SearchCap: Google’s new flexible sampling, paywall schema & HTTPS migrations

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Google: First Click Free is over, being replaced by Flexible Sampling
  Oct 2, 2017 by Greg Sterling

  Google is rolling out a suite of tools to help news publishers drive more subscription revenue.

• Google adds structured data for subscription & paywalled content for new flexible sampling program
  Oct 2, 2017 by Barry Schwartz

  Excited for the new flexible sampling program for Google web search and Google News? Well, make sure you don’t get in trouble for cloaking by using this new structured data.

• Moving to HTTPS? Don’t miss this unique opportunity!
  Oct 2, 2017 by Fili Wiese

  Google recently announced that forms on web pages over HTTP will be marked as ‘not secure’ in Chrome starting this month. Columnist Fili Wiese believes this presents a good opportunity to make the switch to HTTPS — and that webmasters can take advantage of this switch to implement other SEO improvements.

• SEO ranking factors: What’s important, what’s not
  Sep 29, 2017 by Chris Sherman

  This week, Google celebrated its 19th birthday. A lot has changed in nearly two decades. Rather than relying primarily on PageRank to evaluate the quality of web pages, Google now uses a whole array of techniques to suggest a wide range of content in response to queries, from simple direct answers to multimedia audio and […]

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Targeting featured snippet and ‘People also ask’ SERP features
• USA Today Network’s VR ad studio head: We’ve shown there’s an audience for VR ads
• Gateway to success: How to prep your marketing campaign before the holiday season
• Should marketing emails use a ‘no-reply’ email address?
• Here’s why GDPR can drive the attitude shift that modern marketing needs

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• Facebook is sharing data with Google as it reviews potential Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Recode

Local & Maps

• Google Maps Mixups That Prove You Can’t Trust Technology, JetSet

Link Building

• Link reclamation: how to find mentions you can turn into links, Builtvisible

Searching

• Google Algorithm Fail Shows Readers Must Fact-Check News, As With Las Vegas Massacre 10/02/2017, MediaPost

SEO

• Ask Yoast: www or no www?, Yoast
• First Click Free is Dead, but is its Replacement Really any Better for Publishers?, Distilled
• Google Says No Changes On Use Of Image Meta Data, Search Engine Roundtable
• How Long Before My Site Ranks in Google?, SearchRank
• How to Hack Your Way to the Top of Competitive SERPs, Search Engine Journal
• Log File Analysis for SEO: Here’s Why It’s Essential, Stone Temple
• Serving Different Title Tags To GoogleBot & GoogleBot Mobile, Search Engine Roundtable
• Staying Up To Date with Google‘s Algorithm Updates #semrushchat, SEM Rush

SEM / Paid Search

• 2017 Holiday Win List, Merkle
• Make Your AdWords Call-Only Ads Stand Out, Search Engine People

Search Marketing

• How to Make Existing Web Pages Searcher-Intent Focused, Pole Position Marketing