Just when you were ready to roll into an easy summer mood, several bugs have raised their ugly heads this week including ones from Yoast and Google Analytics. Make a note to yourself that you need to prepare for Amazon Prime Day after reading our roundup of the week in search and SEO ending June 8, 2018.
Yoast SEO Plugin 7.0 Bug Causes Ranking Drops
Some users have been suffering since Yoast updated their plugin on March 8, 2018. Yoast’s founder Joost De Valk says that he feels particularly bad about this Panda-like problem because he created the code himself. Read this helpful guide to see if your site was affected.
Google Posts Testing Different Design and Functional Treatments in the Search Results
Google seems to once again be experimenting with Google Posts in Google Local Knowledge Panels. At least three layouts were noticed this week.
Google Search Shows “Get Latest” Results Refresh Button
While some users indicated earlier in the week that they thought Google had updated their search page when they asked viewers who had paused during a search to update their results, this is actually an older feature first offered by the company for those with a slow connection that seems to be rolling out universally.
Should You Noindex Category & Archive Pages?
A webmaster asks if they should noindex category and archive pages In Search Engine Journal’s Ask An Editor feature. The answer is that since Google seems to only crawl pages that they find useful, if you are using WordPress, Drupal or another popular program, it is probably not going to matter. Follow this article for a more in-depth answer on when and how you should instruct Google to not crawl a page.
Google: Algorithm Updates Impact Sites Quickly, Technical Changes Take A While To Impact A Site
In a statement that may seem obvious to most, Google’s John Mueller says that sites that see a sudden uptick or downtick in ratings can probably blame a Google algorithm change. Alternatively, those who see a gradual change may want to take a look at what they have been doing on the site.
Google Analytics Bug Has Reportedly Wiped Out “Users” Data From Some Accounts
While Google has yet to make any comment, some users are reporting that they are not able to compare Users data on their Google Analytics accounts starting from GDPR day. The data seems to be available when looked at separately. Others are reporting that their accounts have not been affected.
Google: Pages Blocked By Robots.txt Will Get Indexed If They’re Linked To
During a recent Webmaster Central, Google’s John Mueller says that pages that are blocked by robots.txt may still get crawled if they have links pointing to them. The best practice is to use the noindex meta tag on these pages.
Google Posts Adds Products And Offers
Google continues to grow their Google Posts options. Users can now choose from “what’s new” post, “event” posts, “offer” posts and “product” posts.
Google: Changing Word Order In Title Tags Shouldn’t Impact SEO
While Google’s John Mueller does not believe that the order of keywords in title tags will impact search results engine page rankings, he does suggest that you try alternative wording in social media or Google AdWords first.
Google Posts For Products Has Its Own Tab
After announcing earlier in the week that Google Posts now allows the posting of products. It was discovered that these Posts actually have their own tab.
Google: Sometimes We Pick Up Wrong Dates & Display Them Wrong In The Snippets
According to Google’s John Mueller, Google displaying the wrong date in search results snippets is usually just a mistake and not an SEO trick. Mueller says that Google continues to try to find a solution so that this does not happen as often.
Google Launches AdWords Add-on For Google Sheets
Google is now allowing AdWords users to download their data directly to Google Sheets. These sheets can be shared with other users.
Bing Merchant Center Launches Google Merchant Center Import Tool
Webmasters already using Google Merchant Center can now import their product feeds directly into Bing Merchant Center. These imports can be scheduled on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Instagram May Let Users Post Hour-Long Videos
Instagram may start allowing users to post vertical videos that are up to one hour in length as long as the videos are taller than they are wide. Users can already post one-hour videos in stories.
LinkedIn Teams Up With Bing Maps to Show Commute Times On Job Postings
LinkedIn is teaming up with Bing Maps to allow users to see their personal commute time when they are looking at a job posting. Users can currently see their salary range, required skills and information about the team without leaving the app.
Instagram Lets Users Reshare Stories They’ve Been Mentioned In
Instagram users can now share other user’s stories to their own story when they are mentioned in it. This change, however, still affects only public accounts.
What do Google And A Toddler Have In Common? Both Need To Learn Good Listening Skills
My latest piece over at Search Engine Land outlining the details in a Google paper announced at the Sixth International Conference on Learning Representations. Essentially – Google is about to get very VERY good at understanding nuanced and complex language.
What Search Marketers Should Know About Amazon Prime Day
While Amazon has still not released the exact date, e-commerce retailers may want to get ready for Amazon Prime Day likely coming up in in mid-July. Last year, many retailers reported that conversions were up, order value was flat or down and Search Partner Network traffic grew considerably.
Google Search At I/O Conference
Using the Webmaster Central Blog as a platform, Google listed some of the favorite sessions from Google I/O including the introduction of the Structured Data Codelab and the launch of the JavaScript error reporting tool. See other highlights in this wrapup.