SEO Wash-up Monday 2nd September

Google Updates

Google search tests more pagination options – The search giant is testing numerous ways of paginations on the desktop search results page. The tests include showing the more results button on desktop like it does on mobile. Below are some of the features;

• More results on desktop – Google rolled out the ‘more results’ button on mobile search results but it seems like they have begun testing the ‘more results’ button on desktop.
• Infinite Scroll – Testing infinite scroll results that have divider bars.
• Bigger Fonts – Testing bigger fonts.
• Snippet Placement – Testing the URL above the title, snippet and with a favicon on desktop.

Google my business adds bulk reviews – You can now manage reviews in bulk for multiple listings. The search giant mentions that businesses can view reviews for multiple listings at once, and with bulk reviews you will be able to view, reply to, and flag reviews for multiple listings from one place.

Google Ads overview page filters & maximize conversion value – It seems that Google Ads has added two features which are a new bidding strategy named maximize conversion value and new filter options on the overview page.

• Filters on overview page – This help users to do things faster because it will allow users to filter the reports right on the overview page now. You can now you can filter the Overview page by device, Ad group, Campaign and more.
• Maximize Conversion Value – Google rolled out the maximize conversion value that is an automated bidding strategy, which will help you maximize the total conversion value of your campaign within your specified budget

Google tests featured snippets anchors & highlights on desktop – The search giant has been testing featured snippets anchors and highlights on desktop. This feature has been on mobile, so if a featured snippet leads to an AMP page, they will then take the user after they click on the snippet to your AMP page, anchor them down to the section of the content the searcher wants to see and highlight that content in yellow.

Bing Updates

Bing webmaster tools supports domain connect – Bing has said that they are now supporting domain connect, which is a third-party service that helps make the process of site verification within Bing Webmaster Tools faster and easier. So instead of XML file authentication, or meta tag authentication or CNAME authentication, this offers an easier way to do it.

However, the domain connect currently works with these DNS providers GoDaddy, 1&1 IONOS, Media Temple and Plesk. So when you add a site in Bing Webmaster Tools and you are using one of those four DNS providers, Bing will give you the option to login to that DNS provider to validate the site ownership that way.