Quest for more coverage: Making a case for larger exports from Google Search Console’s Coverage reporting
Google Search Console's Coverage reporting only allows one thousand row exports, which limits the ability to see pattens on larger-scale sites.
Topic: URL
SEO year in review 2020: COVID forces platforms to adapt their local and e-commerce offerings, and more
Even a pandemic couldn’t slow down developments in the search industry. Here’s our recap of the year’s most important stories and news.
Google Search Console brings back request indexing tool
After 69 days of it not working, it is now back up and running.
99% of Google’s indexing issues fully resolved
There are some edge cases left with the indexing bug but those should be resolved within a couple of weeks.
Bing revamps Site Explorer in new Bing Webmaster Tools
This tool gives SEOs information on how Microsoft Bing does just that and then gives you more data on clicks, impressions, links, errors, warnings, indexing issues and much more.
Status update on the Google indexing bugs
99% of the mobile-indexing URLs are restored and 55% of the canonical URLs are restored.
Google confirms indexing issues with both canonicalization and mobile-indexing
Google said it is fixing the issue and there is no action you need to take.
How to audit sites inside corporate networks
Turn private (VPN required) URLs into temporary ones that allow for page changes but hide the content to preserve its privacy.
Google custom audiences, the combo of custom affinity and custom intent audiences, now live
How custom audiences work for Display, Discovery, Gmail and YouTube campaigns.
How to earn your place in Google’s index in 2020
The four distinct types of indexing problems and how to identify them.
SEO horror stories: Here’s what not to do
These three real-life case studies are anonymized to share textbook examples of how not to approach search engine optimization.
Google Search Console can now help you fix your AMP Signed Exchange (SXG) problems
The AMP enhancement report and the URL inspection tool can now show you issues with your signed exchanges.
How to get a Knowledge Panel for your brand, even without Wikipedia
Your own site, Wikidata, third-party mentions and business databases can expand your Knowledge Graph entries in Google and Bing.
Shopify tradeoffs: What to consider before selecting your next e-commerce platform
Shopify makes it easy to start selling, but there are limits to its SEO and customization capabilities.
Common Shopify SEO pitfalls and how to avoid them
What Shopify store owners and SEOs can do to overcome platform challenges and rank higher.
Does Google respect the URL parameters tool?
E-commerce sites should not make assumptions about Google’s crawling parameter - check the log files to confirm activity.
The right way to apply JavaScript to your links for SEO
Google’s Martin Splitt explains why fragment identifiers don’t get crawled and the importance of href attributes.
Mixed Directives: A reminder that robots.txt files are handled by subdomain and protocol, including www/non-www and http/https [Case Study]
Since robots.txt files impact crawling, it’s important for site owners to understand how they are treated by search engines. Columnist Glenn Gabe covers two cases involving multiple robots.txt files (by subdomain and protocol).
Google not indexing new content again
Google is aware of these reports and is investigating the issue.
To push or fetch site content: How Google and Bing diverge [Video]
Former Googler Pedro Dias explains why he thinks pushing content directly to search engines makes sense in this clip from Live with Search Engine Land.
SMX Overtime: 3 steps to make e-commerce faceted pages crawlable and optimizable
Technical SEO pro Jill Brown offers ways retailers can add content to AJAX-generated category pages.
Bing launches new portal for URL and content submission APIs
Check out this new site from Bing to find everything you need to know about the two APIs.
Google’s ‘Interesting finds’ SERP feature: The ‘interesting’ reason why mobile organic search traffic remained strong while desktop dropped
The “Interesting finds” module in mobile search results is tough to track, but could be driving a lot of search traffic to your site so use these tips to better understand how it's impacting your site.
Unconfirmed Google Search ranking update feels big
The SEO industry is very busy watching the Google search results fluctuate and change rapidly since this weekend.
Conditional IF functions now available in all Microsoft Advertising accounts
Scale expanded text ad messaging by device or audience -- works with Google import, too.
What’s happening with featured snippets?
Questions remain if number one in the SERPs means a featured snippet or a typical organic result. Rank Ranger's Mordy Oberstein breaks down what's been happening recently.
Google has stopped deduplicating right-sidebar featured snippets
Google still plans to remove featured snippets from the right rail on desktop and move the feature into the main listings.
Google’s mobile-first indexing guide update emphasizes the same content across site versions
New guidance has been added in numerous areas, including crawling, structured data, visual content and best practices.
Google working on fixing data in URL parameter tool
The legacy URL parameter tool in Google Search Console is having some issues, Google is aware and working on it.
How to breathe fresh life into evergreen content (and get fresh traffic, too)
John Shehata discusses how to attract more visitors through consolidating and optimizing existing assets.
A deeper look at Google Search Console Speed Reports
We got access to the experimental speed reports in Google Search Console.
Server migrations are “uneventful for Google systems”
Expect Googlebot to readjust your crawl frequency, though.
Catching SEO errors during development using automated tests
Avoid the high cost of catching SEO issues in the production phase by using automated testing techniques during development.
Google can crawl AJAX just fine
No special action necessary for webmasters.
Google selects canonical URLs based on your site and user preference
If a different URL is chosen, it doesn’t negatively affect your site.
Google notifying webmasters to remove noindex from robots.txt files
Google is now sending reminders that you need to stop depending on your noindex in your robots.txt file.
Google to stop supporting noindex directive in robots.txt
Changes are coming to how Google understands some of the unsupported directives in your robots.txt file.
How to spin a bad site migration into higher traffic and conversions
A look at Merkle's Search Engine Land Award-winning campaign to help a new client remedy replatforming problems, regain rankings and revenue.
Google My Business adds more branding tools, introduces searchable @shortnames
The top 5% of local businesses in each category will also be eligible for a new "Local Favorite" badge.
Google Search Console drops preferred domain setting
Make sure to watch your Google search results to see if this impacts the canonical URL Google shows in its search results.