IGNITE SEARCH WEEKLY WRAP –
16TH DECEMBER 2020
100% CURATED SEO/ONLINE MARKETING GOODNESS:
HELPFUL STRATEGIES, TIPS & TRICKS:
SEO: Maximize Return During Tough Times Through Testing
Knowing for sure what is going to work for your business, in your space, and at this particular time is a tough task. The only way to find out for sure and stay on top of the changing trends is through testing.
SEO: How to Stop a Webpage from Ranking (Without Deleting It)
What should you do when the traffic you’re attracting to your local business isn’t really relevant? Here’s what you should look into and consider.
SEO: SEOAsked.com – Portal To Search For Google SEO Q&As On Twitter
Here is a site that archives and lets you search for tweets from Googlers who answer SEO related questions. The site is not perfect, but the concept is very good – Seoasked.com.
SEO: A Guide to Digital PR and Why It’s Important for SEO and Link Building
If you‘re not using digital PR as part of your link building strategy, you‘re missing out on a huge opportunity to gain a competitive advantage, and in this guide, we take a look at why that is.
SEO: SEO and cybersecurity: Incorporating cybersecurity into your SEO strategy
Focusing on SEO and cybersecurity helps businesses step up for success. Four fool proof ways to outrun competition, secure your website and its ranking.
SEO: 4 Common In-House SEO Challenges & How to Overcome Them
Many of the biggest difficulties faced by in-house SEO teams are universal. Here are four of the biggest challenges, along with tried-and-tested solutions.
SEO: Analyzing Google’s December 2020 Core Update
On December 3rd, 2020 Google announced that a core algorithm update was rolling out. Check which industries are the SERP winners and losers and which websites seem to be the most affected ones so far.
SEO: Automated Title Tag Optimization Using Deep Learning
Manually optimising all your title tags can be time-consuming and expensive. Find out how to use Deep Learning to do this task easily.
SEO: SaaS SEO: An Actionable Strategy for Growth
In this guide, we‘ll walk you step-by-step through an actionable SaaS SEO strategy that you can use to supercharge your platform‘s organic traffic and sign ups and see your CPA reduce.
SEO: 14 Link Building Secrets from a Technical SEO Expert
Tired of the same old link building tips? We’re going beyond what you’ve already heard to share tons of our favourite link building tools and tips to improve your communication and outreach too.
SEO: WordPress 5.6: The Good, the Meh and the Ugly
WordPress 5.6 is rolling out with dozens of improvements but security researchers discovered an exploitable feature.
SEO: Six strategies guaranteed to help you build more backlinks to your website
Building backlinks is no easy feat. If you’re struggling to acquire links from credible domains, give these six modern strategies a try.
SEO: How to Define Your Target Audience for SEO
You can’t ignore the need to know who the target audience for your SEO strategy is, and in this guide, we’re going to walk you through the different approaches that you can take to define this.
SEO: What Is Lazy Loading? Understanding Lazy Loading for SEO
Page loading speed is crucial for SEO these days, and lazy loading can make your website load faster. Learn how lazy loading works and whether you need it in this guide to lazy loading for SEO.
SEO: 10 Important 2021 SEO Trends You Need to Know
What’s 2021 going to be like for SEO professionals? Check out 10 important trends you need to know from 42 top experts in the field.
Paid: Learn How to Improve PPC and Paid Social Results in 2021 at SEJ eSummit
Take your PPC campaigns to the next level. Drive more leads and maximise revenue with eSummit’s 7 PPC and Social Sessions & Master Class.
Paid: How to Restructure Google Ad Accounts Without Wiping out All Your Data
Historical data is lost when moving keywords, ads, or ad groups. Learn how to mitigate the risks and prevent poor performance outcomes.
Content: Why your content strategy needs both rank-worthy and link-worthy content in the mix
How a two-pronged approach can help you increase brand awareness and organic traffic.
Social: YouTube SEO for Beginners: 10 Best Practices to Get You Started
Getting your video to rank on YouTube takes more than just an amazingly crafted video. Here are 10 things to do to get you started on YouTube SEO.
Social: How to Choose Between Facebook Live and Pre-Recorded Videos
Find out how to choose between Facebook Live and pre-recorded videos. Learn the key advantages of each approach to maximise engagement.
Social: How to Sell on Pinterest: 10 Actionable Strategies for Brands
Pinterest is a game-changer for ecommerce businesses. Find out how to sell on Pinterest and skyrocket your social selling. Start today.
Social: Facebook Organic and Paid Reach Strategy for Local Businesses
In this article, you’ll discover a strategy to grow an engaged, local Facebook audience for your business. Learn how to plan your post schedule, define a budget to test the performance of each post, and find specific conversion cost benchmarks to identify successful posts you can model with organic content. You’ll also get six ideas to help plan and diversify your Facebook post content.
KEY INDUSTRY UPDATES:
SEO: Google to move the Structured Data testing tool to schema.org
Google is refocusing the Structured Data Testing Tool and migrating it to a new domain serving the schema.org community by April 2021
Related Articles:
SEO: Google Gives New Names To Surfaces Across Google & Shopping Actions
Google is renaming surfaces across Google and Shopping Actions. Surfaces across Google instead will go by the listings rather than the feature itself, i.e. free product listings and Shopping Actions will be called Buy on Google.
SEO: Google Tests Expandable Descriptions / Snippets In Search
Google was testing dynamically expandable images below snippets. Now I am seeing reports of Google testing expandable text descriptions in the snippets.
SEO: How to Benefit from “SEO Power” of Links to Old Press Release Pages?
Google’s John Mueller answered a question about how to preserve the “SEO power” of old links to press release pages.
SEO: Google on How it Handles Sites With Too Many Ads
Google’s John Mueller weighs in on how sites with lots of ads are handled when it comes to ranking in search results.
SEO: Bing Webmaster Tools Gains Features From Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft is integrating features from Clarity into Bing Webmaster Tools.
Related Articles:
Bing Webmaster Tools Begins Microsoft Clarity Integration
SEO: Bing Tests Boxed Embossed Look On Snippets When Cursor Overlays
Bing is testing that when you overlay your mouse cursor over a snippet, it protrudes the background of the snippet, making it boxed it, and embossed in the search results page.
SEO: Google Tests New Top Stories Multi Grid Layout
Google is testing yet another layout for the top stories news box in the Google search results.
SEO: Google: Avoid Blocking Pages That Are Important Enough To Have Links To Them
Google’s John Mueller said he would advice that if “that’s something where if you see that these pages are important enough that people are linking to them then I would try to avoid blocking them by robots txt.”
SEO: Google services were down including Google Ads, Google Analytics, Search Console & more
Much of Google is offline, it is not just you. Google began restoring services at around 7:28am ET.
SEO: Google Tests Displaying Images Within Snippets On Mouse Hover
Google has been caught tested a new image hover effects – when you place your mouse cursor over a snippet’s title, images can dynamically load beneath that snippet.
SEO: Google: Sometimes Copied Content is More Relevant
Google’s John Mueller answered a question about how Google handles copied content. Mueller’s answer covered different kinds of duplicate content. He ended his response with an observation about the original source of content and relevance.
SEO: Google Search COVID-19 Vaccines Updates
Google Search is making some changes to its search results around COVID-19 vaccines. Much like it did for COVID-19 news and information in general, Google is trying to make sure it provides the most accurate, trustworthy, authoritative and up-to-date information as possible – especially when data and information is changing so quickly.
SEO: Google Search Testing Thinner Knowledge Panels
Google is testing thinner, 85 pixels less wide, knowledge panels in the Google Search results.
SEO: Google on Penalizing Misinformation
Should Google penalise misinformation the same way it punishes spam? Google’s Danny Sullivan responds.
SEO: Google: The December 2020 Core Update Is Still Rolling Out
Danny Sullivan of Google has confirmed that the December 2020 core update is still rolling out.
Related Articles:
SEO: Google Has Plans For Regex Filters In Search Console
Google’s John Muller said that Google have plans to add regexp filter into Google Search Console performance report.
SEO: Google Search New Look For Question & Answers Carousel, Combines Multiple Sites
Google has launched a new look for its question and answers carousel. This is not the local Q&A box, this is also not the question hub.
SEO: Google’s John Mueller: No Black Hat SEO on Adult Websites
Google’s John Mueller says black hat SEO is never a good idea, even on adult websites.
SEO: Google Reveals Top Searches of 2020
Google published its annual report of top trending searches, revealing the most popular keywords across different categories.
SEO: Google Search Console API gains fresh data & more
Google announced updates to the Google Search Console API, after informing us the company was upgrading the API’s infrastructure a few months ago, now those upgrades are resulting in some new and useful features.
Related Articles:
SEO: New key insights from Google’s John Mueller at SMX
John Mueller, the lead of the Search Relations team at Google, gave a talk named “Google Search #2020: What’s New That Matters To SEOs.”
SEO: Google: We Give Guidance & Provide Transparency On Core Updates
Google’s Danny Sullivan said that Google does and did provide “transparency and guidance” around its core updates.
SEO: Google’s John Mueller Gives SEO Clues To Site Owner
Google’s John Mueller dropped some hints after “briefly” looking at the site and thread.
SEO: Google Search “Learn More About” Within People Also Ask
Google seems to be testing or rolling out a new feature in the people also ask section named “learn more about.” It shows a box that basically teaches you more about the topic you searched for.
SEO: Google: Noindexed Pages Can Impact Core Web Vitals
Google affirms that noindexed pages can still be used to evaluate a site’s Core Web Vitals, which will soon become search ranking factors.
Paid: Google on How it Handles Sites With Too Many Ads
A number of factors affect how Google Search deals with sites full of ads. Google’s John Mueller weighs in on how sites with lots of ads are handled when it comes to ranking in search results.
Paid: Google Ads To Prohibits Ads For Sugar Dating: Compensated Dating Or Sexual Arrangements
Google announced that is will begin to prohibit what is called “sugar” dating, where there is compensated dating or sexual arrangements where one participant is expected to provide money, gifts, financial support, mentorship, or other valuable benefits to another participant.
Paid: Google AdSense Link Units Going Away
Google announced that the link unit ad type is being retired.
Paid: Google Search Testing Taller Shopping Ads
Google is testing taller shopping ad formats in Google Search (about 55 pixels taller.)
Paid: Google rolls out App campaign type to re-engage existing users
Google has rolled out App campaigns for engagement globally. The ads run across Google Search, Play, YouTube and the mobile app Display Network. Google first introduced the campaign type more than a year ago.
Social: Pinterest Boards Upgraded With 3 New Features
Pinterest boards are getting upgraded with three new features for turning inspiration into action.\
Social: Twitter Lets Users Share Tweets to Snapchat
Twitter is integrating with Snapchat and allowing users to easily share tweets in their snaps.
Social: Top-Trending 2020 YouTube Videos Demonstrate Longer Is Stronger
These 10 videos made it to the top this 2020. Get insights on video length and strategies to help you make better content.
Social: Facebook Sued by FTC for Anticompetitive Conduct
The Federal Trade Commission is suing Facebook for illegally maintaining a monopoly position in personal social networking.
Social: Facebook Identifies 2021 Topics and Trends
Facebook published a 40 page report that forecasts important consumer topics and trends for 2021
Local: Google Maps local listing now showing web search results
Google has been spotted displaying web search results in the Google Maps local search results listings for an individual business.
Local: Google Maps Landmark Icons & Pins
Google is widely showing the landmark icons or pins in the Google Maps desktop and mobile interface now.
Local: Google, YouTube add user controls to limit alcohol, gambling ads
Google is adding new user controls for alcohol and gambling ads. The new feature, announced Thursday, will launch first on YouTube in the U.S. It will then roll out to Google ads and other countries next year, the company says.
Local: Google Guaranteed Testing New Badge Design
Google is testing a new design for the Google Guaranteed badge or icon.
Mobile: Google Mobile Search Sharable GIFs Carousel
Google is showing you a carousel of GIFs that you can click on to share with your friends. It is query dependent, and will match relevant GIFs to your query.
