Lots of tech and plenty of global search topics this week. A start of month update kicking things around, short wisdoms regarding ranking and indexing from Google, Google maps functionality, and security threats.
Focus on More Than Just RankBrain
Google ranking is a complex system, and catering your SEO to RankBrain is putting effort in to the wrong place. There are better ranking factors and SEOs should focus on more than RankBrain.
Using Multiple Google Accounts for Multiple Sites Gives no Benefit
There’s no advantage in using one account or multiple accounts, so use the organization method you like more.
Page Count is Irrelevant for Search Rankings
The quantity of pages on your site does not directly influence rankings. What matters is content quality, relevance, etc on the pages no matter how many there are.
Use the Same Title Tags for Desktop and Mobile
Google only uses what Googlebot sees, and it will only keep track of one title at a time. Mobile-first indexing means that the grabbed title will be the mobile one. Multiple titles will likely just make things confusing.
Start of Month Search Update Continues with Strong Volatility
Lots of people are feeling some very weird things happening with their rankings, and automated tracking tools confirm this.
Copying Legal Disclaimers and Privacy Policies is No Problem
Copying your legal disclaimers and privacy policies to your other websites causes no issues for rankings.
Set Up Your Business on Google Before It Opens
An easy and quick walkthrough on setting your business up on Google before it even opens.
Google Maps “Follow” Button Now Available
You can now follow local businesses on Google Maps to get updates on events and deals.
Set Your Business’s Service Area on Google Maps
You can now specify the areas that your business services in Google Maps.
Google Discover is Appearing Much More Often
Google discover is showing up in local queries significantly more often now, more than double previous appearances.
Chrome Update 71 will be Targeting Abusive Ads
Ads that force downloads, mislead users, or have any other sort of maliciousness are going to be targeted by a new Google Chrome update. Chrome will automatically block all Ads on sites that have abusive ads.
Google Outlining How to Use Lazy Loading
Lazy loading offers many benefits to page speed and load, but it’s a little complicated so Google wants to make sure you know how to work with lazy loading on your site so that it can still be crawled and indexed properly.
57% of WordPress Sites Will be Less Secure Starting December
Many WordPress sites still use outdated versions of PHP and these versions are very soon going to stop getting security updates. This means that if your site is still running these old versions of PHP, if any vulnerabilities are discovered they will never be fixed leaving your site open to attacks.
Domain Properties are Being Tested in Google Search Console
A domain property is basically a collection of all subdomains, protocols, and subpaths your site has all in one place so that you can easily get a better view of your site as a whole. This feature is only being rolled out to certain people and is still in beta.