New York Times: The Slander Industry. “To get slander removed, many people hire a ‘reputation management’ company. In my case, it was going to cost roughly $20,000. We soon discovered a secret, hidden behind a smokescreen of fake companies and false identities. The people facilitating slander and the self-proclaimed good guys who help remove it are often one and the same.”
Search Engine Journal: Learn SEO: The 38 Best Blogs, Resources & Publications. “Today, SEO is more important than ever – and it’s also more complicated than ever. Some of these blogs are for beginners. Many aren’t, but don’t let that scare you away. That just means more opportunities to learn something nifty, right?”
Search Engine Journal: 4 COVID-19 Search Trends & How They Impact SEO. “One unexpected offshoot of COVID-19 has been that more businesses have realized the benefits SEO can provide. Google Search interest in SEO spiked at the onset of the pandemic to its highest level ever and has remained strong as companies try to stay relevant, visible, and viable. Here’s a look at 4 other ways SEO has been impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic.”
Wall Street Journal: Hospitals Hide Pricing Data From Search Results . “Hospitals that have published their previously confidential prices to comply with a new federal rule have also blocked that information from web searches with special coding embedded on their websites, according to a Wall Street Journal examination. The information must be disclosed under a federal rule aimed at making the $1 trillion sector more consumer friendly. But hundreds of hospitals embedded code in their websites that prevented Alphabet Inc.’s Google and other search engines from displaying pages with the price lists, according to the Journal examination of more than 3,100 sites.”
Search Engine Journal: 8 Useful Python Libraries for SEO & How To Use Them. “There are over 100,000 libraries available to use in Python, which can be used for functions from data analysis to creating video games. In this article, you’ll find several different libraries I have used for completing SEO projects and tasks. All of them are beginner-friendly and you’ll find plenty of documentation and resources to help you get started.”
Search Engine Journal: 44 Free Tools to Help You Find What People Search For. “It’s important to know what people are searching for and why. Check out these tools to help target keywords easily and understand users better.” As with all Search Engine Journal articles, it’s extensive, well screenshot, and filled with links.
Search Engine Journal: Google Structured Data Testing Tool Lives On At New Domain. “The loss of the Structured Data Testing Tool didn’t sit well with SEOs and site owners, and their disapproval was heard loud and clear. Google cites user feedback as the motivating factor behind today’s announcement. Here’s what’s happening with the Structured Data Testing Tool and where it can be found going forward.”
University of Pennsylvania: Google News Prioritizes National Media over Local. “A new study from the Annenberg School found that Google News prioritizes national media outlets over local media outlets in search results, even when users are searching for local topics. This means that you’re less likely to see local news results in your search, and the local news results you do receive will be lower on the list, appearing after national news results.”
9to5 Google: New ‘Google Search Central’ site consolidates SEO resources, replaces ‘Google Webmasters’. “Google is modernizing and revamping its resources for Search Engine Optimizers, web developers, and site owners. ‘Google Search Central’ is replacing ‘Webmasters Central,’ while there’s a new website and blog. According to the company, the term ‘webmaster’ has become ‘archaic, and according to the data found in books, its use is in sharp decline.’” Good; I always disliked that term. I tried to use Web wrangler.
Bing Blogs: Site explorer: SEO-explore your site. “Site Explorer provides a unique SEO view of how Microsoft Bing sees your site. It reflects most URLs we have seen on the web, including redirects, broken links, or those blocked by robots.txt, organized in a file explorer-like fashion. Thus, giving you the flexibility to navigate each folder and the URLs contained inside them to understand, debug and modify your site structure as required.”
San Diego Union-Tribune: Column: Student probes alleged Google search bias. “When Agastya Sridharan read in The Wall Street Journal last fall about some politicians’ complaints of suspected bias in Google online search results, he was upset and intrigued. Was it possible to re-order search results and, thus, influence voter preferences? Agastya, then a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Thurgood Marshall Middle School in Scripps Ranch, decided to conduct his own research as his entry in the 2020 Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair.”
Search Engine Journal: New Bing URL Inspection Tool. “Bing’s new tool provides direct answers and data that not only helps diagnose indexing problems but provides data for solving the issues as well. What’s notable about the tool is that it’s designed to solve SEO related issues. Similar to the indexing solutions, Bing will also give suggestions on how to improve SEO related issues.”
EurekAlert: New tool improves fairness of online search rankings. “When you search for something on the internet, do you scroll through page after page of suggestions – or pick from the first few choices? Because most people choose from the tops of these lists, they rarely see the vast majority of the options, creating a potential for bias in everything from hiring to media exposure to e-commerce. In a new paper, Cornell University researchers introduce a tool they’ve developed to improve the fairness of online rankings without sacrificing their usefulness or relevance.”
Queens Daily Eagle: The MTA has a porn problem: Metro-North station websites feature X-rated search titles . “The website titles for at least 16 Metro-North stations contain an X-rated message in the Google search results — quite a surprise for anyone looking up Hudson Line train times…. The same dirty description — Flirtatious An*l D*ldo For C*ck Hungry Blonde Sl*t — accompanies 13 stations along the Hudson Line, including Metro-North platforms in Riverdale, Greystone, Hastings-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, Tarrytown, Scarborough, Ossining, Croton Harmon, Cortlandt, Garrison, Cold Spring and Breakneck Ridge. That’s one way to get page views. But the MTA says the issue is actually Google’s fault.” Asterisks NOT mine for once, but I’m certainly fine with leaving them there.
