SEO Wash-up Monday 1st July

SEO Wash-up Monday 1st July

Google Updates

Google search console API does not return sitemaps indexed counts – As Google is removing the old Google Search Console APIs, Google won’t be supporting showing the indexed count within the sitemaps commands. A spokesman from Google mentions that as they removed that functionality from the UI some time ago, they’re no longer returning sitemaps indexed counts in the API either.

Google search console discover & search overview expands – Google has updated the search console performance overview report, it now shows 90 days of data for the search results and discover bars. This is because previously they showed 28 days of data but now it shows 90 days of data for this overview dashboard.

They also mention on social media that if you have discover data available on your search console account, then they are going to make a small tweak to the Performance report, as they will be changing the default time range of the discover and search bars to 90 full days.

Links & Title Tags – You may think just because it is 2019 that links and titles may not matter. Well you are mistaken, as it turns out that links and title tags still matter to doing well in Google’s search results. A spokesman from Google mentions that the links matter for page rank that builds trust. Furthermore, they also mention that the HTML title tags also matter for SEO.

Local pack finder tests ‘choose area’ feature – The search giant is testing an option that lets searchers select which area they want the local pack finder results to zone into. You may have noticed that Google may have asked you to “choose area” at the top right, which brings up a numerous cities/towns in the area that you can choose from and select.

New search menu bar with icons – The search giant has now rolled out the new icon based top menu search bar on desktop search. Rather than showing text for the search categories or verticals such as maps, images, shopping and, it now shows little icons that accompany those text links.

Hotel search box tested without local identifier – There has been chatter on social media that the Google has been showing the hotel finder box but without putting in the location of the searcher. So if you have searched for a hotel, Google will ask you to enter in the location of the hotel you are looking to book and not pre-fill in your current location.

Google posts tests ‘related to your search’ – You may have noticed that on Google, it is showing a new section that displays Google Posts in a Google local panel. The new section is called ‘related to your search’ and with this section it shows Google posts that are more relevant to your search query.

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