The Week In Search & SEO: July 6, 2018

The Week In Search & SEO: July 6, 2018

While Google’s speed update may have not totally dropped yet, evil unicorns may be chasing Google with webmasters hoping to discover them and turn them into a gold mine. You may want to be careful about what you write in emails because Google may be letting other people read them. URLs may be clickable in some featured snippets making them even more valuable in driving traffic to your website. All this and more in this week’s – The Week in Search.

Top Global Search News

Rumors Of A Google Search Algorithm Update Coming Soon

While webmasters brace for the upcoming Google Speed update, there are rumors that a major Google update may be in the works. Of course, Google tends to release updates on a regular basis, but some feel major changes are about to occur.

Google Tests Making URL In Search Results Snippets Clickable

Google Tests Making URL In Search Results Snippets Clickable

While Google snippets typically only have clickable titles, some users are starting to spot Google allowing for the clicking of the green URL under the title.

Google Speed Update Clarification: Making A Fast Site Faster Won’t Help Your Rankings

Google Speed Update Clarification: Making A Fast Site Faster Won't Help Your Rankings

While it seems contradictory to most people, Google’s John Mueller says that making a reasonably fast site faster will not help its search engine rankings but having a slow site can move rankings down. He also confirmed that Google has not rolled out its speed update yet.

Top Local Search News

There was no top news stories in this section this week.  If you think we missed anything please feel free to add them in the comments below.

Top PPC News

There was no top news stories in this section this week.  If you think we missed anything please feel free to add them in the comments below.

Top Social Media News

Facebook Once Again Allows Ads for Cryptocurrency

Facebook announced that they were lifting part of the ban on cryptocurrency. They will, however, be monitoring companies very carefully so not everyone to be able to buy advertising. While Google and Bing followed Facebook’s initial lead, there is no word if they will reverse their decisions.

Wired On Keyword Or Data Voids In Google Search, The Evil Unicorn

Danny Sullivan and Matt Cutts recently commented on Evil Unicorns. These are search queries where very little great content is found on Google to address the query. While most search marketers see these queries as a chance to get their content to rank high quickly, Sullivan says these queries can be particularly difficult for Google to rank properly. We are sure that Matt Cutts is glad he no longer has Evil Unicorns chasing him.

Google Stops Crawling AJAX Crawling Scheme “For The Most Part”

It is still not completely clear if Google has stopped using the AJAX crawling scheme The scheme that began it’s very slow death in 2015 was supposed to be dead by the end of June 2018, but it is not entirely clear if that deadline was met.

Internet Marketing-Related Tech

Google Reportedly Allows Outside App Developers to Read People’s Gmails

According to a story originally published in the Wall Street Journal, Google is allowing individual app developers to read people’s emails. While some are being read by machines, others are being read by humans. While Google insists that they are vetting developers who want to read emails, there is little evidence that they are carrying through with any attempt to make sure that developers are honoring their agreements.

Best Opinion Pieces

Link Gratitude: Give Some Thanks After Someone Links to You

When someone links to your material, send them a thank you email offering to do a free SEO report, fix a broken link or a 404 error code. In return, your relationship will become stronger and the link that they shared will rise in value as their site becomes stronger making it a win-win relationship.

Is YouTube Serving up More Pre-roll & Mid-roll Video Ads?

YouTube will neither confirm or deny that they are putting more ads into YouTube videos, but many users feel that the company is using more pre and mid-roll ads. It may be an attempt to discover where the delicate balance lies between too many ads turning off viewers and the company’s revenue.

Predicting the Value of a Search Engine Ranking Signal

Predicting the value of a search engine ranking signal

Google’s Patent 20180157758 suggests that they may be using machine learning to rank pages before they have full data on their various ranking signal metrics or where they may need to predict them. Machine learning may teach the algorithm to find, identify and assign values to pages and other resources based on what they will be – not what they are.