Plus a new Google My Business report on how people find your business Mar 05, 2021 Good morning, Search Marketer, do your Google rankings feel rocky? It is me again, Barry, the one obsessed with Google algorithms. Over the past month or so I feel like Iâve written in the âSearch Shortsâ section below about several unconfirmed Google algorithm updates. Google seems to be pretty busy tweaking its search ranking algorithm and not talking much about those tweaks. Of course, the search results rankings are very dynamic these days but tracking these unconfirmed updates, in my opinion, is important. So letâs sum up the past month or two: We had unconfirmed algorithm update recently on [March 2nd and 3rd](), then [February 26th and 27th](), [February 20th and 21st](), [February 17th](), [February 6th through 8th](), and then [January 27th]() or so. Yes, this is more than what I would typically see in such a short time frame, but I guess Google is busy. This does not include [passage ranking going live on February 10th](), that is a confirmed update that [did not]() seem to cause much of a ranking change in Google Search. If your site gets hit by one of these updates, it is often good to know that you are not alone. You might go down a rabbit hole looking for technical issues that just do not exist. It might just be that Google adjusted its ranking algorithm, and you did nothing specifically wrong on your end. Having a place to see others in the same boat can give you a sense of comfort and belonging. That is why I report on these unconfirmed updates. Barry Schwartz,Google algorithm watcher Local New device and platform breakdown report in Google My Business Have you ever wondered how searchers found your Google My Business profile listing? Google is now showing you if people found you not only using which device, (i.e., desktop device versus mobile device) but also if they viewed your profile in Google Search versus Google Maps. This report shows the number of unique visitors to your profile, Google explained, so it may be lower than the number of views you find on Google My Business and in email notifications. This is because a user can be counted a limited number of times if they visit your Business Profile on multiple devices and platforms. Plus, a user can only be counted once a day. Also, because the metric focuses on views of the Business Profile, as opposed to overall views of the Business on Google, it may be lower than the number of views you find on Google My Business and in email notifications. [Read more here.]() [The brand name conundrum: to buy or not to buy (your brand name)?]() Is there any point in buying your own brand in Google Ads? Or should you leave that to SEO? Learn more in a step-by-step guide for your bidding strategy. [Read More »]() Analytics Google Ads mobile app adds custom and performance insights notifications Google Adsâ mobile app can now send you custom notifications and alert you of significant performance changes. The customizable notifications (shown above) can be used to monitor the metrics that are most important to your business. The performance insights notifications come with explanations of why performance may have changed as well as recommendations, which can be applied directly from the performance insight screen. These are nifty tools to have, especially for SMBs where one person, or a small team, may be responsible for multiple marketing channels. [Read more here.]() Search Microsoft Bing gets a more visually immersive look Microsoft announced several updates to Microsoft Bing Search that make the search experience more âvisually immersive,â the company said. This update goes across many different features including recipe results, image searchâs similar looking items, expandable search result carousels, infographic knowledge panels and the design of the local answers. My favorite is the new infographic-looking knowledge panels, I mean, how fun is that giraffe? But the local answers getting beefed up with more information and the recipe results showing more data â how cool is all of that! [Read and see more.]() Webinar: Crawl Your Way Towards Better Search Results JavaScript can have significant consequences for both user experience and how you rank in search results. And while Google and Bing can process JavaScript, they have limitations to do so at scale. Dynamic rendering helps search engine bots get the fully-rendered version of your pages, so you donât have to worry about them missing your JavaScript-loaded content and links. Join us to learn what dynamic rendering is, how it impacts SEO, and why it is preferred by many search engines. [RSVP Today! »]() PPC Google will add a 2% surcharge for ads served in France and Spain Google has notified billing contacts that, as of May 1, it will tack on a 2% surcharge for ads served in France and Spain. The surcharge is supposed to cover âpart of the costs associated with complying with digital services tax legislation in France and Spain,â the notification says. Weâve seen this move by Google before when it [passed on similar taxes to advertisers in the UK, Austria and Turkey]() last year. There are two interesting things about this: 1) The tax rate in France and Spain is 3%, so advertisers arenât entirely footing the bill themselves; in Austria, Turkey and the UK, Google passed on the entire amount. 2) Google is only notifying billing contacts, not all account users, according to Bloofusionâs Martin Röttgerding, who first brought this to our attention (thanks, Martin!). That means account managers may miss out on this important detail, but clients wonât. For advertisers here in the U.S., that leaves one question yet to be answered: Will Google pass on the Maryland ads tax (or other similar taxes that may get approved) to advertisers here as well? We asked Google, and theyâve yet to respond, but weâll keep you posted as soon as they do. [Read more about Marylandâs digital advertising tax.]() Search shorts WordPress, Yoast and crawl budget. WordPress Robots meta tag control. WordPress 5.7 will include a new Robots API that will [allow for developers to edit the Robots Meta tag as a filter](). Yoast FAQ schema fix. There was a bug between Yoast and Google where [FAQ schema was not being processed properly by Google](). Joost de Valk from Yoast said it was due to a change on Googleâs end, but the [company fixed the issue](). If you see errors in your rich results report in Search Console, this may be why. Google Ads scripts. Matt Poldberg [asked on Twitter](): âDoes anyone have a favorite script for exporting data hourly from a Google Ads account? I have an account where CPA fluctuates wildly due to imported conversions and Iâm trying to figure out the average delay.â Can you help him out? [Create content that drives search marketing success]() Join us online, April 13, for SMX Create â a brand-new learning journey devoted to content marketing, ad copywriting, landing page optimization, and more. Grab your pass now for just $99! [Learn more »]() What We're Reading We've curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader. [Brave acquires search engine to offer the first private alternative to Google Search and Google Chrome on both mobile and desktop]() â Brave [Core Web Vitals: 7 tools & techniques to identify performance bottlenecks]() â Hallam [Google My Business Updates Available Performance Metrics Help Document]() â Search Engine Roundtable [How Airbnb Created An SEO Moat That Seems Invincible]() â Foundation Inc [How To Implement and Validate FAQ Structured Data]() â Koozai [Search Engine Land] [() Information on Advertising/Sponsorship [here](). This email was sent to {EMAIL}.
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