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.
New reporting for Products Results in Search Console
20/11/2019
Google has announced it is adding a new performance report filter within Search Console to allow webmasters to see how well product results are doing. This will enable users to view how much traffic is coming through results with rich data and how it changes over time.
Preview your recipe results on Google Home Hub devices
20/11/2019
Google has updated the rich results testing tool to preview recipes on smart devices using Google Assistant, such as Google Home Hub. This will enable users to ensure mark ups are being correctly displayed to maximise search performance.
Data anomalies in Search Console
20/11/2019
Google has said that due to a bug, it has lost image click data from the Search Console Image search performance reports between the 14th and 19th November 2019. Bear this in mind for any reporting that covers this period – real traffic was not affected, it was just a reporting bug.
Hey Google, play me the news
19/11/2019
Google has launched “your News Update” – an audio feed accessed through Google Assistant, which algorithmically selects news to play through audio based on interests, location, user history and preferences, as well as the top stories.
Our 2019 Study on Featured Snippets and the Knowledge Graph
19/11/2019
A study by Perficient Digital has found that rich answers in Google mobile search results has doubled since 2018, with the primary driver behind the increase the higher prevalence of image carousels. The increased use of rich answers leads to decreased clicks to the traditional listings within the SERPs, pushing them further down the page. The changes also demonstrate the increased importance of image SEO.
Bing delivers its largest improvement in search experience using Azure GPUs
18/11/2019
Bing has stated it has been applying BERT natural language transformers since April, improving the quality of search results for its users by making them more relevant to their search query.
2020 SEO trends that will influence your work
19/11/2019
SEL looks at the trends for 2020 in search and how it will affect SEO; this includes zero-click searches becoming more prevalent, optimising for Rich and Featured snippets, local SEO changes taking up more real estate, machine learning likely to impact SERPs without recourse for recovery and brand building is a priority.
Google Maps becomes more ‘social’ with Local Guides follow feature
18/11/2019
Google Maps has become more social with users being able to follow Local Guides – will this evolve into Google’s first successful social platform?
Local SEOs still seeing volatility in ranking with Google’s latest algorithm update
18/11/2019
The Local search update that was introduced in November 2019 appears to still be affecting the SERPs, with a number of new spam listings being surfaced. The update was supposed to improve relevance, which for the most part it achieved, though new spam rankings and new listings appear to have been impacted by the local filter.
