Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.
Good morning, Marketers, and how did you learn SEO or PPC?
I did an informal Twitter poll a bit back and only 2% of respondents learned their craft formally in a classroom (IRL or virtual). The majority — 77% — learned search marketing through hands-on, in the weeds learning. Just 9% had a mentor help them learn.
These numbers got us thinking about how critical it is to have a guide to take you through uncharted territory. So today we’re elated to announce the Search Engine Land inaugural Mentorship Program. SEO mainstay Eric Enge brought the idea to us a few months ago, and we’re thrilled to officially launch it today.
Applications for both mentors and mentees are live now. We’re capping this first cohort at 5 mentorships and applications close at 5pm ET on Friday, July 2. Make sure to read the program and Code of Conduct before applying (to ensure you can commit the time to the program).
Carolyn Lyden
Director of Search Content
Table of Contents
New warning tells Google searchers when results may not be reliable
Google is testing a new search feature that tells the searchers when the results for their query are new and thus possibly unreliable. The notice reads:
It looks like these results are changing quickly. If this topic is new, it can sometimes take time for results to be added by reliable sources.
The warning indicates that the current index is missing what Google would consider reliable content on a search topic, and the results will be better when more information comes along.
Why we care. The in-SERP warning indicates that Google knows when its may not show the best search results.
Google publishes SEO guide to HTTP status codes, network and DNS errors
Ever wonder how your various HTTP status codes or how your network or DNS responds to GoogleBot may impact how well your site performs on Google Search? Well, Google has published a new guide and help document detailing how HTTP status codes and network or DNS errors impact your Google Search performance.
Why we care. Google has not previously documented these HTTP status codes, network issues, and DNS errors in such detail. We have heard bits and pieces from Google on each case but here is an official guide you can use from on how these impact your site’s performance in Google Search. So print it out and give it to your SEO team and your server team.
GMB reporting data might be delayed
If you’re trying to pull your June Google My Business reports this week, you may not have all the numbers. “Google has posted a message at the top of the Google My Business Insights reporting screen that says ‘data may be delayed,’” said Barry on SERoundtable.
If you have local SEO clients, make sure you let them know in advance that their monthly reports might be off (especially if you’re sending reports from an automated tool that gets them directly from GMB).
The glitch doesn’t affect how local listings show up in search results or your profile’s ranking, just the info that you’ll get from it.
On the hunt for something new in 2021? Here are the latest career opportunities in search
SEO Lead @ Stripe (remote)
- Lead in analyzing the effectiveness of your placements, and have the confidence to test and learn until you find something that works – and cut things that don’t
- Generate insights from organic channels to help influence content and advertising strategy
Group Director, Media & Analytics @ Amsive Digital (remote USA)
- Media plan creation
- Strategy & tactic selection
- Target keyword/audience selection
SEO Strategist @ Victorious (remote USA)
- Executing a variety of on-page and off-page SEO strategies for an extensive list of customers across varying industries and market segments
- Monitoring and evaluating web analytics dashboards and reports in order to develop and recommend comprehensive SEO strategies
Senior Paid Search Manager @ Media Assembly (Austin, TX)
- Perform day-to-day campaign activities for enterprise level Paid Search (PPC) campaigns, including: bid management, budget allocation, forecasting, performance monitoring, strategic testing, campaign expansion, etc.
- Act as the main point of contact for the client, internal departments, and third-party providers; Guided by your Director, Paid Search, you will spearhead collaboration, facilitate discussions, planning, and project management
Enter a job opening for an opportunity to be featured in this section.
Changes to Ads ERFs, tips for GMB posts and soon you can post to Insta from desktop
Google Ads announced the deprecation of Entity Read Files (ERFs). Users currently retrieving Display & Video 360 resource information from ERFs should begin migrating to using the Display & Video 360 (DV360) API or Structured Data Files (SDFs).
7 quick tips for Google Posts. Pro tip from local SEO pro Joy Hawkins: Seasonal posts perform the worst in Google My Business posts. While COVID-related update information gets the most views.
Instagram will soon let you post from desktop. Though it’s yet to roll out to everyone, here’s a sneak peek at how the mobile app will (FINALLY!) let users post from other devices. Social media marketers, rejoice.
What We’re Reading: Mozilla’s Rally browser extension collects data for academic research on how people use the web
“Historically, data-hoarding digital companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon have made it difficult for academic researchers to access that data to study how people behave on the internet,” said Max Willens for Digiday.
Mozilla’s new Firefox browser extension Rally hopes to change that. Internet users can “donate their data” for research studies “that are designed to build new resources, tools, and potentially even policies that empower people just like you to build a better internet and fight back against exploitative tech,” according to the Rally website.
With consumer privacy top of mind and both advertisers and consumers worried about the “black box” of Google’s FLoC, many internet users may be willing to use the data that others collect for research purposes. The goal is also to help understand how big players exploit user data for their own gain.
Currently, Rally is used by hundreds of people, but the goal is to expand those numbers to collect even more data. The data collected from the extension varies based on the research you’re participating in, and Mozilla says it will not sell any data. It’s purely for academic research.
To join you set up a profile, find a study to join, and then browse away. “Before you enroll, we’ll tell you exactly who we’re working with, which data is being collected, where it’s going, and how it’s being used,” says Mozilla.
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