Interpretation of complex and foreign topics; Wednesday’s daily brief

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.

Good morning, Marketers, yesterday my colleague, George Nguyen spoke about how Google’s sterling perception has been tarnished over the years. The question is, is that perception reality?

I’ve been covering search and Google for almost two decades, and I’ve seen the company grow over the years. I’ve been through the pre-IPO days, the numerous antitrust claims, seeing executives come and go over the years and search quality and ad quality evolve. Search, both organic and paid search, is complex and confusing and honestly, is not well understood by even people who work inside Google.

I’ve performed some legal expert witness tasks over the years, and one thing I find clear is that most attorneys, even top attorneys general, representatives from Congress and the Senate simply do not fully understand the complexities of search or any technology platform. I’ve seen lawyers first-hand misinterpret internal documents and emails both written by advertisers and Google, because they are easy to misinterpret.

All I am saying is that just like we question Google’s motives and actions (and we should), we should also question those that question them. Ultimately, we all want the truth, but like former Search Engine Land writer Greg Sterling has told me for almost 20 years, the truth is somewhere in between.

Barry Schwartz,
Inquisitor

Google Ads app campaigns no longer require deep linking

App advertisers are no longer required to implement deep linking to run App campaigns for engagement, Google Ads announced Monday. As a new option, advertisers can select “Set to app homepage” during ad group creation to direct users to the app homepage. 

Why we care. Implementing deep links typically means getting developer support, which may be a limited resource in your organization. This new option enables app advertisers to utilize App campaigns for engagement without having to request that support, which may mean that your campaign can get off the ground faster. Deep linking, however, remains useful as it enables this ad type to take users to a specific part of your app, which may translate to better conversion rates than simply sending them to the app homepage.

Read more here.

FAQ on Google’s podcast knowledge panel update

Contributor Jason Barnard, published a frequently asked question article on the new Google podcasts knowledge panels. Google began showing a specific podcast knowledge panel on October 12, 2021. 

It displays the podcast name, image, and description on the right sidebar. As of October 25, there is no link within the knowledge panel to listen to the podcast. Jason answered a number of questions that us, the SEO community, are asking about these new knowledge panels.

Why we care. If you host a podcast or have a client that does, you will want to check out this article on the new Google podcast knowledge panels and how to get one if you don’t have one yet.

Read more here.

Now it’s working – Google Search Console Search Analytics API gains Discover, News and Regex

I know we reported this yesterday, but it wasn’t live and fully working. Now, these new API features in the Google Search Console Search Analytics API are really live and available. We are gaining data and features that were previously only supported in the web interface, now the API now supports showing data for Google Discover, Google News and also supports Regex commands.

Why we care. Many of you use APIs to help automate and streamline your day-to-day SEO practices and reporting. Having access to these additional data points and adding in Regex controls should make these reporting tasks easier and more automated. This should save you time for other SEO-related tasks, tasks you might have a harder time automating. So if you tried it yesterday and it didn’t work, it now works.

Read more here.

Google E-A-T, Google Ads tools, publisher summit and go bowling

Google E-A-T roundup. Did you know Google does not hard code or strictly define which category of sites fall within the YMYL (your money – your life) category? Also, trust is more than just links, Google added. When it comes to author names, it is probably best not to just “admin” as the name.

Google Ads optimization tools. Google said it has introduced new tools for the upcoming holiday season to help you optimize your ads. This includes new recommendations and shopping campaign tools.

Google Ads bowling. Google has a new Python script that helps you stay on top of violations and the new three-strikes and you’re out rule, it is called bowling – check it out.

Google Black & Latinx Publishers Summit. The 2021 Google Black & Latinx Publishers Summit begins December 7, 2021. This virtual event is open to Black or Latinx-led digital businesses looking to start monetizing their site, grow their monetization business, or network with others in the industry. You can apply here.

We’ve curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader.

• Google Does Not Classify Sites By Technology Platform Or Infrastructure – Search Engine Roundtable
• Machine-Learned Disambiguation of Searcher Action Data – Go Fish Digital
• The Impact of the Great Resignation on the SEO Industry, and the Key to Retention – Adam Audette
• What Kind of Content Appears in Google Discover – Semrush
• How Many Leads Does Google My Business (GMB) Drive? – Sterling Sky