Daily Search Forum Recap: September 4, 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 Search Quirks, Licensable Image Badge, Google My Business & Google Ads Hiding Keywords
  This week was interesting, it seemed Google has some indexing or ranking issues outside of the US, but I was not able to replicate. I did post the monthly Google webmaster report. Google said it does not index links…
• Google My Business Adds Adds Video Conferencing Integration
  Google My Business has added a new option that says “Connect in real-time, with video.” It says you can “grow your business and reach more customers, when you use video conferencing providers.” Then a “set up” button to start to configure it.
• Google’s Googlebot Crawling As Chrome v85
  On August 25th, Google updated its web browser Chrome on desktop and mobile to version 85 and then by as early as September 1st, GoogleBot was already crawling and rendering pages using version 85. It is really an evergreen Googlebot.
• Google Ads More Than Triples The Conversion Categories
  Google Ads announced yesterday it went from 6 conversion categories to 19 conversion categories, if you know math, that is more than three times. Google said “starting today, you can group your conversion actions in 19 different categories such as “add to cart”, “submit lead form”, “book appointment”, and more.”
• Google Recommends Not To Use Double Slashes In URL Path
  Google’s John Mueller said it isn’t recommended to use // – double slashes – in your URL path. He said generally if browsers can handle it so can Googlebot. But he said on Twitter “// is generally considered a bad practice though, since what it’s really saying is “use https”.”
• Most SEOs Believe Google Can Penalize A Site Without A Notification
  Back in the old days, when you received a manual action Google did not notify you in Google Search Console with a message. But can that still happen today? Can you get a manual action without a notification from Google? Most SEOs believe that can and does happen.
• Google Search Tests New Product Carousels
  Google is testing new user interfaces, designs and layouts for the product one box and product boxes. Valentin Pletzer shared a couple of these designs on Twitter and I am able to replicate one of these.
• Speaking On Stage In-Person At SMX Munich During COVID
  It is so wild to see someone at a conference, speaking on a stage, in front of an audience, during COVID-19. Here is the awesome Izzi Smith, who always gives amazing SEO presentations, prepping to sp

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Other Search

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