Each week the Croud SEO team collate the latest news from relevant sources around the web so you don’t have to. Read through the top SEO news stories for this week below and follow us on Twitter or sign up to our newsletter.
Minor cleaning up in the Search Console API
26/08/2019
Google has announced that it is dropping a number of features from its Search Console API relating to apps, in particular, app search appearance types for Android. It’s likely that a new Search Console API will come in the future however.
Google’s inconsistency with third-party reviews is a confusing user experience
26/08/2019
SEL reports on the inconsistency in review ratings between Google reviews and reviews elsewhere on the web. With the lack of enforcement of Google’s own review policies, this is making for a confusing user experience. This is worth being aware of as it may impact CTR and brand trust of a brand if the knowledge panel is showing confusing review ratings.
Google testing highlighting content on-site based on the search result clicked
26/08/2019
Google has confirmed it is testing a feature that takes the searcher from the SERP to a third-party site and then anchors them to the exact location displayed in the featured snippet. This was used before for AMP results on mobile but no longer requires AMP. This could mean CTAs are missed as the user is jumped forward into the featured content.
Review fraud: Hijacked Amazon reviews are a big problem says Consumer Reports
27/08/2019
The extent of fake reviews on Amazon is largely unknown to most consumers and is getting worse according to Consumer Reports. The report highlights a new tactic called “review hijacking” – essentially sellers being able to associate positive reviews from another unrelated product to deceive potential buyers. As Amazon is now the product search engine of choice, this is considered blackhat SEO and those in the industry should be aware of it.
How to optimize your video marketing strategy on YouTube
27/08/2019
SEW looks at how to optimise video for YouTube to maximise their performance. The guide runs through optimising the title, description, tags, video file name and the image thumbnail of the video.
Mobile is the new living room
23/07/2019
New research from Whistle suggests that Generation Z is turning to mobile phones for all-day entertainment. This is twice as likely as millennials who are more likely to think there is a compromise in quality.
FAQ, HowTo, and Q&A: Using New Schema Types to Create Interactive Rich Results
21/08/2019
Moz released an article detailing how to use structured data types to create interactive rich results within the SERPs. This looks at FAQ schema for pages that list question and answers, HowTo schema for instructional content and Q&A schema for pages that allow users to post answers to a question.
Google: Web site traffic is not a ranking factor
26/08/2019
Google has stated that web site traffic is not a ranking factor – a common SEO myth.
Moving to a new domain to escape a Google penalty might not work says Google
26/08/2019
Google’s John Mueller has stated that if a site has been penalised, switching the site to a different domain and not redirecting may not be enough to avoid manual penalties; Google will find you…
