoarse
  
  So John Mueller of Google shared a photo of his cardboard cut out the other day and I was super upset that it was without a mask. John then shared that the User-agent horse had a mask – so all is good

Other Great Search Threads:

• I saw “Shops” in mobile serp. And shows ecommerce sites in “Shops” feature. Is this new? CC @rustybrick @JohnMu #mobile #shop https://t.co/GZEMEz7R6e, khushal Bherwani on Twitter
• Adsense, Firewalls, and Windows Servers – Minimize Claw Backs, WebmasterWorld
• It’s like a filter for the display in the search results, it doesn’t remove from indexing, and doesn’t do anything with redirects, canonicals, etc. The only expansion it does is for http/https/www/n, John Mueller on Twitter
• This should be studied as a great example of community driven/engaged link building. Willing to bet the names on this list are getting mentioned a TON of other places as well., Joe Hall on Twitter
• 1 of the things that’s not typical about the ‘COVID SERP’ is how well it goes “vertically” into the topic. It breaks down the subtopics that comprise the overall topic so that exploring it is easy. This is NOT how Google, Mordy Oberstein on Twitter
• Adsense revenues ‘disappearing’, WebmasterWorld
• hreflang only swaps out URLs, so implementing just one language/country version does nothing., John Mueller on Twitter
• It’s an approximation. There is no single, accurate “speed number” – no testing tool can give you that., John Mueller on Twitter
• SEO Mystery: Why isn’t https://t.co/njNTKQQJPu ranking for “reddit” – one of the highest volume keywords on the entire internet? (instead ranking https://t.co/nJkMvgfd3x – which typically ranks #2 – and is NOT what most people are s, Cyrus on Twitter
• Well, for many of them, you have to know that they exist first, if you want to search for them. It’s not a matter of links, it’s a matter of awareness. Also, the whole world doesn’t revolve around se, John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.