Webcology

User Generated Reviews ,Trust Seals and New Page Experience Report in Search Console

User Generated Reviews will likely not fare well. Expert reviews are where it’s at.
https://www.seroundtable.com/user-generate-content-products-reviews-google-31261.html

Trust Seals and marks are not good to EAT
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-trust-seals-e-a-t-31270.html

Do you need to optimize your entire site for a page to rank well?
https://www.seroundtable.com/one-page-whole-site-google-seo-31271.html

New Page Experience Report in Search Console
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-page-experience-report-in-search-console-31279.html

Page Experience Update delayed until Summer
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-page-experience-postponed-31278.html

How accurate is the average position in GSC?
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-console-how-accurate-is-the-average-position-metric/403368/

SEO Side Hustle?
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-john-mueller-nows-the-perfect-time-for-an-seo-side-hustle/403242/

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Google Research Paper Reveals a Shortcoming in Search | Wix and WordPress War

Toronto COVID Update

Roger Monti’s piece in SEJ
Google Research Paper Reveals a Shortcoming in Search
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/long-form-question-answering/402519/


Kim Kraus Berg is Back! Usability
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/accessibility-search-human-experience-design/401983/?ver=401983X2


Wix and WordPress War
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wix-and-wordpress-tensions/402358/
Matt Mullenweg – Developer of WordPress
Avishai Abrahami – CEO Wix

Vunerablilites continue to exist in 17 or more Elementor Add-on Plugins for WP
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-elementor-plugin-vulnerabilities/402330/
List of specific plugins in article

Ryan Jones on XML Sitemaps
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-important-are-image-sitemaps/401533/?ver=401533X2

Cumulitive Layout Shift – Roger Monti wrote a nice primer when writing up how Google has changed its scoring system
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-cumulative-layout-shift/402216/


Project Bernanke – Google favours its own ads in Google Display Network
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-project-bernanke-favors-google-over-other-advertisers/402170/
Google was using publisher data to understand what other advertisers were paying and what they would need to pay in order to achieve specific placements and then using that data to model their bids in order to win the auctions most important to them, presumably at the lowest rates possible.

Google Product Review Update
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-product-reviews-update-big-31235.html
HUGE! But beneficial

Google Cache View is an unmaintained legacy feature
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-cache-view-is-an-unmaintained-legacy-feature-31256.html

Core Web Vitals – Big Deal or Big Daddy?

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Google Search Console adds RegEx and other Data Filters
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-console-gains-regular-expressions-more-data-filters-31219.html

Regular Expressions – RegEx (aka: Reginald Xavier)

https://www.seroundtable.com/staging-sites-authenticated-user-passwords-block-google-31209.html
Use a form of user-name / psw authentication as a wall between the web and your staging server.

Yahoo Answers Shutting Down
https://www.seroundtable.com/yahoo-answers-shutting-down-31208.html

We up and moved to Independence (KS). Every one of us.
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-my-business-bug-independence-kansas-31200.html

WIX –new acronym for What IS Xhat?
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wix-negative-attack-ads-against-wordpress/401760/

Changing dates (of post) will not affect web rankings
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-john-mueller-changing-dates-on-pages-wont-improve-rankings/401734/

533 Million Users have data stolen from Facebook
Data scraped from Facebook between June 2017 and April 2018 was leaked to a low-level hacking forum on 3rd April 2021.
Account creation data
Date of birth

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EAT Your Money, EAT Your Life | Core Web Vitals FAQ update

Opening Day! The 2021 Baseball season opens today. The Jays play the Yanks – Go Jays Go

 

EAT Your Money, EAT Your Life,

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-medical-commerce-sites-31181.html

 

 

Core Web Vitals FAQ update

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-updates-core-web-vitals-page-experience-faqs-31174.html

First posted in December 2020, Google has updated its FAQ regarding Core Web Vitals

- "our systems will continue to prioritize pages with the best information overall, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar. A good page experience doesn't override having great, relevant content."

- you do not need to clear all the core web vitals to be eligible in the top stories carousel.  "With the upcoming change to Top Stories carousel, all web pages irrespective of their page experience status or Core Web Vitals score are eligible for Top Stories carousel. When the changes go live the compliance with Google News content policies will be the only requirement, and we will use page experience as a ranking signal across all the pages."

- Metrics and Tooling section of article is interesting. Lots of points to talk about.

- Page Experience and Search

- Top Stories carosel

- AMP

 

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/facebook-lets-users-limit-who-can-comment-on-their-posts/401097/

Facebook to allow users to limit who comments on their posts

∙ Control who can comment on their posts

∙ Filter their news feed to see more relevant content

Learn more about why a recommended post is getting shown in their news feed

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interview with Mike Rhodes – Founder of Websavvy

Mike Rhodes is a serial entrepreneur. Founder of one of Aus’s largest digital marketing firms, Websavvy, Rhodes had immigrated to Austrailia from the UK and founded and exited three other businesses before founding Websavvy in 2006. He is now a conference speaker, an investor, and a father. He joins us from Melbourne Austrailia.
Ultimate guide to Google Ads – over 100,000 copies sold




Last batch of sites going to mobile first

Rand vs Danny – Zero Click Google Searches.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/zero-click-claims-are-misleading/399940/#close
No links – No visitors.
https://www.seroundtable.com/over-65-of-web-pages-have-no-links-31134.html

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Vulnerablities everywhere and not a thought to think
WordPress Eliminator
Microsoft Exchange

Google is looking for your feedback – Gary Illyes wrote on yesterday on Twitter Google was going to redo their Help docs on Robots text and robots tags
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-to-update-robots-txt-robots-tags-help-docs-31102.html
They already added information to the Meta Robots Directive help docs
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-docs-meta-robots-directive-update-31101.html

Will browser extentions hurt Core Web Vitals Scores? – probably but probably not a problem
https://www.seroundtable.com/browser-extensions-google-core-web-vitals-31091.html

Google Pandemic Change predictions
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-predicts-pandemic-changes/399149/

New Search Engine

Is SEO Harder today than 5 years ago
https://www.seroundtable.com/seo-is-harder-31082.html

-- aside comment --> Most of my career experience has been watching Google introduce products designed to disrupt what used to be MS's dominance on the Desktop. Google is now dominant, even in areas beyond search but it has goofed up so many business-fulfillment projects over that time the energy is now moving swiftly away from them. The scope of needs for any given business fulfillment system (including being kinda/sorta data-secure) are so vast very few corporations could even dream of making this kind of software. This is going to force me into the SaaS Office environment. I've been able to resist it until now. I'm also going to have to migrate away from the increasingly useless but always adorable Blackberry device I still use. Apparently MS doesn't like OS/dinosaur. (I once wrote a feature article on the Blackberry keyboard in a 45minute subway ride)

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Lots of flux in Google’s Algo Stability

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-ranking-update-last-night-31067.html

 

Technically and Practially Indexed

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-technically-vs-practically-indexed-31058.html

The Bureau of Internet Accessablilty says – Stop screwing with headings you screwheads

https://www.boia.org/blog/why-headings-arent-simply-style-elements?fbclid=IwAR3deezOPNO7pVI3JE0a_FiJ4sQpo8PeVUKuFeKjCwkTproEW27ldRVNLTo

 

Google might have to pay US news publishers

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-may-have-to-negotiate-payment-for-us-news-publishers/398722/

 

Google has tweaked some structured data requirements in Job Listings and FAQ / Q&A pages

https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-rich-results-report-updated-346818

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Rich Results Vanishing? Does Google Simply not trust your website?
https://www.seroundtable.com/rich-results-site-wide-trust-issue-31024.html?fbclid=IwAR0NdT1scws9RAkUaUdOMWFqVZXGVrpVzt0oPPt65Ltos3B9sAkrvd9XG6w

Google to stop tracking users after it abandons Cookies
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-will-not-track-users-after-replacing-third-party-cookies/397739/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebook-auto-publish&fbclid=IwAR2UZLJ13feXDP1MoJErkbgzZMWMOvnFm--5JV6Ut04o-j_GniP0VHUnKu8

AI as ideology rather than technology
https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-ai-is-an-ideology-not-a-technology/?fbclid=IwAR1T9T6ZLD9NvOm--BPO4g9H302y3q5lRMeX9-rRJxgeyYyZkA_ovuEQJMY&mbid=social_facebook&utm_brand=wired&utm_campaign=falcon&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=facebook

AI Writes a Stage Play
“Tomáš Studeník, a Czech entrepreneur and AI fan who came up with the idea for the project, notes a particular scene where a boy asks the robot to tell him a joke. The robot says that when the boy gets old and dies, and the boy’s children and grandchildren are also dead, he, the robot, will still be around.”
“In one of the scenes, an initial prompt about euthanasia ended up in a fight between characters about who had whose finger in whose anus.”

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/kinky-and-absurd-first-ai-written-play-isn-t-shakespeare-it-has-its-moments?fbclid=IwAR1XgGKlPZpWN2APvRkI0_wMXDvqT17PFjVZ2iLwtZOzUXKYHx6dicav6d8

David Harry’s Birthday

Nice Shout-out from Rhea Drysdale about the small part Webcology played in saving the industry from having the term SEO patented by a bad person.

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Aussie Journalists Get Help From Facebook and Google
Facebook agrees to Aussie journalism fund
Google already agreed to pay Australian journalists through its News Showcase program
Critics argue the agreement sets the bar for compensation too high with companies elegiable under Australian legislation needing to earn more than $150,000AUD in annual income.

Page Experience update will not be overwhelming, according to Google spokeperson Danny Sullivan.
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-page-experience-update-massive-change-30992.html

Total number of links is irrelevant
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-total-number-of-links-irrelevant-30971.html


Long title tags have benefit
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-longer-title-tags-seo-30985.html

Google doesn’t talk about depreciated ranking signals
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-on-deprecating-ranking-signals-30991.html

Decline in Featured Snippets (just as Passages indexing takes off)
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-showing-fewer-featured-snippets-30987.html


March 2021 Google Moblie First Deadline approaches
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-mobile-first-indexing-deadline-march-2021-30974.html

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Texas
How to help
How to survive
No Aussie News on Facebook isn’t Google News for Aussies
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/facebook-removes-australian-news/396312/

The Boney M Rasputin TikTok Challenge

YouTube explores new ways for creators to make money on its platform
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/youtube-is-adding-new-ways-for-creators-to-make-money/396423/

Developers rejoice – Google has changed Core Web Vital Metrics a bit
https://searchengineland.com/google-updated-metric-boundaries-for-core-web-vitals-in-search-console-346227
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-console-core-web-vitals-boundaries-new-30949.html

Wix vs. WordPress – Meuller says, “Fix your content problems”
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wix-vs-wordpress-john-mueller/396385/

Google can process javascript redirects but other search engines might not be able
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-javascript-redirects-search-engines-30950.html
(302 redirects – useful until removed but still should indicate temporary. You know what? Use a 301 when you can)

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