Google, two weeks longer than expected, has finally finished rolling out the link spam update. Google confirmed it made changes to the titles it generates in search, it said it no longer uses the query when generating the title. Google has heard about some of the issues and may come up with a Search Console tool to help control titles. There are some complaints, you can submit those complaints to Google if you want. Just one point, the title does not use the query but the snippet’s description can and does. Google Search Console’s performance report had a big data bug on August 23rd and 24th - I am not sure if the data will be back filled. Google said if you remove your AMP pages, you generally should not see a ranking decline. Google made over 4,500 changes to search in 2020, it was a busy year. SEOs mostly use the canonical tag to deal with duplicate content issues. Most SEOs said COVID did not change how they do SEO. Google Ads redesigned the campaign set up screen, which threw some advertisers for a loop. Google Shopping had a bug that lead ti huge impression drops. Google Keyword Planner tool stopped working for a day or so. Google Ads added more custom columns and has a new conversion value rules for smart bidding. Google Merchant Center and Manufacturer Center can now be automatically in sync. Google AdSense added new auto-optimize features. Google Local pack tests no call to action buttons for some queries. Google Posts say they can appear on third-party sites now. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Search Topics of Discussion: