Daily Search Forum Recap: May 21, 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:

• Google: Noindex Won’t Hurt Your Site From Being Indexed After It Is Removed
  John Mueller from Google was asked if it is true that Google will remember that a page or site had a noindex directive set. And if it remembers that, even if the page/site removes the noindex, that it will make it harder for that page/site to be re-indexed. John said that is not correct.
• Google: Unlinked Citations Usually Do Not Help With Search Rankings
  Google’s John Mueller was asked if “unlinked brand citations can help in defining trust of a website / brand?” In short, when someone says the Wall Street Journal said X, but does not link to the Wall Street Journal (see what I did there WSJ, who rarely links to those it cites), is Google able to pick up on that and assign some credit to the WSJ even though there is no link.
• Is Google Digging Out Of Reconsideration Request Backlog?
  Marie Haynes, who does a lot of Google SEO penalty recovery work, said just yesterday she received two reconsideration request approvals from ones submitted back in February and March. In January, we asked if there were longer wait times for these reconsideration requests, I guess maybe there were and now maybe is getting through them all?
• Google My Business Business Reinstatement Request Adds File Uploads For Proof
  Ben Fisher noticed that the Google My Business local business reinstatement request form added a new field. You can now upload a file that shows proof that your business should be reinstated in Google My Business. The form added the ability to upload a file, like a PDF or screen shot, with such proof.
• Google Knowledge Panels: What They Show, Where They Come From & How To Fix Them
  Danny Sullivan of Google did another one of his explanatory blog posts on the Google blog. This one is on explaining how knowledge panels work in Google Search. In this post he explains what knowledge panels are, what information these panels can show, where they source the information, and how to fix issues with them.
• Ancient GoogleBot – Figura
  John Mueller, who often prints 3D GoogleBots, shared this photo from the Google Arts & Culture Twitter account. It shows what would look like an ancient GoogleBot but really is Figura from Cultura Qu

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

• The Doodle is full of places in Hawai’i that had special significance for Israel [Kamakawiwoʻole],” says Doodler @sophiediao. “I tried to depict scenes that reflected who [he] was as a person.” 🎨 See more behind today’s #A, Google Doodles on Twitter
• Dark Mode now available on Google App (Android 10+, iOS 12+), Google Search Community
• Expansion of “What do you like about this business?”, Local Search Forum
• I realize there are good reasons for using lots of services when making a website, but the whole opting in / out of cookies, tracking, etc. has gotten ridiculous. Progress bars for saving preferences, error messages becaus, John Mueller on Twitter
• If your JS-based site uses links, a simple way to test if they’ll work for search / SEO is to try to open them in a new tab. There’s also a side-effect of not annoying people who like to use links as links. 🙂, 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

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