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Search Engine Land is your source for platform specific news and content. You’ll find a variety of up-to-date and authoritative resources, including the latest news, tactic-rich tutorials, and the latest data to help you work smarter and make better decisions.
What you read here is written by our experienced in-house team, and subject matter experts from leading brands and agencies.
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Why entity search is necessary for SEO success
Keywords are foundational, but entities may be the future. At SMX Next, a panel of SEO experts shows how marketers can optimize their content for entity search.
Evolving Core Web Vitals tactics using Cloudflare and WebpageTest
In this article, we demonstrate an evolution from an original concept for a testbed to a project suitable for our future events and articles.
Neeva seeks to expand user base with free subscriptions
Search marketers will have to pay attention if Neeva can grow its market share. But without search ads, options may be limited for PPC practitioners.
Google Ads issue impacted some Discover and Performance Max campaigns between Jan. 18-21
The issue, which affected the serving of ads on YouTube, has been resolved.
How AI can automate SEO tasks at scale
AI and its offshoots are expanding capabilities for marketers to help them scale tasks. At SMX Next, Eric Enge shows how marketers can improve their SEO campaigns with automation.
Google Ads launches placement reports for Performance Max campaigns
Placement reports show where Performance Max ads have served, which may help with brand safety efforts, as well as how many impressions they’ve received.
Semrush acquires SEO training website Backlinko
This could make Semrush a more robust source of SEO knowledge and may help it pull away from other toolset providers.
How analyzing search data can improve your decision-making
Search data provides a wealth of insights for marketers. At SMX Next, Matt Colebourne shows how to use this information to make better business decisions.
Marketers, Google agree that proposed ‘surveillance advertising’ ban goes too far
Legislation like this could be a game-changer for every digital marketer who advertises on Google, Facebook and other advertising platforms.
Google Ads’ updated Experiments page sheds campaign drafts and adds experiment sync
Changes from the experiment to the base campaign can also be applied with a single click.
Google heightens adult ad policy enforcement after Reuters finds illicit ads
“Spotty” enforcement can result in inappropriate ads being shown to minors and an unfair advantage for advertisers that slip through the cracks.
Yoast SEO launches on Shopify
Like the WordPress version of the app, Shopify merchants can use it to optimize their products and posts to show in organic, non-shopping results.
Google Search Console launches desktop page experience report
We now have a tool from Google to see how well our desktop URLs do with page experience.
Google Ads bug again for Gmail on desktop Safari browsers
Google has confirmed a bug impacting how ads are served on Gmail desktop with Safari browsers.
What happened when we turned off AMP
We went into this experiment knowing there was some risk, but haven't seen anything to make us reconsider the move.
Shopify chat bug leads to titles with (1) in Google’s search results
The issue is resolved but it might take time for your titles to be reprocessed.
DuckDuckGo passes 100 billion searches
DuckDuckGo, the privacy focused search engine, keeps growing steadily.
IndexNow now officially co-sharing URLs between Microsoft Bing and Yandex
Plus, you can now use api.indexnow.org's endpoint to submit URLs.
Google Business Profiles sets waiting period for new owners and managers
Newly granted users now must wait 7 days before they can manage all the features of the profile.
Yoast SEO 17.9 adds keyphrase performance tracking
Yoast SEO partnered with SEO tool provider Wincher for these capabilities.
E-commerce sales jumped this holiday season as search marketers weathered Google updates
Despite supply chain challenges, U.S. consumers spent more than $204 billion online this holiday season.
Why does Google tip us off to search updates with minor ranking impacts but surprise us with the major ones?
It is the updates Google does not give us huge lead time to prepare for that impact the rankings the most, like the core updates, the Penguin and Panda updates from the past and most of the updates that go unconfirmed or unannounced.
Big data gives way to more flexibility
More data is only half the battle as marketers recognize the importance of usability at scale.
Google’s page experience update coming to desktop next month
This won't be a big update, but do expect new Search Console reports soon as well.
Why server logs matter for SEO
Server log analysis can provide unparalleled insights into crawl prioritization, enabling SEO teams to finetune their crawl budget management for better rankings.
Microsoft Advertising Shopping campaigns reporting enhancements
Plus Microsoft Audience Network, Similar audiences and in-market audiences have been expanded.
Google Ads releases disapproved ads auditor tool
This tool is for developers to integrate into their backends and helps you flag and delete policy violating ads across your accounts.
3 ways to check technical SEO health issues on your website
Technical SEO is vital to keep your website healthy. At SMX Next, Ashley Berman Hale shows how marketers can review their site's crawl stats, rendering and indexing.
Google Ads to allow ads for sport betting in New York
Mobile or online sports bets can be placed in New York beginning Saturday morning and with that Google Ads is adapting.
Google AdSense related search experiments re-enabled
8-months later, Google AdSense related search custom search style experiments is working again.
Apple Maps: What a maps web snapshot can do for your online content
Apple lets you create a static map image from a URL with chosen parameters and characteristics.
Google Ads error tells advertisers exact match keywords are saving as broad match
The issue has no impact on how keywords are saved and Google is working on a fix.
Google launches ‘Shops’ section in mobile search results
The Shops section shows three to ten retailers based on their organic search rankings.
How to automate your ad copy without sacrificing control
Expanded text ads are going away, but they can still help you unlock the potential of RSAs. At SMX Next, Joe Martinez shared how he benchmarks with ETAs to get more out of the automated capabilities of RSAs.
Microsoft releases IndexNow plugin for WordPress
Microsoft Bing has released a plugin for WordPress to let you easily integrate the IndexNow protocol on your WordPress site.
Google fixes user and permissions issue with Search Console
Full user permissions no longer shows as delegated owners for some - this is now resolved.
How marketers can prepare for and respond to Google’s algorithm updates
Google updates its algorithms all the time, which leaves many marketers playing catch-up. At SMX Next, Crystal Carter shared how to be proactive when facing these changes.
Meta will remove targeting options for sensitive topics on January 19
Campaigns can continue to deliver to impacted targeting options until March 17, 2022.
Google Search Console products rich result report error handling updated
On December 28, 2021 Google made a change to how it evaluates and reports errors in product structured data, so you may see a change in errors in that report going forward.
Google Merchant Center allows retailers to save product filters
Save-able product filters can enable marketers to more quickly zoom into the product category they want to analyze.